This Resource is for Year 12 students in the VCE English Curriculum studying ‘Bad Dreams and Other Stories’ by Tessa Hadley as a Text Response.
Essay Prompt: ‘Once the words were said aloud, she would never be rid of them; it was better to keep them hidden’. Quote the unnamed girl in ‘Bad Dreams’ story (p.116). “How does Hadley explore the idea of secrets in ‘Bad Dreams’?”
This essay uses a TEEL structure. Note – this essay is definitely too long with its word count, however, students can use it as a resource to create your own essay on ‘secrets’.
The Introduction is colour coded to help identify context of the issue, main contention and message of Hadley.
Introduction / Context / Main Contention / Message of Author
Secrets by nature create a barrier between people, preventing them from fully understanding and connecting with one another. The theme of secrecy and its destructive impact on relationships are central to many stories in Tessa Hadley’s collection Bad Dreams and Other Stories. Hadley illustrates how secrets can sometimes weigh heavily on the characters like a burden, performing a disciplinary function which characters conform to conventional ways of behaving. For others, the withholding of knowledge can yield a form of power or can preserve the privacy to explore one’s identity without the glare of scrutiny. Ultimately, Hadley offers a thought-provoking exploration of the destructive impact of secrecy on relationships and the need to find a balance between openness and privacy while navigating the complexities of trust and communication in relationships.
BP1 = Background / Who or what causes problems
(Topic Sentence) Characters often conceal truths from their loved ones in order to protect themselves. There is powerful symbolism in Hadley’s collection’s title ‘Bad Dreams’ which suggests various nightmares or simply unfulfilled dreams that characterise the experiences of the children and women in these stories. This is clear also in the epilogue to Swallows and Amazons created in the young girl’s own nightmare, symbolising the way in which women are disciplined into normative gender roles. The dualistic nature of secrets in the story kept by the unnamed girls thrills her. The sudden shift in perspective midway through the story draws attention to the paradoxical nature of secrets. Frightened by her nightmare and the horror or living to ‘a ripe old age’ like the ‘tame and sensible Susan’ (p.116), when she yearns to be the pirate girl Nancy, the girl tips over the lounge room furniture, a private moment of rebellion against the oppressive domesticity of her parent’s world, restoring a sense of control rocked by the implications of the nightmare. The vows to keep her nightmare from her parents as a secret that saying the words aloud would somehow render them more real, or that her fears would be dismissed by her parents – quote from the prompt. Hadley then uses a line break of 3 asterisk ellipses (p.120) to move over to the mother’s perspective as she surveys the living room with horror. Adopting a parallelism with her daughter, the second shifting of 3rd person is the mother who misreads the upturned furniture and is unsettled by its implications. Believing it to be an act of criticism from her husband, she decides to refuse to acknowledge aloud ‘the message he’d left for her’ (p.125), keeping to herself the ‘awful truth’ that ‘her husband was her enemy’ (p.125), which is a secret she had kept even from herself and is only now acknowledging. The final change of perspective is when the narrative has a gap concluding in the morning events in the kitchen with the ‘young wife’ frying bacon for her husband. The ending is an epilogue layering another viewpoint to the story speaking of a sense of change and the transience of life and the epiphany the woman has about the way she sees life as the husband lovingly “puts his arms around her” (p.126). Along similar lines to Ruby in ‘Her Share of Sorrow’, the unnamed young girl in ‘Bad Dreams’ is also enthralled by the characters in her novel ‘Swallows and Amazons’ who cross ‘the threshold of safety into a thrilling unknown’ (p.115). While gaining experience can be revelatory for Ruby it is fraught with danger for the girl as the secret nature of her upturning the furniture thrills and empowers her but also has tragic consequences for the mother’s experience and the potential threat to her marriage. (Link Sentence back to Topic) The dualistic nature of secrets in ‘Bad Dreams’ in which the secret is kept by the girl affords a kind of power. On the other hand, the mother as an adult woman, is unsettled by its implications changing her view of her husband like the bad dream of the title.
BP2 = Response / how do individuals or groups respond to problems
(Topic Sentence) Secrets for some characters can become a burden, shaping the identity of those who carry them. On a similar note, to the title ‘Bad Dreams’, is the significance of the title ‘An Abduction’ that poses questions for the reader to consider if you can call what happened to Jane ‘an abduction’ if no one knew the event took place. The title poses questions in terms of societal morals and values if Daniel could indeed be classified as a rapist taking advantage of an under-age girl. Hadley does not answer these questions but the ending telescopes possible answers with the epilogue. The symbolism is important in the story when Jane returns home to find the discarded Jokari set still on the drive which is significant as she has been transformed from childhood to her awakening sexuality and her first formative experience that is tainted by Daniel’s faithlessness with Fiona. The leap forward prolepsis to a now divorced 55-year-old Jane exposes the ‘early initiation’ (p.27) into adulthood that has irrevocably shaped her conservatism. Keeping her time with Daniel a secret, Jane’s eventual revelation to her therapist highlights how she has carried this moment throughout her life “in a sealed compartment”. It seemed to have no effects” (p.27) but the word ‘seemed’ implies that there have in fact been significant consequences, although Jane never “connected her fears to anything that had happened to her” (p.27). The lack of closure to Jane’s therapy suggests that for her the secret remains unresolved. The ambiguity of the counsellor’s comment that Jane’s hesitant opening up was ‘something’ (p.28) could reveal the potential for Jane’s personal growth. What is clear however is the way that Jane’s adult life has formed around the secret she has kept. While Carrie in ‘One Saturday Morning’ does not transition from innocence the character of Jane in ‘An Abduction’ has a sexual journey and the lasting implications for this 15-year-old girl takes her from childhood to womanhood. After having a sexual encounter with Jane, Daniel has more power over an innocent child and literally seduces Jane’s desires to experience love making, but the reality is that Daniel rapes an innocent girl and does not remember the experience in later life. Hadley’s use of prolepsis of the narrative to the future shifts the perspective at the end of Jane’s story so readers recognise how Jane carried that sexual experience “in a sealed compartment” (p.27) throughout her life. The “early initiation” (p.27) into adulthood shaped Jane’s view about conservatism in her future life. (Link Sentence back to Topic) Hadley has made is clear in ‘An Abduction’ that the way in which Jane’s adult has been formed is due to the secret she has kept on her journey from innocence to adult knowledge.
BP3 = Consequences / Legacy for society and individuals
(Topic Sentence) Hadley illustrates how uncovering secrets can become a revelatory experience with the impacts that end up both shocking as well as enlightening. The title ‘The Stain’ is symbolic with the idea of a stain prefacing Marina’s understanding that ‘you couldn’t undo the knowledge’ (p.52) after confronting unpleasant realities. The grand house stands for ‘the grandeur and beauty’ (p.32) of the privileged life unfamiliar to the working-class Marina. However, the ‘dingy’ interior (p.32) creates a disjunct between perception and reality as Marina discovers the grubbiness of the old man and his family, his suspicious past with the SA Defence Force, his inappropriate overtures to Marina, the greediness of his family. While the details Anthony spells out about the old man’s past is ‘pretty murky’ (p.51) it is clear the old man committed some atrocity. Anthony exposes the secret as a strategy to manipulate Marina into refusing the old man’s financial gifts by appealing to her sense of morality. She is left ‘burdened’ by the knowledge of a secret (p.51) and she is reminded of the time she unexpectedly encountered the decaying corpse of a animal on a woodland walk. In that instance, she realised that ‘you couldn’t undo the knowledge of the thing’ (p.52) – an idea symbolically echoed when the old man dies, and the only resolution available to Marina is to refuse the house he bequeathed to her. The house is now stained by its occupant as well as Marina feeling sullied by her innocence. She can never undo the knowledge she now has. Everything looked unclean and had a ‘leering repulsive side’ (p.52).In comparison with the childhood experiences and transformations, Hadley explores in the story ‘The Stain’ the ways in which adult women of lower class interact in relationships with older more powerful men that causes the character of Marina to reassess her initial naive relationship with the man. After the old man’s birthday Anthony tells Marina of the old man’s involvement in the South African Defence Force and the “murky” accusations that followed. Marina is shocked at the discovery of this hidden secret past and her realisation the old man manipulated her makes her re-evaluate her relationship not only to the family but also the house itself. The discovery of the old man’s secret means she “couldn’t undo the knowledge” (p.52) and all that the old man’s house represents has been corrupted by his past. (Link Sentence back to Topic) Learning the truth for Marina of the old man’s past causes her to re-evaluate her relationship with him, her naivety now seeming ‘wilful’ (p.52)
Conclusion / Message of Author
In her short story collection Hadley explores the theme of secrecy and its destructive impact on relationships and the need to find a balance between openness and privacy. Through Hadley’s proleptic transitions in time, the experiences and their significance are underscored through the use of potent symbolism in her stories that suggest, like the title of the collection ‘Bad Dreams’, that various nightmares or unfulfilled dreams are experienced by children and women in the stories. Ultimately, Hadley depicts how the character’s secrets lead to a loss of trust and eventually the unravelling of their relationships.