A Psychoanalytic Reading of Hedda Gabler
Attempting a psychoanalytic reading of a given text is a bit like attempting to understand a city by examining its sewer system: helpful, yet limited.
There are several reasons for using psychoanalysis as a critical literary theory; the critic might be interested in gleaning some sort of subconscious authorial intent, approaching the text as a "cathartic documentation" (my own term) of the author's psyche; the method might be useful in judging whether characters are well-rendered, whether they are truly three-dimensional and, therefore, worth our while as readers (thus satisfying the pleasure principle); finally, in a larger sense, the psychoanalytic approach can be employed to actually tell us something about our own humanity, by examining the relative continuity (or lack thereof) of basic Freudian theories exemplified in written works over the course of centuries.
If we are indeed scouring the text for what I call "cathartic documentation," we must, at the outset, look at the period in which the work was written. Pre-Freudian works, that is to say those poems, plays, short stories, and novels written before the late 19th century, are the major candidates for success with this approach. However, 20th century works, beginning with the modernist authors, pose a problem. How are we to be sure that the writer is not consciously playing with Freud's theories, perhaps even deliberately expanding and distorting them for additional effect? Herein lies the problem with Hedda Gabler: The play was written at roughly the same time that Freud was just beginning to publish his theories. The question is "who influenced whom?" Obviously Freud was taken with Ibsen's realizations of certain fundamental ideas which were to be the foundation of his (Freud's) work: repression, neurosis, paranoia, Oedipal complex, phallic symbols, and so on; all of these factors are present in Hedda Gabler. The question remains, however, whether Ibsen had caught wind of Freud's work and decided to utilize it in the play. Perhaps I am wrong, but having read A Doll's House and An Enemy of the People, both earlier works by some ten years, Hedda Gabler seems to embody Freudian concepts to so much farther an extent that the possibility of a conscious effort to create Freudian neurotic types and set them loose on one another does not seem altogether outside the realm of possibility.
Whether consciously or unconsciously, however, Ibsen has created extremely well-developed characters.
The Road by Cormac Mccarthy is a grim, terrifying story about the future of America. The world is destroyed after an unknown catastrophe. A man and his son, seemingly the only survivors, trek through the barren land searching for food and trying to survive. They find groups of savages along the way and are almost killed numerous times. One of the best ways to look at McCarthy’s work is through a psychoanalytic lense. This type of lense allows readers to look through a window into the author’s mind and discover what they really meant. Author Snezana Djuric puts it this way “Psychoanalytic criticism tells about how a work is formed and about the meaning of that formation” (Djurić 4). Psychoanalysis provides a deeper reasoning underneath the words
The movie Girl, Interrupted, written by Susanna Kaysen, is a good text to use for a Psychoanalytic Criticism lens. A memoir turned into a movie about a young girl being admitted to a psych ward after trying to end her life and living with a mental illness and finding treatment is a great example to show what Psychoanalytic Criticism really is. “The forgetting or ignoring of unresolved conflicts, unadmitted desires, or traumatic past events, so that they are forced out of the conscious into the realm of the unconscious” (Barry, 97). In applying psychoanalytic criticism the definition of psychoanalysis itself must be understood. It is a form of therapy that is used to help cure mental disorders “By investigating the interaction of the conscious
According to the uses and gratification theory, audiences are goal oriented and select media that satisfies their needs. Although needs vary per individual, in general, they can be classified into five categories. Cognitive needs involve increasing one’s understand by absorbing new information and social integrative needs concern creating and maintaining relationships. Tension release relates to the concept of escapism and personal integrative needs implicate reaffirming or gaining credibilityIn addition, augmented reality generates hedonic benefits such as enjoyment, physical activity, and flow. Flow, in particular, is denotatively linked to telepresence - it is defined as the “holistic experience that people feel when they act with total involvement.” When individuals experience flow, they feel in control, abandon their insecurities, and encounter a distortion of their temporal and subjective experiences (Rauschnabel, P. A., Rossmann, A., & tom Dieck, M.,
that Freud concluded reflects in some of his work and even in his theory: Psychoanalytic
This passage from the denouement Henrik Ibsen’s play, Hedda Gabler, before Hedda’s suicide, is an illustration of the vulnerability and defeat of the impetuous and manipulative titular character. Ibsen develops Hedda’s character by uncovering details about the conflicts between Hedda and the other characters, Judge Brack, Mrs Elvsted, and George Tesman which highlight Hedda’s transformation from an individualistic to despairing individual, conveying the theme of freedom and repression in society.
She is with a group of survivors led by a man named Rick who is an experienced police officer. He confronts her about the murder of two people. Carol tells Rick that she killed the two people because of an infection they had contracted and for others to survive the people had to die. Carol does what has to be done; therefore, she becomes hardened to becoming a killer. The change that Carol experiences because of all the trauma she has experienced leads her to being a killer herself. Carol is able to kill without blinking an eye making her a stronger person in the end. Protecting one’s self without any thought in the end helps others to survive also.
It has been suggested that Hedda Gabler is a drama about the individual psyche -- a mere character study. It has even been written that Hedda Gabler "presents no social theme" (Shipley 333). On the contrary, I have found social issues and themes abundant in this work.
Psychoanalytic Theory itself has, what seems to be, two contradictory halves: Freudian psychoanalysis and Lacanian psychoanalysis. The first half focuses solely on the author and the unconscious mind; the second considers the unconscious, but prefers to concentrate on outside influences by deconstructing the text itself. According to Freud, interpretation is achieved by examining conflicts and symbols, such as Freudian slips and dream images. These outlets are help to determine whether an individual’s external behavior coincides (or conflicts) with their internal emotion. Freud placed emphasis on sexuality and the Oedipus complex, which is the idea of repressed sexual feelings toward a parent of opposite sex. He also defined three levels of the subconscious mind: the ego, the super-ego, and the id. Barry explains that the stages align with “the consciousness, the conscience, and the unconscious” respectively (93). On the other hand, Lacan, a follower of Freud, concentrated on the relationship between an author and his or her work. He claimed the two were inexorably connected, that objectivity is nonexistent. In an essence: an author’s personality is used to interpret the text and, in contrast, the text is used to gain insight about the author. Regardless of the emphasis, psychoanalytic criticism engages an
Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen is a play about Hedda, a woman living in Christiana, Norway in the 1860’s who manipulates others, but her efforts produce negative results. During this era, there were Victorian values and ethics which were followed by almost all. The main values comprised of women always marrying and, their husbands taking care of them. Women were always accompanied by chaperone and were not allowed to be left alone with an unfamiliar male. It was Bertrand Russell who said “It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly”. This quote brings light to how Hedda acts on a daily basis where she is driven by possessions. In Hedda Gabler the theme of internal pressure is portrayed throughout the play. This can be seen through Hedda’s greed and materialism, her uncaring attitude and her manipulative personality.
Psychoanalytic criticism is a term used to describe how and why a person behaves. There are two different types of psychoanalytic criticisms which were developed by Freud and Jung. Freud’s archetypes are the most common in “The Tell Tale Heart.” Freud’s archetypes are displayed throughout “The Tell Tale Heart” by how the narrator shows Id, which is the most dominant, as he kills the old man, Superego, as he shows remorse, and planning to kill displaying Ego.
In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne indirectly addresses social issues that were occurring in the time period during which the book was written. Some of these have proven to have great effects on the characters of the Puritan society. The act of repression is ridding the conscious mind of "all our unhappy psychological events", which affects two of the main characters immensely (Hazlet slide four). An explanation for this can be found within psychoanalytic criticism. Psychoanalysis is often used when examining literature because it helps to "better understand human behavior" (Hazlet slide two). According to Freud, the author of psychoanalysis, it is almost impossible to control the subconscious mind. Freud also believed that people are driven by "unconscious desires, fears, needs, and conflicts" (Hazlet slide three). Several of these qualities display themselves through the main characters within The Scarlet Letter.
Art became a big influence during The Black Death (1347-1351). The plague killed about 19 to 38 million people and it caused people to start questioning the church or become deeply pious. Also, The Black Death was the beginning for people to become more secular, and self-focused. Another big problem that led to the cause of art was the Great Schism. The Great Schism (1378-1417) started
By considering such arguments, psychoanalysis can be said to have no ultra fundamental meaning when assessing an author’s work. For former advocate of this analysis, Frederic...
Literary criticism is used as a guideline to help analyze, deconstruct, interpret, or even evaluate literary works. Each type of criticism offers its own methods that help the reader to delve deeper into the text, revealing all of its innermost features. New Criticism portrays how a work is unified, Reader-Response Criticism establishes how the reader reacts to a work, Deconstructive Criticism demonstrates how a work falls apart, Historical Criticism illustrates how the history of the author and the author’s time period influence a text, and last of all, Psychological Criticism expresses how unconscious motivations drive the author in the creation of their work as well as how the reader’s motivations influence their own interpretation of the text (Lynn 139, 191). This creates a deep level of understanding of literature that simply cannot be gained through surface level reading. If not one criticism is beneficial to the reader, then taking all criticisms or a mixture of specific criticisms into consideration might be the best way to approach literary
several times about his new beautiful wife and how lucky he is to have been the one that was