Neil Gaiman's DEATH: The character that transcended Sandman

"I'm not merciful or blessed. I'm just me. I've got a job to do and I do it... when the first living thing existed, I was there. Waiting. When the last living thing dies, my job will be finished. I'll put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave." (Death)

Hello my dears. I am the Raven who speaks to you.

This brief video aims to talk a little about the character that, in particular, made me start to have a greater appreciation for Neil Gaiman as a writer. It is the anthropomorphic version of the greatest of our certainties, of what makes us all equal, since it will always come to each of us, sooner or later. I speak, of course, of Death.

Of course, Neil Gaiman wasn't the first person to convert humanity's greatest certainty, fear and taboo into an anthropomorphic being. Portrayals of death as an entity are millenary and its aspects reveal a great diversity of interpretations, since it, as well as existence, has always been an ontological issue of the human race, something that we put ourselves to reflect (or avoid dealing with, thinking about or we delegate the explanation to mythological figures). It affects us from the moment we discover it in early childhood, from the awareness of being in the world. Before anyone portrays it or creates some version of death, we all experience it in an individual and collective sense, because even before our final moment, the unexpected encounter, we will accompany its visit to humans, beings and things we love. And such encounters that we witness will mark us. It could be with a little plant, an insect, the first pet we lost or loved ones. Sooner or later death will always show up and let you know that it’s waiting.

In this sense, death belongs to all who are alive. It is not owned by anyone. And all the people who conceptually tried to explain it directly or everything associated with it did so in the sense of building some kind of knowledge and/or giving face to something that, paradoxically, presents itself as certainty and mystery at the same time. A Death by Neil Gaiman is yet another allegorical example of something that cannot be summarized or limited to an image, figure, mannerisms or a single biography. She is everywhere and in everyone. And that's precisely why, in my analysis, she was and remains one of the most interesting and popular characters of Sandman, the author's highly acclaimed work.

The comics are unable to contain her. Death transcended it, becoming part of fashion and popular culture because, deep down, this was where she belonged from the beginning. In the pages of Sandman she only took a walk, at the invitation of the author's imagination. And in it Death is captivating, attractive, self-sufficient, determined and overflowing with charm, which is undoubtedly something curious to see because we are talking about a topic that, for most people, is something morbid or very difficult to deal with, even when portrayed the way Gaiman chose, through the image of a beautiful goth girl.

In Gaiman's work, in this anthropomorphic depiction, Death is one of the entities known as the Endless. She is Dream's older sister and the second oldest of them all. The quote that illustrates one of her speeches, which I used at the beginning of this podcast, already makes it quite clear how her principles are organized, what kind of moral compass she has: Death is aware of who and what she is, whether this is clear to us or not. And her motivation is to do what she needs to do, her job, which she takes with the utmost seriousness. Because it is an anthropomorphic representation and is, in this sense, a facet of the human experience, of a living being, Death ends up obviously inheriting traces of Neil Gaiman's psyche and of a collective conscience, of the aspects that are common and we all experience.

For not only being a pure phenomenon, Death was not always the same. In her long history, dating back to the beginning of time, Death's mood and personality has undergone changes. There were ages when she was a deeply melancholy character, who felt that her task was the heaviest of all those the Endless had to carry. Death was already very depressed due to having to carry it alone, which at one point generated so much revolt and repudiation that she stopped doing what she had to do. Yes, she had that choice, she was free to make it. But, as we know, every choice has a consequence.

When everything stopped dying, it didn't take long for chaos to set in and for people to beg her to return to her role, which she did, but not without new impacts and transformations: Death hardened, became cold and arrogant. Although back in action, Death has become somewhat unstable. The ultimate event and experience that got her back on track was one that, until then, she had not previously considered: living. Live a little like a mortal, so that she could reflect and reframe both life and herself. Living it, something she had never done before, Death discovered that there were many things about herself that she still didn't understand well enough to have drawn so many closed and inflexible conclusions. By living, she discovered something that she didn't have the slightest idea that she likes. And rethought the meaning of her existence, being able to face it more naturally. As lighter, I would say.

Death, despite being what she is, has become perhaps the friendliest, most caring and optimistic character in the comics. In my opinion, no other character has these characteristics as sharply as she does, and that is where the fun of the thing lies and also what makes the character remarkable and brilliant: precisely the fact that she moves away from a fatalism supposedly inseparable from her, contained in her own conception. Which, a priori, supposedly would be impossible to remove from her. Believe it or not, Death is very pleasant to follow. It's always nice when she's around. And this can also be explained, equally, due to the rarity of this moments. After all, she only appears twice for everyone: she is always there at the beginning and will be there once more, only at the end. So, while very striking, this aspect of rarity goes a long way toward pulling the spotlight on her when she needs to step up and say hello.

Arguably, Death is the most mature character among the Endless, which makes her take on roles that I, particularly, would say are of an educational nature. In some moments she will be the one who listens to confidences and insecurities. In others, she will be the one who pulls the ear of some of them due to their behavior. And she is aware that she will do so until the end of time, as one thing Death cannot change is the fact that she will someday be the last being that will ever exist. Everyone will leave and in the end only she will be left, she will be alone.

Aesthetically speaking, Death is always presented as a very attractive young woman, with pale skin and casual style - she usually dresses in a black jacket and jeans. In general, the gothic style is always frequent in her, but in a minimalist way, without being too flashy. It's death we're talking about: she's not someone who needs to prove herself, be indiscreet and make a lot of noise.

Two symbols are recurrent in her costumes, both of egyptian origin: there is the Ankh, which she wears hanging on a silver chain around her neck; and there is also the mark on the right eye, which refers to the symbol of the eye of Horus, the Udjat. Neil Gaiman claims that the inspiration for Death was the stylist, model and dancer Cinamon Lou Hadley, a great reference of american goth fashion. And indeed, if you look for images of Cinamon, you will notice the inspiration clearly. Cinamon passed away in 2018, at just 48 years old, a victim of cancer. She didn't have much money to pay for treatment or health insurance, unfortunately. But thanks to Gaiman and Death, she will be remembered for a long, long time. As long as the character lives in people's imagination, Cinamon's memory will also live.

Although Dream is perhaps the character most appreciated by Sandman fans, which is understandable since, in the field of mystery and possibilities, the phenomenon is also rich and practically infinite, Death is the one that attracts me the most due to the seriousness inherent in the questions she addresses when she speaks. With her presence, it is practically impossible for the readers not to be encouraged to reflect on their own lives. This makes us understand that the presence, questions and dilemmas that the character brings us are, essentially, much closer to human reality. In this sense, Death would be, among the Endless, the most humanized character and aware of the human condition, which makes her closer to us, more tactile and less fanciful. Death is concrete and this characteristic is, personally, what I like so much.

She tends to manifest and participate more actively in the human world than the other brothers, who stay most of the time in their own realms. She walks among us now and then living a human life to take stock of her function and the meaning of her existence. She assumes a mortal body every hundred years voluntarily, to re-educate herself. Unlike the role of traditional reapers that we know in common sense, which are skeletal figures with cloaks and scythes whose function is the destruction of life only, Death does not behave in the same way. It is a fact that she reaps, but her function is not limited to that. She also accompanies living beings helping them on the path after life and, at no time, behaves like someone who takes pleasure in killing. She just does what she needs to do, in a light, natural and respectful way. The guilt and anguish she once felt, she no longer feels. Now, she handles her work without moral conflict, understanding that dying is as natural as being born.

As a last point, the question of the transition between life and death is a very important concept to understand the character. The egyptian Ankh symbol around her neck isn't just decorative. In egyptian mythology, the Ankh symbolized eternity and the transformation brought about by death. The Udjat in her eye, which reinforces Death's omnipresence and omniscience, is another striking aspect for us to consider the deep knowledge she has of this passage from one state to another in essence. The Udjat, the all-seeing eye of Horus, gives Death a sense that there is something to be learned from her, which philosophically is very interesting and adds depth to the comics.

Well, this was just an introduction to spark interest in reading. As portrayed in Sandman, to be loved by Death (as a human) is to be doomed. But, as a reader, I guarantee that it is almost impossible not to be fascinated by her. There are psychological explanations for this phenomenon, but I do not intend to address it here so as not to make the subject too extensive. By getting in touch with Sandman, I believe that each one of you will be able to have a perception of what I'm talking about because, as I said previously, Death deep down concerns all of us.

Corvid greetings!