英語專業(yè)畢業(yè)論文弗洛伊德理論下的厄舍府的倒塌人物內(nèi)涵分析

1、英語專業(yè)畢業(yè)論文：弗洛伊德理論下的厄舍府的倒塌人物內(nèi)涵分析 中國人民大學(xué)本科學(xué)生畢業(yè)論文 弗洛伊德理論下的厄舍府的倒塌人物內(nèi)涵分析an analysis of the connotation of characters in the fall of the house of usher in the light of freudian theory 作 者： 學(xué) 院： 外國語學(xué)院 專 業(yè)： 英語 年 級： 2006級 學(xué) 號： 2006201253 指導(dǎo)老師： 論文成績： 日 期： 2010年 4月 10日 an analysis of the connotation of character

2、s in the fall of the house of usher in the light of freudian theory _ a bachelors thesispresented tothe department of english languagerenmin university of china _ in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for thebachelor of arts degree _ byke shanshanapril, 2010 abstract edgar allan poe was an impor

3、tant novelist，poet and critic of the 19th century america. he had a unique style and created various characters in his works. the fall of the house of usher is one of his best-known short stories of mystery and horror. in this story, poe shaped the hero, named roderick usher, to an extreme person wh

4、o had a totally weird inner world. he seemed to be lunatic and eccentric and even couldnt distinguish reality from illusion. the narrator was the one who had reason and wit but nearly lost himself. and madeline, the twin sister of roderick, was oppressed and controlled. the study attempts to analyze

5、 the three characters and the relationship between them in the light of freudian theory. in the end, a conclusion is drawn that roderick, the narrator, and madeline, respectively represent the three basic parts of psyche, namely, id, ego and super-ego. key words: freudian theory, psyche, id, ego, su

6、per-ego.摘要 埃德加?愛倫?坡是十九世紀(jì)美國重要的小說家、詩人和評論家，他是恐怖小說的大師，也使哥特式小說達(dá)到巔峰，同時還被譽(yù)為精神分析批評與偵探小說之父。他的作品風(fēng)格獨(dú)一無二，人物形象獨(dú)特多樣。厄舍府的倒塌是坡最著名的短篇恐怖小說之一。在這部小說中，坡延續(xù)了他一貫的哥特式風(fēng)格，譬如故事背景里頹敗的府邸，陰森的墓室；再比如，腐朽沒落的貴族家庭，身染重病的主人公兄妹。從環(huán)境到人物，都營造出一種近乎殘酷的陰暗與血腥。小說的手法和風(fēng)格無疑都是為作品的完整性服務(wù)，從而確立某種效果，展現(xiàn)對人類內(nèi)心的探索。愛倫坡塑造了一個看似精神錯亂的古怪的主人公羅德瑞克，一名神智清醒而又險些迷亂的敘述者，以及被

7、壓迫的失去自我的女主人公馬德琳。諸多評論家都圍繞著羅德瑞克與馬德琳的關(guān)系對該作品展開了深入探討，但卻忽視了敘述者對故事的重要意義。本文擬從弗洛伊德人格基本結(jié)構(gòu)的理論入手，對上述三個人物角色進(jìn)行綜合分析，得出以下結(jié)論：羅德瑞克、敘述者及馬德琳分別代表了弗洛伊德所稱的人格的三個基本部分，即本我，自我和超我。代表本我的羅德瑞克在本能欲望的驅(qū)使下，失去理智，行為舉止有悖倫理，他所做的一切只為滿足內(nèi)心深處最直接的欲望。代表自我的敘述者，則作為聯(lián)系本我同外界的橋梁，要在本我、外界和超我三個主人之間周旋，協(xié)調(diào)三者之間的矛盾，因而是最為痛苦的一個。代表超我的馬德琳，雖為完美與道德化身，卻只能在人格組成中處于弱

8、勢。通過這三個角色，愛倫?坡成功地向讀者展示了其對人類內(nèi)心世界的解讀。 關(guān)鍵詞：弗洛伊德，人格，本我，自我，超我table of contents pageabstract.iiichapter 1introduction: the mysterious mental world in poes works1chapter 2sigmund freuds structural model of the psyche4chapter 3roderick usher: the id driven by instinctual desires.6chapter 4the narrator: a co

9、nscious ego in a dilemma12chapter 5madeline usher: the perfect but unfortunate super-ego18chapter 6 conclusion.21bibliography24chapter 1introduction: the mysterious mental world in poes works as a famous writer standing for the romanticism in 19th-century america, poe became world-known, not only fo

10、r his inventing of the detective-fiction genre, but also for his great talents in digging deep into some dark and secret corners in mans heart in his horror fiction. before the modern psychology expatiated and classified mans subconsciousness and unconsciousness, poe had already made unique descript

11、ion and analysis in his works. he was zealous at exposing the darkness and abnormality in human beings mind. in his stories, horror and mystery, craziness and reason, co-exist in a peculiar way. however, the connotation of allan poes works is often vague and sometimes hard to be understood. in order

12、 to clarify the ambiguous meaning of the story, it is necessary to deconstruct the totality of the story itself. the fall of the house of usher 1839 is one of edgar allan poes best-known short stories of mystery and horror. extraordinary atmosphere and background, luxurious language style, horrible

13、and appealing plot are well combined in this splendid short story. the images of decay and death rule the whole context and readers can smell the scent of terror and death right from the beginning to the end. their imaginations go with the incredible events and delicate structures and somber and hor

14、rible atmosphere. readers could hardly help being carried into it, placing themselves in a dark, dull and gray ancient house, and experiencing a thrilling story with the narrator. since the story came out, people have disputed a lot on the symbolic meaning of the story and the hidden connotation. th

15、ere are countless essays on this topic, some of which are well-proved and express unique views, while others may not be that convincing. harry levin, american literary critic, believed that the usher family was a production of an oversensitive civilization which was doomed to perish one day symons 1

16、47 . daniel arbor, also a literary critic, thought that this story revealed the intense confrontation between life, reason and death, insanity and that death finally defeated the goodness, reason and life. daniel hoffman, american poet and essayist, pointed out that the fall of the house of usher ac

17、tually was a piece of love story. richard wilbur, american poet and critic, after analyzing the poem “the haunted palace” in the fall of the house of usher, regarded the house as body of roderick, and the dark inside as the illusion of rodericks mental world. thus he concluded that the fiction can b

18、e read as a journey leading to ones inner heart, and roderick can be viewed as a metaphor of the hypnotic state of the brain symons 147 . besides, many modern critics hold the opinion that roderick buried his sister alive in the tomb to get rid of his sense of guilty because they had incestuous rela

19、tionship. critics who hold this kind of view may neglect an important fact that poe showed no interest in morality, ethic and duty and that his works had no responsibility on achieving didactic goal. as a writer influenced by romanticism, poe only concerned about the mental activities that were able

20、 to reflect the desire and nature of human beings. he didnt mean to convey some moral doctrines, nor would he, in his statements on the nature of literature, allow us to do so. so we can not long maintain such a na?ve perspective on poes fictions. in the last review essay on hawthornes tales, poe cr

21、iticizes the “heresy of the didactic”, the idea that moral edification is a valid object of the imaginative writer. keeping this in mind, we can conclude that what roderick did to his sister is by no means caused by his guilty feelings or self-examination.this thesis is a bold exploration of the con

22、notation of the fall of the house of usher and the three characters in it. the theory of freuds basic structure of personality is employed to analyze the roles of roderick, the narrator, and madeline, who respectively represent the three basic parts of psyche, namely, id, ego and super-ego.chapter 2

23、sigmund freuds structural model of the psyche freuds psychoanalytic personality theory is a science that explores in depth the unconscious field of human beings mental activities, that comprehends mans motivation, personality and mental world, and that greatly impacts the western society in many are

24、as.in psychoanalysis, id, ego and super-ego are the three parts of psyche defined by sigmund freud, the renowned psychoanalyst, in his structural theory. according to this theory, human beings mental activities can be classified into three sorts: id, referring to the most primitive desire which is u

25、nconscious; ego, referring to the part of psyche that coordinated with reality; and super-ego which is the moral part of the structural psyche. freud, origin 196 a series of concepts related to id, ego and super-ego were brought forward to explain the formation and interrelation of conscious and unc

26、onscious by sigmund freud in 1923. however, the terms “id”, “ego” and “super-ego” were not first used by freud but borrowed from latin by james strachey, who translated freuds original terms “das es”, “das ich”, and “das uber-ich” into the present ones, respectively meaning “the it”, “the i” and “th

27、e upper-i” strachey 147 . poes short story the fall of the house of usher can be perceived as a vivid illustration of the three elements of psyche suggested by sigmund freud. in this story, there are three characters in all, each stands for one part of mans psyche, namely, roderick represents the id

28、, the narrator represents the ego, and madeline the super-ego.chapter 3roderick usher: the id driven by instinctual desires the id comprises the driving force of all the requirements to be instinctually satisfied. the basic drives of instincts and desires are like a big pot filled with boiling water

29、. the id acts in accordance with the “pleasure principle” strachey, 216 , eager to be relieved from any pain, tension or discomfort in mind. the id is unconscious as freud described: it is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality, what little we know of it we have learnt from our study of the

30、dream-work and of the construction of neurotic symptoms, and most of this is of a negative character and can be described only as a contrast to the ego. we all approach the id with analogies: we call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations. it is filled with energy reaching it from the i

31、nstincts, but it has no organization, produces no collective will, but only a striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle. it is the most basic part of structural personality, and the part which hides deeply in the mind. it is

32、 composed of animal instincts such as food, water, and especially the instinct of sex. instincts provide energy to id, but only form an impulse to meet the desires and act according to the “pleasure principle”.roderick usher, in the fall of the house of usher, is a well-educated man from a rich fami

33、ly. he used to be an attractive man with remarkable features. however, suffering from an unnamed disease, which causes his hyperactive senses, he is described as a person whose expressions “startled and even awed” xiong 109 the narrator. obviously, roderick is quite different, in either physical app

34、earances or daily behaviors, from a normal person as the narrator noted the insanity in his behavior: in the manner of my friend i was struck with incoherencean inconsistency.habitual trepidancy, and excessive nervous agitation.his action was alternately vivacious and sullen. his voice varied rapidl

35、y from a tremulous indecision.to that.of the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of opium. qtd in xiong 109 rodericks features and actions are resulted from his mental disorder, which admitted by himself, is “a constitutional and a family evil, and for which he despaired to find a remedya mere

36、 nervous affection” 110 . that is to say, the motivation that drives him is inherited, which is the same with id. as is said in freuds theory, the id “contains everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, is laid down in the constitutionabove all, therefore, the instincts, which originate

37、 from the somatic organization, and which find a first psychical expression here in the id in forms unknown to us”. the narrator found that roderick was born with the sense of gloom and darkness in his description: and thus, as a closer and still closer intimacy admitted me more unreservedly into th

38、e recesses of his spirit, the more bitterly did i perceive the futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from which darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon all objects of the moral and physical universe, in one unceasing radiation of gloom. qtd in xiong 113 this hints that t

39、he role of roderick represents one part of mans psyche, that is, the id. the darkness in rodericks character is the real portrait of the instinctive drives and impulses which are mainly amoral and selfish. in the story, all the actions of roderick seem to be driven by forces that are impulsive, urge

40、nt, primitive, and out of control, but with no sense of responsibility at all. likewise, the id is also seeking to get such immediate satisfactions, and escape from the limitation of moral. as the primary component of ones personality, id is very important in ones life. it makes up the fundamental n

41、eeds of a person. all the wants, desires or needs must be immediately satisfied, or else id will be in a state of anxiety, unstable, and extreme tension. take the case of an infant for example. eating and drinking are the primary needs of an infant, if they cannot be met immediately, the infant will

42、 feel hungry, thirsty and uncomfortable. and the infant will keep crying until his or her needs are satisfied. when it comes to the needs of id, it is exactly the same. huger, thirst, and uneasiness will torture the id if its desires cant be met. in the fall of the house of usher, roderick is in a r

43、estless, anxious and uneasy state because his instincts are not pleased: his action was alternately vivacious and sullen. his voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision when the animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance to that species of energetic concisionthat abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and

44、 hollow-sounding enunciationthat leaden, self-balanced and perfectly modulated guttural utterance qtd in xiong 110 he was found by the narrator to be “a bounden slave” to “an anomalous species of terror”. his “excited and highly distempered ideality” threw all in a sullen atmosphere. “perversion and

45、 amplification” could be heard in his music, and “an intensity of intolerable awe” could be seen in his paintings. “by the utter simplicity, by the nakedness of his designs, he arrested and overawed attention” 110-114 . all of these abnormalities came to the highest point when madeline died. althoug

46、h the amoral instinct of roderick is satisfied by killing his own sister, another instinct which is more abnormal took over him. “he roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal, and objectless step. the pallor of his countenance had assumed, if possible, a more ghastly huebut the luminousne

47、ss of his eye had utterly gone out” 121 . such kind of state kept until the moment before madeline relived and the two were to die together. rodericks extremely insane instinct was his wish to destroy life, both his own life and the life of his twin sister. when this moment was to come, “there was a

48、 species of mad hilarity in his eyesan evidently restrained hysteria in his whole demeanor” 122 . all the anxieties, caused by dissatisfaction of desires, were taken placed by the excitement caused by satisfaction. the changes in rodericks mental activities and his physical behaviors are real reflec

49、tions of the id, the nature of which was well explained by poes portrait of a character. from rodericks activities, we can find another feature of id, that is the death instinct, which, stated by freud, “is our unconscious wish to die, as death puts an end to the everyday struggles for happiness and

50、 survival” strachey 196 . driven by the death instinct, we have the desire for peace and the wish to escape from the realistic world through drugs or fictions. evidence could be found in poes description of the environment and roderick. the sullenness and gloom of the house are compared to “the afte

51、r-dream of the reveler upon opium - the bitter lapse into everyday life” 104 . the voice of roderick was like that of a lost drunkard or one who is addicted to opium. and by reading books, such as, “ververt et chartreuse of gresset; the belphegor of machiavelli; and the city of the sun of campanella

52、” 118 , roderick sought to escape from the reality.id seeks to represent itself through aggression as well. this also can be found in roderick. the state of his sense is hyperactive and all the time he assumes that he has inherited from his family some unnamed disease which worsens his health, physi

53、cally and mentally, day by day. actually, his assumption is the imagination in his mind to escape from the reality and the wish deep in his heart to die and to obtain peace and happiness through his death. not only does he wish to end his own life, but also the life of his twin sister, madeline. thi

54、s urge is a production of the death instinct of the id since madeline is another self of roderick, a mirror or shadow of him, which will be elaborated later. for madeline, roderick is totally aggressive. he buried his twin sister alive because he wishes to do so. it is a powerful instinct that impel

55、s him. to destroy his sister by burying her alive, in fact, is an endeavor of roderick to destroy himself. as the id, roderick has the instinct to die, which could be considered as common phenomenon in every persons id. since id is unconscious, people can not realize the existence of the death insti

56、nct most of the time. therefore, the author seemingly highlighted this point through the portrait of roderick so that a real id can be recognized.chapter 4the narrator: a conscious ego in a dilemma the ego seeks to find a balance between id and super-ego. it acts in accordance with the “reality prin

57、ciple” and represents reason and wit. according to the reality principle, the ego comprises functions of defense, mediation, perception and intellectual cognition. it is the arbitrator and supervisor of the id, and satisfies ids desires in a realistic way. the ego is able to separate what is real from what is unreal, thus mostly it controls and represses id, considering the external world and long-term benefits. compared with the id,