INSTITUTO DE LETRAS E ARTES – ILA

DISCIPLINA: LITERATURAS DE LÍNGUA INGLESA

Who’s who?

According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, the human psyche is divided

in three parts: the id, the primitive and instinctual part of the mind, the superego
that operates as a moral conscience, and the ego, the realistic part that
mediates between the other two.
We may observe these three parts of the human mind being materialized
into characters all through Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel. To do so, first,
we must analyze the characteristics of each part to be able to associate with the
characters.
The id is the impulsive and unconscious part of our psyche that responds
directly and immediately to basic urges, needs, and desires. The personality of
a newborn child, for example, is all id because it only wants to satisfy its basic
needs such as hunger, sleep, and thirst.
That’s why we can relate the id to Victor’s creature, in the begging of its
journey, because it is like a newborn child who needs to satisfy its hunger, its
thirst and even its anger by killing.

“This was the forest near Ingolstadt; and here Ilay by the side of a brook resting from
my fatigue, until I felt tormented by hunger and thirst. This roused me from my nearly dormant
state, and I ate some berries which I found hanging on the trees or lying on the ground. I slaked
my thirst at the brook; and then lying down, was overcome by sleep”. (Shelley, p. 54)

The ego is “that part of the id which has been modified by the direct
influence of the external world.” (Freud, 1923, p. 22). According to Freudians,
some abnormal upbringing (particularly if there is a rejecting parent) can result
in a weak and fragile ego, whose ability to contain the id’s desires is limited.

_______________________________________________________________
With that in view, we can relate both Victor and his creature to the ego
because the creature starts to grow a conscience while learning about the
family living in the little cabin.
“I admired virtue and good feelings, and
loved the gentle manners and amiable qualities of my cottagers; but I was shut out from
intercourse with them, except through means which I obtained by stealth, when I was
unseen and unknown, and which rather increased than satisfied the desire I had of becoming
one among my fellows”. (Shelley, p.63)

We can think of the creature as Victor’s ego when it says that he was
wrong to abandon his “child”.

"’You are in the wrong’, replied the fiend; ‘and, instead of threatening, I am content to
reason with you. I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all
mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me
why I should pity man more than he pities me? [...]’” (Shelley, p. 75)

The superego consists of two systems: the conscience and the ideal self.
The conscience is our “inner voice” that tells us when we have done something
wrong, it can punish the ego by causing feelings of guilt. And the ideal self is an
imaginary picture of how we should be.
So, we can say that the creature begins to develop a superego when it
starts to realize what it has done and feel bad about it, but at the same time, it
doesn’t develop the second part of the superego because it doesn’t feel right
about what it has done and doesn’t know what to do with its life at first. The
ideal self and conscience are largely determined in childhood by parental values
and how we are brought up. That’s why the creature doesn’t develop an ideal
self because it didn’t have a childhood at all nor a parent to guide and to show
which values it was supposed to have.
 We can also say that Frankenstein and the creature were both
responsible for the murders that were committed due to Victor’s neglect and
verbal threats, leading to the absence of a moral compass which had begun the
creature’s journey to satisfy its urge for vengeance.
It is possible to relate the superego to another character: Elizabeth. She
is described as a saint-like person, which is the closest to the definition of the
ideal self that should be the “perfect” version of what a person should do, how
to treat

_______________________________________________________________
others, how to be a member of society and the ideal behavior learned from
parents and society. If we want, we can see Elizabeth as Victor’s compass,
because he always looked up to her when he was confused and frustrated.

“The saintly soul of Elizabeth shone like a shrine – dedicated lamp in our peaceful
home. Her sympathy was ours; her smile, her soft voice, the sweet glance of her celestial eyes
were there to bless and animate us. She was the living spirit of love…” (Shelley, p.20)

“She indeed veiled her grief and strove to act the comforter to us all. She looked
steadily on life and assumed its duties with courage and zeal. She devoted herself to those
whom she had been taught to call her uncle and cousins. Never was she so enchanting at this
time then when she recalled the sunshine of her smiles and spent them upon us. She forgot
even her own regret in her endeavors to make us forget.” (Shelley, p.23)

Since the ideal self is also very moral and distinguishes between right
and wrong, we have another character who can be considered as a superego:
Henry Clerval, as he embodies what is “right” and Victor looked up to him as
well.

“Meanwhile Clerval occupied himself, so to speak, with the moral relations of things.
The busy stage of life, the virtues of heroes, and the actions of men were his theme; and his
hope and his dream was to become one among those whose names are recorded in story as
the gallant and adventurous benefactors of our species”. (Shelley, p.20)

Throughout the novel, characters evolve and blend in relation to their

identities, since Victor and his creature can be seen as complementary to each
other: Victor as ego and creature as id.
We also see that other characters can form this important triality in
relation to the human mind and perhaps think that each one has within his
psyche ability to develop one part more than the another, depending on the
environment in which it is inserted and the factors that involve its up bringing,
which does not, in any way, eliminate the existence of the other parts, only
highlights one of them.
Should we stimulate one more specific part and let the other two develop
naturally or do they evolve at equal rates? Perhaps the development of the
three parts should be stimulated together, as they form a harmonious whole and
complement each other perfectly, maintaining the balance necessary for
survival and conviviality in society.