A Psychoanalysis Of Characters’ Traumas In Atonemen

Ian McEwan is known as one of the most influential novelists in contemporary Britain.His delicate and poignant words,his works covering a wide range of topics,the profound themes,the diverse writing skills,and his thorough analysis of the inner world of human beings,have all attracted great attention from the critics.His Atonement,published in 2001,is a classic masterpiece.This novel contains not only the enormous harm caused by war and society,but also the negative impact of family and ethics.The critics and scholars has also analyzed this novel from many angles,such as empathy,metafiction,ethical relationships,narratology and so on.There are not many works with comprehensive analysis from the perspective of Freudian psychoanalysis.This paper is based on the Freudian psychoanalytic theory,follows the traumatic experiences of the three protagonists,analyzes deeply and systematically the causes,formation and repairation of traumatic events.Finally,there will be discussion and conclusion about the methods and influence of repairing trauma through Freudian psychoanalytic theory contacted with contemporary society.This paper is divided into six sections,besides introduction and conclusion,there are four chapters in this paper.The introduction section is mainly the analyses and summarisation of the achievements of scholars in this area both abroad and at home.The earlier studies about Ian McEwan and his works were in aboard and foreign scholars analyzed Atonement from much more angles,even comparison studied of literary works and interdisciplinary research;the domestic scholars had a late start about the research of Ian McEwan,but there are still more and more attention before Atonement.However,in general,the works interpreting Atonement from the perspective of Freudian psychoanalysis are not many.The first chapter provides an overview of the the theoretical support of this article-Freudian psychoanalytic theory,mainly the Freudian personality and the psychological defense mechanism.The theory of personality is divided into personality development theory and personality structure theory.Personality development theory refers to theearly experiences of human during childhood and puberty has played a foundational role in the development of personality;Personality structure includes ego,id and superego,referring to the struggle and balance between instinctive desire,reality,moral conscience,and self-ideal.The psychological defense mechanism is mainly connected with ego and the person can balance id and superego through self-regulation.As well as the feasibility of using these theories to analyze the the novel Atonement.Atonement contains not only the lack of growth environment-family factors,but also the disequilibrium of protagonists’ id,ego and superego,as well as the solution of these problems-Robbie walks the path of self-healing and Briony sublimates through atonement.The second part briefly introduces the author Ian McEwan’s life,works,writing style and the main content of his novel Atonement.The second chapter concretely analyzes the personality development and reasons of the characters in Atonement.It is divided into three sections.The first section analyzes the growth environment of protagonist Briony.The absence of her father makes the growth of Briony lack the influence of male authority.Robbie plays the role of an adult male in her subconscious.But without proper guidance,Briony’s understanding of male characters is rather abnormal.The incompetence of maternal love also caused Briony’s lack of proper care and female guidance during her childhood and adolescence.Even if Cecilia played a role of their mother,she could not correctly aware of her female identity.The second section analyzes the disorderly marital relationship and loving relationship in the novel.The combination of Mr.and Mrs.Tallis is specious with so unstable family,and it also causes the disequilibrium of Briony’s personality structure.And Mrs.Quincy has an illegal love affair and Mr.Quincy tends to escape which caused incalculable harm to the growth of the three children,especially Lola.This can be seen in the rape and the marriage with Marshall.Robbie and Cecilia,under the influence of their own personalities,social factors and war,has loved each other but unable to marry and even leave the world in the last.The third section analyzes Robbie’s growth environment.When he was a child,his father left home,so that Robbie and his mother had to depend on the Tallis for a living.The third chapter specifically analyzes the strong id in the novel,and the reflection of ego when id is dominant.The war has greatly challenged human nature.In the case ofphysical and mental trauma,people’s id occupies a dominant position.They gain psychological comfort or malicious satisfaction through hurting others.Even in the general direction,war is the symbolization of ruler’s id desire.Under the background of intense social contradictions,both the upper class such as the Tallis,and the chocolate merchant Marshall whose performance of ego are well-behaved,and the lower class people,such as Robbie and Hardman whose performance of ego are seemingly proud and confident,gradually revealed their potential sides-Robbie became the scapegoat for the real rapist,but he could not able to resist strongly.This is the epitome of class society and the common recognition that different collectives remain in the subconscious.The protagonist Briony’s envy of the love story between Robbie and Cecilia,and her strong desire to become a hero with recognition from the people around,make her id take a dominant position,so Briony makes a false accusation.It is also a tug of war between ego and reality.The fourth chapter mainly analyzes the growth of Robbie and Briony,the reflection of their ego when superego is dominant.Through self-adjustment,Robbie regards Cecilia as his spiritual sustenance,trying to establish new contacts with the outside world,and gradually convinces himself to forgive the people of Tallis Manor and his father who left home when he was a child.Robbie’s physical and mental trauma in prison and battlefield will be analyzed mainly by Freud’s interpretation of dreams.Briony is mainly reflected in self-redemption.The analysis of Briony’s maturity through Freud’s psychological defense mechanism is not just brought by the growth of age,but her experiences as a student nurse for atoning is also an embodiment of superego.In McEwan’s novel Atonement is Briony’s autobiographical Atonement.Her moral sense and conscience enabled Briony to confront her sins and repair her own trauma through the true description of traumatic events.Finally,it is concluded that the growth environment of a person,especially the family environment which has a huge impact on the development of personality.Everyone needs to take up their own responsibilities in order to form a virtuous circle and promote the healthy development of personality.A person’s sound mental and stable personality require mutual checks and balances between id and superego,as well as self-effective choices and active adjustments of ego.It is necessary not only to take intoaccount id desires,but also to act within the scope of allowing morality.of superego.Since the formation of trauma is unpredictable,once the trauma is formed,it cannot be completely repaired,for the purpose of avoiding the formation of trauma,repairing the trauma to the greatest extent and striving to rebuild the relationship with the outside world to find a treatment for trauma,the individuals should find the proper defense mechanisms.