ABSTRACT
DANISWORO, ANTONIUS. The Dynamic of Id, Ego, and Superego of Victor
Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2014.
Each individual has different personality and it can change due to several aspects, such as experiencing a bitter past incident. Human has three types of personality elements, which are id, ego and superego. These elements respectively represent as the unconscious, the conscious and the conscience of human being. The three elements of personality can change, like what is experienced by Victor
Frankenstein from Mary Shelley’s literature work, Frankenstein.
There are two objectives of the study which underlie the analysis. The first objective is to aim the analysis of the characteristic of the main character, Victor Frankenstein, whose mind is always changing due to experiencing various terrible occurrences. The second objective is to analyze on the dynamic levels of personality, ego, superego and id, of Victor Frankenstein.
This undergraduate thesis is compiled by applying library research. The sources of the study are the e-book of the novel, some relevant books of literature and psychology, journals, and articles from internet. The approach used in this undergraduate thesis is psychoanalytic criticism because this approach can be used to analysis the conscious and unconscious mind of a character.
ABSTRAK
DANISWORO, ANTONIUS. The Dynamic of Id, Ego, and Superego of Victor
Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2014.
Setiap individu memiliki kepribadian yang berbeda dan dapat berubah karena beberapa aspek, seperti mengalami insiden masa lalu yang pahit. Manusia memiliki tiga jenis unsure kepribadian, yaitu id, ego dan superego. Unsur-unsur ini masing-masing mewakili sebagai ketidaksadaran, kesadaran dan hati nurani manusia. Ketiga unsur kepribadian bias berubah, seperti apa yang dialami oleh Victor Frankenstein.
Ada dua tujuan dari studi yang mendasari analisis. Tujuan pertama adalah analisis karakteristik dari karakter utama, Victor Frankenstein, yang pikirannya selalu berubah karena mengalami berbagai kejadian yang mengerikan. Tujuan kedua adalah menganalisa tingkat dinamika kepribadian antara ego, superego dan id, dari Victor Frankenstein.
Skripsi ini disusun dengan menerapkan studi kepustakaan. Sumber dari penelitian ini adalah novel e-book, beberapa buku yang relevan dengan sastra dan psikologi, jurnal, dan artikel dari internet. Pendekatan yang digunakan dalam skripsi ini adalah kritik psikoanalitik karena pendekatan ini dapat digunakan untuk analisis pikiran sadar dan bawah sadar dari karakter.
THE DYNAMIC OF ID, EGO AND SUPEREGO OF VICTOR
FRANKENSTEIN IN MARY SHELLEY’S
FRANKENSTEIN
AN UNDERGRAGUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
ANTONIUS DANISWORO
Student Number: 104214038
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
THE DYNAMIC OF ID, EGO AND SUPEREGO OF VICTOR
FRANKENSTEIN IN MARY SHELLEY’S
FRANKENSTEIN
AN UNDERGRAGUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
ANTONIUS DANISWORO
Student Number: 104214038
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express his gratitude to God, Jesus Christ, for the guidance and
blessing, so that I could finish this research and make my parents proud.
I realize that during the process of compiling the thesis, I was helped by many
parties and being supported morally by many people. Therefore, I would like to use
this opportunity to say grace to following people.
First of all, I would like to thank Mr. P. Sarwoto, S.S., M.A., Ph.D. as the
thesis advisor for helping me with patience during the process of writing this thesis. I
also would like to thank Mrs. Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, M.Hum. as the thesis
co-advisor for helping me with patience in correcting the thesis, so that the thesis became
better than before. I also do not forget to thank the lecturers of English Literature in
Sanata Dharma who shared the knowledge in class or outside class.
I also would like to thank my parents, Mr. Dwiyanto and Mrs. Endang for the
prayer and the support in boosting the completion of the thesis and all friends who
helped me by sharing the experiences and the moral support.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ... ii
APPROVAL PAGES ... iii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ... iv
STATEMENT OF WORK‘S ORIGINALITY ... v
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH ... vi
ABSTRACT
DANISWORO, ANTONIUS. The Dynamic of Id, Ego, and Superego of Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2014.
Each individual has different personality and it can change due to several aspects, such as experiencing a bitter past incident. Human has three types of personality elements, which are id, ego and superego. These elements respectively represent as the unconscious, the conscious and the conscience of human being. The three elements of personality can change, like what is experienced by Victor Frankenstein from Mary Shelley‘s literature work, Frankenstein.
There are two objectives of the study which underlie the analysis. The first objective is to aim the analysis of the characteristic of the main character, Victor Frankenstein, whose mind is always changing due to experiencing various terrible occurrences. The second objective is to analyze on the dynamic levels of personality, ego, superego and id, of Victor Frankenstein.
This undergraduate thesis is compiled by applying library research. The sources of the study are the e-book of the novel, some relevant books of literature and psychology, journals, and articles from internet. The approach used in this undergraduate thesis is psychoanalytic criticism because this approach can be used to analysis the conscious and unconscious mind of a character.
ABSTRAK
DANISWORO, ANTONIUS. The Dynamic of Id, Ego, and Superego of Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2014.
Setiap individu memiliki kepribadian yang berbeda dan dapat berubah karena beberapa aspek, seperti mengalami insiden masa lalu yang pahit. Manusia memiliki tiga jenis unsur kepribadian, yaitu id, ego dan superego. Unsur-unsur ini masing-masing mewakili sebagai ketidaksadaran, kesadaran dan hati nurani manusia. Ketiga unsur kepribadian bisa berubah, seperti apa yang dialami oleh Victor Frankenstein.
Ada dua tujuan dari studi yang mendasari analisis. Tujuan pertama adalah analisis karakteristik dari karakter utama, Victor Frankenstein, yang pikirannya selalu berubah karena mengalami berbagai kejadian yang mengerikan. Tujuan kedua adalah menganalisa tingkat dinamika kepribadian antara ego, superego dan id, dari Victor Frankenstein.
Skripsi ini disusun dengan menerapkan studi kepustakaan. Sumber dari penelitian ini adalah novel e-book, beberapa buku yang relevan dengan sastra dan psikologi, jurnal, dan artikel dari internet. Pendekatan yang digunakan dalam skripsi ini adalah kritik psikoanalitik karena pendekatan ini dapat digunakan untuk analisis pikiran sadar dan bawah sadar dari karakter.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Reading a novel is sometimes the best activity for certain people to spend
their free time. Through reading a novel, we can also reflect the contents of the
story and make us learn the experience of life. The story in the novel, some when
and somehow, can describe the life as we live in the daily life. It is like the
novelist conveys the life pattern of the characters, and then the reader can absorb
the messages and reflect them into our daily life. ―The novelist can teach you
more about human‘s lifethan the psychologist can‖ (Wellek, 1965:30).
Like for example we can be taught from the reflection of life from the
traumatic event that is expressed by Victor Frankenstein by creating a monstrous
creature because he wants to represent the existence of someone he loves, which
is his mother. If he finds the secret knowledge of nature, he may help others to
make all people immortal. It all starts when he was still teenager; he found a
volume of Cornelius Agrippa‘s work and was interested in it. It is a literature that
is filled with something that is related with science which is full of creative
imaginative works which arouse Frankenstein‘s heart. It is supposed to be a
fiction work, but Frankenstein wants to make it happen. Before creating a
monstrous kind of creature, he wants to construct an elixir of life that can make
of knowledge. He restlessly studies until forgetting his beloved family. Even after
that, he is ready to take risk when collecting the parts of body that will be used for
creating the unnatural creature. He creates a creature from the materials of dead
bodies and it is in order to protect someone he loves to keep alive and shall not
face the death. He does that unconsciously, without having intention, because he
feels he is responsible.
In the story, Frankenstein presents the dynamic of personality because of
the unwanted events that keep haunting him. It affects his personality to become
swinging. For some sort of events he feels the warmth of sun, the lovely summer
breeze, a feel like he is the most joyful person in the world. It is also shown a
change of personality from elegant, positive, and acts benevolently into someone
who is very anxious and always filled with fear even he is in joyful
circumstances.
Human has three types of personality elements, which are id, ego, and
superego. The combination of these three should balance each other to prevent us
becoming a person who has mental disorder. Sometimes the id, our unconscious
mind, is more powerful than the ego, our consciousness mind. We can manage
our personality by knowing more the elements of personalities that exist in our
mind.
The changing from ego into id, then the superego is showing up, and then
back again into ego again can be seen in Frankenstein‘s personality. This kind of
this kind of daily occurrence and relating it to the Victor Frankenstein‘s case. The
study of psychoanalytic is needed to know more about why he makes the
unnatural creature and why he disgraces his own-made creature. This can be
related to the dynamical personality that is shown in the novel.
B. Problem Formulation
Here are the problems formulated, namely:
1. How is Victor Frankenstein‘s characteristic described in the novel?
2. How does Victor Frankenstein‘s character reveal the dynamic of id, ego and
superego?
C. Objectives of the Study
The first objective of the study aims on knowing the character more, in
this case the main character, Victor Frankenstein, who is assumed that he has a
personality disorder because of past saddening background. The things that he
does in the story seems done because of the unconscious mind of the user so that
he can make the bad decision into right and anything that is dangerous become
safe. The cause of why Victor Frankenstein does that is going to be analyzed
further. The second objective of the study aims on the analysis of the dynamic
types of personality, ego, superego and id, of Victor Frankenstein, and relating it
D. Definition of Term
To avoid misunderstanding of certain terms, there are some words that
need to be defined.
According to The Concise Dictionary of Psychology, Personality is the
fusions of all factors that make an individual human being act like normal human
being do in common; like thinking, feeling something, behaving and the
particular characteristic pattern of these elements that makes every human being
different from others. The personality might be hidden and also be expressed to
other people. It is also the dynamic nature of an individual which can be
perceptible or not to other people. (Statt, 2003:100).
It is stated in The Concise Dictionary of Psychology that according to
Freud the Ego is a part of the personality that closest to conscious awareness
which oversee particles between the unconscious drives of the pleasure seeking id
on the one hand and the internalized restrictions of the Superego on the other.
Freud views that a psychological disorder whose origins in emotional conflict
could be the result of the ego is being unable to maintain harmonious relations
with the id and superego because the power of their unconscious drives is too
much to cope with (Statt, 2003: 44).
It is stated in The Concise Dictionary of Psychology that according to
Freud the Id is the deepest unconscious drives which could be related with the
personality. The id is dominated by the pleasure principle and causes problems
for the ego when its drives are blocked. The id operates based on the pleasure principle, which demands immediate gratification of needs (Statt, 2003: 68).
It is also stated in The Concise Dictionary of Psychology that Superego is
the affiliation of restrictions which is caused by the id, as reflected in the values
and standards of behavior required by society in general and parents in particular.
It is literally known as the conscience. It is the equivalent of a conscience in a
system of ethics. The superego works to suppress the urges of the id and tries to
make the ego behave morally and appearing more (Statt, 2003:129).
According to Psychology an Introduction, Personality disorders are
disorders which are unchangeable from an individual and inappropriate ways of
thinking and behaving which cause distress and conflicts. These disorders are
various, and divided into a group of disorders regarded as enduring, inflexible
patterns of inner experience and deviating behavior which can cause distress and
CHAPTER II
Shelley‘s past life and the character of Victor Frankenstein. Both of them suffer
from the bitter past experience in their life when they are still in average years. It
is about the lack of affection of the absence of a mother. Mary Shelley loses her
mother when she is in her growing phase, and at that time, she still needs the
presence of a mother. So, she writes Frankenstein to show her feeling:
From the event happening in the past, the writer unconsciously defines the
story line of Frankenstein as the story of her life. In Freudian work, there is
terminology called dream work. That is the process by which real events or
desires are transformed into dream images. Thus the characters, motivation, and
events are represented in literary way and reconstructing the abstract ideas or
feeling into concrete images. In Barry‘s book, it is stated that:
Dreams are just like literature; do not usually make explicit statements. Both tend to communicate obliquely or indirectly, avoiding direct or open statement and representing meanings through concrete embodiments of time, place, or person (Barry, 2002: 98).
From the quotation above we can see that the writer‘s past event may
affect the storyline of a literature she made, based on what she felt at that time.
So, when writing the literature, the idea of character Frankenstein and his creature
may represent the people in real life.
Anthony F. Badalamenti in his journal says that Shelley‘s novel served as
a waking expression of unconscious feeling of past event in relation of her
husband, Percy Shelley. Badalamenti relates the past story of Mary Shelley to the
novel Frankenstein and it results that there are similar names, stories and places
that are rewritten in the novel.
current and more exact. Encoding brings some relief of a cathartic nature but rarely resolves under lying issues. It is a familiar of poets, authors and the gifted in general, most of whom tend to use it unconsciously, just as Mary Shelley did. Mary Shelley's story was a substitute expression of deeply troubling feelings of hurt arising from Percy Shelley's many violations of their relationship. Unable to deal with them consciously and being very young, indeed a teenager, at the time she wrote the story, she unconsciously encoded her pain and her rage in her novel. Thus, the monster is here decoded as what Percy did to the love between himself and Mary (Badalamenti, 2006: 420).
Anthony researched the history of Mary Shelley‘s past event to the novel
and found out some similarities. For example, in the novel, the opening scene is
in the North Pole, and Percy, Shelley‘s husband at that time, wished to see the
poles unfrozen. The main character in the novel is Victor Frankenstein; Percy
Shelley‘s favorite pseudonym in early life was Victor. Victor Frankenstein‘s
favorite sister is named Elizabeth; Percy Shelley‘s favorite sister was named
Elizabeth, and both were family favorites. So, the point is he sought the history of
Mary Shelley to make the research why she created the novel Frankenstein.
Dadik Prasetya Aribowo in his undergraduate thesis ―The Personality
Disorders of The Characters as The Result of The Dissatisfaction of Life in Mary
Shelley‘s Frankenstein‖ concludes that Frankenstein‘s curiosity of something
makes him feel dissatisfied, and in this case are the curiosity of knowledge and
making a creature that he wants but instead becomes a monstrous thing:
everything in his hands. What Frankenstein actually does is a reflection toward what happen to us. It is the nature of man that the more he gets the more he wants. Therefore, this kind of waiting is endless and can never be satisfied (Dadik, 2003: 61).
From the two related studies, both of them take the same object and that is
about the mental disorder of the character, but in this research, the writer wants to
acknowledge more about the relation between the dynamic of ego, id and
superego in psychoanalysis that happen to Victor Frankenstein.
The first two studies focuses on the connection of the author and the main
character, Frankenstein, in creating this literary work. The story life of Mary
Shelley is almost similar to the story of Frankenstein, they both lose their mother.
She had experienced the loss of a child that might be represented in the novel.
They are also close to the family mostly to the father (because the mother is
dead). The similarities of the author and Frankenstein could be assumed as it is
the reason why Shelley creates the novel, they share a same agony. There are also
names of characters, places, also trace of events which are almost connected to
the storyline of the novel she created. There is no exact truth if the characters or
the personalities of the characters in the novel were made up randomly, or as she
like, but there might be connection between her story life and the storyline. She
put her feelings towards the novel and unconsciously delivered the messages into
effect from the dynamic occurrences that happened in the past which involve
Mary Shelley‘s nearby into the story.
The second study only focuses on the personality disorders that are seen
on Frankenstein and the creature. It explains the over desire of Frankenstein to
build the creature, and for the creature itself, the writer explains more to his
unclear reason why he is being created. This is actually almost the same as the
focus of my research, but the difference is he is only stating the sequence of the
story but not dividing it to which category should the personality be placed.
B. Review of Related Theories
There are some theories that are related to support the analysis.
1. Theories on Character
According to M.H Abrams, the character is a distinctive type of person. It
is to make differences to other characters and then characters itself are the persons
represented in a dramatic or narrative work. All characters usually have different
character to create the story more colorful:
Laurence Perrine, in his book Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense,
divides characters into two types, namely:
a. Static character. She/he is the one who does not undergo and change. At
the end, he or she is still the same as in the beginning of the story.
b. Dynamic character. She/he is the one who is modified by actions and
experience and one objective of the work in which the character appears to
reveal the consequences of those actions. The character undergoes a
permanent change can be a large or small one: it may be for better or for
worse (1978: 70).
2. Theories on Characterization
According to Abrams, characterizing is establishing the distinctive
characters of the persons in the narrative, and there are two methods to
characterize, they are by showing and telling. In showing, (also called "the
dramatic method"), the author simply presents the characters talking and acting
and leaves the reader to infer the motives and dispositions that lie behind what
they say and do. The author may show not only external speech and actions, but
also a character's inner thoughts, feelings, and responsiveness to events; for a
highly developed mode of such inner showing, see stream of consciousness. In
telling, the author intervenes authoritatively in order to describe, and often to
Besides that theory, according to Murphy in Understanding Unseen
(1972: 161-173), it is mentioned that there are attempts to acknowledge
characteristics and behavior of characters, to make the characters become
understandable to the reader.
The first attempt to describe the characteristics and the behavior of
characters is through personal description. The author can describe the person‘s
appearance and clothes.
Then the second attempt, we can acknowledge the character‘s description
as seen by others. The author can describe him through the eyes and opinions of
another.
The third attempt is through a speech or conversation. The author can give
us an insight into the character through what the person says. Whenever a person
speaks, whenever he is in conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an
opinion, he is giving the clue of his character.
The fourth attempt is by knowing from the thought the character has in
mind. The author gives us the description of characteristic from what the
character‘s thinking.
The last attempt is by knowing the past life of the character. By letting the
reader learn something about a person‘s past life the author can give us a clue the
3. Psychoanalytic Criticism
Psychoanalytic criticism is a literary criticism which involves the
techniques and the process of psychoanalysis in interpreting components in
literature. Psychoanalysis itself is a form of therapy which is used to cure mental
disorder by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious element in
mind. By using this method in literary work, we can understand the characteristic
of a character in a literary work. The method of doing this is by getting through
inside the mind of a character and after letting the character talk freely or express
the story, the repressed fears and conflicts which are causing the problem will all
appear and be brought to conscious mind and being faced by the character instead
of still buried under the unconscious part of the mind. The theories are developed
by the figure that is famous when we discuss about psychoanalytic criticism,
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) (Barry, 2002: 96).
English letter students learn the theme, the development of characters in
great literature using psychoanalytic criticism. Therefore, psychoanalytic criticism
is allowed to be used in this research. According to Barry, psychoanalytic critics
give central importance, in literary interpretation, to the distinction between the
They pay close attention to unconscious motives and feelings, whether these be (a) those of the author, or (b) those of the characters depicted in the world. They demonstrate the presence in the literary work of classic psychoanalytic symptoms, conditions and phases of emotional and sexual development in infants (Barry, 2002: 105).
When analyzing through Psychoanalytic criticism, it is not separable if not
imputing the id, ego, and superego, the three types of personality like what is
concluded by Freud. He also found the idea of self defense mechanisms of a
human being, some ways to devote our physic energy from anxieties. Later on,
the writer discusses them more about what id, ego, superego and defense
mechanisms are.
a. The Id, Ego, and Superego
In Freud‘s work, it is maintained that our personality consists of the ego,
super-ego and the id. These types of personality roughly are represented as
consciousness, conscience, and unconsciousness. According to Freud that is
stated in Theories of Personalities by Jess Feist and Gregory Feist, id is the most
primitive personality in mind and its purpose is to satisfy the basic desires, so that
we can call id as pleasure principle. In short, id is an element of personality which
is primitive, chaotic, and related to part of unconscious mind. It is also
unchangeable, containing amorality, illogical, disarranging, and full of propulsion
energy but outflowing the energy just to satisfy the desire of pleasure principle
While ego, is the element of personality which is connected to reality. Ego
is being tamed by reality principle, which is invoked to replace id‘s pleasure
principle. Ego is the decision maker of things because ego can work in the
conscious, unconscious and not conscious, so ego is over the id and superego. In
short, ego, as the most top area of personality is in charge to control the demand
from id while considering the moral value from superego (Feist, 2009: 29).
Superego represents the aspect of moral and idealism from personality
which is controlled by moralistic and idealistic principles. Superego is developed
from ego, and like ego, it has its own source energy. However, what makes it
different from ego in one condition – is it does not have connection to the outside
world so that the demand of superego becomes not realistic without the
participation of ego (Feist, 2009: 30).
According to psychology expert, Kendra Cherry, the id is the only
component of personality that is present from birth. This aspect of personality is
entirely unconscious and includes of the instinctive and primitive behaviors.
According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the
primary component of personality and the ego is the component of personality
that is responsible for dealing with reality. The ego develops from the id and
ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the
From Barry‘s book, it is stated that superego could be described as a
condition when we are very aware, so that we could think clearly and we could
differentiate which is good or bad. The three of them should balance each other, if
not; the patient could fearly having mental disorder (Barry, 2002: 97).
b. Defense Mechanism
There are several psychic procedures by ego whose function is to lessen or
even avoid something that will bother our mind. One of the terms might be
called as transference, it is a situation whereby the character under analysis
redirects the emotions recalled towards someone or something to release the
tension which is buried, thus, the resentment felt towards a tragedy might be
reactivated but directed against something else. This might be seen as defense
mechanism, that is, as psychic procedures for avoiding painful admissions or
recognitions. Another one of them is dream work, the process by which real
events or desires are transformed into dream images. These include:
displacement, whereby one person or event is represented by another which in
some way linked or associated with it, perhaps because of a similar sounding
word, or by some form of symbolic substitution. Thus, characters, motivation
and events are represented in dreams in very ‗literary‘ way, involving the
translation, by the dream work, or abstract ideas or feelings into concrete images
The desire to do something or to have something is as big as the dream
work itself. The dream work grows bigger following the bitter past event he/she
gets in the past. It links a substitution and could lead into the unbalanced
personality which id dominates more than two others.
In Freud‘s theory there are several defense mechanisms that are often
revealed by an individual. The first time, he just develops the basic concept of
each mechanism, and then later, descriptions of many defense mechanisms are
developed more by his daughter and followers. If it has been mentioned that
transference is one division of defense mechanism, some partial of defense
mechanism will be reviewed in following sections.
In his book, Jerry Burger states that repression is the most important of
the defense mechanism. Repression is an active effort by the ego to push the
threatening material, such as the bad drives from id, out of conscious or keeping
out that drives from ever reaching consciousness. For example, one night a boy
sees his father physically assaulting his mother. When later asked about the
experience, the boy insists he has never seen anything at all like that. He may not
be lying. Instead, he buries the horrifying scene that he sees to be told to others
and therefore simply repressed it out of conscious. Freud says that each of us uses
this kind of mechanism, for we all have material in our unconscious mind we
would rather not bring into awareness. Using repression with a large number of
needed, or else the battle of reaching stable personality can be lost (Burger, 2010:
47).
Repression hides the drives by id and throws them in the part of
unconscious mind. And then what will happen to the drives next? Freud assures
that the drives will still maintain in unconscious mind. Then, this drives
sometimes will urge to go back to conscious mind within the same shift until it
creates anxiety which cannot be controlled by that individual. After that, the
drives will be expressed out by that individual into different types of outcome. It
could be a positive outcome or negative outcome that will result other people
harmed. The pressure by the unwanted drives also could be distributed into
dream, mistaken utterance, or even other defense mechanism (Feist, 2009: 35).
The next mechanism is called sublimation. It is to be said as the most
mature and the most productive way to fade anxiety. Many psychoanalysts often
refer sublimation as the only truly successful defense mechanism. When using
sublimation, the ego distributes the threatening unconscious drives into culturally
and socially acceptable actions. For example, the aggressive id drives can be
sublimated into playing hockey or football. Sublimation is the channel of
repression which modifies the socially unacceptable drives and also anxiety into
creativity. The sublimation work is really productive because the id is allowed to
express its aggression while ego does not have to use energy to hold back the
C. Theoretical Framework
To answer the two questions stated in the first chapter, the writer use
several theories to support them. There are three theories that will be used to
support the analysis. Firstly, the writer uses the theory of character and
characterization by M.H. Abrams. This theory is used to analyze the main
character. Secondly, the writer uses theory of characterization by M.J. Murphy.
This theory is applied in order to understand the main character deeper from the
novel. Thirdly, the writer uses the theory of element of personality by Freud. This
theory is used to analyze the relation of the personality‘s character and the events
that happens in the story, mostly the daily life. This third theory is used to answer
the question number two that is stated in problem formulation by inserting the
correlation between the connection of Frankenstein‘s characteristics and the id,
ego, and superego which sometimes the ego dominates the others and so on. Later
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of the study is the famous British novel Frankenstein by Mary
Shelley. The first edition was published in London in 1818, but here I use the
e-book version that is taken from an internet site
(http://www.planetebook.com/ebooks/ Frankenstein.pdf) on March 09 2013. The
eBook has 277 pages and divided into 24 chapters. Since the novel was very
famous and until now is still well-known, there are some film series and
adaptations had been made based on this horror novel. This story influenced
many people to create films of new version of Frankenstein that have a
connection to the story. There is a movie adaptation made in year 1994 named
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that is considered as the most faithful film
adaptation from the novel.
Frankenstein talks about a human that is having knowledge to build a
monstrous creature due to his dynamic personality. He builds the creature from
the wreckage and corpse, so that the creature looks very ugly and makes it
as happiness, sorrow, defenselessness and so on. These dynamic expressions are
part of the story that is interesting to be analyzed.
B. Approach of Study
The approach that is used for this research is psychoanalytic approach.
The writer uses this approach because this approach is the most suitable and
proper in order to answer the problem formulation. Psychoanalytic criticism is a
form of literary criticism which uses some of the techniques of psychoanalysis in
the interpretation of literature.
Psychoanalysis itself is a form of therapy which aims to cure mental
disorder by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious element in
mind (Barry, 2002: 96). Furthermore, Barry expounds that ―the classic method of
doing this is by getting through inside the mind of the patient so by letting the
patient talk freely or express the story‖ (2002: 96). After that, in such way the
repressed fears and conflicts which are causing the problems all appear and be
brought to the conscious mind and being faced by the patient instead of still
buried inside of the unconsciousness part of the mind. The theories are developed
by the figure that is famous when we discuss about psychoanalytic criticism,
This approach is suitable and proper for this research because by using
psychoanalytic criticism, the writer can analyze and investigate the conscious and
unconscious element in mind of a character. It is useful for studying the
psychological element of a character in the novel which can cause the swing of
the conflicts.
C. Method of Study
The method of this study is library research. The primary source of the
study was the e-book from novel entitled Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley.
The secondary sources, such as some relevant books on psychology and literature,
criticism and articles from internet were also used as secondary source.
This method allows several steps to analyze this research. The first step
was reading the novel and focusing on the main character of the novel. While
reading the through pages, the writer also read some books, articles, and criticism
related to the topic. The writer used the sources from internet for gaining
information. The second step was starting to answer the problem formulation and
that was by applying the approach and the theories that were taken from studies.
The third and final step was drawing a conclusion based on the answer and the
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
A. The Character of Victor Frankenstein
In order to understand the second problem formulation well, it is
important to know the characteristics of Victor Frankenstein. The writer analyzes
the characteristics of Victor Frankenstein to help the reader understand the points
of the future discussion. The theory that is used to analyze the characteristic of the
character is from Murphy‘s theory in his book Understanding Unseen. The writer
uses personal description, character as seen by others speech, the thought the
character has in mind and past life to analyze the character.
Firstly Victor Frankenstein is the major character in the novel
Frankenstein who has various characteristics. He also comes from the famous and
rich family, because his father is really well known in town. Since he is young, he
gets a lot of affection and love from his parents. That is why he is very close to
his parents, mostly the mother:
Besides his condition that is comfortable, Victor Frankenstein is a man
who is born in an educated family. Victor Frankenstein has is seen as a lovable
son for his parents since he was young, so his parents put some faith and hope to
their only child. Their parents want to lead him to be the same as theirs, so, when
he was still young, he was taught of many things about being good to society.
Mostly parents want to have a child whose personality and attitude are good as his
parents, or even better. The ancestors of Victor had been for many years
counselors and parts in a government. His father is respected by all for his
integrity and his attention to public services. His mother comes from unfortunate
family, so then, remembering what she had suffered before married, she feels a
big concern towards the poor. His mother is full of tenderness that always
spreads love to her surroundings. Because of Frankenstein's family is full of love,
he is absorbed by their attitude then becomes like them.
With this deep consciousness of what they owed towards the being to which they had given life, added to the active spirit of tenderness that animated both, it may be imagined that while during every hour of my infant life I received a lesson of patience, of charity, and of self control, I was so guided by a silken cord that all seemed but one train of enjoyment to me (I: 27).
Besides that, Victor is also very attracted to study and have an ability to
learn something new around him since he is five. Once he has a desire to learn or
do something, he will undergo them passionately. He is focusing just in specific
My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement; but by some law in my temperature they were turned not towards childish pursuits but to an eager desire to learn, and not to learn all things indiscriminately. I confess that neither the structure of languages, nor the code of governments, nor the politics of various states possessed attractions for me. It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world (II:32-33).
In some ways, it could be said that he is an irresponsible person. He has
the ability and knowledge from his professor who is majoring in natural
philosophy to make the dead body comes to be alive again by the power electric
shock or the process of galvanization. It can be said that he could make the dead
live again. He tries to make one using the unnatural components and after he
finishes it, he just runs away because of scared of the outlook of the creature:
The miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs. Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then (V: 59-60).
He leaves the hideous creature in his apartment, without explaining who
he is, and why he is created back into live. But then, this kind of personality will
make his story becomes a horror and sorrowful. The death of his brother,
leaves a hand mark print on the neck and the hand print is the size of gigantic
person. And the wrongly accused murderer is be the babysitter of the victim,
Justine, who is really close and be considered as part of his family. The
irresponsible Frankenstein leaves horrifying memory because of what he has
done.
He can also be seen as a passive person after knowing about what he says
in mind. After the death of William, he could tell the truth of what is really going
on, to help the accused Justine. Instead, he just feels terrified and does nothing but
is regretful. It could lessen the number of victim that his fiend creature causes.
The story tells that Justine is being slandered by the fiend to revenge irresponsible
Frankenstein. It would be nice to add the death of Frankenstein family member
for being ignorant. It seems that Frankenstein is fearful to tell the real truth, but
the ego represses it that he is not being fearful and creating a reason why he does
not want to tell about his creation. His idea is if he tells the reality to everyone, no
one will believe and he will be presumed as insane. But, it is worth to try, and the
juries‘ decision might be different of death sentence. However, he is just being
silent and accepting the tragedy:
As the result of being passive, he, again, feels sorry to himself for what he
does, which is nothing:
And I the cause! A thousand times rather would I have confessed myself guilty of the crime ascribed to Justine, but I was absent when it was committed, and such declaration would have been considered as the ravings of madman and would not have exculpated her who suffer through me (VIII: 90).
When the trial is ongoing, the witnesses can report what they witness and
many stories show up with different version of each person and different opinion
about Justine. Some people prove that she is guilty because there is evidence. At
the time, it is given a time for witnesses to tell what happen and may also defend
the accused. Frankenstein just stays still and be passive, only hearing other
witnesses speak while he knows everything that happened. After the time of
witnesses giving explanation is over, he just keeps regretting of what he has done
while cursing his creation:
I believed in her innocence; I knew it. Could the demon who had (I did not for a minute doubt) murdered my brother also in his hellish sport have betrayed the innocent to death and ignominy? I could not sustain the horror of my situation, and when I perceived that the popular voice and the countenance of the judges had already condemned my unhappy victim, I rushed out of the court in agony. The tortures of the accused did not equal mine; she was sustained by innocence, but the fangs of remorse tore my bosom and would not forgo their hold (VIII: 95).
According to Murphy, we can acknowledge a person‘s characteristic
through the explanation of past events. Victor Frankenstein also can be described
until old, he still goes to many places, even goes to dangerous places that rarely
person visit. He enjoys travelling around the world and sightseeing the wild
nature, the green of grass field, the dazzling sunshine, even the thunderous sound
of ice avalanches. He tends to repress the pressure he has by travelling. After the
death of Justine, he finds himself so desperate. He has sorry feeling of what has
happened and also anger or even hold grudge to the fiend he created. Therefore,
he represses it through travelling to Chamounix summit, a place which he had
come to when he was young:
Sometimes I could cope with the sullen despair that overwhelmed me, but sometimes the whirlwind passion of my soul drove me to seek by bodily exercise and by change of place, some relief from my intolerable sensations. It was during an access of this kind that I suddenly left my home, and bending my steps towards the near alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, to forget myself and my ephemeral, because human, sorrows. My wanderings were directed towards the valley of Chamounix which I had visited it frequently during my boyhood (IX: 106).
He also could be described as an ambitious person. There are two
significant times when he is persistently ambitious, it is when he creates the
creature and after his creation murders the people he loves. He does not care of
what happen to him, about his health, about his life, he has to get what he wants.
Even before his last breath, he still holds grudge against the fiend he creates and
wants to hunt it until death. If he could not finish the task he makes, he will not
forgive himself. He wants to hunt his creation so that he can revenge the death of
his beloved family. It can be said also that he is unforgiving. Nobody will not let
Do so, if you will; but I will not. You may give up your purpose, but mine is assigned by heaven, and I dare not. I am weak, but surely the spirits who assist my vengeance will endow me with sufficient strength (XXIV: 268).
B. The Dynamic of Id, Ego, and Superego
By relating to the theory of psychoanalysis, the writer could elaborate that
the author describes the character of Victor Frankenstein dynamically. There are
swings of personality that can be related to Freud‘s theory of psychoanalysis. The
interaction of id, ego and superego is the process of the dynamic of personality.
The personality element id is strong when he unaware makes the creature. Id is a division state of mind whose the main purpose is to fulfill the principle of
pleasure. Victor Frankenstein wants to create a creature that is almost exactly the
‗same‘ as his mother who died long ago because of scarlet fever. Same in here is
not the same as his mother physically, but the same behavior. The excuse of
Victor Frankenstein for creating this creature is because he wants somebody to
represent his mother‘s existence. The passionate taste when he studies the science
of natural philosophy makes him ignore and neglect all the environments, like his
family and Elizabeth, the next to be the wife. The obsession to build something
like this is the sign of mental disorder that Victor Frankenstein has. Victor
Frankenstein, the creator, has a traumatic problem in seeking the represent of the
As quoted in the novel from Mary Shelley, Frankenstein:
She died calmly, and her countenance expressed affection even in death. I need not describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by that most irreparable evil, the void that presents itself to the soul, and the despair that is exhibited on the countenance. It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she whom we saw every day and whose very existence appeared a part of our own can have departed forever—that the brightness of a beloved eye can have been extinguished and the sound of a voice so familiar and dear to the ear can be hushed, never more to be heard. These are the reflections of the first days; but when the lapse of time proves the reality of the evil, then the actual bitterness of grief commences (III: 40).
We can see that he still loves his mother from what he says and he cannot
let it happen. Even though day passes, he still has an imagination of his mother in
mind; it could probably happen because he is very close to the family, moreover
to his mother. After his mother dies, he wants to use his knowledge to prevent or
evade the death of the rest of the family or someone he loves, so that, he will not
feel a loss again in the future:
I expressed myself in measured terms, with the modesty and deference due from a youth to his instructor, without letting escape (inexperience in life would have made me ashamed) any of the enthusiasm which stimulated my intended labors. I requested his advice concerning the books I ought to procure (III: 47).
He also has background and characteristics that are different from other
person. He likes to study a lot while his friends play outside joyfully. When he
grows up he attends the college and finds that has the same mind and interest, that
have a willing to be his disciple. He just wants to keep in touch with people that
have same interest with him:
I beheld the corruption of death succeed to the blooming cheek of life; I saw how the worm inherited the wonders of the eye and brain. I paused, examining and analyzing all the minutiae of causation, as exemplified in the change from life to death, and death to life, until from the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in upon me— among so many men of genius who had directed their inquiries towards the same science, that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret (IV: 51).
The id shows when he wants to research the science, his final purpose is
turning human becomes immortal and far from sickness. In the middle of the
process, he even says that calling demon is also allowed. When researching the
science, he says to himself that this activity will lead him to doom because it is
wrong activity. Even so, his superego tells him that he has to leave this torturing
research. In the end, it is unavoidable. Destiny has chosen his path and his greed
has destroyed his conscience. He wants to be acknowledged by people about this
research and at the same time, he desires to help people by using his invention.
Because he wants to protect people he loves from the death, he
unconsciously turns into an egoistic person that he wants to cheat death. He uses
his knowledge to create a being by reviving a dead body. The part of
unconsciousness from Victor Frankenstein unconsciously appears and surrounds
him because of the trauma he has. He even ignores laws and tries to collect the
because of his lost control of obsession and motivating himself to create the
monster.
In the beginning he tells that he has deep feeling to his family. The
relation between him and his family is really close; to his father, Elizabeth,
William and Ernest, his brother. He does not realize that he has progressing on
experiment in two years staring on the hideous thing for this whole time. Even
though he keeps all the details on his work, but still he feels dissatisfied after
seeing his creation makes a motion. He supposes to recognize of what he is
working, what research he is doing on, but instead the unconscious part of
Frankenstein‘s mind is really strong and suppresses the reality that he will create
a beautiful creature. We can see it from the process Victor working on the
research. He neglects his surroundings and only focuses on one thing:
Two years passed in this manner, during which I paid no visit to Geneva, but was engaged, heart, and soul, in the pursuit of discoveries which I hope to make. None but those who have experienced them can conceive of the enticements of science (IV: 50).
His body cannot restrain anymore. He endures it and forces his body to do
what he has in mind:
been guilty of a crime. Sometimes I grew alarmed at the wreck I perceived that I had become; the energy of my purpose alone sustained me (IV: 57).
At the first time, the desire of science is motivated by the coolness of
knowing things like making the immortal and something related to resurrection,
but now he realizes the reality that it is just fantasy. He has to face the modern
science that is more real. He learns that there is no way that he could continue that
ancient science. But, later on, the desire to study the mystery of the nature which
is full of secrets back to its way after hearing the courage words uttered by his
professor, Waldman. He tells Frankenstein that the ancient experts had found the
miracle, the basis state of nature, and had found the new energy with unlimited
force. He finds his master as the master finds his disciple. They share the same
interest that will lead to Frankenstein‘s future. He teaches him everything. The id
shows again when he meets someone with the same interest. The professor is the
second trigger that makes Frankenstein come back to its past road, back to the
study that must not be learnt. He studies days and nights. He comes back to his
first purpose of studying science:
The ego as described in Freud‘s theory also appears inside Frankenstein‘s
character. Ego is a division of mind whose function is to handle the amount of id
and superego to be sized equally. Ego is the conscious mind that decides about
something which acceptable or not acceptable. Ego has to control the repeatedly
irrational demand from id ad also the realistic demand from superego.
The ego of Frankenstein shows when he makes deal with the creature he
makes in the summit of Montanvert. Since his heart is moved by the creature‘s
proposal, that is to make the same creature as his but the female version to be the
companion of life, Victor Frankenstein is conscious that he has to be responsible
for what he has done. It ends with the solution that Frankenstein will make the
female companion of life of the creature. He realizes that the monster is just like
human being, but just the appearance is different. It deserves to get justice. By
doing this he also could stop the harshness that the creature does to his family:
Another ego is shown by Victor Frankenstein when he has a thought in
mind, that if he creates the second creature, it might be turned to be
uncontrollable creature, then have children, and adding the monstrous race into
this world is a really bad decision:
As I sat, a train of reflection occurred to me which led me to consider the effects of what I was now doing. Three years before, I was engaged in the same manner and had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my heart and filled it forever with the bitterest remorse. I was now about to form another being of whose dispositions I was alike ignorant; she might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate and delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness. He had sworn to quit the neighborhood of man and hide himself in deserts, but she had not; and she, who in all probability was to become a thinking and reasoning animal, might refuse to comply with a compact made before her creation. They might even hate each other; the creature who already lived loathed his own deformity, and might he not conceive a greater abhorrence for it when it came before his eyes in the female form? She also might turn with disgust from him to the superior beauty of man; she might quit him, and he be again alone, exasperated by the fresh provocation of being deserted by one of his own species (XX: 202).
He cannot let himself to be the murderer again. Therefore, he decides to
stop all of his research without letting the thing knows about this,
I left the room and locking the door, made a solemn vow in my own heart never to resume my labours; and then, with trembling steps, I sought my own apartment. I was alone; none were near me to dissipate the gloom and relieve me from the sickening oppression of the most terrible reveries (XX: 204).
He might break the promise he makes with the creature, but in here, he
thinks very clearly that it could happen. If a devil race comes to this world it
keeping his promise, but on the other side, this could make the world turn to
chaos (with just the existence of first creature, there are a lot of innocent people
who die). In confusion, he decides to stop what he thinks is right at first:
I am not mad,‘ I cried energetically; ‗the sun and the heavens, who have viewed my operations, can bear witness of my truth. I am the assassin of those most innocent victims; they died by my machinations. A thousand times would I have shed my own blood, drop by drop, to have saved their lives; but I could not, my father, indeed I could not sacrifice the whole human race‘ (XXI: 228).
Besides ego and id, there is another personality element, superego, which
dominates Frankenstein‘s mind. The superego is strong after he made the creature. Superego is a division of mind that can be related to morality and
idealistic of individual‘s personality. The working of superego is by controlling
unacceptable and aggressive drives through repression. Superego cannot produce
repression by itself thus by commanding ego to control it. Superego can be said as
the conscience of an individual that tend to give order to a being about this thing
is acceptable to do or not.
When he is still young, he had been taught about loving each other, about
the perspective of helping each other from his parents. Despite somehow he is
seen as an egoistic person, indirectly, he had learned the lesson of the valuable
life with others, that we should help and appreciate other people. By that, he
One day Victor Frankenstein dreamt of Elizabeth that starts to look pale
and almost die and he also dreamt of his dead mother in his arms, and there are
grave worms in the body. He runs away after seeing the creature alive and never
come back to his apartment. By seeing this, it could be elaborated that he realizes
that even the dead will always be dead, cannot be resurrected again. He also feels
sorry to the horror he made, making the unnatural creature,
In vain; I slept, indeed, but I was disturbed by the wildest dreams. I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel. I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; when, by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window shutters, I beheld the wretch— the miserable monster whom I had created… Mingled with this horror, I felt the bitterness of disappointment; dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now become a hell to me; and the change was so rapid, the overthrow so complete! (V: 59, 60).
The superego of Victor sometimes appears slightly, in the midst of
creating the monster. It is when he knows what he learns is wrong, but the id is
stronger because of curiosity and it suppresses the conscience that actually what
he is doing is wrong. He is led with a strong imagery and way of thinking of
Another superego personality that is shown by Victor Frankenstein is
when he realizes of what he has done, the two of his family members got killed
because of his mistake, creating the creature, and irresponsibly just leave it that
way, so that the creature gets lonely and avenges his grudge by killing
Frankenstein‘s relatives. His cousin, William, gets killed by the creature and his
servant, Justine, who is like a part of Frankenstein family is blamed for the
murder of William:
A thousand times rather would I have confessed myself guilty of the crime ascribed to Justine, but I was absent when it was committed, and such a declaration would have been considered as the ravings of a madman and would not have exculpated her who suffered through me…. Thus I might proclaim myself a madman, but not revoke the sentence passed upon my wretched victim. She perished on the scaffold as a murderess! From the tortures of my own heart, I turned to contemplate the deep and voiceless grief of my Elizabeth. This also was my doing! And my father‘s woe and the desolation of that late so smiling home all was the work of my thrice-accursed hands! Thus spoke my prophetic soul, as, torn by remorse, horror, and despair, I beheld those I loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to my unhallowed arts (VIII: 90, 100).
After the incident of murdering, Victor Frankenstein always thinks before
deciding something. He makes a strong decision for agreeing to create the female
companion for the creature. His heart is weakened after hearing the reasonable
story told by the creature. At the first time, he just swears on his creation and right
away wants to terminate him. However, he is moved by the story as wanting to
decreasing his misery. His creation actually has soft heart and really reasoning
person (if could be called a person) and Frankenstein is willing to help him in one
condition he should leave Europe and disappear from the human race.
I was moved. I shuddered when I thought of the possible consequences of my consent, but I felt that there was some justice in his argument. His tale and the feelings he now expressed proved him to be a creature of fine sensations. His words had a strange effect upon me. I compassionated him and sometimes felt a wish to console him (XVII: 176-177).
From above, we can see that the author creates the character of Victor
Frankenstein which is dynamic. Bad behaviors, good behaviors are shown in the
narrative work, in order to make the story not flat. The changing tune of id and
superego is often shown and resulting the different effect. We can see the
comparison of id when sometimes dominates or superego when sometimes
1.
2.
3.
The picture number 1 is often referred to Frankenstein‘s psychological
mind in the early part of the story. It could be assumed that it is because he is still
young and the mind still desires to fulfill his goals or dream to achieve. After his
hideous creation makes a motion, he irresponsibly ignores it and leaves his
chamber without taking care the creation which is full of questions to ask to its
master.
After the accident of the killing of his family relatives, Frankenstein‘s
number 2. After his brother is murdered, he knows that the killer is his own
creation who seeks for revenge because of being abandoned. Frankenstein then is
filled with guilt for what he has done and regretting it. After William, Justine, and
his beloved friend, Clerval die, the superego gets stronger and stronger until he is
feels sick like about to die.
The picture number 3 shows the balance amount of division of mind
which ego controls id and superego. In Frankenstein‘s case, it is rare to be
mentioned that his ego controls the others. It only can be seen when he makes a
deal and be responsible to his own creation, at the same time, his action of
cancelling the creation‘s demand is somehow acceptable. It could be worst if the
world is full of artificial human and could vanish the human race.
From the comparison above, the picture number 2 is shown more in the
novel, because the main character, Victor Frankenstein, keeps regretting and feels
sorry until his entire family members die. The picture number 1 is only shown at
the beginning of the story and picture number 3 is nudging Frankenstein‘s
psychological mind in the middle of the story but just small portion.
The righteous division of mind is when ego covers the demands offered by
both id and superego. When id dominates the mind, our mind turns to
unconscious and only want to do something that is related to pleasure and will not
