Winter Dreams

In “Winter Dreams,” Fitzgerald underscores the futility of the American dream. Although Dexter becomes a member of the nouveau riche, he is ultimately unhappy, and his success and money are purposeless at the end of the story. In a secularizing world, Judy becomes Dexter’s religion in the same sense that the pursuit of the American dream serves as a sort of national religion: Judy embodies Dexter’s life purpose and sense of transcendence. An instinctive drive underpins this dream, as Dexter is “unconsciously dictated to by his winter dreams” and “[o]ften […] reache[s] out for the best without knowing why he want[s] it” (664). Dexter’s winter dreams lie beyond his control, informed by the influence of American culture: the pressure to become better (or, rather, to become the best), the pressure to be special and exceptional, the pressure to achieve wealth and success and become “happy” in doing so. Judy’s actions too are “half unconscious” and are perhaps dictated by the same impulse that drives Dexter (668)—the desire for exceptionalism and transcendence. Without constant admiration and affirmation from men, Judy fears that she may disappear into ordinariness and (by extension) a figurative, spiritual death.

Comparison drives this unconscious pursuit of the American dream. Dexter compares himself to the other men he imagines also loved Judy, regarding himself as the embodiment of the American dream for having created his own success: “He had seen that, in one sense, he was better than these men. He was newer and stronger” (666). Likewise, Judy Jones compares herself to other women and states she is “more beautiful” than anyone else, asking, “[W]hy can’t I be happy?” (671). This statement highlights the dependency of the American dream on comparison to others, and it shows the extent to which that dream conflates happiness with superficial accomplishments such as wealth and beauty.

Judy’s responses to Dexter’s marriage proposals underscore the superficiality and emptiness of their relationship: “She said ‘maybe some day,’ she said ‘kiss me,’ she said ‘I’d like to marry you,’ she said ‘I love you’—she said—nothing” (668). The word “nothing” commonly appears in the writings of other Lost Generation writers such as Ernest Hemingway and T. S. Eliot, the latter of whom published his renowned poem The Waste Land around the same time that Fitzgerald published “Winter Dreams.” Moreover, the pairing of the word “nothing” with proclamations of love suggests that in the modern, materialistic world, love has lost its meaning. Dexter’s idealization of Judy is certainly fantasy. The text overtly states that Judy’s desirability is an “illusion,” albeit a powerful one that causes Dexter to cheat on and abandon Irene. He is swept under the “spell” of Judy’s illusion and cannot help but regard Judy as an extension of his own social success.

The story also likens Dexter’s relationship with Judy to an “opiate” rather than a “tonic” (668)—that is, an addictive drug rather than a medicine. In other words, Dexter is addicted to the idea of marrying Judy. This physical addiction eventually gives way to addiction to thoughts and memories of Judy. For this reason, when Dexter hears of Judy’s fate, he endures shock and disillusionment. After clinging to the opiate-like quality of his memories of Judy, hearing that the eternal youth, energy, and wealth she represented were merely dreams is a shock; it forces Dexter to face the reality that his love for Judy and his own success were illusions. The story’s final pages refer to America as the “country of illusion, of youth, of the richness of life, where [Dexter’s] winter dreams had flourished” (673). Because Judy ceases to be Dexter’s ideal, Dexter’s winter dreams—that is, his American dream—vanish.