A Study On East Of Eden From The Perspective Of Freudian Personality Structure Theory

Nobel Prize winner,John Steinbeck?s epic novel East of Eden recorded the bittersweet story of two distinct families of three generations from the American Civil War to the First World War.This book described all kinds of strange characters because no matter how rich or how lucky they were,they just could not escape the tragic destiny and nobody was aware of it.However,in the novel,the writer released some psychical clues about it such as the famous book Principles of psychology.Based on the personality structure theory founded by Freud,the thesis tries to analyze the personalities revealed in the novel.The characters chosen in the thesis were a family,thus making the personality structures of the characters typical and meaningful.The thesis consists of three parts: the introduction,the main body and the conclusion.The main contents of the thesis are as follows:The introduction part introduces the research status of Steinbeck?s novel East of Eden at home and abroad.And in this part the study method and perspective of the author in the thesis will be briefly introduced.The main body is divided into four chapters.The first chapter introduces the foundation and development of the Freudian personality structure theory.And some major and relative terms and concepts of the theory are briefly introduced in this chapter.The second chapter analyzes the personality structure of the female character Cathy,which is divided into three sections.Her Id was controlled by the death instinct thus it was evil and ruinous.Her Superego was consisted of two halves,with one half of it being the Superego ideal which was established after her father and the other half being the Superego conscience which was controlled by her Narcissistic libido due to the family violence.Her Ego suffered from the schizophrenia but it applied no proper defensive remedy,thus rendering her personality structure breakdown.The third chapter analyzes the personality structure of the male character Adam.The Id of Adam was controlled by the life instinct so he pursued noble and merciful ends.The Superego ideal of him was built after his imaginary mother and the Superego conscience was established after his father due to the Oedipus complex.His Ego totally repressed the Id and thoroughly abided by the Superego.So it went into heavily depression and he only took the negative defensive remedy of repression.Thus the personality structure of him was unhealthy but not vicious,which was a great burden to him and finally rendered him tragedy.The forth chapter analyzes the personality structure of the male youth character Cal.Cal was the child of Adam and Cathy.Unlike the personality structure breakdown of his mother and the personality structure burden of his father,he gained personality structure triumph.His Id was alternatively controlled by the life instinct and the death instinct.His Superego was composed of the contradictory heroic Superego ideal and the anti-heroic Superego conscience derived from the Oedipus complex.His Ego suffered from slightly obsessive compulsive disorder,but he adopted the wisest and most timely defensive remedies: to repress the evil instincts in the Id and to transfer them into positive forms under the guidance of the Superego,for instance,he transferred hatred into love.The conclusion is the summary and generalization of the thesis.In the thesis there is no good or bad personality structure but there are very objective studies of it.The characters were suffering from kinds of traumas in war time,so there were a diversity of dilemma and disorders in their personality structure.The thesis aims at leading readers to know the possibilities of the diseases in personality structure and offering them a whole presentation of the illness – symptom – treatment literature model in order to help them find the best methods to cure their psychical disorders.The thesis doesn?t judge the characters as good or evil,but objectively analyzes their personality structure by anxiety,depression and schizophrenia and other theories in the Freudian personality structure theory,giving the characters psychical care.Due to family influence and the unbalanced development between material and personality structure,peoples? personality structure development can?t catch up with that of their material;consequently there come out kinds of psychical disorders which bring grave effects both on the individual and on the society.So the thesis can at once theoretically and practically offer help to such trouble of people.