Psyche

Shelley, Shelley explores how the human mind reacts to its environment, especially human influences. Her main instrument used to illustrate the relationship between the mind and the environment is the character of the “monster”, a creature who is arguably human created by Victor Frankenstein with a horrifying appearance. This being will be referred to as Carl for the sake of simplicity as well as to emphasize the close relationship between the creature and humanity. Carl is revealed over the course of the novel to be the distinct manifestation of Freud’s three parts of the human mind, the Superego, Ego, and Id1, in a devolving progression which Shelley uses to demonstrate how judging harshly based on appearances eventually degrades the human psyche of the victim to the point where he/she is criminalized since he/she no longer seems to act humanly. At Carl’s inception, he is innocent, virtuous, and yearning for acceptance by society which embodies the Freudian concept of the superego. After fleeing a screaming man, Carl hides in a hovel and spies on the people inside the adjacent cottage, learning more about humanity. He sees that the inhabitants, a small family, are starving and that the younger ones were saving the food for the older man. Carl recognizes this “trait of kindness and … resolved to not inflict pain on the cottagers [by stealing food]”. Furthermore, Carl notices that they need firewood, so he “often took [Felix’s] tools … to bring home firing for several days”…

Relationshipis the bondage in which the Indian society prevails. Githa Hariharan being an Indian women writer has written many novels and short stories. In all her novels she deals with the theme of social, political issues. She also deals with problems faced by women in Indian society. One another theme is relationship. In all her novels, she deals with some kind of relationship. In the novel The Ghosts of Vasu Master Hariharan deals with the relationship between a teacher and a student. She…

Effects on the Psyche Caused by the Civilization When one considers the term “civilization”, a term that usually does not come to mind is “psyche”. These two terms seem to have nothing in common with each other, however, that is only if you think about trying to find similarities in them. What one should do is consider how these two terms relate to each other. Many people do not realize that, every day, we are affected by civilization around us. The culture, the social norms, and the people…

How does a comparative study of texts heighten your understanding of the dichotomy of the human psyche? While studying and comparing the positive notion of creation and the detrimental effect destruction has on an individuals being we begin to comprehend the complicated and dichotomous nature of human consciousness. William Shakespeare’s Elizabethan drama Macbeth (1606) and the Romantic poems of William Blake ‘London’ (1794) and ‘Human Abstract’ (1794) each validate the convoluted emotions of…

Starting with the first interaction, the boys begins to fight for dominance. This causes lots of conflict between the three main boys: Jack, Ralph, and Piggy. As they fight for control, these boys exhibit characteristics of Freud’s psyche theory, which has three parts: the Id, Ego, and Superego. Throughout the book, Lord of the Flies, Golding uses Freud’s psyche theory to reveal that every person performs actions that are driven by evil desires, no matter how intellectual he is. Jack, the…

The Greek myth “Cupid and Psyche” shares many similarities with the Brother’s Grimm fairytale, “ Cinderella”. Both stories feature the predominant female character being held back from something she cares about by a jealous, older woman, ousted from her rightful position of power in a family, and completing impossible tasks with help from others. In the story “Cupid and Psyche”, Cupid’s jealous mother, Venus, holds Psyche back from her love, Cupid. When Psyche comes to Venus searching for…

As long as he is chasing you and you are running, there is fear. Do you know that the moment you turn and confront that rowdy, the fear is gone? Probably, if you want to know this I wish the rowdy chases you. Then you know the truth of this. I have seen women stand up and slap the rowdies. The Rowdy’s psyche breaks and collapses. I have actually seen them. For all that, I am only talking in case I have really verified it at the ground level. Till you run, there is this fear. Confront it, face it…

The myth of Psyche and Eros has many variants and one cannot pick out the true form of the story. The myth begins with Psyche, the most beautiful woman in the Grecian kingdom. Many men were entranced by Psyche’s beauty and would do anything to see her. This made Aphrodite, goddess of beauty, jealous. Aphrodite sent her son Eros, also known as Cupid, down to Earth to ensure that all men would not desire Psyche. Some variations of the story say that he saw her beauty and felt remorse for what…

During ancient Rome women were to be good wives. Being a good wife includes loving one’s husband, being loyal and obedient, doing duties, and being chaste, while not desiring freedom or being critical. Apuleius presents female characters in his novel The Golden Ass that both contradict and coincide with the positive and negative models of women found in ancient sources. The story of Psyche and Cupid within the larger novel reinforces the positive traits such as obedience and loyalty. Within the…

“The Yellow Wallpaper” giving us a taste of the female psyche, in particular showing how some women are so heavily influenced by the treatment of the middle class wife and her submissive role. Alternatively, Nick Hornby does something altogether similar with “High Fidelity”, introducing us to Rob Fleming, whose male psyche reveals, among other things, how some men judge themselves based on the societal image of a successful, dominant man. Rob Fleming, however, proves to be the exact opposite of…