The Thing In The Forest Byatt

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An analysis of The Thing in the Forest written by A.S. Byatt through a Freudian lens. As Penny and Primrose spent their childhood through the war and unusual circumstances, their minds and consciousness has been molded in a unique way. Their consciousness has also been heavily influenced by the monster in the forest which resembled a penis and is affecting their adulthood due to the interrupted process of fixation. The story of Penny and Primrose correlate to the psychodynamic theory through their action and words; as well as penis envy conveyed through their development and adulthood.
The conscious mind includes everything that we are aware of, all the information that a person is paying attention to at any given time. When Penny revisits the house and the …show more content…

Penis envy is a stage of development experienced only by females and occurs when a girl first notices the differences in male and female anatomy and wish to have a penis of her own. She may also begin to sexually desire her father and mimic her mother, though as she realizes she cannot have her father her sexual desire is displaced onto men in general (Penis Envy). The Worm in the forest was described in such a way to give a phallic impression, triggering the beginning of Primrose and Penny’s Electra Complex, and had lasting effects on the two. For the two girls, they were not given the chance to sexually long for their fathers as their fathers died during the Blitz and was absent from their lives. Due to this their sexual desires were never displaced to the general man and the phallic fixation process: where the girl represses her desire for her father, incorporates the values of her mother and accepts her inherent 'inferiority' in society was interrupted (Psychosexual Stage). As a result of never developing sexual desires for men, Primrose and Penny never obtained a significant other or children, opposing the generic female role in

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