What is the theme or meaning of the short story "was it a dream? " in one to two paragraphs, explain your answer. be sure to use examples from the story to support your ideas.

The theme of "Was it a dream?" is Illusion vs Reality

Explanation:

In the story, the speaker goes to visit his deceased lover's grave and decides to spend the night in the cementery.

After the sun sets, the speaker sees the dead rise from the ground and re-write the engraving on heir tombstones, erasing the lies written by those who loved them and replacing them with the hard truth.

When the speaker reaches his lover's grave, he sees that her engraving changed, revealing that she had fallen ill in an atempt to deceive him. This shows how people live presenting a false image of themselves, how they create a facade that remains even after death, instead of living their life truthfully.

the servant does not kill the child oedipus as he was ordered to do because "he pitied the child" based on the oedipus rex story. the servant was ordered to kill the child because of the prophecy that predicted king laius' death. the king already had attempted to hurt oedipus by piercing oedipus's ankle. however, the servant did not finish the job and he rather saved the baby oedipus.

explanation:

in my opinion i think it was not excessive at all. the maids turned against the queen in his absence, how could he ever trust them again? if he let them go they would surely spread the news of the suitor's deaths, which is much too risky. as for the suitors, they were selfish, rude, and greedy. the god's had apparently marked them for death, meaning odysseus made their death come faster.