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
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.
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
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).
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 Dictiona ry 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).
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.
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
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).
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,
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).
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
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.
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).
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,
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.
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.
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.
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).
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).
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
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).
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
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).
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 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).
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.
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).
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).
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).
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.
personality of being ambitious about his research. He forgets his surroundings and be blind by the excitement of science. He will go through many obstacles in order to obtain his goal. That is when the id is stronger than ego and superego.
However, when our mind is full of superego, it also will affect something that is bad to our mind and body. If the superego is stronger than two of others, it will stimulate a great guilt by the individual. When Superego is stronger, a person will always feel that what he does is wrong and unacceptable to society. We can relate this to Frankenstein‘s story when he feels responsible for the death of all his
family member but not doing his task. It all turns to a big depression and makes his body weak and always attacked by fever.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
As a mankind who has sense, we cannot evade that there must be something that hurt our feeling in the past. Sometimes when the memory comes back again in our visualization, we will face a situation that we have an intention to do something for removing the pain memory. It could be done by revealing anger or doing something unconsciously. Victor Frankenstein is dealing with that problem that he could not forget the sweet memory with his family, moreover his close relationship to his mother. This brings Frankenstein to invent a monstrous creature, personification of human, but just bigger and scarier than the real, because it is made of raw material that are taken from dissection room and graveyard.
His unconscious mind becomes strong and he always keeps his mind to create and create, even forgetting and does not have intention to meet his family. He is too focus about his motivation to make the dead lives again, so there will be no one who he loves to go forever (died) again. Cannot balancing about conscious and unconscious is same as having mental disorder and fearly could make us do something terrible for others.
people‘s mind when they are still young and as the time pass by, they will understand
the good and bad of things, and later the superego will become stronger. The older people, the stronger the superego is.
In the beginning of the story, Frankenstein is described as a person who always keeps family affection. And also, he seems having some good characteristics in him. He is a genius, kindhearted to his relations, and a brave man whose hobby is traveling around Europe. After quite a moment, the conflict rises after he starts inventing the secret nature of life and after that; he only focuses on studying and believing that he can create an animate. The unconscious part of mind (id) rises, covering the other state of mind, and after he finishes creating the creature, realize that what he is resulting is not the same as he wanted before. It may be concluded that the id is strong and take control of Frankenstein desire to make immortal creature.
The superego of Victor Frankenstein appears often and keeps stronger after the creature kills the relatives of Frankenstein, Frankenstein becomes angry to his creature and at the same time, he fears that his creation will kill all the human being and conquering the human world. After being surrounded by guilt, it means that the superego, or might be said the conscience of Frankenstein becomes uncontrollable. He turns to be a very anxious person and is always sick.
BIBLIOGRAPGHY
Abrams, M.H. A glossa ry of literary terms 7th edition. New York, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 1999.
Aribowo, Dadik Prasetya. ―The personality disorders of characters a s the result of dissatisfaction of life in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein‖. Undergraduate thesis. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University. 2003
Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory:An introduction to literary and culturaltheory.Manchester: Manchester University Press. 2002
Bedalamanti, Anthony F. ―Why did Mary Shelley write Frankenstein?‖ Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Fall, 2006), pp. 419-439
Burger, Jerry M. Introduction to Personality 8thedition. Santa Clara. Cengage
Hicks, Elizabeth. Psychoanalytic criticism and Frankenstein. 2006.
(
http://voices.yahoo.com/psychoanalytic-criticism-frankenstein-107357.html?cat=9). June 02, 2013
Morris, Charles G. Psychology an Introduction. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. 1998
Perrine, Laurence. Literature, Sound, and Sense. New York: Hancourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1999.
Statt, David A. The concise Dictionary of Psychology. New York: Routledge. 2003 Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. (http://www.planetebook.com/ebooks/
