Dreaming

In a dream, everything is wonderful and happens according to the desires of the dreamer. Dreams can give people hope and an ideal to strive towards. The negative side to dreams is people may become emotionally crippled if their dreams are not perfectly realized. David Lynch’s Blue Velvet illustrates the death of the American Dream and the destructive nature of dreams with the characters Jeffery and Sandy.

The main character, Jeffery Beaumont, is a college boy who gets called back home after his father fell ill. Since he is his father’s only son, he must take care of the family business while his father is incapacitated. Now that Jeffery is no longer at college, he cannot finish his education. This ruins his chances of upward mobility in society, thus killing his chance at attaining the American Dream.

The importance and power of dreams is conveyed through the repetition of the song “In Dreams” by Roy Orbison. The emotionally crippling and destructive power of dreams is most noticeably with Sandy. After her first official date with Jeffery, she finds Dorothy completely naked in front of Jeffery’s house. Once it is confirmed that Jeffery has been intimately involved with Dorothy, Sandy starts crying and breaking down. The climax of her breakdown occurs when she slaps Jeffery for hiding his relationship with Dorothy. After the conclusion of a phone call conversation Sandy has with Jeffery, she states that “[t]his is not [her] dream” repeatedly. Since her relationship with Jeffery did not turn out exactly the way she dreamed it would, she is paralyzed with pain. She continually cries until she eventually gets pass the un-fulfillment of her dream. Sandy’s reaction illustrates how much pain an unrealized dream can cause.

Although dreams can inspire people and give them hope, they can also paralyze people with pain and cause them to lose themselves. The degree of damage done by an unrealized dream depends on how much a person believes in the dream. Since Sandy has been in relationships prior to Jeffery, she has learned to handle the disappointment of an imperfect relationship. By not believing in it wholeheartedly, she is able to move on and deal with life. Lynch warns his audience to be careful how much they believe in a dream because it might be the death of them.