A Study Of Female Characters In The Thorn Birds From The Perspective Of Freud’s Personality Structure Theory

Colleen McCullough is a famous contemporary Australian writer and The Thorn Birds is considered to be her finest work.Based on Freud’s theory of personality structure,this thesis conducts a study of the three generations of female characters in the Cleary family by analyzing their id,ego and superego respectively.Firstly,an analysis is made to find out the id of the female characters prompted by sexual instinct.Also,the influence of the pleasure principle on the establishment of personality structure is explored.The second focus of the thesis is on the female characters’ ego.Also,the different defense mechanisms adopted by the female characters and the diverse states of the characters’ feminine consciousness guided by the reality principle are brought to light.The third part of the thesis centers on the female characters’superego by delving into the displacement and sublimation of the characters’emotions and analyzing the influence of the morality principle on the formation of the characters’ personality structure.Finally,it is concluded that,on the whole,the personality structure of Fee and Meggie is out of balance and therefore they both end up in tragedy,while,by contrast,Justine succeeds in balancing her personality structure and ultimately achieves a happy ending.