小說〈遊園驚夢〉通過平行對比的敘述手法與古典戲曲《牡丹亭》之間形成了相互指涉的互文書寫，它表達了人世無常、生命飄忽的佛學主題。主人公錢夫人的生命體驗中交織著欲望與靈魂的劇烈矛盾，但是身體與心靈的關係並非白先勇大多數小說主人公靈肉的二元對立，而是彼此交融表現為一種身體美學形態，這一形態具體來說表現為三個層面的內涵：身體表達靈肉的衝突；身體表徵的文化的懷舊；身體集聚認同的斷裂。

"Sweet Dream in the Garden" achieves "mutual illustration" of "Peony Pavilion" through parallelled comparison. It has the Buddhism theme of "life is uncertain and fragile". The heroine Mrs. Qian's life experience is flooded by extreme contradictions between desire and soul. However, the relationship between body and soul is not a common body-soul opposition as in Xianyong Bai's many other novels, but a body aesthetics which comes out of the blending of both. It has three connotations: body carries and expresses the conflict between body and soul; body illustrates culture reminiscence; body converges the rupture of identity.