i
A
Study of Firdaus’ Identity in Nawal El Saadawi’s
Woman
at Point Zero
Through Freud’ Psychoanalytic Criticism.
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement of the Degree of
Sarjana Sastra Inggris
Vinka Aprilita Pasimanyeku
392013025
ENGLISH LITERATURE PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
iv
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright @2018: Vinka Aprilita Pasimanyeku and Deta Maria Sri Darta, M.Hum.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the prior written permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Literature Program of Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Salatiga.
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Dilemma between going to stay with her uncle or taking care of her -family………….………..………......12
Dilemma between pursuing further education while knowing her -uncle’s financial could not help……….………..………......13
Dilemma between getting food from stealing or cooking……...………......14
Dilemma between working as a prostitute with getting the feeling -and pleasure or not………..………......14
Dilemma between asking the function and power of money, ten -pound note, to the waiter or keep it by herself……….….……….15
Dilemma in becoming a good woman because of love or forget about love and become a prostitute….………..….……….16
Dilemma being silent and holding the violence from the -pimp or kill him, even Firdaus will be put in the jail………..…………...17
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Dilemma in questioning herself who she
is………..……......18
Dilemma whether look forward the feeling of -doing sexuality or not with Mohammadain………19
Dilemma in forgetting love and the patriarchy, or becoming as prostitute……….20
CONCLUSION………......22
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………......23
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Introduction
Abstract:
The study discussed the main character Firdaus in El Saadawi’s novel Woman at point Zero. The researcher concerned and focused on Firdaus’s identity is a
product of her internal conflicts, and her sexual experience based on Freud’ Psychoanalytic criticism. By her internal conflict, it made her dilemma in choosing
what is the best for her and led her to the clash in the id, ego, and superego. In
finding, her id won to control over her to build her identity as prostitute. Yet, in her
sexual experiences based on libido stages, the researcher has limitation from the data
in the story. Therefore, the researcher analyzed her sexual development, started from
phallic stage until puberty.
Key Word:Identity, Libido Stages, and Freud’ Psychosexual.
Background of the Study
For an individual, identity is a part in each self. “Identities can be focused on
the past-what used to be true of one, the present-what is true of one now, or the
future-the person one expects or wishes to become, the person one feels obligated to
try to become, or the person one fears one may become.” (pg.69). According to
Freud, identity is the effect of our experience that we faced since childhood (pg.46).
In result, we can recognize people’s identity by seeing their life. Identity requires
some awareness on our self, and our choice (pg.71). For example, one man goes to
watch football player competition, Indonesia Vs. Germany. He knows that he is
Indonesian. So, when he comes to the competition to support Indonesia, he brings an
Indonesia flag and paints his body with red and white tint. he is so enthusiastic. He
does not think if the others would say it is crazy to paint your whole body. In other
words, he appreciates and shows the symbol to represent his identity as an
Indonesian. By the symbol, “this is how we signal our identities to others and how we
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Identity is important to an individual, because people interact, introduce
themself to others, and also, they have their own way to build one particular things as
their identity. There are many ways to see how the identity is formed. In addition, recognized by an individual, but also others.” (pg.7)
Clearly, there is a process for each individual in building the identity from the
beginning, especially during childhood. Children’s experience and environment are
influencial, too, in identity building (pg.7). One of them can be related to sexual
experience. It starts when the children become aware of their gender identity, as a girl
and boy. Chodorow agreed with Freud, that the development of girl’s gender identity
is different with boy (pg.6). Freud also claimed that, “children’s sexuality is “polymorphous perverse”, that insofar as the infant is concerned, her or his entire body, especially its orifices and appendages, is sexual terrain. The infant moves from this type of “perverse” sexuality to “normal” heterosexual genital sexuality by passing through several stages.” (pg. 128-129)
The same phenomena of identity are the product of internal conflict and
sexual experience since childhood can be seen in Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El
Saadawi. The novel is written based on a real story from Egypt. The main character,
Firdaus, faced a miserable life since childhood. She has been through the condition
where it is like the universe rejected her to live in the world. First, Firdaus was just a
girl who everyday helped her mother. At some points, she was threatened badly by
her parents. She could not speak up what she wanted to say. She also followed her
uncle and school in Cairo. Yet she ends up married with Sheikh Mahmoud. In one
occasion, she ran away from home and met Sharifa. She became a prostitute. Yet one
time, she left behind the prostitution and got a job in a work place. But still, she
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when she came to experience how man treated her badly. Those events made Firdaus
realized working in a prostitution was not a bad decision.
Colclasure said that literary text also portrays the human life (pg.53), meaning
we could analyze what is in the text. This research used Psychoanalytic Criticism. It
dealt with significant to investigate the character. Esterson, in his journal of The
Seven Corner Stones of Psychoanalytic Methodology, he agreed that psychoanalysis
is one of the methodology where it is used to see human’ psyche (2008). Mindrerop
also added Freud’s idea, too, about psychology also related each other toward human
life because they are formed as the result from themselves (pg. 20). From
Psychoanalitic, people, especially for those who make an analysis, a reseacher, of
human behaviour, psyche, emotions, etc, can deeply understand to analyze their
object of analysis. In some way, there is a connection of literature and psychology. It
because they related each other toward human life.
Objective
The objective of the study took the character of Firdaus as the main object of
analysis. This study researched how Firdaus chose her identity as prostitute. And to
understand Firdaus's identity is the product of her internal conflicts that she faced
since childhood, the researcher examined Firdaus's structure personality that drove
her into libido stages as her sexual experince, internal conflicts, and her action. It is
why Balpinar agreed that “the conflicts provide the elements of interest of a play or novel, or a short story” (pg. 5). This study focused on identity that based on the
faced the process during their life since childhood. It also supported by Tyson "Our
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Research Problems
To prove that Firdaus's identity is a product of her experience since she was a
child, the research problems are formulated as the following questions;
1. What are Firdaus’s internal conflicts?
2. How are Firdaus’s identity explained as a product of internal conflicts in term of the connection Freud’s structural model of human personality and sexual experiences?
Significance of The Study
Frye added “the subject-matter of literary criticism is art, and criticism is evidently of an art too.” (pg.3) Selden also added, in his book A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory, as a reader, they will apply the meaning and the
message by reading, meaning that every reader will have a point of view and get
something from what they have read. (pg.58)
Thus, by this study, the researcher formulated the significance to reader, that they
could understand and learn about sexual experience affect the victim’s identity when
they grew up, especially those who face it since they were child. This study also
referred to parents to take care their children well until they grow up. Identity
building from parents is important start to children.
Freud’s Pyschoanalysis
Theory
Freud is the lead of the the foundation in pyschoanalytic criticism. Freud evolves
his ideas over a long period of time, and many of his ideas change as he developed
them (Tyson, 1998) . Pyschoanalytic from Freud also provided to observe some
aspects, such us how human show him/herself toward their action (pg.24).
This study focussed on Freud perspective of identity is a product of internal
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human control themselves to show their exsitence surround. The id is the most
instinct that mostly have to be fulfilled. Freud stated that society's rules and
definitons, concerning sexuality is formed a large part of our superego, and superego
is combined by the id, and ego (Tyson 25). Another, from sexual experience, it leads
to the concept of psychosexuality. It applied to the development of Freud's
libido/psychosexual stages since child, which are the oral, anal, phallic, latency, and
genital.
Following with psychoanalytic criticism, Freud concluded:
For women the level of what is ethically normal is different from what it is in men. Their super-ego is never so inexorable, so impersonal, so these would be amply accounted for by the modification of their super-ego which we have already inferred. (1989;pg. 134 )
Responding to Freud claim, he started to develop women psychology. The
conflict comes from the condition nor the situation during life. The conflict itself can
be between the other people nor the same individual personality. Other words, it
comes from inside the individual.
Internal Conflicts
Conflict is a part of the most being discussed in the literary work. It is the
issue that makes the story more intense nor vivid to be read. Conflicts are created to
lead the complication of character. However, conflicts are not always the climax in
the story. One of the conflicts categorist can be seen as an internal conflict. Which is
the conflicts come inside from the character itself. Bateman states, “conflict occurs
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However, in Freud idea, inside conflict, there is an internal conflict that
happens from oneself, his/her own mind (pg.76). According to Dollar and Miller, “internal conflicts is a situation where the frustration arises from a situation in which incompatible responses are occurring at the same time” (pg. 193) Meaning that the internal conflict is faced by oneself. It is often referred to moral or ethical decision
because “one self” are facing a dilemma of some sort. It can deal with the emotion,
whether his inner need, belief, or desire. In result, as a “one self” has to choose
between what is right and what is wrong or what would be considered good or bad.
Internal conflicts are also generally a result of a dilemma happening in life. It can be
something very simple or very complex in nature.
As it makes a dilemma, according to Cambridge Dictionary, dilemma is “a
situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two different things you could do”. For example, when someone works in a company. He does not like to be in there, he can resign if he wants. Yet he could think twice, because he will become
unemployed. This certain situation leads to the dilemma on an internal conflict. For
Freud, everyone experiences internal conflict from time to time. But internal conflict
can be much more complex than just fighting an urge.
In a literary work, Griffith also added, to support Freud, the type of internal
conflicts, which is internal conflict take place within the mind of the character
(pg.89). It is how the conflict comes, and happens to the character. It also makes the
character, has to think and choose between what the best for him/herself. It describes
how an individual try to get or avoid certain object and goals.
Structure of Personality; Id, Ego, and Superego
In Freud’s psychoanalysis study, he stated that personality structure has three
categories (pg.16). They are id, ego, and superego. Each of them has a different
function, properties, components, principles, and mechanism.
A) The Id
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to Freud, id is the system of the true psychic reality in each self, because it represents
the inner world of subjective experience and has no knowledge of objective reality. Id
is the element which human being own since they were born. Id is the most instinct of
human to get what they wanted, as an important part of our personality because it
allows us to get our basic needs. Hoffman defines Freud’s idea of the id as; “The id is the repository of all basic drives, the ego’s enemy, ‘the obscure inaccessible part of our personality’. It is entirely unconscious, hence remote from our understanding and difficult to manage” ( pg.25).
Freud also believes that the Id is based on our pleasure principle (pg. 26). In
other words, the id wants whatever feels good at the time, with no consideration for
the reality in the situation. For example, when a child is hungry, the id wants food,
and therefore the child cries. When the child needs to be changed, the id cries. And
thus, id doesn’t care about reality, about the needs of anyone else. Because, the id
only thinks its own satisfaction. When the id wants something, nothing else is
important. It means, sometimes id cannot control to tolerate the desire that has to be
fulfilled. Freud concludes that it also represents about the fulfillment wish. There are
two categories of id that concerns by avoiding pain and obtaining pleasure.
They are reflex action and the primary process. Reflex action are inborn and automatic reaction like organism is equipped with a number of such reflexes for dealing with relatively simple forms of excitation. The primary process involves the complicated psychology reaction. It attempts to discharge tension by forming an image of an object that will remove the tension. For example, the primary process provided the hungry person with a mental picture of food. (pg. 33)
In addition, id could also direct to sexual energy. The id is the psychological
reservoir of our instinct, and our libido, or sexual energy. It also devoted solely to the
gratification of prohibited desire all kinds, included desire of power, for sex,
amusement, - without an eye consequence (Tyson, 1998). The id becomes a psychical
energy, and operates the pleasure to get what we want.
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If the Id is the selfish part of personality, the part of the pleasure principal (I want
it, I want it now mentality), then the ego operates on the reality principal (reality is you can’t always get what you want, nor can you always give others what they want). While id represent the passion to get the fulfillment, ego represent the common sense
to control over the id. The ego controls over the path to access the norms (pg.27).
According Freud in the Theory of Personalities, “the ego is said to be executive
of the personality because it controls the gateways to action, selects the future of the
environmental to which it will respond, and decides what instincts will be satisfied
and in what manner” (pg.34). For example, a man feels hungry. He cannot steal food
from a restaurant, because he will be in the jail. In another word, he has to control
himself for not stealing food.
C) The Superego
Superego is the last system of personality that represents the moral part of human.
Superego works as the moral value. As it will drive the human mind, that they have to
think twice before doing something. What is good and bad, what is wrong and right
to do. According to Engler, the superego consists of two categories; the conscience
and ego-ideal. The conscience refers to the self-evaluation, and ego-ideal refers to the
action of what people doing to solve a problem(pg. 57-58). For example, in order to
avoid the punishment from parent, children have to obey and do what the parents
want.
In the book of Theories of Personality, Freud gives the function of the superego;
(1) to inhibit the impulses of the id, particularly those sexual or
aggressive nature, since these are the impulses whose expression is most
highly condemned by the society. (2) to persuade the ago to substitute
moralistic goals for realistic ones. (3) and to strive perfection. That is, the
superego is inclined to oppose both id and the ego, to make the world over
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In the correlation of the id, ego, and superego, they are named as by each function to
the psychological process in human in under circumstance each principle.
Libido Stages
Libido is an expression of the emotions sexual energy. Freud categorizes the
sexual instincts as libido. It concerns with one self. It is contained by the Id, as the
most physical desire that has to be fulfilled. Libido is a Latin word for desire, lust,
passion or caprice (Freud, 1905). According to Sigmund Freud, the libido, or the sex
drive is the source of all motivation (pg. 56).
In the Three Essays on Sexuality (1905), Freud claimed that the development of
human sexuality was dynamics. Freud used of the term sexuality to see the human
psychosexuality, as his theory of psychosexual development. It is called as libido, and
it has settled the levels for each stage. Everyone has it since they were born.
In the first stage is oral stage (an infant’s pleasure in nursing), second in the anal stage (a toddler’s pleasure in controlling his or her bowels), third in the phallic stage, then through a latency stage in which the libido is dormant, to its reemergence at
puberty in the genital stage, as the last stage. Thus, the component sexual instincts
(oral, anal, phallic) are organized in the service of genital of reproductive sexuality.
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away from autoerotic and homoerotic stimulation and toward a member of the opposite sex. (1989: pg. 130)
The oral stage is done after one is born. For example, a baby during the first
several months of his life, a baby tries try to suck her/his mother breast for
breastfeeding. The mouth is one of the principal source of pleasure. Furthermore, the
oral stage occurs when the time of the baby completely dependent upon his mother
for sustenance.
The anal stage, around ages 1-3, is the second stage to children learn what the
mother teaches. For example, by knowing the toilet, where they are supposed to do in
the toilet, sit the right place, as it is called toilet training. This is the particular method
of toilet training used by the mother. At this stage, the child is very interested in his
bodily functions. The libido is focused on the anus and the controlling of both the bladder and bowel. Freud stated it as the children, “he has to learn to postpone the pleasure that comes from revealing his anal tensions.”(pg. 45)
In the phallic stage around ages 3-5, the sexual feeling become more focused.
Children at this stage become aware of their gender. As the genital organ becomes
aware of the masturbation. Freud raised his argument in the Oedipus Complex to see
the phallic stage in libido development. The Oedipal can be seen in the dynamics of the child’s love for one parent. The child also learns the factual and social implications of the differences about gender and generational of adult and child.
Latency stage, around ages 6 to puberty, is the important stage in development
of communication and skill as make people have confidence. Mostly, around this
stage is face by the children who enter the school. They would be more concerned
with kind of hobbies and other interests. They might be having a feeling toward their friends, who have a different genital. As an Indonesian people called “cinta monyet”. It is how as a child has a feeling toward their friend, girl to boy nor boy to girl. Yet, it
is not really serious feeling as the same people who has grown up.
The last stage is the genital stage, the level of puberty to death. It is the level
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They could interest in dating, nor even marriage. Those can be toward their mate, and
friends. The pleasure in this stage associates with the pursuit of the feeling
satisfaction. There are two categories that Sterba wrote in the book Introduction to
the psychoanalytic theory of libido, to support Freud’s idea. It is the significance in
genital stage: 1) the love object shifts from an incestuous partner to a non-incestuous
peer and 2) the adolescent is capable of a more altruistic and tender love than is the
young child whose love is incorporative, possessive, and exploitative. (1942: pg.
57-58)
Benveniste also stated that “the integration of the previous psychosexual stages into the genital stage has its social/emotional/intellectual correlate in the
development of what Erik Erikson described as an “identity”.
While people continue to grow and change throughout the course of the lifecycle, the psychoanalytic view of libido development asserts that the basic psychosexual dynamics have been established by the end of adolescence and that subsequent developments will be constrained by those dynamics. (2015: pg. 4).
From those point, it can be seen that Freud’s idea of psychosexual development influences human life. The experience of each stages applies to the step of human since child till grow up.
Discussion:
Firdaus’s internal conflicts as seen
from
Freud’s structural model of
human personality.
In Sadaawi’s Woman at Point Zero, the internal conflicts come from the main character, Firdaus. There are several conflicts, as it is described as internal conflicts.
It is seen from Firdaus dilemma in facing the conflicts. Moreover, it emphasizes her
experience since childhood. The way she acted shows, Freud’s structural human
personality, whether only one of three terms, id, ego, and superego, win and control
her until it builds her identity become prostitute.
The point as the umbrella to cover the whole discussion, as the most desire of
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“me”/herself, and having a pride in the eyes of other people. So, she tried to look for it, even she knew it would be hard, because she is a woman.
“All my life I have been searching for something that would fill me with pride, make me feel superior to everyone else, including kings, princes and rules.”… “But because I am a woman I have never had the courage to lift my hand” (pg.9-10)
Dilemma between going to stay with her uncle or taking care of her family
Firdaus had witnessed how her father treated her mother. It showed how bad
her father treated her. When Firdaus's uncle came home to stop by, suddenly she felt
comfortable with him rather than her family. She also compared how her family and
her uncle treated her. This situation made her having a dilemma whether she went to
follow her uncle or stayed with her family, by question came up in her mind;
“Was I going to spend my life sweeping the dung out from the animals, carrying manure on my head, kneading dough, and baking bread?” (pg.15)
One point, according to Freud, id is the original element which human being owns since they were born. It emphasizes the desire of people’s want to do, and need. The id comes up as Firdaus's wanted to get freedom. Thus, she begged her uncle to
get allow her to follow him, as she wanted to become an intellectual woman, and
have a good education background. “My uncle was closer to me than my father.”
(18); “I would cry and beg him to take me with him to Cairo. . . I will go to El Azhar
and study like you” (pg.14)
While superego, as the term of social norms from culture where as a girl should
take care the family. It made Firdaus has to think again with her family because it is
what a woman is supposed to do, taking care the family, even the mother is still there.
It also supports with the condition that goes to El Azhar is just for men to study. "I had now replaced my mother and did the things she used to.” (16). All that meaning prove Firdaus has to take care her family.
However, the clash between her id and superego kept making a dilemma to her.
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behind to seek the freedom by staying with her uncle. The time was right after both
Firdaus's parents died. After my father died he sent me to elementary school. Later,
when my mother died, he took me with him to Cairo. (19)
Dilemma between pursuing further education while knowing her uncle’s
financial could not help.
After Firdaus lived with her uncle, she entered school by using her uncle
financial. Firdaus got interest to become an independent woman by learning and reading book in the school. “Sometimes I imagine that I would become a doctor, or an engineer, or a lawyer, or a judge.” (24) Yet, she was also having a dilemma
because she knew a woman could not be the leader, and more about her uncle
financial could not help to continue her study, because he had married.
I knew that women did not become heads of state, but I felt that I was not like other women, nor like the other girls around me who kept talking about love, or about men. (25); and so every night I could hear their subdued voices whispering on the other side of partition. it’s not easy to find work these days when all you have is secondary school certificate…what can she do that...nothing… (36)
According to Hoffman, who supports Freud’s theory “The Id is the repository of all basic drives, the ego’s enemy,‘the obscure inaccessible part of our personality’. It is entirely unconscious, hence remote from our understanding and difficult to manage” (1957:25). Firdaus's id concerns and desires to keep studying no matter what. Firdaus wanted to reach her goals. “I developed a love book a love books, for with every book I learned something new” (26). “I liked classes, and I enjoyed studying, despite the unfailing vigilance of the superintended, and other things”. (32)
However, Freud states, “the super-ego is always in close touch with the id and can act as its representative in relation to the ego” (Freud, 1949:70) This case, the
superego is giving a thought that she stays and lives with her uncle, so she has to
think the financial to pay the study.
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I would sit in the dark alone, and wonder about many things..., Will I go to the university? Would my uncle agree to send me there for my studies? (28)
So, the ego as the modification from the external world comes as seen from
Firdaus. She kept and acted remain silent. In this conflicts superego and ego could
emphasize and press the id, from what Firdaus’s desire.
Dilemma between getting food from stealing or cooking.
Firdaus came back to Sheikh Mahmoud’s house. Firdaus felt hungry and she wanted to eat something food. Yet, she was afraid of Sheikh Mahmoud. It because
her husband did not talk to her since she came back in the house. The dilemma that
she faced was she wanted to eat but afraid to his husband would mad at her. Yet, is
she did not eat, she would die of hungry.
Night fell, but he did not ask me whether I was hungry. . . I was terrible hungry and felt a crying need to eat something, come what may. (47)
Firdaus id, taken from Engler supports Freud’s theory that sometimes human
cannot see the id because there is unconsciousness when they face the life (2014; 43).
In this case, Firdaus wanted to eat no matter what because her stomach felt pain in
hungry, as food is the basic need of human being.
So, the superego remains to understand it with some realistically. Which if she
stole a food, it is prohibited culturally. So, a woman, she should cook; woman
supposed to stay with their husband. And take care the house holds as she follows the
rule. Moreover, the ego works as the process to act for Firdaus; this case showed that
ego and superego control as one to press the instinct from id; "The next morning, I
prepared breakfast." (47)
Dilemma between working as a prostitute with getting the feeling and pleasure or not
Firdaus met Sharifa and worked as a prostitute under Sharifa's hands. The
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working? One point, Firdaus asked inside herself why she did not even get the feeling
nor the pleasure in sexual activity in doing with man. Freud believed that id always
wants whatever feels good at the time, with no consideration for the reality of the
situation. Thus, the id from Firdaus is she wanted to get the pleasure while working as a prostitute. “Why don’t I feel anything.? But I want to feel, Sharifa” (60)
Sharifa, in this case become the superego that the moral while working in the
condition as a prostitute. She explained as a prostitute, they were better if they did not
compare and want the same feeling goes to them while working. The thing is as
prostitute, they had to enjoy the result, the money they got. It can be seen through, “do you not feel pleasure at living in this warm, clean house, with its windows overlooking the Nile?’ (60) It means work is work, and Firdaus would fine as long as she enjoyed and did not put some feeling when she worked. Sharifa also added “don’t ask for anything. That’s not your affair. It’s mine. “(59)
Starting that point, the clash between id, and superego made dilemma to her.
Eventually the superego won by supporting the ego that the ego acts as the satisfy the id’s need as Firdaus did not ever ask for her price. She kept enjoying her life at there.” Day and night, I lay on bed, crucified, and every hour mean would come in. there are so many of them.” (61)
.
Dilemma between asking the function and power of money, ten-pound note, to the waiter or keep it by herself
Firdaus ran away from Sharifa and met the rich man who gave her ten-pound note, the world just like became Firdaus’s. She knew by having ten-pound note, she would do anything. According to Freud, a conflict that makes a dilemma is referred to
a decision with oneself. It made dilemma because she came to a restaurant, and she
wanted to ask the waiter about the ten-pound note. “Could it be that ten-pound note. I held in my hand was an illicit and forbidden as the thrill of sacrilegious pleasure?” (72)
Firdaus's id just shows she wanted to ask more about the function of the money,
the ten pounds note she held. Yet, the superego as “a further differentiation within the
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everything about money is dangerous and it also supported that she actually had
known the function of money, starting when she was child, and asked the piaster to
her father. This case proved the ego and superego is more powerful to control Firdaus
action, rather than her id. Thus, Firdaus showed by being silent, and did not ask the
waiter about the function.
Is said to be executive of the personality because it controls the gateways to action. (pg. 34); I almost open my mouth to ask the waiter… I keep my lips pressed tightly together for I had, in fact known the answer all along, found it out many years ago. (72)
Dilemma in becoming a good woman because of love or forget about love and become a prostitute.
In the company where Firdaus worked at, she met Ibrahim. Firdaus had a
problem about love, that one-point love could make this world beautiful yet other
point love makes her suffer from the pain. Firdaus faced the dilemma, she broke up
with Ibrahim she wanted to suffer and forget about Ibrahim but the pain of love kept reminding in her though. According to Freud’s idea that for internal conflict take place within the mind of the character. It is showing that the mind influences inside
themselves.
My eyes swept the windows, the doors, and the walls, searching for something to open suddenly and reveal his eyes for a moment, or his hands waving the usual farewell. (92)
The id, according to Freud “it is the repository of all basic drive, the ego’s
enemy, the obscure inaccessible part of our personality” (1957: pg.25) Firdaus's id showed she would forget anything about Ibrahim and be better. She had to become an
independent woman, men could not play her anymore. Thus, the id is she prefered to
be a prostitute to get respect; "but I expected nothing from love." (93)
Meanwhile the id is like a bomb in this case, the superegoacts as healing, “to
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these are the impulses whose expression is most highly condemned by the society” (pg.35) So, healing from pain takes time.
Yet, the clash between the id and superego shows that the id is more powerful
rather than superego. And it makes there is no effort for the ego to act. Starting that
point, Firdaus decided to come back and work as a prostitute.
Now I knew what I wanted. Now there was no room for illusion. A successful prostitute was better than a misled saint. All women are victims of deception. Men impose deception on women and punish them from falling so slow, bind them in marriage and the chastise them with menial service for life, or insults, or blows. Now I realized that the lest deluded of all women was the prostitute. that marriage was the system build on the most cruel suffering for women. (94)
From Firdaus stated, it can be seen that the pain she holds on is too deep
to her, until can make her to see that prostitute is better rather than other job.
She no longer to keep the cultural as the patriarchal in the society.
Dilemma being silent and holding the violence from the pimp or kill him, even Firdaus will be put in the jail.
Firdaus met the pimp, who treated her badly by using violence. Firdaus had the
dilemma whether she killed the pimp or not, because in one point, she knew that the
pimp was dangerous, he could do whatever he wanted. The pimp also had a
connection with many people to help him. One of them is a doctor who help the
prostitute who got pregnant, meaning that he had a power to control Firdaus. According to Bateman, he developed Freud's idea about, “conflicts occurs between the instinctual wishes under the sway of the pleasure principle and demand of reality” (2001: pg.36-37) “I tried to shut the door in his face, but he took out a knife, threatened me with it, and forced his way in.” (101)
The id as according to Hoffman, “it is entirely unconsciousness, hence remote from our understanding and difficult to manage” (1957: pg. 25) Firdaus’s id is that she hated the pimp and wanted to kill him. She also avoided the pimp's desire. She is
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that you take what I earn. My body at least is mine" (101). “but I can protect myself"
(100)
Meanwhile the superego kept remind culturally moral value. If people kill
people they will be put in the jail. The ego as the instincts to play both tries to hold
on. According to Freud, ego operates on the reality principle of what mostly human
want and instinct. Thus, Firdaus tried to hold on. Yet her desire, id, the feeling of
hating the pimp is bigger than the thought of superego.
I hate him as only a woman can hate a man … my hand was quicker than his. I raise the knife and buried it deep in his neck, pulled it out of his neck and then thrust it deep into his chest. (104)
Starting from that point, Firdaus is proud of being prostitute, she declared that
women who work as a prostitute also had a power. The id as the more instinct that
drive Firdaus showed how Firdaus chose her identity as being prostitute. As based on
Freud in his book Theories of Personality, id is the system of true psychic reality in
each self, because it represents the inner world of subjective experience and has no
knowledge of objective reality. (pg.33)
Identity in Terms of Sexual Experience.
In the context of sexual experience, the researcher analyzed Firdaus based on her internal conflicts that is combined with Freud’s theory of libido stage. It shows the stage for a child before she grew up. Unfortunately, the researcher has a limitation.
Firdaus, in the story, did not show two stages, which are oral and phallic stage because
the story started when she was around six. Oral stage is at the time she was a baby,
and needed breastfeeding from her mother. Anal stage is the way her mother taught
her about what supposed she did in the toilet as a toilet training for a girl.
Dilemma in questioning herself who she is.
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‘is she me?” after she looked on the mirror. Whether she should believe it or not. It because she never wore any kind of dress when she was with her family.
I found myself looking a little girl wearing a dress that reached down no furtger than her kness, and a pair of shoes that hid her feet. I looked around the room. There was no one else in it appart from me. I could not understand where this girl had sprung from, nor realize the she could be me. . . But I recognized my face immediately. (p. 19)
The statement above proved the first stage, which is phallic stage has appeared. It is a
child who is three to seven, she or she becomes aware of their gender. They also enjoy
the sensations associated with controlling the expulsion of her or his feces. The same
with how they act and like to see and admire themselves in the mirror.
Firdaus psyche was also influence through her act. She was wearing a dress by
herself, and looked at a mirror. Moreover, Freud states in the phallic stage, a child
started to know and admire themselves by looking at the mirror. It all because they
started to know themselves, as their gender. (pg.130) It means that child is in the
process to start to go up to the next stages.
Dilemma whether look forward the feeling of doing sexuality or not with Mohammadain.
Firdaus has a friend named Mohammadain. He was the first one who made
Firdaus dilemma to think whether she looked forward it about the feeling of doing sexual activity with him or just ‘come what may’ when they played together.
He would make me lie down beneath a pile of straw , and lift up my galabeya. we play at 'bride and bridegroom'. From some part in my body , where exactly I did not know, would come a sensation of sharp pleasure. Later I would close my eyes and feel with my hand for the exact spot. (p.12)
It shows that as a girl, actually, Firdaus has felt the sensation of doing “those thing” since child. She experienced it. Therefore, this goes up to the next stage, which is latency stage. The stage where the children know about the different gender and
come to interest one another. As Mohammadain was Firdaus friend, the first one, who
did it to her. Yet unfortunately, in some way, there was the different of principal
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So, after she grew up as a young girl, she could no longer feel the sensation, she was
just passive whenever another man did it to her.
He was doing to me what Mohammadain had done to me before. In fact, he was doing even more, but I no longer felt the strong learnt to resist by being passive, to keep my self whole by offering nothing, to live by withdrawing to a world of my own. (p.93)
Dilemma in forgetting love and the patriarchy, or becoming as prostitute
After Firdaus grew up, she married and she met several men who did sexual
activity to her, even with harsly nor softly, another word bacause of love. Man, who named Ibrahim, was Firdaus’s love. Firstly, she faced the dilemma that whether she should forget about love nor even the patriarchy surrounds or not. It because people
always think that prostitute is bad job for woman. There is no value for woman in the
eyes of them. Yet, Firdaus at the end, she chose to be a prostitute. And, from being
prostitute she got higher price from every man she slept with.
I would nurse them between my breast for a while, leave them to slip down over my belly, and then below it to the place between my thighs. Deep inside my body I could feel strange trembling. At first it was like pleasure, a pleasure akin to pain. It ended with pain, a apin which felt like pleasure. (60);
A prostiture, however, is a little better off. I was able to convonce my self that I had chosen this life of my own free will. The fact that I rejected their noble attempts to save me, my insistence on remaing a prostitute, proved to me this was my choice and that I had some freedom, at least the freedom to live in a situation better than that of other woman (97)
This terms and experinces come as the genital stage, as it is the level of puberty
and interest doing sexual activity. Firdaus’s statement shows that she is in the genital
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development of itself as described as an “identity”. (4) Thus, it proves that the gental stage is the most influence to all human doing and feeling the pleasure from their body
until it becomes as identity. She chose her identity as prostitute because she had been
through sexual activity since childhood.
Besides, being as a prostitute is more valuable rather than being a real woman
who works in a work place. It means, she also enjoyed if her identity is a prostitute because she could do anything she wanted, as being “me”. She has experienced since childhood. It came from how bad men treated and used her body just to fulfill their
need, rather than to be loved. Thus, trough Freud's libido stage, the researcher could
analyze the development of Firdaus stage that her sexual experience is the product of
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CONCLUSION
Following Freud concept about personality development through id, superego
and ego, and libido stage, this research could answer; 1. What are Firdaus’s internal
conflicts? 2. How Firdaus’s internal conflicts explained as a product of her identity in term of the connection Freud’s structural model of human personality and sexual experiences? This analysis showed there are several dilemmas that Firdaus faced
during her life. It led her to the decisions whether the impact has risk for herself.
Moreover, from her internal conflicts that made her dilemma, her id won to control
over her. The result is Firdaus’ identity is the product of her internal conflict, in her
experiences since childhood until she grew up, especially about her sexual experiences
in the story.
Although, in her libido stages, even there is the limitation from the data in the
story, the researcher could analyze her sexual development, started from phallic stage
until puberty. Her internal conflicts were connected to structural model of human
personality and libido stages. The id is the most influence in her life that drives her to build her identity as a prostitute to get the meaning of freedom, being “me”. Even there is also a class from those categories, and as we know prostitute is actually
forbidden for every country. By the representation of the female character in the story,
Firdaus, it shows that every person in this world has an internal conflict inside
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Acknowledgement
First, I would like to express my gratitude to Jesus Christ, because without
His blessing I could not finish my final thesis writing, and it because honestly, I had
bad experience, my data was completely gone. So, I had to start from beginning.
Next, I would like to thank my supervisor Deta Maria Sri Darta, M. Hum. for
her dedication and efficient that she is never tired to handle and give correction to all
my revision. Special thanks for my parents and family for supporting me until this
time. Next, I thank to Rosalia Anggelita, Ganang, and Yoel Bastian, they were my
partner who also concentrated to literary theory, through their commands and advices
I could enhance my skill to write step by step. Special thanks also to my colleague
gang Rosalina Sitorus, Yunita, Agustine Hana Pertiwi, Inggrid Lekahena, Agnes
Yustin, Illene Victoria, Priscillia Pristin , and my beloved church friends Kezia
Meidy Setiawan, Gabriela Agmassini, Winda Felicia, Merry Anggraeni, Ein Charitty,
Wira Adi Bagaskara Narang, Dian Nustanti Ndaomanu, Selfi Tatelepta, Adiel
Laksamana, Hansen Hogi, and Erwin Julianto for their existence in this world
24
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