Unbalanced Personality, Narcissism, And Death Instinct In Timon

Timon of Athens, one of Shakespeare's last tragedies, has not been estimated as highly as the playwright's four great tragedies. This low estimation may probably be attributed to the fact that it is Shakespeare's play in collaboration with Middleton, a makeshift replacement for Troilus and Cressida in the First Folio, an unfinished play and unstaged during the playwright's life. Many critics complained of its self-contradictory plots, rough language, and its lack of dramatic tension and psychological exploration of the protagonist, while other critics showed their favor and interest in Timon, with the highest appraisal from G. Wilson Knight, who proclaims that Timon is Shakespeare's best tragedy. Whatever the controversy is, it is a worthwhile project to explore the mystery why Timon, at the beginning a philanthropist, suddenly becomes a misanthropist, and why he exiles himself into the cave near the woods and commits suicide in the end. The present study is to decipher such a mystical oddity from a Freudian approach.From the Freudian perspective it can be presumed that Timon, Flavius, Apemantus, the lords and senators can respectively be interpreted as representing the id, the ego, the superego of Timon and the external world in Timon's eyes. The conflict and the result of the conflict among these elements can help us understand Timon's tragedy. Timon behaves recklessly and acts only upon pleasure principle in that he indulges in pleasure seeking activities without considering the reality, and this inevitably results in his bankruptcy in finance and spirit. Finding himself betrayed by his greedy and hypocritical friends, he is furious and rejects the external world order by imposing self-exile, cursing the whole human society and later committing suicide. Shakespeare presents Alcibiades as a foil or the double to Timon, and through such a foil the playwright expresses his favor of order rather than chaos and of love rather than hate. In contrast to Timon's horror of sex,Alcibiades has a normal sexual relationship with women, though the women are two prostitutes. Alcibiades is exiled too, yet he comes back to Athens with his troops for revenge and reconciles with the existing order, restoring peace after punishing only a few that are responsible. As for Flavius, though truthful to and truly loving his master, he fails to save Timon from self-destruction since he has failed to restrain Timon's prodigality, to convince his master of the villainy of those lords, and to win Timon back to Athens. Lastly Apemantus, too, fails to block Timon's tragic ending, though he persistently warns Timon in Athens and rails at Timon in the woods, hoping to win Timon back.In Timon's unbalanced personality, his id holds such a domineering position that ego and superego fail to successfully counteract against it, which leads to Timon's tragedy. Beneath Timon's annihilation is his strong narcissism and his overwhelming death instinct that are working together to speed up Timon's ruin. His narcissistic complex is shown in his obsession in being adored and his total loss of sexual interest in women, both of which cut off the reciprocal relation with the outside world. Moreover, in the later part of the play his death instinct overrule his life instinct, which is externalized in his cave-dwelling, his harsh curses, his sadistic and masochistic behaviors, and his suicide in the play. To sum up, due to his unbalanced personality, exacerbated narcissism and death instinct, Timon develops from a philanthropist to a misanthropist and then ends his life with his suicide.