Superego In Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

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Famous psychologist Sigmund Freud separated the human psyche into three parts: the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. These three parts located between all three sections of the mind: the unconscious, the preconscious and the conscious. The Id is purely pleasure based, motivated by primal needs and wants. This section is based only in the subconscious mind; it is not affected by the outside world. The Ego is formed after realizing that not every urge can be fulfilled, thus making the Ego rationalize the Id’s desires with reality, making it based in the preconscious and the conscious mind, along with the Superego. The last part of the human psych is the Superego, of which is in constant battle to uphold what is morally and socially correct. The Id and Superego are opposite extremes of what we want and what is right, and it is the Ego’s job to land somewhere in the middle that is agreeable to bother extreme selves. Yet, in “ A Rose for Emily’, Emily’s psyche is overshadowed by her Id, thus causing her to commit the horrific act of murder.
William Faulkner’s short story “ A Rose for Emily” follows the mystery of Emily Grierson’s life and …show more content…

Throughout the story, Emily's mother is never mentioned, not through childhood recollections nor photographs. Emily’s lack of a motherly figure in her life means that there was never that competition. Emily never had to compete with anyone for her father’s love. If this competition between mother and daughter is never resolved, or for Emily, was absent, it leads to low self esteem and a need to be dominated by men. This desire was fulfilled with her father’s controlling nature and how hed chase her suitors off. Even into adulthood, Emily remained living under her father's roof, exemplifying that she did not want to move on like most young adults do, that she enjoyed the hold her father had on