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The Unconscious Mind In Mary Shelly's Frankenstein

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“During my first experiment [of creating the monster], a kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the horror of my employment, my mind was intently fixed on the sequel of my labour, and my eyes were shut to the horror of my proceedings” (Shelly, 2017, p.138). With these words, Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein explains to Robert Walton that his unconscious mind (which is influenced by an enthusiastic frenzy) absents his conscious mind from recognizing the severe consequences of his attempt to give a life to the inanimate body. The question poses here is; to what extent does his unconscious mind affect his choices and his relationships with the other characters in the story. In this paper, I will read Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein …show more content…

The Ego is the self-image of the individuals. It places itself between the Id and the Superego trying to find a balance between them (Tyson, 2015). The Superego, on the other hand, is the conscience of the mind that is the self-observing aspect of the Ego. It is the aspects that tell the Ego the right and the wrong. In different words, the Superego measures and judges the decisions that made by both the Id and the Ego (Tyson, 2015). Finally, the Id is located in the unconscious level of the mind and can never separate from it. It always seeks immediate gratification of its desires such as sex, food, power, etc, regardless of whether these desires are socially prohibited or not or whether they are right or wrong. To put it simply, the Id seeks pleasure and has no morality (Tyson, 2015). The id is also where our desires, wounds and painful experiences are kept repressed, some of these emotions and feelings disguise into defines mechanisms (Tyson, 2015). The Défense Mechanisms According to Freud, there are a number of defense mechanisms that enable our mind to keep the repressed desires or experiences repressed in our unconscious mind because we want to avoid “knowing what we feel we can’t handle knowing” (Tyson, 2015, p.15). Some of these defence …show more content…

This admiration might include his/her cognitive abilities, external appearance, or power. To satisfy this feeling of importance, the person seeks attention and special treatment from other people around him/her (Bergman, Westermann, & Daly, 2010). Furthermore, a person with narcissistic disorder ‘typically disregard[s] other’s rights and feelings and unable to take the perspective of others (Bergman, Westermann, & Daly, 2010, p.119). Oedipal Conflict Freud believes that infants of the same gender with his/her parent try to replace the parent of his/her own sex to gain the love and the attention of the parent of the opposite sex (Tyson, 2015). After these short explanations to some of Freud’s psychoanalysis theories, the paper will now turn to address the use of psychoanalysis in literary criticism. Psychoanalysis in Literary Criticism Writing a paper about the Swiss writer Conrad Ferdinand Mayer’s story ‘Die Richterin’ in 1898, Freud started to apply his own findings in psychoanalysis to interpret literary texts. After that article, Freud wrote a number of essays establishing the relationship between psychoanalysis and literature, accordingly, a new theory of literary criticism was born (“Application of Psychoanalysis in Literary Criticism”, n.d.). Freud was interested in how the interpretation of the characters’ motivations in the story can tell us more

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Dreanna Hypes Lit comp per 7 Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, tells the horrific story of Victor Frankenstein, a scientist devoured by ambition, seeks to revive life to the deceased. Thus, a horrific monster is created. Terrified of its unsightly stature, Dr Frankenstein flees his creation, neglecting it severely a result, the monster. Lonely and depressed, seeks revenge on his creator, killing several members of his family and his closest friend. Throughout shelley uses imagery and toner to amplify the horror

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These do not stand for physical areas of the brain, but more of the mental functions. ID translates to instincts, Ego is reality and Superego is morality. These three central functioning's make up “… the personality—instinctual needs, rational thinking, and moral standards.” (Ronald J. Comer). Dwight Schrute has a very poor ego, which in turn off-sets his ID and Ego.

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Dangerous Minds- Rough Draft Knowledge has the capability to be used for both good and evil. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, there is a consistent message throughout the novel showing the dangerous and destructive power that knowledge can have. Two key characters, Victor Frankenstein and his monster, are shaped through their obsessions with knowledge and the power and responsibility that it brings. Ultimately, Victor’s downfall is a result of his uncontrollable thirst for knowledge, and is brought about through the monster which is the embodiment of his obsession. Victor is a brilliant scientist who figures out a way to create life from death using galvanism, or electricity.

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Frankenstein explores peoples’ lack of forgiveness and compassion toward the unknown. Shelly demonstrates this lack of understanding in three distinct ways: Victor Frankenstein’s blatant disgust/hatred of his creation, the cottagers’ aggressive reaction to seeing the creature, and Victor’s refusal to attempt to understand him. When the monster was created, he had no idea of the harsh world into which he was being thrust. This lack of preparation and guidance turned him into a cold, unforgiving monster; he lost his innocence and became this horrible, dangerous monster. Frankenstein perfectly exemplifies humans’ lack of compassion and the long lasting effects it

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Psychoanalysis of Frankenstein and His Creation When doing a literary analysis using the psychoanalytic type A criticism, the reader must solely look to the work itself and exclude externalities. One may interpret, “Dr. Frankenstein and the monster as embodying Sigmund Freud’s theory of id and ego” (Telgen). The theory is based upon the idea that a character’s personality can be divided into three parts. The id which is the basic desire for what each person wants. The superego which is the opposite of id, it houses our sense of guilt.

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think outside of the box entirely better than any other writer of her time period. And as stating in the paragraph before she sparked much talk in the scientific community. In this novel Shelley shows us how a mad scientist actually goes out and reanimates this creature with his own vision of the perfect individual and how he should look. To recreate the mind is one of the hardest things to do in science still today.

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Such passion is seen in Victor’s ‘noble intent’ to design a being that could contribute to society, but he had overextended himself, falling under the spell of playing ‘God,’ further digging his grave as he is blinded by glory. His creation – aptly called monstrous being due to its stature, appearance, and strength – proved to be more of a pure and intellectually disposed ‘child’ that moves throughout the novel as a mere oddity, given the short end of the stick in relation to a lack of familial figures within his life, especially that of parents. Clearly, Victor Frankenstein had sealed his fate: by playing God he was losing his humanity, ultimately becoming the manifestation of Mary Shelley’s hidden desires, deteriorating into The Lucifer Principle by which the author Howard Bloom notes social groups, not individuals, as the primary “unit of selection” in human psychological

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Ego in Relationship to the Dark Triad Decision making; the process of evaluating positives, negatives, and alternatives before selecting an option. To make impactful decisions, one must be able to forecast and weigh all outcomes intelligently, then make the best decision for the situation at hand. However, there is an obstacle, the ego. As defined by Sigmund Freud, ego, is the part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and unconscious, distinguishes between reality, and contains ideas about personal identity. It has something of a metaphysical and personal importance that is crucial to decision making and critical thinking.

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Victor Frankenstein, blinded by ambition or driven by madness? In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley embodies a cloud of characteristics that follow Victor along for the entirety of the novel. As a young scholar, Victor was driven to invest in his interests of chemistry and science. Hence, Victor soon became enamored with the ideas that lie in between life and death. Further pondering led Victor to become obsessed with the idea of bringing inanimate objects to life.

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ENG-3U0 November 20 2015 Frankenstein: The Pursuit of Knowledge Throughout the course of their individual journeys, Victor Frankenstein’s extreme passion for gaining knowledge about creating life, Robert Walton’s curiosity to discover land beyond the North Pole and the monster’s eagerness to obtain knowledge about humans was the principal cause of each of their suffering. As such, In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the pursuit of knowledge is a dangerous path which leads to suffering. Victor Frankenstein develops a keen interest in discovering knowledge about living beings which ultimately results in his personal suffering as well as others suffering. To begin with, Victor embarks on an assignment through combining body parts and following various

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Greenberg (1986) believes Freud’s case studies do not place enough stress on revealing the outcome of the treatment and that Freud’s aim was more to illustrate his theoretical points (p.240). In cases, Greenberg asserts that many of the presented cases would not even be considered acceptable examples of psychoanalysis and, in short, that virtually all of the cases studies had basic shortcomings (p.240). Furthermore, many other powerful criticisms about Freud inaccurate and subsequently flawed evidence have been published. These critics contend that Freud’s evidence is flawed due to the lack of an experiment, the lack of a control group, and the lack of observations that went unrecorded (Colby, 1960, p.54).

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Psychoanalysis was first introduced by Sigmund Freud and is now known as classical psychoanalysis. The theory, as defined by Sigmund Freud, is the dynamic between underlying forces that determine behavior and personality. He stressed the importance of human sexuality, childhood experiences, and the unconscious processes. However, his theory was seen as misogynistic and narrow focused. Consequently, classical psychoanalysis was criticized and rejected by many scholars.

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