Freud’s Psychoanalytic dream theory through the meaning of Coraline’s dream in ‘Coraline’ movie (2009)
ft. Sharon Valery
“Dream” is a bridge between fantasy and reality. Humans need to sleep for at least 7–8 hours per night. As Wallace said, in sleep there would be around five episodes of dreaming. Some episodes may be quite short, but by the morning, they usually become longer, and the shift between each episode becomes slower (2021). In the morning, most people will still remember their dream, whether in detail or only partially. This action is due to the human consciousness that is still awake, and it creates dreams that usually appear in human minds even when they are asleep. As Wallace claims, “We can learn about ourselves, our needs, and our beliefs or perspectives through dreams” (2021).
Coraline, one of the American stop-motion animated movies of 2009, tells a story about a girl named Coraline who discovers a secret door, behind it lies an alternate world that closely mirrors her own but, in many ways, is better. She rejoices in her discovery, until the Other Mother and the rest of her parallel family try to keep her there forever. Coraline must use all her resources and bravery to make her back to her real family and world. Coraline’s parallel world and real world are connected through her dream. According to Freud, dreams are a bridge between the external world and feelings, impressions, and hidden or repressed desires (1914). Each of Coraline’s dreams reflects her deepest wish, from having ideal parents and surroundings. This can be seen in how Coraline’s dreams mostly revolve around what she expects from the other characters in the movie, which leads to Coraline’s deepest desire to have the perfect environment that leads to her lucid dream.
First, The appearance of ideal parents in Coraline’s dream. Having a perfect parent is a wish granted from the sky; it may or may not come true — for Coraline, it’s both. In the first half of the movie, Coraline’s family faces financial issues, as reflected by Charlie and Mel’s (Coraline’s parents’) actions. Mel is always in front of her laptop, neglecting Coraline. Coraline, lacking attention from both of her parents, built a new archetype of ‘perfect’ and ‘ideal’ parents on the other world. The Other Mother, or Coraline’s ‘ideal’ mother in her dream, is shown to be a loving and caring mother. She is better in terms of appearance, attitude, and cooking skills compared to Mel, Coraline’s real mother. Like Mel, Coraline’s father, Charlie, usually appears in front of his computer, typing articles about gardening. He always looks tired and sometimes speaks like a zombie. Through his appearance in the movie, it is clear that he does not really care about his appearance.
As well as the appearance of the ‘ideal’ and ‘perfect’ archetype of the other mother, the other father is shown to be a cheerful and loving dad to Coraline in her dream. Those ‘ideal’ personalities that come from Coraline and other parents in her dream are related to the four basic activities of dreamwork by Freud. In his theory he stated four points that one of them is displacement, which refers to dream thoughts or how a dream represents one’s most repressing wish by transforming thought into images (2022). The lack of attention Coraline gets after she moves to the pink palace apartment leads her to develop her deepest or most urgent wish into the images that appear in her dream as an ideal parent.
Then, the ‘perfection’ in every inch of surroundings in Coraline’s dream. Coraline’s wish to gain a perfect surrounding is shattered when she and her family moved to the Pink Palace Apartments. The financial issues in Coraline’s family made her feel ignored and unappreciated from both of her parents. The wish to get everything as perfect as she was became reality. In her dream, Coraline got everything she wanted from food, clothes, and even the perfect environment as she wished for. As Doughty discussed in her book Broadening critical boundaries in children’s and young adult literature and culture, the boundaries set by adults, both real and “imaginary,” serve as a test to put the child’s viewpoint and course of action to the test. Therefore, the kid’s actions and responses to the problem at hand will be vital in determining whether the child chooses imagination to reality or vice versa (2018, p.67). The perfection in Coraline surrounding may give her a sense to stay on her dream. But in Coraline’s dream both of her other parents give her a cake written in cursive, “welcome home,” but the “o” in “home” is double-looped on top. According to Saul (2012) on graphology, if someone writes the letter “o” with a double loop, the person is lying. This is an indicator that Coraline is not in the real world; she’s inside her dream, which she’s not aware of in the beginning. As Freud claims in his dream theory where dream is actually a bridge between reality and someone’s deepest desires. The lack of Coraline’s awareness to the shift of her surroundings where she could get everything she wants, may reflect her deepest wish to escape from her family issues.
Last, the shift into an Ideal personality and appearance from people around Coraline in Coraline’s dream. As soon as Coraline moved to the Pink Palace Apartment, she got surrounded by new people that would change her life. Those people live around Coraline house are Wybie, Mr. Bobinsky, Mrs. Spinks, and Miss Forcible. First change comes from Wybie, in some scenes portraying Coraline’s annoyance towards Wybie’s attitude. Wybie is curious, timid, and obedient child but has an otherwise adventurous and critical personality, compared to Coraline’s attitude who is snarky, curious, and rebellious, making both of them sometimes unable to click with each other. However, the change of personality appears in Coraline’s dream where Wybie becomes more calm and quiet as Coraline wishes Wybie should be.
Another personality change can be seen in Mr. Bobinsky. He is the owner of a jumping mouse circus that lives on the second floor of the Pink Palace Apartment where Coraline lives. People around him usually call him crazy or drunk because of his attitude. In Coraline’s dream, there is the Other Bobinsky with a neater appearance and mustache, a more pigmented skin color, button eyes, and he also wears a navy blue ringmaster’s suit complete with gold trimmings and his liquidators badges. This is exactly what Coraline expected when she first heard about Mr. Bobinsky from her mom. There is no difference between Coraline’s dream and the real world; both show Mr. Bobinsky’s mouse circus. As Freud idea of dream as a suppressed desire, it can be seen from some of the words Mr. Bobinsky spoke to Coraline in her dream, he said, “Nothing’s changed. You’ll go home, You’ll be bored, You’ll be ignored. No one will listen to you, not really. You’re too clever and too quiet for them to understand. They don’t even get your name right. Stay here with us.” and “Frogs, ducks, rhinos, octopuses — whatever you desire. The world will be built anew for you every morning” and “If you stay here, you can have whatever you want.” Those dialogues reflect Coraline’s deepest desires to not be ignored, to be listened to, and to be appreciated by people around her.
The last change that appears in Coraline’s dream is Mrs. Spinks and Forcible; both of them live in the basement of the Pink Palace Apartment. There are scenes where Coraline got welcomed by some posters from their past performances on her first visit. In those posters, either Mrs. Spinks or Forcible still look young and fresh, from the poster it seems that they are well-known at that time compared to now. Both look old, face full of wrinkles and their sight is not as good as before since they use glasses all the time. Mrs. Spinks is also a freak-like woman because of her belief in magic and supernatural things. Meanwhile in Coraline’s dream, when the other mother told her to attend Mrs. Spinks and Forcible performance, it leads her to meet the young version of them that are exactly like the poster in Coraline’s real world. Coraline gets amazed by Mrs. Spinks and Forcible performance since that is one of her wishes when she first came to their house and saw their old posters. So, this dream reflects Coraline’s wish which is the opportunity to see Mrs. Spinks and Forcible on the stage again.
The “Coraline” movie produced by Laika and distributed by Focus Features in 2009, portrays the meaning of dream based on Freud ideas through the lens of the main character, Coraline. In the movie Coraline appears to be unhappy with her new environment that leads to the shift of her surroundings into a perfect and ideal term where everything changes into what she wishes in her dream. The appearance of an ideal parent, the perfect environment, and the perfect way of people’s attitude to her. Those things reflect how Coraline’s dream is indeed her suppressed desire. It can be proven by Freud ideas where people suppress feeling or deepest desire may take control of the human unconscious mind in sleep. So according to our analysis, suppressed feelings are indeed powerful and have a big control on the human mind whether consciously or unconsciously. Humans, as the main control of the body, should have the ability to control it and not be driven away by it.
REFERENCES
Doughty, A. A. (2018). Broadening critical boundaries in children’s and young adult literature and culture. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Irish Examiner. (2021, April 29). Are your dreams trying to tell you something? https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/healthandwellbeing/arid-40277015.html
Saul F. (2012, November 16). Letter O. Auntyflo.com.
https://www.auntyflo.com/graphology/letter-o
Sergei Alexander Bobinsky. (n.d.). Coraline Wiki. Retrieved November 12, 2022, from https://coraline.fandom.com/wiki/Sergei_Alexander_Bobinsky
Sigmund Freud — Psychoanalytic theory. (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sigmund-Freud/Psychoanalytic-theory
