Dreaming Reality

The three readings regarding dreams all hint at the same idea: dreams are a way to give insight into a character’s true character. Freud used dreams to make assumptions and inferences concerning him and others, while Lemaster worked to show the development of Chaplin’s character through his various dreams. Walden and Poch, too, analyze the makeup and subsequent inferences based on dream depictions. Thus, it appears that dreams have become a way for producers and creators to build characters via their dreams.

In the second episode, “Lawnmower Dog”, in season one of Rick and Morty, Rick and Morty embark on an Inception-esque journey through several dreams in order to implant in his math teacher’s mind that Morty should get an A. Rick has created a device that slows you to enter someone’s dream once you put the device in their ear, then yours. The two sneak into Goldenfold’s house (Morty’s teacher) and go into his dream once he is asleep. Here is where the viewer has insight into this character.

Goldenfold’s dream shows him as a guy who can win all the ladies, which is quite contrary to his life: a single, middle-aged man, teaching middle school. The two dive further into another dream to avoid death and here Goldenfold has theoretically hidden his repressed feelings into the woman he was trying to flirt with in his dream. Freud “was convinced that ‘the subconscious’ (the part of the mind hidden from humans) is greatly influenced by libidinal thoughts since birth” (Walden & Poch, 1). In this second-level dream, there is an intergalactic party with a very sexualized theme, this jokes about the theories Freud is so famous for expounding upon – mostly revolving around sex. However, it also gives further insight into Goldenfold and how his divorce has made his sexually deprived – thus developing his character even further.

The deepest dream Rick and Morty reach is the dream of a Freddy Kreuger type character, Scary Terry, whose job is to roam the lands of dream purgatory. As seen in the video, his dream catalogs his childhood fears in school where he is embarrassed in class. Scary Terry is a, “character whom audiences can look down on while observing their own faults. Like all of us, [Scary T] struggles against the day-to-day pressures of life” (Lemaster, 7). Through the dream of Scary Terry, we see that he isn’t a maniac like he is originally thought to be after all. His dream allows the viewer, as well as Rick and Morty, to see his true colors and thus ultimately this saves R & M.

Dreams are mysterious and seemingly impossible phenomena to research thoroughly. However, the use of dreams in today’s culture and media gives us an idea of how we interpret our dreams. A common thread appears to be the use of dreams as means to paint a character’s true identity. This may be the idea many have when dreaming in reality, that somehow by analyzing their own dreams they can make sense of themselves.