INTRODUCTION:
Literary
works are interpreted using various theories. Every theory tries to give a new
meaning and level of understanding to a piece of literature. If we examine the
recent development of new theories during the 20th and 21st
centuries, we find five major critical theories in the literature. They are -
New criticism, Post-structuralism, Psychoanalytic criticism, Marxist criticism
and Ecocriticism.
Sigmund Freud was the man behind the idea of Psychoanalytic
Criticism. Freud published his book ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ in 1899. Psychoanalytic
critic holds the idea that every artistic work is an indication or result of
the writer’s anxieties and hidden complexes. The images, the events, the
symbols and the characters presented by the author need to be studied from
psychological point of view in order to derive the meaning out of the text. In
short, Freud developed the idea that dreams are “the
guardians of sleep” where they become “disguised
fulfilments of repressed wishes.”
The most important theorists are Erik Erikson, Jacques Lucan, Anna
Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler and Karen Horney
WHAT IS PSYCHOANALYSIS IN
LITERATURE?
Mark
these words of Tyson:
“The goal of
psychoanalysis is to help us resolve our psychological
problems…, by focusing on patterns of behaviour
that are destructive in some way…in the existence
of the unconscious…the storehouse of painful experiences
and emotions and unresolved conflicts that we
are overwhelmed by”.
Psychoanalytic criticism adopts the methods of
"reading" employed by Freud and later theorists to interpret texts.
It argues that literary texts are just like dreams. The texts of the authors
express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of the author just as
dreams express the inner, hidden thoughts of the subconscious mind. One may
psychoanalyze a particular character within a literary work, but it should be
understood that all such characters are projections of the author's psyche.
Hence, the author’s creation of characters in his texts are the mirrors to
reflect the author’s psyche. Freud writes:
"The
dream-thoughts which we first come across as we proceed with our analysis often strike us by the unusual form in which they are expressed; they are not
clothed in the prosaic language
usually employed by our thoughts, but
are on the contrary represented symbolically
by means of similes and metaphors, in images
resembling those of poetic speech"
Thus Freud believed that the author's
own childhood traumas, family life, sexual conflicts and complexes can be
traced within the behaviour of the characters in his literary work.
In psychoanalytic theory, the idea of
an unconscious and conscious mind, the divisions of the id, ego, and superego,
and the Oedipus complex, are applied to literature to gain a deeper
understanding of that work.
Sigmund Freud believed that people
have a conscious part of the mind, where thinking takes place and where they
are aware of their thoughts. He also proposed the idea of an unconscious part
of the mind, where desires and drives exist that people are not aware of, but
that affect them and sometimes cause psychological problems. A conscious human
being is hardly aware of his own internal suppressed feelings. Hence, human
mind has been compared to an iceburg which is only 10% above the water level.
Major portion of human thoughts and feelings are hidden.
Now the question is how can one know
and understand the hidden and latent emotions and desires?
Freud suggests the analysis of dreams.
He believed that dreams are the windows into the working of the unconscious
mind. He used symbolism and dream analysis to discover the latent content of
the dream.
Freud finds similarities between the
text and the dreams. Just as dreams externalize the latent emotions of the
human beings, the text also exposes the hidden complexes and emotions of the
author. He further asks the critic to examine and understand various symbols and
images found in the text and come to draw a conclusion about the author’s
personality.
OEDIPUS COMPLEX EGO, ID AND SUPEREGO:
Freud believed the experiences of
childhood lead to the development of three divisions in the mind - the ego, the
id, and the superego.
1. The ego is the conscious part of the brain,
the part a person is aware of.
2.
The id is
the unconscious or repressed desires a person has, including the desires caused
by the Oedipus complex.
3. The superego is the conscience, the judge and
jury in a person’s mind.
Psychoanalytic literary criticism
looks for the influences of all three parts of the mind in literature.
EXAMPLE OF PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM:
1. Hamlet is unable to make up his mind to kill
Claudius because of his own Oedipus complex. It is a male infant's desire to
possess his mother and do away with his rival, the father.
2. Marlowe’s heroes like Doctor Faustus and
Barabas who are highly materialistic and ambitious are the projections
Marlowe’s own suppressed desire to gain name and wealth in his personal life.
CONCLUSION:
In nutshell, psychoanalytic criticism
is a 20th century theory influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theory of
interpretation of dreams. The theory argues that literary texts, like dreams,
express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of the author. The
psychoanalytic critic examines the images, symbols, characters and events of
the text from a psychological eye and seeks to unearth the hidden meanings and
facts related to the author and the text as well.
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