Sigmund Freud Negotiation Of Repression English Literature Essay

” Romeo and Juliet” is amongst the most famous play of Shakespeare’s play. Through the depiction of their fate Shakespeare created one of the item of our culture, referred to a countless books. This is a play about the self-destructive passion of lovers at odd with the expectations and obligations of the world in which they live is at the heart of two of Shakespeare’s tragedies . Simung Freud is a famous psychoanalyst who deals with repression and the unconscious mind. Repression from a psychoanalytical point of view the rejection is from consciousness of painful or disagreeable ideas, memories, feelings and impulses. The conscious mind includes everything that is inside of our awareness. The preconscious is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk in rational way. The unconscious includes thing that are not easily available to awareness such as our drives or instincts. These are key terms of Freud’s psychoanalysis that we will discuss in ” Romeo and Juliet” .

Romeo the protagonist at the beginning of the play is in love with Rosaline, an unknown character to the audience. He is in a depressed mood because of the unrequited love of his lover. Rosaline has taken an oath for chastity, thus she is inaccessible. Rosaline has repressed her instinctual desire for society. ( 15.23) . Her sexual impulses are diverted towards other goals that are ” socially higher and no longer sexual” ( 15.23). Rosaline superego represents society and can’t satisfy her needs. Rosaline motivated by asceticism that is the renunciation of needs like sexual desire, she try to protect herself by repressing it. She gets involves in a kind of ascetic monk-life style where she renounce the interests in which other enjoy. As a result Romeo is suffering from neurotic anxiety feeling depressed, sad and his speeches are hyperbolic when speaking about Rosaline unrequited love. Rosaline’s superego arises as a resolution of the electra complex and represent’s the internalization of one’s mother and her prohibitions and therefore manifests itself as a conscience or sense of guilt. Benvolio asks Romeo to forget Rosaline and seek other women. Benvolio is motivated by altruistic surrender where the person attempts to fulfill his own wish through other persons. Benvolio is not seeking relationship for himself instead for the depressed Romeo. Romeo’s response to Benvolio’s suggestion is motivated by the reaction formation, believing the opposite that is Benvolio. the count Paris who would be a rival for Romeo’s in their desire to marry Juliet. Our first encounter with Juliet is a young submissive girl. The party at the Capulet house, though Romeo has not been invited decided to go for Rosaline. However, there is a fear something awful, even death through a dream. There is the fear of death according to Freud may be the outcome of a sense of guilt.

Romeo’s first meeting with Juliet is quite unexpected for the audience. According to Freud, the sex drive is the most motivating force. The special object of organism whereby one is guided toward those end by its need such as the need for sex. We can see the return of the repressed , the primitive impulses that is so powerful return and disrupt our conscious functioning. The depth psychology superego. Ego and Id. The Id is the great reservoir of libido, from which the ego seeks to distinguish itself through various mechanism of repression. The Id is oriented towards internal instincts whereas the ego is associated with reason and sanity, the Id belongs to the passions. Romeo and Juliet instead followed their Id rather that their ego. They felt sexually attracted and fall in love. in fact the reason behind their love is sexual drive which have been repressed for years. Neurosis is the formation of behavioral or psychosomatic symptoms as a result of the return of the repressed. A psychosis by contrast refers to when a patient has lost touch with reality. Freud originally distinguished between neurosis and psychosis ” in neurosis the ego suppresses part of the id out of allegiance to reality whereas in psychosis it lets itself be carried away by the id and detached from part of reality” (5.202). the kiss can be viewed from the Freudian perspective is about pleasurable sensation of the skin. But however, Romeo from the Montague family and Juliet Capulet family find their love inaccessible by society. The young lovers are from the feud family. Their love is a sublimation, that is transforming of an unacceptable impulse whether it se sex, fear , socially acceptable. Tybalt at the party is enraged because of the intrusion of Romeo, the enemy of the Capulet. He is an oral aggressive personality whereby he expresses his verbal aggressivity toward Romeo and this will be fatal to the fate of Romeo and Juliet.

Juliet avows her love to Romeo and Romeo being in love too responds positively. They even planned their marriage. Freud theorized that the human psyche is driven by two major instinctual drives that is the Eros ( sexual drive) and the Thanatos (death instinct) a natural desire to ” establish a state of things that was disturbed by the emergence of life” ( Ego and Id 709). Ethos represents life, creativity, growth and increase in tension while Thanatos represents the movement towards homeostasis( elimination of all tension), dissolution, negotiation, death. In other words, whereas the human psyche is seeking gratification, another part is geared to seek a return to the quiet of non-existence: ” the death- instinct”. This concept of death instinct or death drive allowed Freud to make sense of human tendency towards destruction, including self-destruction. This love would bring to their death. The friar will arrange for the secret marriage. His motivation behind is to cease the feud between the Montague and Capulet by their unity. The rope ladder which Romeo gives the nurse is a mean to get in Juliet room’s on the wedding night. This is seen as the repression of the ego and the acceptance of the Id. Tybalt provokes Romeo because he has intruded in the Capulet party, but his denial to fight Tybalt is seen as cowardice. Mercutio’s Romeo’s best friend fights for their honor and is killed by Tybalt. There is ambivalence to the death Mercutio. He sees it as ‘ an inner possession but also partly strangers and enemies. According to feud such ambivalence may provoke neurosis. Thus Romeo takes his revenge but killing Tybalt. In order to rescue his life, he leaves for. Juliet is eager waiting in her room for the consummation of the marriage, that is, she gives free will to her sexual instinct. She wants to taste to the forbidden fruit of sexuality. The life instinct of Juliet that is to have sex powers her psyches, what Freud called libido. There is a urge to satisfy sexual desire, this desire which has been repressed by the ego which is ( the ego) under the influence of reality principles. There is a wish for suicide after the incident, those neurotics who seem to go for self destruction form the category who end up committing suicide but is ultimately stop by the friar. The friar advices him to go and spend the night at Juliet’s room. Thus the have give free will to sexual drive denying the egos that have repressed us.

Romeo’s departure instills a fear of death. Juliet shows sign of depression that is according to Freud she suffers from neurotic anxiety the fear of being overwhelmed by impulses from the Id. She takes refuge in isolation and her behavior is being misinterpreted by her father for the death of her cousin. so an arranged marriage is organized to satisfy her sexual desire. Juliet refuses as she is already married and has slept with Romeo. According to the friar’s plan she has to accept her father’s arranged wedding to Paris. She accepts introjections that is, involve in taking your own personality characteristic and does it to solve emotional difficulty.