Sunday, January 13, 2013
A.P Lit psychoanalysis review
In the argument of psychoanalysis proposed originally by Sigmond Freud, the following review emphasizes the importance of Edith Wharton's biographies to compare her book, Ethan Frome and her real life. It was proposed that Edith Wharton wrote the book Ethan Frome as a partial way of her unconscious mind expressing the repressed feelings she had about her mother and father. More importance relating to her father, it is believed that Edith Wharton has many feelings of guilt not only relating to her relationship with her parents but her own marriage as well as social expectations. Wharton also apparently had witnessed her ego trying daring to dream about intimate relations with her father, and therefore her superego punished her because they were her unconscious mind coming to the surface. This experience that Wharton has related to Mattie and Ethan when they become crippled. Many symbols help prove this psychoanalytical point of view for Ethan Frome. One is Zeena's cat. This cat serves as social moral views that keep Ethan's and Mattie's Id and superego from clashing. This cat is what forbids the relationship between the two of them at the house. The pickle dish served as a punishment to Mattie by Zeena's cat since Mattie was taking Zeena's place. Also the comparison of Wharton's dream to Ethan's dream is a very compelling argument in proving the psychoanalysis theory. Since Wharton dreamt of her father in an inappropriate manner she feels guilt clash with desire. This desire needs to be punished due to her superego which is exactly what Ethan goes through. Ethan's id desires Mattie and he feels guilty due to his superego seeing the moral views of it, making there a need for punishment, which is why Ethan doesn't kill himself with Mattie. I think this argument is definitely valid. I agree because it seems with this argument everything falls into place and has believable reasons for everything. There is detail in why the symbols appear to be the way they do along with describing why Wharton had the dreams she did by using dream analysis which is a valid way of finding the unconscious mind. I thought that this was a very interesting article. I enjoyed reading it because it made sense and was extreme because the theories are considered to be a little bit out of the ordinary. But what else would be expected when talking about Sigmond Freud's theories?
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I think this is a very interesting approach to finding out why Edith Wharton wrote the novel "Ethan Frome". I personally do not think that is it correct because I do not agree with Sigmund Freud's theories about psychoanalysis. I do think that this was a very interesting approach and I think you did a great job at getting your point across.
ReplyDeleteEven though I disagree with Frued's ideas here, I believe that this entry was thorough in helping to explain the connections between Wharton's home life and the life lived in the Frome house. The only thing I can think of that would have made this entry better is if you explained the different parts of Wharton's subconscious (like the superego or the ego). Other than that, it was wonderfully written and thought-out.
ReplyDeleteThis theory that was talked about would never have occurred to me on my own. Kristen did a good job at picking out key points from her article to show how the article author proved his point.
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