In Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head, the novel's protagonist Martin Lynch-Gibbon sustains a series of revelations which force him to become more aware of the realities of his life. This essay will examine how Murdoch infuses the novel with elements of Freudian psychology to develop Martin's movement from the unconscious to reality. Shifting Relationships With the novel's opening and rapid progression from one event to the next, the reader quickly comes to realize that its narrator, Martin Lynch-Gibbon, is not completely aware of the realities regarding himself or the people around him. Although he considers his marriage to be "perfectly happy and successful" (p14), he nevertheless has kept a young mistress, Georgie Hands, for several years. With his wife's confession that she is having an affair with her psychoanalyst (and Martin's good friend) Palmer Anderson, Martin slowly begins to realize that his life may not be what it once had seemed; further plot twists give emphasis to this, and Antonia reveals to Martin near the novel's end that she has been deeply in love with his brother, Alexander, since before their marriage. To add to this convolution, Martin falls desperately in love with Honor Klein, who has been having an incestuous relationship with her brother Anderson. A Severed Head, then, is certainly a permeated with somewhat confusing and constantly changing relationships, but the central reality of Martin's life for much of the novel is his relationship with his wife, Antonia. His marriage, in fact, defines all of the other relationships in his life. Antonia tells Martin precisely why their marriage has failed: "It's partly my being so much older and being a sort of mother to you. I've kept you from growing up. Al... ... middle of paper ... ...tening at last out of irony. "So must you, my dear!" (p205) With their love now out from the unconscious, Martin and Honour move toward a relationship based on reality and not the falseness that is often accepted as happiness. Conclusion Iris Murdoch's use of elements of Freudian psychology in A Severed Head is masterful. (Indeed, there are many elements in the novel which parallel Freud's own desires: there has been some debate about Freud's childhood incestuous desires and his possible bisexuality.) In her centering of the novel around Freud's Oedipal complex and castration anxiety, and in the use of symbolic dreams, Murdoch creates a novel that is brilliant in its depiction of one character's movement from the shadows of the unconscious into the bright reality of real life. References Murdoch, Iris. A Severed Head. New York: Penguin, 1986.
A travesty occurred on this July 11, 1804. In response to Vice-President Burr’s challenge a duel took place on the grounds of Weekhawken, New Jersey, on the very spot where Mr. Hamilton’s eldest son Phillip had died. This day of reckoning has been long approaching. Each man has opposed the other during their political careers. It is supposed the duel was provoked by Burr after personal exploitation sparked by Hamilton, this along with the public humiliation of a lost election. Some dire insults can only be dispelled with an extreme display of bravery. Had Burr not defended his honor others may have considered him as a man, not possessing sufficient firmness to defend his own character, and consequently unworthy of their support. Vice-President Burr’s reasoning most certainly was centered on protecting both his political career and his goodness.
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States: 1492-present. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Print.
Burr and Hamilton were local rivals in New York politics. They had a sometimes close, but complex, relationship. When Hamilton played dirty politics (yet again) to keep Burr from becoming New York's governor, Burr uncharacteristically lost his self-control, called Hamilton out for a duel, and shot him dead in 1804. It is quite possible that Hamilton actually committed suicide, using Burr as the instrument. Afterwards, Burr took to referring to "my friend Hamilton, whom I shot." At any rate, Burr was vilified nationally for his deed, and Hamilton was less-than-deservedly martyred. Burr and Jefferson, on the other hand, were national political rivals.
Brennan, Linda Crotta. The Birth of the United States. Ann Arbor: Cherry Lake, 2011. Print.
Each and every loss Burr had, he continuously blamed them on Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton constantly drug Burr’s name in the dirt through the media. He thought Hamilton had ruined his reputation. “A newspaper reported that Hamilton had described the vice president as “a dangerous man and one who ought not to be ...
CASEMENT, Patrick, 'Beyond words – the role of psychoanalysis', The Psychologist, 2009, vol. 22, 5th May
Martin sees his wife, perception of her not clouded by her drinking for once, and free of anger he makes his decision. His love for her is more evident than ever as Carson McCullers implies that Martin Meadows is going to leave his wife. Martin’s spirit returns as he decides that his own happiness is very important to him. The moment is beautifully depicted, and the reader becomes aware that Martin is making this decision in the best interest of himself and his children. "His hand sought the adjacent flesh and sorrow paralleled desire in the immense complexity of love.""A Domestic Dilemma" by Carson McCullers shows the importance of making the right choices. The story shows the consequences and suffering that will result from neglecting your own spirit and your own needs. The main character, Martin, sacrificed his marital relationship in the best interests of himself and his children. "A Domestic Dilemma" is a startling wake-up call with a powerful message about how love can stray people from making decisions in their best interests.
Monsters embody brutality, twisted morality, and irrationality—the banes of human existence, yet the children of man’s inner demons. Monsters are, in short, projections of man’s wicked id. The term creature may suggest monstrosity, and Frankenstein’s creation in Mary Shelley’s novel may be perceived as a personification of the Freudian id. In this case, however, the creature also mediates between its neurotic creator and societal values, just as the Freudian ego, conditioned by the reality principle, mediates between external reality and inner turmoil through practicality. The ego is the psyche’s driving force and, arguably, the real protagonist of Frankenstein. But in the fierce tug-of-war within the ego between the id and its law-abiding opposite—the superego—lies the true battlefield of Shelley’s novel. For ironically the man of science embodies an ego-ridden id, a man-monster, but creates a monster-man that embodies his counterpart: an id-ridden ego. In the wake of his mother’s death, Frankenstein’s tinkering with reanimation unconsciously shapes a symbiosis between himself and his creation—between two tortured halves of one neurotic mind. In fact, Shelley’s novel sinks deep into the crevices of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, oozing into pits of neurosis, repression, parapraxes, dream symbolism, and the Oedipus complex.
In the novel Frankenstein, the author, Mary Shelley writes about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein who brings to life a human- like creature. Viewing this book through a psychoanalytic lens uncovers the many layers that make up this text and the characters. The psychoanalytic theory deals with a person’s underlying desire, most famously, the oedipal complex. The oedipal complex is the belief that all people possess the desire to partake in affectionate relations with a parent of the opposite sex. In Frankenstein, Shelley uses Victors conscious and subconscious to suggest that Victor possesses the oedipal complex, and that he feels intense guilt for the monster that he has brought to life.
Freud, Sigumund. "The Uncanny." Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed. by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. New York: Blackwell, 1998.
“When I reflected on his crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation.” In her novel, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley creates Victor Frankenstein, as a character who becomes psychologically unable to continue his normal life after he turns lifeless mater into a living creature through his studies of natural anatomy. Though many years have passed between the writing of Frankenstein and the making of the Television hit, Dexter, the creator of the show, James Manos Jr., created a character in Dexter that is psychologically very similar to Victor. Dexter is also unable to live a normal life after he realizes something about him is different from other human beings.
Wilson, Sarah. "Sigmund Freud and the oedipal complex." The Observer”. Guardian News and Media, 8 Mar. 2009. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/08/sigmund-freud-oedipal-complex>.
The relationship between Frankenstein and his monster can be used as a metaphorical map to understanding Sigmund Freud's conception of the "super-ego," or in other words, the human sense of guilt and conscience. Frankenstein's sense of guilt develops around the violent, aggressive way he creates his monster. The monster causes the ripples of guilt to grow by causing him to fear losing his love ones, losing his source of protection, and punishment for his sins. After it is fully developed, Frankenstein's guilt and the monster's overshadowing presence serves as guides for understanding how the super-ego works to punish a soul through a constantly aggressive, nagging feeling of anxiety. Viewing Frankenstein through Freudian lenses as well is George V. Griffith a professor of English and Philosophy at Chadron College in Nebraska, he points out in his critical evaluation of the novel that "Victor and the monster are the same person" (3).
"Fragmentation of Personality as it Applies to the Character of Sabina in Anaїs Nin's The Spy in the House of Love, and the Works of Sigmund Freud"
The poetry of Sylvia Plath can be interpreted psychoanalytically. Sigmund Freud believed that the majority of all art was a controlled expression of the unconscious. However, this does not mean that the creation of art is effortless; on the contrary it requires a high degree of sophistication. Works of art like dreams have both a manifest content (what is on the surface) and latent content (the true meaning). Both dreams and art use symbolism and metaphor and thus need to be interpreted to understand the latent content. It is important to maintain that analyzing Plaths poetry is not the same as analyzing Plath; her works stand by themselves and create their own fictional world. In the poems Lady Lazarus, Daddy and Electra on Azalea Path the psychoanalytic motifs of sadomasochism, regression and oral fixation, reperesnet the desire to return to the incestuous love object.