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1、外语系英语专业本科毕业论文An Analysis of Freuds “Ego, Id and Superego”in The Thorn Birds以弗洛伊德“本我自我超我”思想解读荆棘鸟Abstract:Colleen McCullough,who is the author of The Thorn Birds, is an Australian female writer.The novel The Thorn Birds causes quite a stir after its publication .It is translated into multiple language
2、s and often reputed as “Gone with the Wind of Australia”. Based on Freuds theory id, ego and superego, this paper analyzes the reasons that resulted in the tragic love between Ralph and Meggie in The Thorn Birds.Key words: Tragic love, Id, Ego, Superego.摘要：小说荆棘鸟的作者是澳大利亚的女作家考琳麦卡洛。小说从1977年在美国出版后就引起一阵狂
3、潮。这本书已经被翻译成多种语言发行，并且经常被称为是“澳大利亚版的乱世佳人”。以弗洛伊德的本我，自我和超我的理论为基点，这篇论文主要是分析荆棘鸟这部小说中造成男女主角拉尔夫和梅吉爱情悲剧的原因。关键词：爱情悲剧，本我，自我，超我 1. IntroductionColleen McCulloughs novel The Thorn Birds is one of the Australian novels that are popular and famous all over the world. This novel illustrates the theme about love, rel
4、igion, power and ambition. But among these, the painful and desperate love between Ralph and Meggie attracts the readers most. This essay analyses the love story between Ralph and Meggie and uses the theory of Freud: “ego,id and superego”to analyze the story. The Thorn Birds begins with a legend abo
5、ut a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, and doesnt rest until it finds one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest and sharpest sp
6、ine. And dying, it rises above its own agony to out carol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and god in his heaven smiles. For the best is only brought at great pain（McCullough preface）.Love is the eternal theme in human lif
7、e. However, love changes much because of the influence of asceticism. Although love is a tragic thing, the spirit of main characters longing for love and struggling for the doctrine of religions is worth learning. It can also be learned that the asceticism restrains the human nature and results in t
8、he destruction.Then,when people face the problem, ego, id and superego comes out.Ralph and Meggies life experience gives us a good understanding of their personalities in terms of ego id and superego.2. The Theory of Freud2.1 Sigmund Freuds Theory is quite complex and although his writings on psycho
9、sexual development set the groundwork for how our personalities developing, it was only one of five parts to his overall theory of personality. He also believed that different driving forces develop during these stages which play an important role in how we interact with the world. According to Freu
10、d, we are born with our id. The id is an important part of our personality because as newborns, it allows us to get our basic needs met. Freud believed that the id is based on our pleasure principle. In other words, the id wants something what feels good at the time, with no consideration for the re
11、ality of the situation. When a child is hungry, the id wants food, and therefore the child cries. The id doesnt care about reality, about the needs of anyone else, only its own satisfaction. If you think about it, babies are not considerate of their parents wishes. They dont care for time, whether t
12、heir parents are sleeping, relaxing, eating dinner, or bathing. When the id wants something, nothing else is important. Within the next three years, as the child interacts more and more with the world, the second part of the personality begins to develop. Freud called this part the ego. The ego is b
13、ased on the reality principle. The ego understands that other people have needs and desires and that sometimes being impulsive or selfish can hurt us in the long run. Its the egos job to meet the needs of the id, while taking into consideration the reality of the situation. By the age of five, the S
14、uperego develops. The Superego is the moral part of us and develops due to the moral and ethical restraints placed on us by our caregivers. Many equate the superego with the conscience as it dictates our belief of right and wrong. In a healthy person, according to Freud, the ego is the strongest so
15、that it can satisfy the needs of the id, not upset the superego, and still take into consideration the reality of every situation. Not an easy job by any means, but if the id gets too strong, impulses and self gratification take over the persons life. If the superego becomes too strong, the person w
16、ould be driven by rigid morals, would be judgmental and unbending in his or her interactions with the world.The love between Meggie and Ralph can best illustrate the three levels of peoples personality. 3. A Fight for Love3.1 Ralph: a Double-faced Priest3.1.1 Ego:A Earthly Man to Seek Love “Ralph, w
17、e are priests, but we are something else before that; and we can not escape in spite of exclusiveness. We are men, with the weakness and failings of men.”(McCullough 457) From what Cardinal Vittorio says to Ralph above, it is easy to understand that no priest can deny his identity of being a man. So
18、 is Ralph. As a normal man, he falls in love at first sight with Meggie. When he first sees Meggie, he is deeply impressed. In his opinion, Meggie is different from others for “no one thought of her important, which meant there was a space in her life into which he could fit himself and be sure of h
19、er love;”(McCullough 119)In the process of helping Meggie in her daily life, Ralph falls in love with Meggie. When he leaves for a bright future, he remembers Meggie as the rose just like what Meggie once send to him.When he has to leave for Vatican, he still wants to tell the news to Meggie and see
20、 Meggie one more time. At that moment, Meggie happens to take a rest in Matlock Island, a quiet summer resort. There he is not only a priest but completely a man who is deeply in the need of love. On that quiet island, Ralph gets Meggie both mentally and physically. To Ralph, when he is with Meggie,
21、 “all that power held dormant, sleeping, only needing the detonation of a touch to trigger a chaos in which mind was subservient to passion, minds will extinguished in bodys will”(McCullough 429).As a man, Ralph is eager to love and indeed he wins the love of Meggie. However, he is a man with a reli
22、gious mission first. All the passion he has is contrary to the rules of God or the Church. He is in such a dilemma that it suffers him a lot. Without this love, he will be a perfect priest. Considering this love in his deeper heart, he is a perfect priest in others opinion while only he himself know
23、s what he suffers in reality.3.1.2 Ego and Superego:An Born Priest Devoted to God Ralph was born on September 23, 1893. And at the age of 17 he entered the seminary. After graduating, he served as pastor of Gillanbone, a private secretary to His Grace Archbishop until Papal Legate returned from Athe
24、ns. When “at the age of 58, Ralph has been one of the few men actively concerned in the determination of papal policy” (McCullough 521). To some extent, he is a born priest, just like what he said to Mary Carson:“I was brought up from my cradle to be a priest, but it is far more than that. I am a ve
25、ssel, Mrs. Carson, and at times Im filled with God. But to define it is difficult, because even to priests its a great mystery. A divine possession, which other men can never know. Thats it, perhaps. Abandon it? I couldnt.”(77)Moreover, he is not only handsome in appearance, but also has a talent of
26、 social activity and can speak kinds of foreign languages. At last he becomes the Papal Legate. It is no doubt that he is successful in his career.“Religion is a necessary aspect of mans spiritual life” (Tillich 3) and plays an important role in society and in peoples lives. “Religion in the largest
27、 and most basic sense of the world is ultimate concern”(7-8). Since religion permeates almost every part of Western thought, it is easy for people to understand and evaluate Ralphs ideas and behaviors to go higher in his career.3.1.3 Analysis of the Dilemma Under the influence of religion, being a p
28、riest is admirable. To Ralph, he is happy and willing to be a priest, to be an emissary of God. He gains pleasure when he helps people as a priest. Also, Ralph finds pleasure in accumulating money for the Church, and this will bring him promotion. The id is the repository of ones needs and drives. I
29、t represents an unconscious pressure on people to live in complete accordance with the innermost wishes. Ralphs innermost just wishes himself to be a successful as a priest.Asterism is the core ideology in western religion. According to their rules and laws, every priest should and must keep far awa
30、y from love. This is what the society and social duty required the priests not to do. To be faithful and loyal to the Church or God is a priests basic duty. The superego is formed by the traditional values and ideals of the society or culture in which a person is born. Before Ralph meets Meggie, he
31、doesnt allow himself to have interest in girls, although many girls are attracted by him. He understands that he has to follow the egos reality principle. However, when Ralph meets Meggie, everything changes. Ralph finds sensual pleasure in this little girl, for she fills an empty space in his life,
32、 which his God could not. Together with Meggie, Ralph understands what love is and finds it hard to keep to the reality principle. The emotion of love is peoples natural feeling and nature which is impossible to give a definition for it “produces merely a simple impression, without any mixture or co
33、mposition” (Hume, 229). Ralph feels the sensual pleasure together with Meggie and enjoys this feeling. The id is so strong when Ralph enjoys this feeling that the real morality is carried away.The conscience part of superego provides guilty feelings when moral values are violated. The ego ideal part
34、 of superego provides feelings of pride when the self acts in consonance with traditional values of the group. The belief of religion roots deeply in Ralphs heart. When facing the fact of Meggies growing up, Ralph has to leave from Meggie because the superego tells him that as a priest he should not
35、 enjoy the love toward Meggie. Moreover, he feels guilty when considering their love.These sexual urges are to be found even in the noblest men and women, and they can never be eradicated. One represses them, satisfies them vicariously through dreams, even one satisfies them by acting them outbut th
36、ey can never be satiated and always want more. Ralphs leaving doesnt comfort him except for the fame he gets in his promotion. He leaves Meggie physically, however, he always misses Meggie. He remembers Meggie in his deeper heart just like the rose he keeps. During a holiday he comes back to Droghed
37、a, he cannot help joining with Meggie when he gets to know that Meggie has got married. During the few days in Matlock Island, the Eden of their own, Ralph and Meggie completely enjoy their love, satisfy and fulfill their sexual drives and gain their basic pleasures. The id is so stronger than super
38、ego on Matlock Island that Ralph acts as a man leaving his identification as a priest behind his head. However, out of the Maclock Island, the superego revives and he continues to work as a perfect priest.It is not the case that the id always pulls us in one direction, and the superego always in ano
39、ther direction. Rather, the id may pull in different directions at the same time. Thats the reason we have a complex feeling to the same. To Ralph, on Matlock, Ralph nourishes both feelings of love and hatred towards God. He loves God as a priest; however, he hates God as a man. The example above al
40、so shows that Ralph can not balance the id and superego in his life which situates in a dilemma situation easily.Every time when Ralph enjoys the pleasure with Meggie this moment, after that he will cool down by the law and his social duty. When he comes back to be sure that Meggie is safe, he has a
41、 pleasurable time with Meggie, however, a few minutes later, “Mortality pressed down, a great weight crushing his soul the last of his desire trickled away under the burden of his mortality” (McCullough 266) According to Freud, the key to a healthy personality is to keep a balance between the id, th
42、e ego, and the superego. When there are only the two peopleRalph and Meggie together with each other, Ralphs id for pleasure principle suppresses his superego for doing the right thing. However, when Ralph considers about his career and his social status, his superego gets the upper hand. Ralph fail
43、s to keep a good balance between his id, ego and superego. Thus, the tragedy of both his life and his love with Meggie occurs.3.2 Meggie: A Normal but Persistent Female3.2.1 Ego: in Need of Her Own Home Meggie is the only daughter of her parents. She is mild and persistent. Her family leads a poor l
44、ife and her father does not know how to love her while her mother is so busy with the chores that doesnt care her. The other children in the family are all boys and she gets little care what should belong to a little girl. Ralph cares Meggie more than she receives from her family. Ralph is the only
45、person that she is willing to tell her thoughts. Then as she grows up, her respect and admiration to Ralph changes into the emotion of love. The superego educates people to behave socially. Only when the superego suppresses the id which seeks the sensual pleasure one can live in harmoniously with th
46、e society. Meggie understands that she should not love a priest. She is only a normal girl without any social status. Knowing Ralph will never give up his career as a priest and marry her, Meggie tries to forget Ralph, but she fails. She deeply believes that she is living for him. “Yet how can I sto
47、p loving a man who loves God? No matter how hard I try, I cant seem to do it. Hes the moon, and Im crying for it.”(McCullough, 415)Ones biological drives such as love between man and woman, sex, etc. belong to the level of id. Love is the true feeling from the bottom of the heart. Meggies fate makes
48、 her convince that she is living for Ralph. The id motivates Meggie to strive for Ralphs love while the superego motivates her to behave socially and forget Ralph. It is hard for her to keep a balance between her id and superego. Ralphs escape disappoints Meggie. In her family, Meggie is ignored by
49、her parents and her brothers. She is indeed in need of a family of her own. “Love is a sensation for eternity” (Wang Xiaomei56). Meggie realizes her love to Ralph and the fact that theres no possibility for her to marry Ralph. Besides, Meggies father and a brother have been burnt in a fire. She really needs someone to console and support her. Her beloved Ralph comes and goes hastily. H
