An analysis of esther's psychopath problem in orphan film viewed from psychoanalysis theory by sigmund freud

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Submitted to the Faculty of Adab and Humanities As Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Strata 1 (S1) Degree

Nurul Hikmah Maulanie 106026001014

ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT ADAB AND HUMANITIES FACULTY

STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY “SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH” JAKARTA

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Humanities Faculty, English Letters Department, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University. Jakarta. 2011.

In this research, the writer analyzes the main character in Orphan film as the character that has psychopathic problem. Here, the writer studied Oprhan film as the unit of analysis. Psychopathic problem viewed from Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis concepts is used as the theoretical framework of the research.

The method of the research is descriptive qualitative, which tries to explain about the intrinsic and extrinsic element of the film; such as the dialogues and the scenes of the film, then followed by analyzing them through Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis as the extrinsic element of the film.

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ii A Thesis

Submitted to the Faculty of Adab and Humanities As Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Strata 1 (S1) Degree

By:

Nurul Hikmah Maulanie 106026001014

Approved By: Advisor

Inayatul Chusna, M. Hum NIP: 197801262003122001

ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES

SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY JAKARTA

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iii

Name : Nurul Hikmah Maulanie

Nim : 106026001014

Title : An Analysis of Esther’s Psychopath Problem in Orphan Film Viewed from Psychoanalysis Theory by Sigmund Freud

The thesis has been defended before the Letters and Humanities Faculty’ Examination

Committee on October 05, 2011. It has been accepted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of strata one.

Jakarta, October 05, 2011

The Examination Committee

Signature Date

1. Drs. Asep Saefuddin, M. Pd (Chair Person)

19640710 199303 1 006

2. Elve Oktafiyani, M. Hum (Secretary)

19781003 200112 2 002

3. Inayatul Chusna, M. Hum (Advisor)

19780126 200312 2 001

4. Elve Oktafiyani, M. Hum (Examiner I)

19781003 200112 2 002

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iv

another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text.

Jakarta, June , 2011

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v

Lord of the Universe, who has created human as the intelligent creation in this

world, so that they can be observer and thinker, and peace and blessings of Allah

be upon the noblest of the Prophets and Messengers, Muhammad, his family, and

those who follow him in the goodness till the day after.

In addition, it is a very great pleasure for the writer to express the gratitude

to the writer’s lovely family for her inspiration to finish the study in this

university, they are; her parents—Abdul Madjid HM and Nur’aini—thanks so

much to their support, love and pray, may Allah bless them. The writer also wants

to sincerely deliver her great gratitude to her brothers (Agusdi Nurmasnyah and

Arfan Hardiansyah) and my lovely aunt (Komariah) who has been supporting her

morally and financially for these recent semesters.

The writer needs to express a great gratitude to her advisor Inayatul

Chusna for her great help, patient, and contribution in finishing her thesis. The

writer thanks for her advises, May Allah bless and gives happiness for her and her

family.

The writer also wishes to offer his expression of gratitude to the following

persons:

1. Dr. Abd. Wahid Hasyim, M.Ag,, the Dean of Faculty of Adab and

Humanities, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University.

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the time she studies at this State Islamic University

5. All the writer’s beloved friends, especially Yum, Rara, Mey, Jelek

Bersaudara (Iea and Ririn), Iis, Ayu, Ikhel, Ani, Hani, Tika, Elin and for

her classmates in English Letters Department. The writer is so thankful for

their friendship and motivation they have given to her. They are like a big

family for the writer.

May Allah bless the writer and everyone who has great contribution in

helping his completes this thesis. Last but not least, the writer realizes that this is

not perfect, so the writer accepts any suggestion and criticism from this thesis.

Jakarta, June 2011

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APPROVAL SHEET ... ii

LEGALIZATION ... iii

DECLARATION ... iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ... v

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... vii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study ... 1

B. Focus of the Study ... 4

C. Research Question ... 4

D. The Significance of the Research ... 4

E. The Objective of the Research ... 4

F. Methodology of the Research ... 4

1. Method of the Research ... 4

2. Data Analysis ... 5

3. Instrument of the Research ... 5

4. The Unit of Analysis ... 5

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK A. Psychopath ... 6

B. Psychopathology ... 8

C. Psychoanalysis ... 8

1. Psychical Apparatus ... 9

a. The Id ... 9

b. The Ego ... 11

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c. Phallic Stage ... 16

d. Latency Stage ... 18

e. Genital Stage ... 19

CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDINGS A.Data Description ………...20

B.Character Analysis ... 23

C. Esther’s Psychopath in Psychoanalysis ... 31

CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION A. Conclusion ... 38

B. Suggestion ... 38

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 40

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

In this modern era, film has been growing to be an interesting industry for

the people who want to express their creative thought and skill. Most of cineaste

considers film as a media to share their ideas and opinions about some phenomena

in the real life; and see it as a promising business as well since most people like to

spend their spare time by watching film.

Psychoanalysis has a special relationship with cinema before appointed as

one of approaches method by a number of French psychoanalysis and art critics

considered the most appropriate in cinematographic world.1 Apart from perfect or

not a film discussion which is using psychoanalysis theory, the text that come

continually show that almost all of cinema elements, can be the object of

psychoanalysis discussion. For example: director, the characters of film, the

process of film making, the genre of the film, audiences and gender. In France,

ever since psychoanalysis was born along with the cinema in 1985, filmmakers

never stop talking about psychoanalysis; otherwise psychoanalysis experts also

never stop talking about cinema. Various analogy and reason disclosed: that the

creation of art, including cinema, takes place as the emergence of unconscious

desire, that cinema has the ability to display images that are oniris like a fantasy or

a dream, etc.2

1

Anggadewi Moesomo, Psikoanalisis dan Sastra. (Depok; PPKBLPUI, 2003), p. 59 2

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Film analysis generally uses the character as an object that can be seen as

human.3 In this case a text of the character that can be analyzed, that is to find an

implicit text into the unconsciousness of the character.

One of the movies that get people's attention, especially in the year 2009 is

the Orphan movie. The movie was released on July 24, 2009. This movie was

directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. The movie has horror genre and starring Isabelle

Fuhrman as the main character. Orphan is the movie tells about Kate Coleman

and her husband John, are experiencing strains in their marriage after Kate's third

child was stillborn. The loss is particularly hard on Kate, who is also recovering

from alcoholism. Kate Coleman, a mother who has two children named Daniel

and Max, is depressed and always has a nightmare after her third child was died.

To recover her depression, Kate and her husband—John decided to adopt a child.

Finally, they adopt Esther, a 9-year-old Russian girl, from the local orphanage.

While Kate and John's deaf daughter Max embraces Esther almost immediately,

their son Daniel is less welcoming.

Firstly, there is nothing weird and everything is in the line like a happy

family after adopted Esther. She can associate with her sister, Max, but his

brother, Daniel, doesn’t like her so much, not like his father who loves Esther. But

there is something wrong in Esther. She is very mature in her age and she doesn’t

like other 9 year old child who always like play in outside. She just likes to paint

all of time.

Gradually, Kate realizes that there is something awkward in Esther’s

behavior. Esther doesn’t same like their first met. In her first school, Esther

doesn’t get the good treatment from her classmate who mocks her old-fashioned

dress. Esther’s classmate is also tries to take Esther’s bible and attempt to strip off

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her ribbons. That things make Esther scream hysterically and push her classmate

Esther kills the nun with a hammer.

As Daniel learns about the death of Sister Abigail from Max, Esther

overhears him detail a plan to retrieve the hammer to prove Esther's guilt. While

Daniel searches the tree house, Esther appears with the hammer and drops it in

front of him. Sprays lighter fluid on it and the floor, she sets the tree house ablaze.

Daniel falls to the ground trying to escape the fire, and is knocked unconscious.

Esther tries to kill him with a rock, but Max stops her. Kate, realizing what

happened, attacks Esther but orderlies help John restrain her. As John takes Esther

and Max home, doctors sedate Kate.

That night, Esther tries to seduce a drunken John, who finally realizes Kate

might have been right about her. He threatens to send her back to the orphanage

and she runs crying to her room. Meanwhile, as Kate is coming out of sedation,

she receives a call on her cell phone from a doctor at the Saarne Institute, who

reveals that Esther is actually a 33-year-old woman named Leena Klammer. She

has hypopituitarism, a condition that stunted her physical growth, and has spent

most of her life posing as a little girl. The doctor tells Kate that Leena is extremely

dangerous and has killed a number of people in the past; including an adoptive

family whose father refused her romantic advances.

From the explanation above, the writer would like to analyze the character

problem of main character named Esther in Orphan movie with all her problems

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B. Focus of the Study

To make the research more focused, so the writer limits the scope of the

research in the psychological problem of the main character in Orphan movie by

using the theory of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis.

C. Research Question

Here are the questions of the research:

1. How is Esther’s characteristics described in the film?

2. How is Esther’s psychopath problem seen from Freud’s psychoanalysis

theory?

D. The Significance of the Research

The writer hopes that this research can help reader in understanding Freud’s psychoanalysis and how to apply it to understand someone’s attitude. The writer

also hopes that it will help the reader to understand the messages of the film.

E. The Objective of the Research The objectives of the research are:

1. To know how Esther’s characteristic showed in this film

2. To analyze Esther’s psychopath problem through Freud’s

Psychoanalysis theory

F. Methodology of the Research 1. Method of the Research

Looking at the questions and the purposes of the research, then the writer

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which is one of the method that is used in research, is a research using

verbal data and other non-numeric data as the basic analysis and in solving

the problems those are studied.4

2. Data Analysis

In this research, the writer uses descriptive analysis technique. Writer

collects some data from available resources such as books and websites

those related to this research. The writer analyzes the main character’s

problem in Orphan by using Freud’s psychoanalysis theory.

3. Instrument of the Research

This qualitative research sets the writer as the main instrument in

collecting data by watching Orphan carefully so that she can understand

the scenes or the parts describe the problems of the main character. And

the writer also collects some related data by writing down some dialogues

in this film and making some snap-shots of the scenes support the

research.

4. The Unit of Analysis

The unit of analysis in this research is the film Orphan which is directed

by Jaume Collet-Serra which released in 2009.

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CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Psychopath

Psychopaths literally means mentally ill. The sufferer is also often referred

to as a sociopath because of antisocial behavior and harms the people closest.

Psychopath is a symptom that indicates that someone is having an imbalance or a

failure in harmonizing impulses constructive and destructive in itself, is usually

triggered by the pressures of life or experiencing emotional trauma that caused the

conflict who have not found a way out. But psychopath is not same with

schizophrenia, a real psychopath is normal, meaning that he/she was totally aware

about all that done just that psychopaths do tend to impulsive and anti-social.

People with psychopathic label are often referred to as "crazy people without

mental disorders".

One of the main characters of psychopath is the poverty of emotions, both

positive and negative. Psychopathic people have no shame, even those positive

feelings toward others is merely a pretense mixture. Psychopath appearances are

charming and manipulating people for personal gain. Low levels of anxiety which

makes psychopaths sodium absorption ratio might learn from his mistakes, and

lack of positive emotions encourage them to behave irresponsibly and often cruel

to others.

Psychopaths have traits, such as:

1. Often lie. Psychopaths are often clever jokes and smart talk, typically

trying to look as closely as possible with the knowledge he had. Often

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not care and will cover it with the others making up lies and then process

it as if it were a fact.

2. Egocentric and considers himself the most powerful

3. Do not have a sense of regret and guilt. Although sometimes

psychopathic confession, but he is much underestimated even denied due

to his actions and did not have a strong desire to care for a moment.

4. Glad to do of violations and had a track record of problem behavior in

the past.

5. Anti-social attitudes.

6. Lack of empathy. For psychopaths, cut the chicken and cut off the head

of a human head made no difference

7. Psychopaths are also steadfast in the aggressive action, challenging the

balls that are not rational; it's good to sleep late without clear reasons and

often out of the house.

8. Impulsive and hard to control their selves. Especially for the psychopath,

the time is too narrow to weigh the merits of an action they would do

and they do not try to care about what he had done much less to think

about the future. People with too easily triggered anger in the things of

trivial, easily ignited to disappointment, failure, criticism, and easy to

attack others just because of small things.

9. Manipulative and underhanded. Psychopaths are also often shows

dramatic emotions even though they are not serious. They also do not

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sweating, palpitations, dry mouth, tense and trembling. For psychopaths

this does not apply. Thus, psychopaths often referred to as "cold man

with no reaction".

10.Psychopaths are also happy to perform self-injury to hurt him/herself if

his desire is not achieved.

B. Psychopathology

Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, mental distress, and

abnormal/maladaptive behavior. The term is most commonly used within

psychiatry where pathology refers to disease processes. Abnormal psychology is a

similar term used more frequently in the non-medical field of psychology.

Psychopathology should not be confused with psychopathic, a theoretical subtype

of antisocial personality disorder.5

Freud views psychopathology as a problem in the development, namely the

disruption of individual personality as through psychosexual stages. For Freud,

personality development as something that is cumulative, so that disturbances in

early development would be traumatic events that affects up to adult individuals.

C. Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud, the father of Psychoanalysis, said that human psyche has a

central role in human’s life. He also describe that human’s personality is like an

iceberg which its peak that we can see above the ocean—represented as human

conscious mind-is too small if we compare it with the part that is invisible under

the ocean-represented as human unconscious mind.

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1. Psychical Apparatus

When we discussed about human’s personalities, he said that human is

basically a biologic creature. So that human performs as his biological

instinct; to get pleasures and avoid displeasure which is known as pleasure

principle in psychoanalysis discussion. Freud also said that human has three

kinds of physical apparatus. Each of the psychical apparatus has their own

functions and principles, but they cannot be separated so that they can make

a totality in human’s behavior. They are id, ego, and super ego. And every

human’s deed is the interaction result among them.6

In the individual who

has a healthy soul, these three systems is the composition of a unified and

harmonious. By working together on a regular basis, the three systems that

allow an individual to move efficiently and satisfactorily in its environment.7

Freud’s psychoanalysis theory can function as follows:

- As a method of investigation of the mind

- As a systematized set of theories about human behavior, and

- As a method of treatment of psychological or emotional illness8

a. Id

The id is the original system of the personality; it is the matrix

within which the ego and the super ego become differentiated. The id

consists of everything psychological that is inherited and that is present

at birth, including the instinct. The instinct provides the psychic energy

6

E. Kuswara, Teori-teori Kepribadian. (Bandung: PT. Eresco. 1999), p. 32 7

Calvin S. Hall, Sigmund Freud: Suatu Pengantar Ke Dalam Ilmu Jiwa. (Ohio, Cleveland: The World Publishing Compnany. 1954), p. 28

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that powers the entire personality. Thus the id-that is, all the instinct

together – is the energy source for the ego and superego.9

Freud distinguishes between two broad types of instinct in the id.

The first type is Eros, the constructive life instinct responsible for

survival, self-propagation, and creativity. In Eros are included the need

for food, warmth and sex. Freud used the term sex broadly to cover a

wide range of life-giving and life-sustaining activities from genital

intercourse to artistic creation. The energy of Eros is generated by

what Freud called libido.

The second type of instinct is Thanatos, or the death instinct, is

opposed to Eros. This instinctive attraction to death gives rise in each

individual to aggressive tendencies directed at the self. However, since

self-destruction is opposed by the life-preserving energy of libido,

aggression against the self usually is redirected outward against the

world, motivating human being to compete, to conquer, and to kill.

Aggression can take many forms: angry attacks, verbal insults, and

even self-punishment. However punishment comes about, some

children and some adults develop strong tendencies to injure

themselves or others. The extreme forms have been given name sadism

for the extreme motives to pain others. And machonism is the extreme

motive to inflict pain upon oneself.

Id has two process steps in getting to its goal. The first process is

called as a reflection act, it is kind of act that is done by individual

immediately when the id receives stimuli form to external world. And

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the next step is called as a primary process which involves complicated

psychological reactions. In this process, id tries to decrease the tension

which is caused by the external world by imagining the object that can

help the id decrease the tension it faces. In fact, that action is not

enough because the tension still exist. So, id needs another psychical

apparatus that can help it as intermediary with the real external world,

which is called ego.

b. The Ego

Ego has central role in making interaction between individual

internal world and external world; it performs its function based on

reality principle.

Ego is ―I‖ which grew out of id in infancy and changed from the

source of an individual to communicate with the world outside.10

Because the ego grows out of id, ego becomes part of organized and

appears to goal the purposes of id, not to disappoint id, and all power

comes from the id. Its main role is to mediate the needs instingual of

the organism and the surrounding neighborhoods. The purpose which

is very important is preserving the lives of individuals and noticed that

the species bred. The main difference between the id and ego are; id

only knows subjective reality-the soul, while the ego distinguishes

between things that are contained in the mind and the things contained

in the outside world. 10

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The ego is said to follow the principles of reality and operate

according to secondary process. Secondary process is the process

which the ego making plans to satisfy the needs and then test these

plans. Usually through an act to see if this plan success or not. While

the goal of preventing the occurrence of the real voltage is to find an

object that is suitable for satisfying needs.

c. The Super Ego

Super ego grows out of ego and it does not have energy from itself.

However, the super ego is different with the ego-in-one important

thing, namely super-ego does not relate to the outside world and thus

the demand for perfection is realistic. The functions of super ego are:

1. To inhibit the impulses of the id, particularly those of a sexual or

aggressive nature, since these are the impulses whose expression is

most highly condemned by society

2. To persuade the ego to substitute moralistic goals for realistic ones,

and

3. To strive for perfection.11

2. Psychosexual Development

According to Freud, our sex causes us to seek pleasure in different parts

of our body during the various stages of psychosexual development. Freud

called this sex drive our psychosexual energy or libido, which we use to

experience pleasure in our erogenous zones (are of the body associated with

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sexual pleasure) during the five different stages of psychosexual

developments.

The main erogenous zones are the mouth, anus and genitals. Below are

the five stages of psychosexual development:

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a) Oral stage

The oral stage: An infant feeding at his mother’s breast.

The first stage of psychosexual development is the oral stage, spanning

from birth until the age of two years, wherein the infant’s mouth is the

focus of libidinal gratification derived from the pleasure of feeding at the

mother’s breast, and from the oral exploration of his or her environment,

i.e. the tendency to place objects in the mouth. The id dominates, because

neither the ego nor the super ego is yet fully developed, and, since the

infant has no personality (identity), every action is based upon the pleasure

principle. Nonetheless, the infantile ego is forming during the oral stage;

two factors contribute to its formation: (i) in developing a body image, he

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or she is discrete from the external world, e.g. the child understands pain

when it is applied to his or her body, thus identifying the physical

boundaries between body and environment; (ii) experiencing delayed

gratification leads to understanding that specific behaviors satisfy some

needs, e.g. crying gratifies certain needs.

Weaning is the key experience in the infant’s oral stage of

psychosexual development, his or her first feeling of loss consequent to

losing the physical intimacy of feeding at mother’s breast. Yet, weaning

increases the infant’s self-awareness that he or she does not control the

environment, and thus learns of delayed gratification, which leads to the

formation of the capacities for independence (awareness of the limits of

the self) and trust (behaviors leading to gratification). Yet, thwarting of the

oral-stage — too much or too little gratification of desire — might lead to

an oral-stage fixation, characterized by passivity, gullibility, immaturity,

unrealistic optimism, which is manifested in a manipulative personality

consequent to ego malformation. In the case of too much gratification, the

child does not learn that he or she does not control the environment, and

that gratification is not always immediate, thereby forming an immature

personality. In the case of too little gratification, the infant might become

passive upon learning that gratification is not forthcoming, despite having

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b) Anal stage

The second stage of psychosexual development is the anal stage, spanning

from the age of fifteen months to three years, wherein the infant’s

erogenous zone changes from the mouth (the upper digestive tract) to the

anus (the lower digestive tract), while the ego formation continues. Toilet

training is the child’s key anal-stage experience, occurring at about the age

of two years, and results in conflict between the Id (demanding immediate

gratification) and the Ego (demanding delayed gratification) in eliminating

bodily wastes, and handling related activities (e.g. manipulating feces,

coping with parental demands). The style of parenting influences the

resolution of the Id–Ego conflict, which can be both gradual and

psychologically uneventful, or which can be sudden and psychologically

traumatic. The ideal resolution of the Id–Ego conflict is in the child’s

adjusting to moderate parental demands that teach the value and

importance of physical cleanliness and environmental order, thus

producing a self-controlled adult. Yet, if the parents make immoderate

demands of the child, by over-emphasizing toilet training, it might lead to

the development of a compulsive personality, a person too concerned with

neatness and order. If the child obeys the Id, and the parents yield, he or

she might develop a self-indulgent personality characterized by personal

slovenliness and environmental disorder. If the parents respond to that, the

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the parents’ will, and not the child’s ego, which controlled the toilet

training. c) Phallic stage

The third stage of psychosexual development is the phallic stage, spanning

the ages of three to six years, wherein the child’s genitalia are his or her

primary erogenous zone. It is in this third infantile development stage that

children become aware of their bodies, the bodies of other children, and

the bodies of their parents; they gratify physical curiosity by undressing

and exploring each other and their genitals, and so learn the physical

(sexual) differences between ―male‖ and ―female‖ and the gender

differences between ―boy‖ and ―girl‖. In the phallic stage, a boy’s decisive

psychosexual experience is the Oedipus complex, his son–father

competition for possession of mother. This psychological complex derives

from the 5th-century BC Greek mythological character Oedipus, who

unwittingly killed his father, Laius, and sexually possessed his mother,

Jocasta. Analogously, in the phallic stage, a girl’s decisive psychosexual

experience is the Electra complex, her daughter–mother competition for

psychosexual possession of father. This psychological complex derives

from the 5th-century BC Greek mythological Electra, who plotted

matricidal revenge with Orestes, her brother, against Clytemnestra, their

mother, and Aegisthus, their stepfather, for their murder of Agamemnon,

their father, (cf. Electra, by Sophocles).

Initially, Freud equally applied the Oedipus complex to the psychosexual

development of boys and girls, but later developed the female aspects of

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complex; yet, it was his student–collaborator, Carl Jung, who coined the

term Electra complex in 1913. Nonetheless, Freud rejected Jung’s term as

psychoanalytically inaccurate: ―that what we have said about the Oedipus

complex applies with complete strictness to the male child only, and that

we are right in rejecting the term ‗Electra complex’, which seeks to emphasize the analogy between the attitude of the two sexes‖.

Oedipus — Despite mother being the parent who primarily gratifies the

child’s desires, the child begins forming a discrete sexual identity — ―boy‖, ―girl‖ — that alters the dynamics of the parent and child

relationship; the parents become the focus of infantile libidinal energy.

The boy focuses his libido (sexual desire) upon his mother, and focuses

jealousy and emotional rivalry against his father — because it is he who

sleeps with mother. To facilitate uniting him with his mother, the boy’s id

wants to kill father (as did Oedipus), but the ego, pragmatically based

upon the reality principle, knows that the father is the stronger of the two

males competing to possess the one female. Nevertheless, the boy remains

ambivalent about his father’s place in the family, which is manifested as

fear of castration by the physically greater father; the fear is an irrational,

subconscious manifestation of the infantile Id.

Electra — whereas boys develop castration anxiety, girls develop penis envy that is rooted in anatomic fact: without a penis, she cannot sexually

possess mother, as the infantile id demands. Resultantly, the girl redirects

her desire for sexual union upon father; thus, she progresses towards

heterosexual femininity that culminates in bearing a child who replaces the

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development includes transferring her primary erogenous zone from the

infantile clitoris to the adult vagina. Freud thus considered a girl’s Oedipal

conflict to be more emotionally intense than that of a boy, resulting,

potentially, in a submissive woman of insecure personality.

Denouement — Unresolved psychosexual competition for the opposite-sex parent might produce a phallic-stage fixation leading a girl to become

a woman who continually strives to dominate men (viz. penis envy), either

as an unusually seductive woman (high self-esteem) or as an unusually

submissive woman (low self-esteem). In a boy, a phallic-stage fixation

might lead him to become an aggressive, over-ambitious, vain man.

Therefore, the satisfactory parental handling and resolution of the Oedipus

complex and of the Electra complex are most important in developing the

infantile super-ego, because, by identifying with a parent, the child

internalizes morality, thereby, choosing to comply with societal rules,

rather than having to reflexively comply in fear of punishment.

d) Latency stage

The fourth stage of psychosexual development is the latency stage that

spans from the age of six years until puberty, wherein the child

consolidates the character habits he or she developed in the three, earlier

stages of psychological and sexual development. Whether or not the child

has successfully resolved the Oedipal conflict, the instinctual drives of the

id are inaccessible to the Ego, because his or her defense mechanisms

repressed them during the phallic stage. Hence, because said drives are

latent (hidden) and gratification is delayed — unlike during the preceding

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gratification from secondary process-thinking that directs the libidinal

drives towards external activities, such as schooling, friendships, hobbies,

et cetera. Any neuroses established during the fourth, latent stage, of

psychosexual development might derive from the inadequate resolution

either of the Oedipus conflict or of the Ego’s failure to direct his or her

energies towards socially acceptable activities.

e) Genital stage

The fifth stage of psychosexual development is the genital stage that spans

puberty and adult life, and thus occupies most of the life of a man and of a

woman; its purpose is the psychological detachment and independence

from the parents. The genital stage affords the person the ability to

confront and resolve his or her remaining psychosexual childhood

conflicts. As in the phallic stage, the genital stage is centered upon the

genitalia, but the sexuality is consensual and adult, rather than solitary and

infantile. The psychological difference between the phallic and genital

stages is that the ego is established in the latter; the person’s concern shifts

from primary-drive gratification (instinct) to applying secondary

process-thinking to gratify desire symbolically and intellectually by means of

friendships, a love relationship, family and adult responsibilities.13

13

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDING

In this chapter, the writer discusses the character of Esther/Leena Klamer

as the major character in film Orphan. Then the writer analyzes Esther’s

characteristic in Esther – who stuck in her little body-- viewed from Freud’s

Psychoanalysis Theory.

A. Data Description

Here are the lists of Esther’s characteristics in Orphan film.

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Specifically with you, Kate. It seems

she feels there’s

been some real

tension between the

two of you.”

In this chapter, the writer applies Sigmund Freund’s psychoanalysis theory

to analyze the scenes and the dialogues those describe the main character’s

problem. And before analyzing the main character’s problem with Sigmund

Freud’s psychoanalysis, she would like to discuss how the main character

described in the film.

B. Character Analysis

The main character in this film is named Esther. She is a 9 years-old orphan

who lives in the orphanage. Her life as an orphan is ended when Kate and John

Coleman decide to adopt her.

As 9 years-old child, Esther has so many positive characteristics that make

people likes her. She is sociable, intelligent, friendly and talented. Those all

positive characters is proven when she met Coleman couple for the first time. The

scene when John met her while she was painting shows to the watcher all those

positive characters above.

It can be seen when she meets with Coleman couple for the first time. She

talks with John and Kate easily while she was painting –that proves that she has a

talent of it--. That makes Coleman likes her and decided to adopt her as their

second child. Her sociable also prove when she goes to the Coleman’s house for

the first time. When she knew that she has an almost deaf sister named Max, she

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Daniel, her step-brother. Esther’s positive characters above makes him doesn’t

like her.

Among so many positive character that she had, she also has a negative

character that she keeps secretly until nobody knows and realizes about it except

her step-mother, Kate. In the middle of film, the viewer can see some oddities in

her that didn’t show in the beginning of film. Unbeknownst her adopted family,

Esther has a secret. And the negative character that appear in the middle of film

shows to the viewer who Esther is and what’s wrong with her.

Here are some her negative character that she has:

a. Impulsive and Difficult to Control her self

In the beginning there is no oddity in Esther’ character because as 9

years old girl she has so many positive character. Her negative character is

start to show when she goes to her school for the first time. In the school,

she gets bully from her classmate, Brenda. First, when Esther introduces

herself Brenda mocks her about Esther’s dress that almost similar with the

character of a girl in Little Bo Peep14. Esther doesn’t do anything, she just

keep staring at Brenda. That’s not end there, because the next day, Brenda

bothers Esther with tries to take Esther’s bible and doesn’t want to give

that back until the bible fall. Esther tries to reconvene her bible when

Brenda sees her ribbon on her neck and tries to take the ribbon off.

Surprisingly, Esther screaming until makes the students look at her

strangely. Then, as her revenge, Esther pushes Brenda until she fell. That

act shows us that she is impulsive and difficult to control herself.

14_{‗Little Bo Peep’}

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Picture 1 b. Liar

After pushes Brenda until fell, Esther doesn’t honest with her family

when John asked about that accident.

Picture 2

John : “Brenda’s father says that you pushed her”

Esther : “That’s not true, we were just playing. I swear”

Kate : (To Max) Okay, and did you see what happened?”

Max : (with sign language) she slipped.

Besides lying about Brenda, Esther lies about piano. When she comes

to Coleman family for the first time, Esther is surprises when she finds that

Kate has a piano. Kate offers her to learn piano and she receives

immediately without saying that she can play piano. Kate, who doesn’t

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can play piano without any mistakes. Kate reproves her and said that

Esther lies to her and Esther just dodging with says that she’s not lie and

also says a fact that surprisingly Kate. Even though Esther’s lie has a good purpose to please her stepmother, but Esther doesn’t regret because she doesn’t say truthfully about that. Even she doesn’t apologize to Kate.

c. Lack of Remorse and Guilty Feeling

When Esther pretends to give a surprise to Kate with gives her a

flower, which Kate planted for her death child, Jessica. Esther knows that

that flower is very meaning for Kate. She deliberately picks that flower

and gives it to Kate for surprise. Finally, Kate gets angry and when she

tries to pick that flower from Esther, Esther doesn’t give it and make Kate

pulls her arm.

Picture 3

That situation was exploited by Esther to get John’s attention and

makes him stand on her side. Esther does self-injury with broke her arm

and make John blames Kate because of that. Here we can see that Esther

doesn’t have any feeling of remorse and guilty after cut Kate’s lovely

flower.

d. Lack of Empathy

The next oddity in Esther is shows when she sees Daniel shot the bird

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just shots it with paint ball. But Esther thinks that Bird is agony. So, she

orders Daniel to kill that bird with the rock. Daniel doesn’t want to do it,

because he doesn’t want to hurt that bird anymore. Besides, he thought

that bird doesn’t agony. Then Esther kills that bird with the rock without

checks if that bird is still alive or not.

Picture 4

Esther : “Did you kill it?”

Danny :”It’s just a paint ball, I didn’t think it would hurt him.”

Esther : (takes a rock and gives that to Danny) “Put it out a

misery. It’s in pain, and it’s your responsibility.”

Danny : “It was just an accident.”

Esther : “If you walk away now, it’ll starve to death. Is that what

you want?”

Danny : “I’m not doing it”

(And Esther kills that bird by herself) (00:29:50)

e. Manipulative

In Orphan, it shows when Esther asks about Jessica to Kate. Kate tells

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flower to remind her of Jessica. That story makes Esther cries and says

that Kate is a great mommy. That thing makes the writer think that she is a

sensitive than a manipulative.

Picture 5

Then, after Esther killed Sister Abigail, she said to Max who afraid of

her to not to worry because Max is Esther’s little Sister and she’s not let

anything happen to Max. Esther also said that she loves Max while we will

know that she tries to harm Max with release the hand-brake of their car.

Esther : “Don’t worry, you are my little Sister. I won’t let

anything happen to you. I love you.”

After Sister Abigail’s visit, Kate and John decide to bring Esther to

their psychiatry, Dr. Bowning. But unfortunately, Esther can manipulate

the condition and Dr. Bowning’s opinion about her and discredit Kate as a

mother.

Dr. Bowning : “My initial instinct is that there’s not a deeply

rooted problem in Esther’s past.”

Kate : “So, there’s nothing wrong with her?”

Dr. Bowning : “No, it’s not all good news. I think what needs to

be examined in Esther’s relationship with those

around her. Specifically with you, Kate. It seems she feels there’s been some real tension between the two of you.”

Beside manipulates her face expression, she also manipulates her

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past life to her family even to her nurse in the orphanage. It shows when

Sister Abigail gives the Coleman the information about Esther and that

information is very contrast with the fact.

Sister Abigail : “She’s originally from Russia, but it’s amazing how

strong her English is. She’s only been in the country

constructive, as in healthy self-assertiveness, or inappropriate and

destructive. Aggression may be directed outward, against others, or

inward, against the self, leading to self-destructive or suicidal actions. It

may be driven by emotional arousal, often some form of frustration, or it

may be instrumental, when it is used to secure a reward.15 Sigmund Freud

postulated (1920) that all humans possessed an aggressive drive from

birth, which, together with the sexual drive, contributed to personality

development, and found expression in behavior.

In Orphan, Esther shows some aggressive action, such as when she

threatens Daniel with knife when she knows that he looks she steps down

from tree house. Esther thinks that Daniel sees her killed Sister Abigail.

She also tries to harm Max with release the hand-brake of their car. Even

though that’s not the direct act like she threatens Daniel, it is also the

aggressive act.

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Picture 6

After analyze Esther’s negative character, the writer can conclude that

Esther is a psychopath. Even though it doesn’t show in the beginning in

film, but when she pulls her classmate and kills her sister, that show that

Esther has a problem with her psyche. She has a mental disorder called

psychopath. The writer can conclude that she is a psychopath after analyze

her character. Esther’s characters above such as liar, lack of remorse and

guilty feeling and empathy, manipulative, impulsive and aggressive is the

individual’s character that has a psychiatric problem named psychopath. It

also shows when Esther kills the bird easily. For psychopath, cut the

chicken's head and cut off the human head is no different. Esther also can

manipulate her information about herself and she can manipulate her face

because psychopath also often shows dramatic emotions even though they

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normally associated with fear, such as hand sweating, palpitations, dry

mouth, tense and trembling. For psychopaths this does not apply.

Therefore, the psychopath is often referred to as "cold man with no

reaction". Besides liar and manipulate, a real psychopath also impulsive

and control their emotion. For psychopath, the time is too narrow to weigh

the merits of the action they would do and they do not try to care about

what is done much less to think about the future. Sufferers also easily

triggered anger in the trivial thing, easily ignited to disappointment,

failure, criticism, and easy to attack others just because of small things.

Then, after analyze the characteristic of main character, the writer would

like to analyze the causes of Esther’s psychopath problem with uses the

psychoanalysis theory by Sigmund Freud.

C. Esther’s Psychopath in Psychoanalysis

In psychoanalysis, psychopath is considered as a developmental problem,

disruption of individual personality when they pass the psychosexual stages. For

Freud, personality development is considered as something that is cumulative, so

that disturbances in the early days will be an advanced development of traumatic

events which take effect until the individual is adult. As Freud says, the

psychosexual stages are divided into 5, they are:

1. Oral Stage,

2. Anal Stage,

3. Phallic Stage,

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5. Genital Stage.

According from Freud, the merits of one’s psychosexual development will

have an effect on his personality when he has grown.

According from the explanation above, the writer can conclude that

psychosexual in Esther didn’t grow well-enough –even though doesn’t show in

the film--. It can be seen with Esther’s personality when she is 33-years-old.

As it is already explained, Freud believes that the first five years of life is

very important for individual development. Throughout these years, there is the

possibility of a number of failures occurred in the development of instinct. Failure

in development is called fixation. If individuals get very little gratification over

the period of development so that they will be afraid to move to the next stage, or

when they receive so much gratification that it has no motivation to go forward,

fixation will occur. In case of fixation, then the individual will try to get the same

type of satisfaction, which is suitable for early stages of development throughout

the next stage. For example, an individual who was on stage oral fixation will

probably continue to seek oral gratification in eating, smoking or drinking.

Phenomena of the development which associated with the fixation are regression.

In regression, individual return to suspend mode prior satisfaction at the point of

initial fixation. Regression often occurs in stress conditions. Therefore, many

people are eating, smoking or excessive drinking only during periods of

frustration and anxiety.16

16

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In Esther’s case, Esther who always tries to find her step-father’s attention

and removes her step-mother, show us that Esther’s psychosexual development

didn’t perfect. Esther’s psychosexual development has fixation in phallic stage,

when the child is more love their parents of different sexes. So, when Esther

cannot pass the phallic stage successfully, she also cannot through the latency and

Genital stage..

In phallic stage, there is an erotic feeling in child to their parents who has

different sexes. The curiosity of something that related with sex is appears in

child’s behavior, e.g. open their mother’s skirt, touch their mother’s breast or their

parent’s genital. If the individual have fixation in the phallic stage, can cause the

emotional disturbances in the future because the super-ego is form in the last

period of phallic stage. If the individual has failed in this phallic stage, that

individual is certainly will become someone who amoral, inhuman, and doesn’t

have any guilty feeling after did the bad thing.

Even so with Esther, the failure of her psychosexual development causes her

doesn’t use her super-ego when do something. When she murders, the super-ego

which has a job to remind someone of the merits of her action doesn’t work.

Esther becomes someone who doesn’t have conscience. Esther’s id is more

powerful than her Ego and super ego. Esther who tries to get her step-father’

attention and seduce him is the effect of her imperfect phallic stage where this

stage is the time of the child to has a sexual cathexis of their parent who has

different sex and hostility cathexis to their parent who has same sex.17 When this

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stage is takes place, the boy wants to own her mother and the daughter wants to

own her father. As we know, in the last period of phallic stage, the Super Ego is

begun to form. That Super Ego will help the individual to pass this stage perfectly.

The Super Ego will help the individual to know and understand the moral values

(e.g. guilty feeling, the merits of the action etc.) The individual will learn how to

express the aggressive impulse constructively such as healthy competition. If the

Super Ego is too strong, the individual will punish their selves excessively, but if

the Super-Ego is too weak, loose and allow everything, then that individual is lack

of guilty feeling and apply at their will.

For more details, let’s see the table below:

Esther’s Psychosexual Development

Super-ego is not formed and causes her become immoral and lack of guilty feeling after killing someone.

Effect Anal Stage

Success

Latency Stage Fail Phallic Stage

Fail

Genital Stage Fail Oral Stage

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Since Esther cannot pass phallic stage perfectly, she also cannot pass the

latency stage and genital stage. Her imperfect in latency and genital stage can be

seen from her incapability in socializing and unable to maintain a long

relationship with someone. The identity confusion of her is also the prove of her

imperfect genital stage. According to Freud, The individual who has failed in

Rigid, fight for control and power, having fun,

possessive, notice things that should or should not,

afraid of losing control, and always think if she/he

has to submit or rebel.

Phallic

Man: competitive, fight for the success, and emphasis to be masculine or tough

Woman: naive, seductive, and flirtatious

In women case, phallic character is known with hysterical personality. As a

defense against oedipal desires, the little girl identified herself to her mother and

her feminine. She used her seduce and deceive behavior to maintain the father’s

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interest but refuses his sexual intentions. Then, this behavior pattern will be

brought to adulthood, where she may attracts the men with her seductive behavior

but refuses the sexual maintain.

Hysterical woman who idealize life, her partner and romantic love often feel

surprised when experiencing a bad moment of life.19

Picture 7

The characteristic above is very similar with Esther. The imperfect of her

phallic stage made her characteristic become someone who always tries to seduce

a man with her seductive behavior. Her dissatisfaction which she doesn’t have in

phallic stage, made her someone naïve, who always hide her true feeling into the

lie even her identity. Then, her seductive can be seen with her behavior that

always attract her father attention and finally seduce him while her

step-father has drunken.

From the explanation above, the writer can conclude that the imperfect of

Esther’s psychosexual development become the main cause of Esther’s

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psychopath. Esther become someone psychopath because she has a fixation when

she was in the phallic stage where in this stage is very important for the individual

to build their super-ego. As the writer say above that the super-ego has a main role

in human life to help the individual to know and understand the moral values.

With the super-ego, the individual will learn to know the merits of something that

they do. If the super ego is too strong, the individual will punish their selves

excessively, but if the super-ego is too weak, loose and allow everything, then that

individual s lack of guilty feeling and apply at their will.

In Esther’s case, the Super ego in Esther is too weak because she cannot

uses her super ego when she does something wrong. her weak super ego and her

immoral character in this film prove to the writer that she has a fixation in phallic

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CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

In this thesis the writer analyzes the main character of Orphan film named

Esther to understand Esther’s characteristic described in the film. The writer uses

psychoanalysis theory by Sigmund Freud to know and deepen the causes of

Esther’s characteristic problem.

As the result, after analyzing the film the writer gets the conclusion that

Esther’s characteristic problem --as the main character in Orphan-- is the effect of

the imperfect of her psychosexual development which stops in phallic stage. The

impacts of Esther’s imperfect psychosexual development can be seen when she

always tries to get her step-father’s attention and remove the rest of his family as

her rival in possessing her father. Another impact of the fixation of phallic stage,

makes Esther’s someone psychopath whose super-ego doesn’t work well when

she does the bad thing such as killing. Esther becomes the girl that has negative

characters such as: immoral, inhuman, liar, lack of empathy, manipulative,

aggressive, impulsive and hard to control her and etc.

B. Suggestion

In analyzing film, the researcher should use the appropriate theory or

approach in order to have maximal comprehension of the film itself. In this thesis,

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psychosexual development problem of main character in Orphan film. However,

it is possible for the other researchers who want to analyze this film by using

another approach or theory in analyzing it such as the psychoanalysis theory by

Erik Erikson, and they can focus on the some issues or aspects in the film that the

writer doesn’t analyze yet to get broader comprehension of the film such as the

issue of the parent’s role to help their children to pass their psychosexual

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Farkhan, Muhammad. Proposal Penelitian Bahasa dan Sastra. Jakarta: Cella. 2007.

Hall, S Calvin. Sigmund Freud: Suatu Pengantar Ke Dalam Ilmu Jiwa. Ohio, Cleveland: The World Publishing Company. 1954.

Kuswara, E. Teori-teori Kepribadian. Bandung: PT. Eresco. 1999.

Moesomo, Anggadew. Psikoanalisis dan Sastra. Depok: PPKBLPUI. 2003.

Moore BE, Fine BD. A Glossary of Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts. London: Amer Psychoanalytic Assn. 1968.

Pervin A. Lawrence, Cervon, Daniel and John P. Oliver. Psikologi kepribadian

Teori dan Penelitian. Jakarta: Kencana. 2010.

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Setiadi Arif, Iman. Dinamika Kperibadian: Gangguan dan Terapinya. Bandung : PT. Refika Aditama. 2006.

Supratiknya, A. Teori-teori Psikodinamik ( Klinis). Yogyakarta: Kanisius. 1993.

Suryabrata, Sumadi. Psikologi Kepribadian. Bandung: PT. Raja Grafindo Persada. 2007.

Website:

www.wikipedia.com. Accessed on December 25, 2010.

www.thefreedictionary.com. Accessed on January 10, 2011.

http://outre-monde.com/2011/02/20/ the blog of Dr. Neel Burton – Psychiatric,

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APPENDICES

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1