Psychoanalysis Of Clyde's Criminal Motive In An American Tragedy

The first half of the twentieth century is the golden age of American fiction.Unprecedented prosperity of the novel creation and many outstanding figures emerged at that time. Theodore Dreiser, an indispensable representative of American literature, leads a new rising force called realistic novel. He is also the pioneer of modern novels who takes the lead in describing the new-American-city life without prejudice in the history of American literature. He profoundly influenced his contemporary writers in various degrees. Since the publication of An American Tragedy in December 1925, this novel has been recognized as the greatest novel of Theodore Dreiser and one of the greatest American novels. In view of the fact that An American Tragedy is a novel about desire,power and crime,this paper is an interpretation of An American Tragedy based on the theory and thought of psychoanalysis,especially accounting for the root cause of Clyde's criminal motive and behavior in the light of Freud's three-part model of the psyche.In Freud's theory, personality is divided into three parts: id is the biological instinct; ego is the psychological society; superego is the moral ideal, and they pursue different goals. The pursuit of pleasure, reality and perfection reflects the different function of the three parts. The three parts are in a harmonious and balanced state for the general case, so the personality is in a healthy state. Otherwise, the malfunction of these three parts will damage the harmony and interrupt individual behavior even lead to psychological or mental illness.Freud points out that the crime is essentially a psychological conflict caused by the imbalance of personality. This thesis is based on Freud's three-part model of the psyche to interpret the personal factor that leads to Clyde's crime,especially his personality defects in the imbalance of id, ego and superego. The paper is divided into three chapters: the first chapter introduces the Clyde's unsatisfied desire by uncontrolled id. Clyde has strong id and overemphasizes the satisfaction of material and sexuality. In addition,he avoids family's responsibilities just for his own enjoyment and vanity. The second chapter introduces Clyde's incompetent ego, an ego that cannot suppress his id. In other words, his ego could not keep a dynamic balance between pleasure and reality. Otherwise, he cannot employ defense mechanism appropriately and would be in a state of conflict and hesitation. The superego is an aspect that is full of sacred rules of the religious order and similar to conscience. It is the highest level of the three parts, conforming to the ideal social and traditional values. Clyde's superego is ineffective and diminishes ceaselessly along with his growth as a result of his poor family and school education. Besides, his ineffective superego easily accepts negative social norms under the influence of the social environment eventually leads to his murder of his lover.According to these analysis of Clyde's criminal motive in the light of Freud's personality structure, the paper reveals that achieving a dynamic balance in personality is significant in one's life. Only through achieving a healthy personality,can we prevent the situation of losing ourselves efficaciously. Clyde's crime is the outcome of his unbalanced personality,including his uncontrolled id,incompetent ego and ineffective superego.In a word,Clyde's crime is driven by the malfunction and chaotic position within these three models of psych in a sense.