"At first I was astonished, but very soon I became awfully curious to see what he would find out from me. I couldn't possibly imagine what I had in me to make it worth his while. It was very pretty to see how he baffled himself, for in truth my body was full of chills, and my head had nothing in it but that wretched steamboat business. It was evident he took me for a perfectly shameless prevaricator. At last, he got angry, and to conceal a movement of furious annoyance, he yawned. I rose. Then I noticed a small sketch in oils, on a panel, representing a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch. The background was somber-almost black. The movement of the women was stately, and the effect of the torchlight on the face was sinister" …show more content…
I think that applying psychoanalytic to this passage we see the clashing of the Superego and the Id in the moment when the manager becomes angry because of the answers Marlow had given him. The Ego intercepts, "a movement of furious annoyance, he yawned" (Conrad 58). It is here that there is tangible evidence of the three parts of the psyches coming into play. The Ego, who plays the mediator between the Superego, the morals, and the Id, the instincts, stopped the show of violence prompted by the Id's need to exert its anger. It also seems to suggest how being in that place deteriorates the effectiveness of the Ego, allowing the Ifo to slowly garner more control over the impulses of everyone. The longer that they are exposed to the harsh lifestyle, immoral practices, and abundant corruption the Superego losing its footing as the straps of morals enforced by modern society no longer apply. Psychoanalytic criticism would be a great advantage to come to this conclusion. However, the disadvantage to the psychoanalytic criticism at this juncture would be that it discounts what is happening in the surrounding moments. This could be called a disadvantage of all the different criticisms, since they focus only what falls into their realms and ignore, to a point, the