Einstein's Dreams

In both the novel and real life, Einstein’s best friend is Michele Besso, an engineer who keeps him company and checks in on him during the tumultuous years of his early research into theoretical physics. Besso met Einstein in Zurich, where both were polytechnic students, and their friendship continued when both relocated to Berne, Switzerland.

Einstein’s Dreams uses a fictionalized version of Besso to give the Einstein’s character in the novel dimension, depth, and humanity. The Interludes are written from Besso’s perspective, offering a friend’s view of Einstein. The positive and caring tone with which Besso thinks about Einstein shows the depth of his devotion: “Besso thinks that his friend might be capable of anything. Already this year, Einstein has completed his PhD thesis, finished one paper on photons and another on Brownian motion […] Besso is dazzled by Einstein’s ambition” (39). When Besso’s father dies, Einstein takes care of his grieving friend, a kindness that Besso later returns during Einstein’s depleting 1905 work. These events happened, though Lightman fictionalizes the thoughts and rationalizations. The novel portrays Besso as carrying unresolved grief and guilt after his father’s death: “Besso’s father died suddenly, in his late forties. Besso, who had never gotten along with his father, felt grief-stricken and guilty” (75). Here, the novel explicitly delves into Besso’s feelings in a way that he doesn’t do with Einstein; Besso provides a source of emotional access.

In the 10 May 1905 world, Einstein is likely thinking of Besso in his subconscious dreamworld, which again hints at the depth of their friendship in that Besso’s most emotional moments have been immortalized in Einstein’s mind and appear in his dreams as abstractions. In these scenes, although Einstein is distracted, he continues to worry about and care for Besso. He isn’t expressive or affectionate, but his love is an undercurrent throughout the novel. In the 10 May 1905 world, a middle-aged man sits at a table and weeps:

Ten years ago, he sat there across from his father, was unable to say that he loved him, searched through the years of his childhood for some moment of closeness, remembered the evenings that silent man sat alone with his book, was unable to say that he loved him (48).

This depth of knowledge of the other’s core struggles, desires, and ambitions demonstrates why Besso was an important figure in Einstein’s life in the real world. These interactions portray a friendship that is raw, honest, and accepting.

In the real world, Besso was an engineer. His mechanical understanding contributed to Einstein’s work since Besso was more straightforward and Einstein was prone to whimsy, as is reflected in the novel when Einstein says, “You are a practical man, Michele” (114). Einstein seeks Besso’s input and ideas in Einstein’s Dreams, showing his appreciation for the engineer’s mind as well as his companionship. Einstein asks, “Did you see the paper by Lorentz I left on your desk?” (76). Through these interactions, the novel portrays how the two men balance each other. Einstein the dreamer and Besso the practical one function well together because a harmony balances their thinking.

In real life, Albert and Mileva Mari, a Serbian student, met as polytechnic students in Zurich in the late 1890s and married in 1903 after the birth of their daughter Lieserl (who disappeared from the record soon after). Einstein reportedly regretted his marriage to Mileva, as apparent to Besso in Einstein’s Dreams: “He is puzzled why his friend ever got married in the first place. Einstein himself can’t explain it” (77). Einstein “hardly goes anywhere with his wife. Even at home, he sneaks away from Mileva in the middle of the night and goes to the kitchen to calculate long passages of equations” (41).

Besso’s character offers backstory for the fictionalized versions of Mileva and Einstein in Einstein’s Dreams: “Sometimes Einstein stays [at work] through dinner, and Mileva has to come get him, toting their infant” (39). This demonstrates how Einstein’s fixation on work left his wife outside his emotional and physical world. Einstein tells Besso that “he hoped Mileva would at least do the housework, but it hasn’t worked out that way” (77).

In one dreamworld, a man plays violin alone and thinks, “Should he leave his wife? What about that moment in the library of the polytechnic? What comfort has she given him? What solitude, besides this hour to play his violin?” (129). Here, the novel again attempts to show how Einstein’s waking world influenced his dreams, and vice versa. The novel ends with Mileva and Einstein still unhappily married, though he’s openly questioning the marriage’s value. The relationship is static, remaining unchanged from the novel’s opening to its end.