Winter Dreams

Sigmund Freud described laughter as a means through which people release repressed emotions, such as sexual desire. Given that “Winter Dreams” explores Freudian concepts such as unconscious drives, it is no surprise that the motif of laughter conveys the lust Dexter subconsciously feels toward Judy when she is as young as 11. Although his attraction is not fully realized until Dexter meets Judy as a young adult, Dexter has felt sexual desire for Judy “since he was a proud, desirous little boy” (667). That Dexter’s mouth is “slightly ajar” when he “stare[s]” at Judy and that he “had not realized how young she was” suggest that Dexter lusts over Judy (663); he then releases a “a short abrupt laugh” that “startle[s] him” (663). Later in the same scene Dexter laughs several times “but each time restrain[s] the laugh before it reache[s] audibility” (663). Like the desire itself, this nervous laughter is involuntary and unacknowledged.

Laughter returns at the end of the story. After Dexter learns of Judy’s fate, he “[knows] that he [is] laughing loudly at something Devlin had said, but he [does] not know what it was or why it was funny” (672). This time, the loudness and involuntariness of Dexter’s laughter is akin to taking dying breaths. Dexter is crushed to learn the news of Judy’s fate, and this last bout of laughter signals the end of Dexter’s winter dreams: the end of his sexual desire for Judy and the eternal youth it represented.

In “Winter Dreams,” eyes are everything from sublime and otherworldly to superficial and meaningless. They do not signify the ability to see, but rather the ability to be seen. They do not contribute to awareness at all and do not serve as the proverbial windows to the soul—quite the opposite, eyes are portrayed in a shallow manner that reflects Dexter’s failure to truly connect with Judy.

At the beginning of the story, Fitzgerald describes Dexter with “his eyes squinted up against the hard dimensionless glare” of winter (662). His challenges seeing during the winter suggest that his winter dreams obscure his ability to perceive things clearly. The text also devotes significant attention to Judy’s eyes, describing them in a variety of ways. They are “almost passionate” and have a “sad luxury,” and they tend to appear in a disembodied, fragmented way—e.g., as “mouth and eyes and moving hands” (673), or “her eyes opposite him at lunch” (669). Mr. Hedrick’s remark that “she always looks as if she want[s] to be kissed! Turning those big cow-eyes on every calf in town” suggests that Judy’s eyes are to be seen rather than to see (665). They are seductive objects, promising thrill and pleasure to the opposite sex.

When Judy and Dexter encounter each other at the lake outside the golf club, Judy’s eyes are almost sinister. She is described as “two dark eyes regarding him over the lengthening space of water” (665). However, not long after, Dexter recalls “her arms spread wide, her eyes lifted toward the moon” (666). While one image appears ominous, the other is ethereal and angelic. In this sense, Fitzgerald juxtaposes darkness with lightness and dullness with beauty. Echoing the angelic image, Judy’s eyes later become “a heaven of eyes” (669).

There is only one instance in the story in which eyes signify connection, and it occurs after Dexter reveals to Judy that he is not poor and is in fact quite the opposite: “There was a pause. Then she smiled and the corners of her mouth drooped and an almost imperceptible sway brought her closer to him, looking up into his eyes” (667). Although Judy looks into Dexter’s eyes and they embrace shortly thereafter, the context in which this connection occurs and the superficialness of the preceding conversation render the connection meaningless.

Perhaps most pertinent are two nonchalant descriptions of eyes. First, Judy says to Dexter, “Dexter, you have the most rememberable eyes” (670)—a remark that “stab[s] at him” (670). Dexter is upset that this is all Judy can say about him and that it is the extent to which she admires him. Likewise, about seven years later, Devlin describes Judy as having “nice eyes” (672). This echoes the prior scene, as the faint praise pales in comparison to how Dexter remembers her.

In “Winter Dreams,” seasons represent the duality of remembering the past and dreaming of the future. Because seasons are cyclical, one endures the cold, dull, and unpleasant winter by both looking back at memories of pleasanter seasons and looking forward to those pleasanter seasons returning. Likewise, throughout “Winter Dreams,” Dexter looks both backward and forward. He is inspired by pivotal moments in his past, such as when he quit his job as a caddy to seek a better social position, when he courted Judy Jones as an adult, when he established himself as part of high society, and when he was briefly engaged to Judy. Likewise, Dexter looks forward to his continued success and ability to climb higher on the social ladder.

Fitzgerald notes the “gay colors [that] fluttered in summer” and associates summer with time spent on the golf course (662). For Dexter, the golf course represents opportunities and possibilities. Because the golf course is green and tread upon by members of high society, it represents money. Likewise, the green grass represents youth and life. Winter, on the other hand, connotes “profound melancholy,” “misery,” and “drear[iness]” (662). In the same way the winter snow covers the golf course, it overshadows the possibilities associated with the course, such as the ability to transcend social boundaries and achieve magical moments with “glittering people.” Whereas summer implies possibility, winter is a time of dreaming and working to make those dreams a reality.

Dexter and Judy’s relationship develops in the summer, as the text notes, “it had seemed for a while that there was a deep and spontaneous mutual attraction [between Dexter and Judy] that first August” (668). Likewise, the story associates Judy with the warmth and glow of summer: She is Dexter’s ultimate winter dream. The color “gold” appears in descriptions of both Judy’s wealth and beauty and of summer and warmth. When Dexter runs into Judy at the University Club, her face “blossoms” and “glows” as she smiles. The text reads, “A breeze of warmth and light blew through the room” (669), filling Dexter with “sudden excitement.”

When Dexter meets Judy for the first time as a young adult, he notices that “[t]he color in her cheeks was centered like the color in a picture—it was not a ‘high’ color, but a sort of fluctuating and feverish warmth, so shaded that it seemed at any moment it would recede and disappear” and that “[t]his color and the mobility of her mouth gave a continual impression of flux, of intense life, of passionate vitality” (665). Here, Judy encompasses the “feverish warmth” and fleetingness of summer and, by extension, the “intense life” and “passionate vitality” it brings. Although she represents youth, beauty, and excitement, aging is imminent. This image foreshadows the later scene where Dexter learns that Judy’s beauty has faded. It has become dull, akin to winter snow, just as Judy’s associations with glamour, glitter, and surfeit give way to ordinariness and the basic instinct to survive.