Wirt's Journey

The children's show Over the Garden Wall exemplifies both the Lacanian ideas of the unconscious and Le Guin’s ideas of the fairy tale. Wirt's journey through The Unknown represents a journey through his unconscious, adhering to both Terry Eagleton’s Literary Theory: An Introduction and Terry Gamel’s Summary of Lacan’s “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience.” His journey is a fairy tale for the show's younger viewers. As Ursula K. Le Guin explores in The Child and the Shadow, we learn to see ourselves differently through the fairy tale as guided by our inner animal.

In Over the Garden Wall, The Unknown is a faithful representation of Lacan’s unconscious. For Lacan, the unconscious “exists
Wirt, however, wants to “get home,” and so return to the conscious world. This journey is symbolised by The Unknown existing in the season of autumn, the in-between of summer and winter. Wirt is in a stage of transition, existing in the unconscious which “exists ‘between’ us.” As he gets closer to his goal of returning to the conscious world, The Unknown transforms into winter, showing how Wirt must surmount what is the most desolate in order to return home. According to Eagleton’s Lacanian idea, the signifieds are “repressed” within the
Up until this point, Wirt has only ever been exposed to and conscious of his other, which he constructed. And this other, adhering to Gamel’s Lacanian point, “will always remain a fantasy,” because he has “partially constructed it with a fantasy.” Wirt has brought his other into his unconscious with him through his Halloween costume. It is only with the contrast of Wirt’s other, the one he’s known for his whole life, and his Other, does Wirt truly understand the difference between the two. Before this understanding, he introduced himself as “just a guy, I guess… I don’t really like labels. I’m just sort of like myself, you know.” Wirt’s distinction between his other and Other inspires Wirt to truly construct his self identity, as “identities come about only as a result of difference.” Wirt begins to understand that “we are identified by others and not self,” and each episode is a testament to the lessons Wirt learns about self-discovery. As The Unknown’s settings change, Wirt changes with it. This is emphasised as each episode of Over the Garden Wall has a different time setting, from the Salem Witch trials to the end of the twentieth century. Thus, Wirt’s journey is not just through different locations in The Unknown, but also through time periods, representing his journey from his past to present, and also to his future. The characters in The