Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, argued that dreams are not just random experiences, but rather significant and specific visions. He theorized that dreams represent deep wishes of the unconscious, and are often rooted in experiences and desires from one’s infancy.

Kafka’s short story “A Dream” is about a man named Josef K. who dreams that he is in a graveyard. He comes across an artist carving a name on a tombstone and realizes that it is actually his own stone. Analyzing this story in the context of Freud’s theories about dreams should take into account what the character’s unconscious desires, fears, and infantile experiences might be. For example, consider how Josef “was inconsolable about the artist’s dilemma” and sobbed into his “cupped hands for a long time.” Here we see Josef’s fear and frustration driving him to revert to infantile behavior.

It is also noteworthy that Josef K. goes from feeling distressed about the reality of his mortality to seeming to accept death. In the context of Freud’s theory about dreams representing wishes, this may be confusing. It could be interpreted in several ways. On one hand, one could use Freud’s theory to argue that this dream hows that Josef K. was wishing for death. On the other hand, one could also argue that the dream doesn’t say Josef K. wanted to die, but that he wanted to come to terms with his mortality. This would explain why he woke up “enraptured” by the vision of himself in his grave.