Who dreamed of lice? - briefly
The dreamer is the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, who described a vision of lice in his work.
Who dreamed of lice? - in detail
The figure who experienced a nocturnal vision of lice appears in a satirical short story published in the early 1900s. The author, a French humorist, used the episode to critique social pretensions. In the narrative, the protagonist—a middle‑class clerk named Lucien—falls asleep after a long day of clerical work and awakens to a vivid scene in which tiny insects crawl over his clothing, symbolizing his hidden anxieties about cleanliness and status.
Psychological analysis links such imagery to feelings of contamination and loss of control. Sigmund Freud identified parasites in dreams as representations of intrusive thoughts, while modern dream‑researchers classify them under “body‑related” symbols, often reflecting concerns about personal hygiene or social embarrassment.
Literary references to the same motif occur in:
- A 19th‑century English poem where the speaker describes “the itch of imagined vermin” as a metaphor for guilt.
- A Japanese folktale in which a farmer dreams of lice invading his granary, interpreted as an omen of famine.
- A contemporary graphic novel where the hero’s nightmare about lice triggers a crisis of identity.
The recurring pattern suggests that the dreamer is typically an individual facing societal pressure, personal insecurity, or a fear of deterioration. The episode serves both as a narrative device and as a symbolic illustration of inner turmoil.