A Study Of John Donne’s Personality In Light Of Freud’s Personality Theory

John Donne is universally regarded to initiate the metaphysical school, and his whole life features contradictions and changes. Applying Freud’s personality theory, this thesis traces Donne’s psychological origins of contradictions back to his complicated process of personality movement and development.Freud’s personality theory dissects profoundly the structure of personality and its movement which has significant theoretical values. Freud holds that personality is a dynamic energetic system, which is composed of three subsystems: the id, the ego and the superego, and the three interact and restrain each other. Once personality forms, it is in flux. The fundamental force of personality formation and movement roots in psychic energy. Distribution and movement of psychic energy in the id, the ego and the superego constitute dynamic state of personality, deciding where personality to go. In accordance with Freud’s laws of conservation of personality energy, because the id, the ego and the superego handle different amount of psychic energy, naturally personality moves in different directions. Thus, people will perform diverse, even contradictory, thoughts and behaviors in different stages.According to the above theory, this thesis regards Donne’s contradictory thoughts and behaviors in different periods as manifestations of the movement of his personality system in different stages, and therefore interprets Donne’s personality. On the basis of this, the thesis consists of three chapters:Chapter One explores Donne’s id. The energy of Donne’s id inflated extremely during his early years. Under the drive of libido, Donne kept to “the pleasure principle”. In love, he was keen to pursue libidinal love, manifested in many of his famous libidinal poems. In religion, resulting from Oedipus complex of the id, Donne was driven to betray Catholicism, in order to satisfy his inner desire. Besides, through thorough explorations, there is close relationship between the unsteady libidinal love and his apostasy.Chapter Two dissects Donne’s superego. Lofty superego supervises the ego to repress the id’s immoral and unreasonable impulses. After marriage, with the promotion of his view of love, Donne turned to criticize libidinal love, and to pursue love of soul; on the other hand, influenced by deep Catholic thinking, Donne still attached himself to Catholicism in spite of apostasy. Actually under the impacts from parents, as the action of the superego, Catholicism was playing a part in leading and supervising Donne’s behaviors and thoughts all the time. Indeed, there is also inseparable relationship between these two aspects.Chapter Three interprets Donne’s ego. Following “the reality principle”, the ego accepts supervision from the superego, and in the meantime it tries to satisfy the id’s requirements in a round-about way combining social reality. In love, Donne’s ego balanced libidinal love and love of soul well to reach ideal love, the combination of soul and body. In religion, Donne tried his best to make up with God through salvation. By the means of compromise, he solved the antagonistic relations with God. Relationship between these two parts lies in Donne himself becoming a combination of secularity and divinity.