Freudian Analysis Of Sethe In Beloved

Toni Morrison is one of the most important writers in modern America, and she is the first black woman to receive Nobel Prize in Literature. Western critics believes that Morrison have inherited the early Black literature tradition. She is not only familiar with the Greek Mythos, Black folklore, Bible of Christianity, but also benefits a lot from the study of classical literature. Morrison's works are famous for poetic narration, rich images and impressive depiction of characters and settings of Black American society. Although most of her works were written from a female perspective about African American history with many different inspirations from folklores or news that she had known, she did write from a male point of views once in Song of Solomon, a novel compared with Roots by Alex Haley.The characters from her works are impressive and full of legends, usually tormented by the haunted past or the life in the plantation and the history of slavery. The most shocked event in the novel is --Sethe murdered her daughter Beloved—which is based on the real historical event. In 1856, a black woman--Margaret Garner murdered her children to prevent them from being recaptured and taken back into slavery with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The Middle Passage is referenced along with the Underground Railway in many parts of the novel; the 'Sixty Million and More' to whom Morrison dedicates the novel may refer to the many who died during the Middle Passage. The entire concept of the slavery described in the novel: Paul D's confinement in Georgia, ideas such as the "bit" and the legislature described are all based on history. This gives the novel a powerful impact.Beloved have showed us the alternative maternal love--the maternal love of black mothers under the gender and racial double disadvantage in the evil inhumane slavery society-- the tragic maternal love. On the surface, it seems that the relationship between maternal love and killing her baby is totally opposed to each other, while in Beloved it becomes an inevitable trend of cause and result. This thesis focuses on Sethe's psychological state and the three structure of mind proposed by Sigmund Freud—the id, ego and superego—theory of human personality. The thesis is divided into three parts to analyse Sethe's psychological changes after she has experienced a lot in different times and her behavior and a series of major choice which influenced by the id, ego and superego. Thus an individual's feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are the result of the interaction of the id, the superego, and the ego. Id, ego, and super-ego are the three parts that defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche and they are the three theoretical constructs in terms of whose interaction mental life and activity is described. According to Freud, the aim of id is to pursue the happiness and the purpose of ego is to follow reality and the superego is to gain the pursuit of perfection. So the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctive trend; the ego is the realistic, organized part; and the super-ego plays the critical and moralistic role. Superego always continues indefinitely to the pursuit of perfection, so it is not the reality just as ego. it often criticizes ego and condemn id. To obey the enforcement of rules of superego, ego must not only meet the need of oneself, but also consider all the time that the need have not violate the values of superego.This thesis is divided into three parts-- Sethe's id--desire for freedom; Sethe's ego-- fear of slave life and Sethe's superego--Maternal love. Through the application of Freudian psychical structure, the thesis analyses Sethe's psychological changes and the behavior under slavery. The analysis of the meaning of killing baby in the conclusion shows that it not only shows us that a black mother has really got her right to be a mother so that she can protect her child from being a slave. At the same time, it is the first time that a black woman could truly become the master of her life under such inhuman slavery. Based on this kind of maternal love, killing the baby is the cry from the black mothers who were deprived the basic right of being mothers. It expresses the accusation from black mothers the black mother on slavery and for the desire for humanity and freedom. The last part comes to a conclusion that Morrison reveals that Beloved represents more than Sethe's dead child. She represents the slaves who were brought over in the dark ships; slaves who were nameless and faceless and who soundlessly disappeared from history, just as Beloved disappeared in the darkness of the cold river of history. During this special time in American history, maybe only killing is a fair and reasonable way for the black people to get rid of the slavery in those hard times.