Unbalanced Personality Of The Grotesques

Sherwood Anderson is one of the most influential writers in American modern literature. His masterpieces have influenced many famous writers such as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. Winesburg, Ohio is Sherwood Anderson’s representative masterpiece. The novel helps him gain a great position in the history of modern American literature. Winesburg Ohio is composed of twenty-five thematically and loosely related sketches and stories, which portrays a group of grotesques in twisted mentality and odd behaviors.Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis theories are widely applied in literary criticism. According to Freud’s theory, the personality system is composed of three parts:id, ego and superego. The id follows pleasure principle in spite of the reality, the ego conforms to the reality principle, and the superego obeys the moral principle. If the three parts develop in a harmonious state, a harmonious personality is achieved. The unbalanced personality may result from the imbalance of the three parts. Freud’s theory of sexuality holds that sex instinct is crucial to people’s life. It is also the basic energy in human called Libido. The life instinct includes sex instinct and love instinct. If the sex instinct or the love instinct is repressed and not released properly, it will also result in the unbalanced personality.Winesburg, Ohio has been interpreted from many perspectives since its publication. However, the psychoanalysis of Winesburg, Ohio is scarce. This thesis aims to interpret the masterpiece from the perspective of Freudian psychoanalysis in the hope of analyzing the unbalanced personality of typical characters.This thesis attempts to give a psychoanalysis interpretation of characters in Winesburg, Ohio in order to better understand the unbalanced personality of grotesques. It presents the frustration and isolation of the grotesques in the period from the agrarian to industrial society. It also shows Anderson’s concern with modern people’s spiritual state.This thesis is composed of six parts:the introduction, four chapters and the conclusion, which are as follows:The introduction gives a brief account of Sherwood Anderson’s life experience and his novel Winesburg, Ohio. Then the previous studies on the masterpiece and the outline of the thesis are introduced.Chapter one gives a brief introduction on Sigmund Freud’s psychological analysis. The relevant theories applied in this thesis are also introduced. They are the theory of personality structure and the theory of sexuality.Chapter two focuses on the unbalanced personality of different grotesques in Winesburg,Ohio from the perspective of Freudian psychological analysis. The typical grotesques are love pursuers, escapist illusionists, faith disillusionists and God followers. Some grotesques can’t keep their id, ego and superego in balance; others are repressed by their sexual instinct and can’t release it properly. All these lead to their unbalanced personality.Chapter three analyzes the causes for unbalanced personality of the grotesques, which can be revealed from the social factors including industrialization and social conventions the as well as the personal factors including the lack of love and understanding, self-isolation and inability to communicate.Chapter four explores the ways of developing a harmonious personality. Though being trapped in the small town, some people want to resist the destiny of being grotesques for the rest of their life. So they need to keep the id, ego and superego in balance. They strive to seek love and understanding, and merge into the outside society.The last part is the conclusion, which not only makes a summary of the thesis, but also emphasizes the value of the thesis to the modern people. The modern people are now experiencing the great social reform and the present society is the one of highly material civilization. Not only do people need to stand up to the changes and challenges by the great social reform, they also need to adjust themselves to satisfy the unification between the personal needs and the social requirements in order to form a harmonious personality, which can also benefit the harmonious developments of the society.