Sandman : The Wake

So, it is not Ophelia, but I picked up a copy of Sandman : The Wake by Neil Gaiman today - I have been working my way through the graphic novel series - and found Shakespeare again!

To set this up, The Sandman series is about Dream, one of seven Eternals (Death, Destruction, Delirium, Desire, Despair, and Destiny are the other six). The series is brilliant; one of the graphic novels that really blurs the boundary between comic books and 'literature'. Gaiman continually introduces characters from fables, myths, stories, and history into the story, moving back and forth in time. In a previous volume, William Shakespeare meets Dream and enters into a Faustian bargain: he will write for Dream two plays in exchange for the ability to create beautiful plays and the assurance that he will be remembered through the ages. He then composes A Midsummer Night's Dream at Dreams request, and his company performs it before an odd audience that includes the real Puck, Titania, and Oberon.

The story found in The Wake, "The Tempest," takes place near the end of Shakespeare's life. He is writing The Tempest, his final play. Excerpts from the play are scattered inbetween Shakespeare's interaction with his wife, daughter, and friend Ben. His relationship with his wife is chilly, to say the least. They sleep in separate beds, in separate rooms. His daughter wishes William had been anything but a playwrite so he could have stayed at home, with her. She is also being corted by a young man who is following in his fathers footsteps right to the whorehouse.

The picture Gainman paints of Shakespeare's life is far from glamourous. He is a depressed man, wrecked with sadness over his son's death and guilt over his bargain with, what he believes to be, a devil. He is relieved to finally be putting down his pen and concluding his time as a playwright, although the reader is given no indication of what he would like to do in the future. One of the most exciting moments in the short graphic is the moment after Shakespeare has been released by Dream. He is left without Dream's gift to complete the Epilogue of the play, witch he does with great flourish.

Once again, we have the motif of the importance of words, reading, and stories. The ability to craft words is enough for William to sell his soul. And Dream, who requests these words, speaks about the power of stories. In the end, his ultimate regret is that he can never be part of the story. He must always be outside looking in. Of course, Dream now becomes part of the story, as Gaiman puts it all down to paper. Perhaps Dream is not so alone and aloof as he thinks. Perhaps we are all just the characters in a story, written by Shakespeare or not.