The Sandman, Jung, Freud, Psychoanalysis, comic books

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the representation of dreams in A Game of You, the fifth volume of The Sandman by Neil Gaiman and “A Tale of Two Cities”, a story in the eight volume of the same work, and find out how exactly this representation correlates with the theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung. The Sandman is a graphic novel about the deeds of a godlike entity called Dream who controls the ‘dreamscape’ and dreams themselves. The work has an intricate universe whose main building blocks are dark fantasy, psychology, mythology and the human condition in modern times and in the eras past. The first part of the theoretical framework consists of the psychoanalytical theories of Freud, Jung and Lacan, the three most prominent and influential figures in the field of psychoanalysis. The use of dream device in literature throughout the ages is discussed in the second part. The rise and development of comic books are the main subject of discussion in the third part of the first chapter, with Neil Gaiman’s views on comic books included at the end. The second chapter of the thesis is comprised of the analyses of A Game of You and “A Tale of Two Cities”. In the first part of the analytical chapter, A Game of You is analyzed and interpreted according to the psychoanalytical theories of C.G. Jung, but this is not merely an analysis of themes, characters, the narrative and/or the setting: Nearly every panel, every bit of dialogue, every location and event is analyzed and interpreted in order to bring the Jungian subtext underneath to light in its entirety. The second part of the analytical chapter dwells on the interlinked Freudian and modernist subtexts of “A Tale of Two Cities” and the same principles of analysis and interpretation applies to it as well. By the end of the second chapter, it is proven that the representation of dreams –as well as other elements- in both stories correlate with the theories of Freud and Jung. In the conclusion section, which is the final part of the thesis, the parallels between the stories and the theories are concisely restated and the reason behind the main analysis method, ‘panel-by-panel’ analysis, is explained. The thesis ends on the note that comic books such as The Sandman stand theivtest of time and remind us that comic books, as a literary medium, are more than capable of being intellectually grounded and powerful just like any other