CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS
C. The Process of Elsa’s Self-Acceptance
giant snowman to drive her sister away because she is afraid she might hurt Anna again. Here, Elsa is projected as projection has the purpose of reducing anxiety by replacing smaller danger for a bigger one (Hall & Lindsey, 1978, p. 53). In Elsa’s case, she replaces her fear that she might hurt Anna again with a way of creating a giant snowman to reduce her anxiety. Here, the smaller danger is her fear of hurting Anna again, and the giant snowman is the bigger danger. This giant snowman becomes the bigger danger that Elsa created. It is a violent and frightening creation that forcibly drives Anna away from her. However, she is not aware that this projection might hurt Anna.
anxiety is the cause of her sister's past accident that keeps lingering in her mind.
This anxiety prevents Elsa from accepting her powers as a gift anymore. For this reason, it affected her actions unconsciously. To deal with her anxiety, she used some defense mechanisms. They are denial, regression, acting out, fixation, projection, and repression. Through these defense mechanisms, she can reduce and overcome her anxiety.
Furthermore, throughout the story, Elsa is always trying to suppress her power; she always lives in denial by pretending that her powers never existed.
However, in dealing with her powers, Elsa does not realize that she has shown unintended actions towards others and herself. As to others, she is not aware that she has been distancing them through her act. As to herself, she denies everything about herself, even the feeling towards the one that she loves the most.
Furthermore, by using the defense mechanism of repression as an act to prevent her painful memories from becoming conscious has affected her behavior. It indeed succeeds in repressing the painful memories of her sister's past accident.
However, as Elsa's powers come from her uncontrollable emotion, she cannot hold it anymore as her sister plans to marry someone she just met. It causes Elsa's repressed feelings to come out to the surface in the form of her icy powers. It caused her to begin her journey to the North Mountain. This defense mechanism highlights the important part of overcoming her anxiety completely and brings her to achieve self-acceptance.
Maslow states that Self-acceptance occurs from the discovery and development of the self. (Bernard 2013). Furthermore, understanding the self
means reflecting on the previous actions or reactions, whether it is good or bad. In the process, a person needs to accept who he or she is by reflecting on the previous actions or reactions that are later used as a reference that leads to a better self (Oyediran, 2016).
Here, Elsa’s repressed feeling that comes out in the form of her powers highlights her changes towards self-acceptance. Through this, Elsa decided to let go of everything in the past as she chose to accept the reality of herself. As Rogers states, as someone accepts themselves, they can stay more open to their experiences, and the acceptance of the self provides the confidence to speak for what one is experiencing (Bernard, 2013, p. 9). In Elsa’s case, she is confident to show that she is independent in dealing with her powers.
ELSA. That perfect girl is gone. Here I stand in the light of day. Let the storm rage on. The cold never bother me anymore. (Lee, 2013, p.38).
May (1983) suggests that self-acceptance becomes possible by freeing oneself, from social dependence, and accepting himself or herself as they wish to be (2013, p. 6). As she sings, “the cold never bother me anyway,” she appears to have been freed from the anxiety that she felt. Furthermore, Elsa decides to let go of everything in the past and show that she may have powers and that she is different. Still, she is the one who can handle her powers, and she is the one who knows what to do with her powers, not anyone else, and begins to experiment with her powers and declares that there are no rules for her to conceal her powers anymore.
Let it go! let it go!
I am the one with the wind and sky.
Let it go! Let it go!
You’ll never see me cry.
Here I stand and here I’ll stay.
Let the storm rage on….
(Lee, 2013, p. 37).
I am never going back, The past is the past!
(Lee, 2013, p. 37).
Moreover, all of Elsa's defense mechanisms provide comfort to free her from anxiety. However, the act of not aware and uncontrolled behavior can be a frustrating way for Elsa too because the act of trying to conceal and suppressing could not prevent people from knowing about her powers. Elsa then chooses to find her confidence in accepting her powers as part of herself by reflecting on her negative impulses and attitudes and begins to show a good sign towards the perception of a new relationship. As someone who has already accepts her past as the reflection for a better self, she begins to show a good sign towards the perception of a new relationship. This good sign towards a new relationship is marked by Elsa and Anna's interaction when solving the eternal winter in Arendelle. It began when Anna sacrificed herself to save Elsa from Hans's sword instead of getting help to cure her frozen heart. Moreover, Anna's word of love later used by Elsa to solve the eternal winter in Arendelle.
ELSA. You sacrificed yourself for me ? ANNA. I love you.
(Lee, 2013, p. 107).
Through this, Elsa knows that ‘love’ is the key to fix this problem. Denik Riana,
“…love and affection are necessary as this is done to avoid dispute and disunion”
(2015, p.96). Here, Elsa shows that she is open to learning to accept her changes towards self-acceptance as she can express her feeling of curiosity to her sister
because, in the past, she shut her heart to suppress her emotion along with her powers. Through the result of Anna’s sacrifice, Elsa now finds the renewed view of reality from the understanding to accept her powers as a part of herself. As she can solve the eternal winter in Arendelle, Elsa uses her ability to create Olaf’s storm clouds as a renewed view of reality that her powers can also bring life to Olaf. Elsa now realizes that her powers do not bring destruction to what happened in the past, but she is not controlled with her powers yet. However, as she now knows how to control her powers, she can find a renewed reality that her powers are a beautiful gift that can bring life to others (Olaf).
ELSA. Oh, Olaf. Hang on, little guy.
OLAF. Hey, my own personal furry (Lee, 2013, pp. 107-108).
From the understanding to accept her powers as a part of herself and the acceptance of all the negative impulses and attitudes resulting from the prior negative experience. Finally, she can adjust herself to reality. Now, Elsa opens herself to show her powers to the people in Arendelle by creating an ice rink for them to skate together, she freezes the fountain in a beautiful design, adds some snow flurries to build up the atmosphere. Here, she shows that she has adjusted herself to reality and provides a satisfying way as she comes to accept the reality that her powers are part of her life and plans to never close the gates again as the result of self-acceptance.
ANNA. I like the open gates.
ELSA. We are never closing them again (Lee, 2013, p. 111).
54 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION
In this last chapter, the researcher reaches to the conclusion of the analysis of Elsa's defense mechanism and self-acceptance in Frozen. The researcher formulates three problems in this study. The first problem is the description of Elsa in Frozen. The second problem is the defense mechanisms of Elsa. The third problem is Elsa's self-acceptance. In the first problem, the theory of character and characterization is used to examine Elsa's description. In the second problem, the theory of defense mechanism is used to identify Elsa's defense mechanisms. In the third problem, the theory of self-acceptance is used in order to analyze Elsa's self-acceptance.
The first conclusion is about the description of Elsa. Elsa is described as an obedient princess to her parents, especially to her father. She never once violated her father's instruction. No matter how desperate Elsa wants to be together with her sister, she never violates her father saying. Furthermore, she also does not care if the isolation that she went through day by day makes her depressed. All she cares about is to follow her father's instruction that she needs to keep everyone safe from her powers, including staying away from her sister. She is also described as a protective character toward that she loved because she is aware of her powers' strength. That is why she chooses to leave the kingdom to protect the people, including her sister from herself. Furthermore, Elsa's action to shut her heart for others is because she does not want to hurt them. The fact that she cannot
suppress her powers, and knowing that her powers will only grow stronger, she willing to do anything to keep her sister away from herself. She is an independent character. Elsa's independent character is built when she leaves Arendelle. In her journey to the North Mountain, she comes to realize that her powers can only be control by her, for she is the one who can understand what she is going through all the time. Through her independence, she can find her confidence to create such a magnificent interior from the powers that all this time keeps hidden behind her gloves. Despite having a problem with her powers, she also perceptive in finding a solution to solve a problem. Moreover, through her perceptive attitude, she can understand to control her powers and be able to stop the eternal winter in Arendelle. Also, Elsa's descriptions are closely related to each other because they all serve a purpose to protect others from her uncontrolled powers.
In the second conclusion, to deal with her anxiety, that is the result of Anna’s past accident and the cause of her denial of her powers. In general, the defense mechanisms that she used are denial, regression, acting out, fixation, projection, and repression. The defense mechanism of denial used to reduce her anxiety by hiding her powers from others utilizing a song “let it go” is a mantra teaches by her father to help her contain and control her powers. The defense mechanism of acting out is used to keep her always in her comfort place to prevent her anxiety from rising. The defense mechanism of fixation occurs because she has to get used to the fact that she has to hide her powers from the outside world, especially her sister. This fixation shows that she has to live her day, worrying about what if others will find out about her powers. Furthermore,
this fixation also causes an obsessive attachment to something (Hall & Lindsey, 1978, p.53), Elsa is very dependent on wearing gloves. This glove has the purpose of helping her contain her powers, and if they are removed, she will be very anxious and insecure. The defense mechanism of projection is used to help her reduce her anxiety by replacing small danger from a bigger one. In Elsa’s case, she creates a giant snowman to prevent her sister not to get hurt by her. The defense mechanism of repression helps her to repress her painful memories.
Besides, all of these defense mechanisms unconsciously operate as she is not aware of the unintended actions that she has been showing to deal with her anxiety.
The third conclusion, Elsa’s self-acceptance, is marked by one of the defense mechanisms. It is repression; this defense mechanism of repression highlights the important part where Elsa discovers the understanding of herself. It is when Elsa fights with her sister over the fact that Anna wants to marry Hans.
This fight leads Elsa to unleash her powers towards the guest accidentally. For this reason, Elsa does not have a choice other than to accept reality. She Then leaves Arendelle and begins her journey to the North Mountain, where she learns to understand and accept herself by reflecting through the past mistakes. Through this acceptance of the negative impulses and attitudes of her. She begins to show a good sign towards the perception of a new relationship, which is the interaction with her sister more in a satisfying way. Then, she can find the renewed view of reality from the understanding to accept her powers as part of herself. The last, from understanding to take her powers as part of herself, she becomes more open
to adjusting herself to a reality that her powers can cause happiness in bringing all of the people together. Furthermore, it also opens an opportunity for Elsa to embrace her loved ones and finally found the answer to free her from anxiety and fix the problem in Arendelle. She can fix the eternal winter in Arendelle and plans new a satisfying way to never close the gates again as a result of self-acceptance.
58 REFERENCES
APSAA. (n.d.). Retrieved from American Psychoanalytic Association:
https://apsa.org
Arnheim, R. (1957). Film As Art. London, England: University of California Press, LTD.
Barsam, R., & Monahan, D. (2006). Looking at Movies. New York: Norton &
Company.
Berger, A. A. (2005). Media Analysis Techniques. California: Sage Publications, Inc.
Bernard, M. E. (2013). The Strenght of Self-Acceptance. Theory, Practice and Research. Australia: Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
Boggs, J., & Petrie, D. (2008). The Art of Watching Films. New York:
McGrawHill.
Frozen 2013. (n.d.). Retrieved from Box Office Mojo:
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt2294629/
Hall, C. S., & Lindzey, G. (1978). Theories of Personality. Canada: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc.
Kowalski, C., & Bhalla, R. (2015, October). Viewing the Disney Movie Frozen through A Psychodynamic Lens. Retrieved from Springer Link:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10912-015-9363-3
Krystal, A. (2014, March). What is Literature? Retrieved from Harper's Magazine:
https://harpers.org/archive/2014/03/what-is-litearature/
Lee, J. (2013, September 23). Disney Frozen. Retrieved 2020, from Raindance
Film Festival:
https://www.google.com/url/sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.ra indance.org/scripts/Frozen.pdf&ved=2ahPUKEwiP44Dm56HoAhX06nM bHb5zDvQQjaAegQIAhAb&usg=AOvvaw2E9F_9RPMYlRspIJdcD9RZ Mendelson, S. (2013, November 19). Review: 'Frozen' is Disney's Triumphant
Reaffirmation of Its Cultural Legacy. Retrieved 2020, from Forbes:
http://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/201 3/11/19/review-frozen-is-disneys-best-toon-in-years/amp/
O'Toole, M. M. (1947). A Study of Robert Louis Stevenson's Theory of Setting and of His Use of Setting in His Fiction. Master's Theses, 1.