Dreams Quote by The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath
““Is anyone anywhere happy? No, not unless they are living in a dream or in an artifice that they or someone else has made. For a time I was lulled in the arms of a blind organism with breasts full of champagne and nipples made of caviar. I thought she was true, and that the true was the beautiful. But the true is the ugly mixed up everywhere, like a peck of dirt scattered through your life. The true is that there is no security, no artifice to stop the unsavory changes, the rat race, the death unwish - the winged chariot, the horns and the motors, the Devil in the clock. Love is a desperate artifice to take the place of those two original parents who turned out not to be omnisciently right gods, but a rather pedestrian pair of muddled suburbanites who, no matter how bumbling they tried, never could quite understand how or why you grew up to your 21st birthday.””
About This Quote
Life is a dream-like artifice; true reality is ugly and insecure; love is a desperate substitute for parental guidance
In simple terms: Dreams mask harsh reality; love tries to fill existential void
Key Takeaway
Seek authentic meaning beyond artificial comforts
Themes
existential
illusion
love
truth
Mood
literary
philosophical
Type
Dreams:1
Life:1
Love:1
Rat race:0
Love Desperate:0
Dream Artifice:0
Desperate Artifice:0
Caviar Thought:0
When to use this quote
- The abstract style may be hard to parse for some readers
Key Concepts
dreams
artifice
parental influence
identity crisis
Questions to Reflect On
- melancholic
- introspective
A Different Perspective
What does “the true is the ugly” suggest about reality?;How does artifice affect personal fulfillment?
