Dream (comics)
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Dream is the fictional protagonist of DC Comics' Vertigo comic book series The Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman. One of the Endless, Dream is the personification of dreams, storytelling and—because the Endless also represent the opposite of that which they personify—reality.
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He is given many names in the series, including Morpheus and Oneiros. It is known that the Endless have many aspects, one of which is the personification active at any one time, and if one aspect dies, another replaces it. One particular aspect of Dream is the central character of the series, so referring to this aspect of Dream as Morpheus differentiates him from Dream as a whole. When the aspect known as Morpheus dies at the end of The Kindly Ones, the ninth collection of issues in the series, he is replaced by a new aspect, which came to gestation in the land of dreaming, called Daniel. This is a tricky concept, encapsulated in the tenth and final collection, The Wake. One character at Morpheus' wake, perplexed by the question of who exactly has died, is told by Abel that the purpose of the wake is to mourn "a p-p-point of view". The other Endless remain personified by the same aspect throughout the series and are simply referred to by their generic names, except in the Sandman Special #1. In this issue, they are called by Greek versions of their names. Death: Teleute, Despair: Aponoia, Delirium: Mania, Desire: Epithumia, Destruction: Olethros, Destiny: Potmos.
[edit] Appearance
Morpheus is usually presented as a tall, thin man with pale skin and black hair. He bears some resemblance to Robert Smith, lead singer of The Cure. Peter Murphy (of Bauhaus), and David Bowie were also used as visual references for Morpheus. Some readers have even noticed a slight resemblance between Morpheus and Gaiman himself. Morpheus's speech is usually portrayed in a wavy white font on a black background, in speech bubbles with wavy edges. His speech is usually rendered with normal capitalisation, contrary to the comic book tradition of block caps text.
When interacting with individual mortals, Morpheus appears in a guise appropriate to the mortal. For instance, in the story "Tales in the Sand" he interacts with the ancestors of a black aboriginal tribe, and is depicted as a black man called Kai'Ckul. He is depicted as a cat in the issue "Dream of a Thousand Cats", and as a creature partway between a cat and a human when talking to the feline goddess Bast. When the Martian Manhunter and Mr. Miracle both were looking at him at once, they each saw a completely different entity. This would imply that Morpheus' apearance is based both on the onlooker's belief in how he should appear, as well as how he feels like appearing. In the story "Men of Good Fortune", Dream is seen at different times in the last 600 years; his costume is a little more conventional than the modern Dream, but still with an air of eccentricity. In one popular sequence in the issue "The Parliament of Rooks", he and his elder sister Death are depicted as cartoon-style children.
Morpheus invariably wears black, except when wearing his formal costume. This outfit contains purple and blue, and sometimes orange flames decorating the bottom of his cape. He has a helmet made from the skull and backbone of a god, which he wears on occasions of great importance; this is his sigil in the galleries of the other Endless. Morpheus lives in a castle within his realm. Both the castle and the rest of the realm are mutable and change often, at Morpheus' will. However, parts of both the castle and the realm are maintained in constant form as a courtesy to its inhabitants. It is perhaps significant that Morpheus is the only one of the Endless known to populate his realm - many other characters live there, including the Biblical brothers Cain and Abel. He even creates (and in some cases recruits) servants to perform roles he could easily carry out himself, including the reorganization of the castle and the guarding of its entrance. This perhaps points at an essential loneliness in Morpheus' character.
The Sandman Special #1 implies that Morpheus is one and the same as the Greek deity. However, the Greek deity appeared, unimprisoned, in George Pérez's Wonder Woman #11 (December 1987). What relation this figure, an old man dressed in purple vaguely resembling Agatha Harkness, has to this aspect of Dream is unclear. Gaiman's version of Morpheus has appeared in DC superhero comics by Keith Giffen and appeared once in an issue of Swamp Thing. Morpheus also appears briefly during Kevin Smith's run on Green Arrow in a flashback showing him in Alexander Burgess' basement, still imprisoned in Roderick Burgess' glass globe prison.
[edit] Personality
Dream is a noble, tragic hero, very much in the traditional style of heroes of Greek tragedy. He is sometimes slow when dealing with humor, occasionally insensitive, often self-obsessed, and is very slow to forgive or forget a slight. (As Mervyn Pumpkinhead remarks, after the end pf one of Morpheus' invariably disastrous romances, "He's gotta be the tragic figure standing out in the rain, mournin' the loss of his beloved. So down comes the rain, right on cue. In the meantime everybody gets dreams fulla existential angst and wakes up feeling like hell. And we all get wet.") Near the end of the Brief Lives story arc, Desire says of Dream, "He's stuffy, stupid, and thinks he knows everything, and there's just something about him that gets on my nerves."
On the other hand, Morpheus is consistently aware of his responsibilities, both those to other people and those that go with his territory. This trait makes him both dependable and fair-minded. It is implied that before his imprisonment he was in some ways crueller and more blind to his flaws. It is perhaps his changing and moving forward that makes his character the way it is. Morpheus shares a close, reciprocal bond of dependence and trust with his elder sister, Death. He consistently strives for understanding of himself and of the other Endless, but is ultimately defeated by his most tragic flaw, his inability to accept change. As Lucien remarks in The Wake when asked (by Matthew, the raven) "Why did it happen? Why did he let it happen?", "Charitably...I think...sometimes, perhaps, one must change or die. And in the end, there were, perhaps, limits to how much he could let himself change."
[edit] Dream's names
- The Sandman
- Kinge of Dreames (sic)
- Prince Morpheus
- The Prince of Stories
- The Oneiromancer
- Master of Dreams (Dream Master)
- King of Dreams, of the Nightmare Realm
- The Dreamlord (Lord of Dreams, Dream Lord)
- Dream King
- Lord of the Sleeping Marches
- Lord of the Sleeping
- Lord of Sleep
- Master of the Realm of Sleep
- Oneiros
- The Shaper of Form(s)
- Cat of Dreams (to cats)
- King of the Riddle Realms
- Lord Shaper
- Lord of the Dream World
- Prince of Stories
- Monarch of the Sleeping Marches
- His Darkness, Dream of the Endless
- The Dreamweaver
- The Nightmare King
- Dream-creature
- The Shaper of Dreams
- Sultan of Sleep
- Kai'ckul (to the people of his former lover, Nada)
- His Darkness, Lord Oneiros of Dream
- L'Zoril (by Martian Manhunter)
- Murphy (a corruption of "Morpheus"; to the people of the skerry in A Game of You)
- Murphy is also the given name of the "Prince of Daydreams" in Aaron Williams' comic PS238. Murphy is one of the fractured aspects of Dream, as has been hinted at a few times in the comic.
- King Dream (by Doctor Destiny)
- King of All Night's Dreaming (used in Sandman: The Dream Hunters)
- Mister Dreamy (By Princess Jemmy, an incarnation of chaos, as seen in The Sandman: Season of Mists)
[edit] See also
| The Sandman (Vertigo) | ||
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| The Sandman Library | 1: Preludes and Nocturnes • 2: The Doll's House • 3: Dream Country • 4: Season of Mists • 5: A Game of You 6: Fables and Reflections • 7: Brief Lives • 8: Worlds' End • 9: The Kindly Ones • 10: The Wake • 11: Endless Nights |
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| from the World of The Sandman | The Sandman: The Dream Hunters • Death: The High Cost of Living • Death: The Time of Your Life • Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold • The Little Endless Storybook • Death: At Death's Door • Dust Covers - The Collected Sandman Covers 1989-1997 • The Quotable Sandman • The Sandman Companion | |
| Characters of The Sandman | The Endless: Destiny • Death • Dream • Destruction • Desire• Despair • Delirium | |
| Dreams and nightmares • Gods, demigods, and major personifications Angels, fallen angels, and devils • Immortals, witches, and long-lived humans • Fair folk • Mortals |
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| Other topics | ||
| Neil Gaiman • Other books and series | ||
