Purpose and Perspective

In Neil Gaiman's The Doll's House, interactions with humanity lead to an apocalyptic revelation for Morpheus, the lord of Dream: the Endless are not the autonomous, godlike figures they assumed themselves to be, but rather servants of the mortal world and subject to their control. Morpheus/Dream becomes a more conscientious, controlled being with tendencies toward human emotions and characteristics after his interactions with a man named Hob, whose life has not been touched by the fear of Death or its embrace. 

In "Men of Good Fortune" (Part Four) Dream enters a tavern with his sister Death, after she implores him to view humans on their own terms, rather than on the terms of the Endless, who (mostly) feel themselves to be superior to mortals. The Endless live apart from humans, and as abstract concepts that can alter their appearance to become tangible, their actions are still separate from the common world of humanity. Dream begins this part of the novel by implying that interactions with humanity are not rewarding experiences, and that he does not see "what purpose [it] will serve." Death, on the other hand, appears to grasp the importance of understanding them. When Dream states the fae consider leaving the physical plane, he appears to also consider the notion and weigh its merits. A conversation dealing with the denial of death leads Dream to Hob, a common man who declares that he will continue to live because he does not recognize death as an absolute. Over the course of several hundred years, Dream continues to meet with Hob, and comes to realize that even when faced with defeat and destruction, humanity remains resilient.

Slowly, the perspective of Dream changes, to where he acknowledges the worth of human lives, and when he finds that Hob has made riches from the slave trade, he asks Hob why he takes "pride in treating...fellow humans as less than animals" (Part Four), a considerable change from his own view of them as pawns in the beginning. The relationship between Hob and Dream may appear with the Endless having the upper hand, but it is Hob who becomes the teacher and Dream the pupil; Dream comes to respect humanity's will to live, its achievements as interesting and admirable. After a few centuries, Hob suggests that Dream continues to meet him because he is lonely, that he seeks a companion with whom to share the trials and triumphs of humanity. Dream angrily denies the statement, yet the next century seems pleased to state that he "heard it was impolite to keep one's friends waiting" (Part Four), then buys Hob a drink.

Throughout this section of The Doll's House Dream transforms from an entity that defines himself by his separateness, his superiority over to humanity, to just another subject of humanity's conscious. He realizes that he and the other Endless are not rulers over humans, but under their control and influence, telling his sister Desire that they "are the servants of the living--we are NOT their masters" (Part Four). Dream comes to the conclusion that existence of the Endless is contingent upon the belief of humanity. Without humanity, the Endless have not purpose and with not purpose comes despair. Dream's outlook is irreversibly changed by his interactions with humanity on their own terms, and he experiences a personal apocalypse when he reaches this conclusion.