The Reckless Sleeper

[vegegirl]

Does anyone know what the symbols in Ren� Magritte's The Reckless Sleeper represent? I know that they can be read as Freudian symbols but what do each of them symbolise?

[Kingaroo]

What a weird picture. Doesn't look very reckless to me. Interesting that the images are so concrete and specific, not hazy as dreams often are, and are below, supporting his body, not over his head as I would expect.

Being in a box covered with a red blanket certainly seems womb-like to me. As far as the individual images, I don't know, but I suggest looking into a dream dictionary. There are some online. They aren't necessarily Freudian and who knows where they come up with their "meanings" but, hey, symbols are what you make of them, right? The one I checked had multiple vague options for each item, like Mirror = identity, introspection, repetition. Hat = thoughts made manifest. Bird could be freedom, but that bird is so stationary that doesn't seem right.

One thought... I know bowler hats were the fashion at the time Magritte painted, and he used them in other paintings, so the hat may have a very specific symbolic meaning unique to him. Something about convention or middle class values.

[vegegirl]

Thanks! Good plan. I read somewhere that they're solid because they're like children's dreams, and as you get older our dreams get more complicated. So the bird could represent innocence...but I actually have no idea.

[Bluemukka]

It struck me how very simple and child like the images are. If this is what the person is dreaming then they have a very uncomplicted life with few worries. The title also points to the dreamer being a child - the many defintions of "reckless" (Inattentive to duty; careless; neglectful; indifferent, rashly negligent; utterly careless or heedless) could also describe the somewhat selfish world a child lives in.