Which dream in Looking Backward seems more realistic — 1887 or 2000?

Edward Bellamy uses the “dream” device twice:

• Julian West’s sleep in 1887, which feels like a dream because he wakes up in a radically different world.
• His return to 1887, which feels like a nightmare after experiencing the utopian year 2000.

Most readers — and most literary scholars — argue that the dream of waking up in 1887 is more realistic, and here’s why.

Dream 1: Waking up in 1887

This “dream” is actually Julian’s real life. The world of 1887 is full of recognizable problems:

• class inequality
• labor unrest
• poverty
• corruption
• economic instability

These are all historically grounded and familiar. Nothing about this world is exaggerated beyond what readers in Bellamy’s time already knew. Because of that, this dream feels plausible, concrete, and grounded in real social conditions.

Dream 2: Waking up in 2000

Bellamy’s utopian Boston is intentionally idealized:

• no private property
• no class divisions
• equal distribution of goods
• nationalized industry
• universal education and leisure
• a perfectly rational, cooperative society

It’s designed to be aspirational, not realistic. Bellamy wasn’t trying to predict the future; he was trying to show what society could be if people embraced his ideas. The perfection of the system — no corruption, no conflict, no inefficiency — makes it feel more like a philosophical dream than a world that could actually exist.

So which dream is more realistic?

The 1887 dream is more realistic because it reflects real historical conditions and believable human behavior. The 2000 dream is less realistic because it represents Bellamy’s utopian ideal — a society too perfectly organized to feel fully attainable.

Why Bellamy does this

Bellamy wants the reader to feel the contrast.

• The realistic “dream” of 1887 shows how flawed society is.
• The unrealistic “dream” of 2000 shows how much better it could be.