It would be quite helpful if you were able to specify the specific piece of literature that was being referenced.  I would suggest that given the nature of the question, Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" is the topic. Accordingly, I have moved the question to this group.  Emma Bovary is trapped by the weight of her own dreams.  No doubt that Emma seeks dreams as a refuge from reality, almost to the point where she lives through and for her dreams.  In Emma's predicament, the subjective never mashes with the objective, and a crushing collision between both realities ends up ensuing time and time again.  Her affairs with Rodolphe and Leon are conceived through dreams and hopes, and whose realities are far from.  Emma being the victim of her own delusions and hopes could best be summarized with the idea the she drains every pleasure "wishing it to be too intense."