Discussed about the effect of anxiety towards main characters’ existence as found in the short stories entitled Miss Brill and The Daughters of the late Colonel. The method applied in this research was qualitative. The writer used phrases, sentences, and paragraphs found in the short stories as the data of this final project. The procedure of collecting the data included reading, identifying, classifying, selecting and interpreting the data. The study finally found that First, anxiety occurred not only in several people with some serious condition such as lack of affection and company but also occurs in people who obtain too much affection. Second, the anxieties suffered by each characters on both short stories has strongly influence their characters on their community. And the third, each character of the short stories has different defense mechanism to cope with their anxiety. The different defense mechanism used by those characters’ are defined by their personality.
At a glance
- Applies Freud’s psychoanalytic approach to anxiety and individual existence
- 10 sources in the bibliography
Contents
1. ABSTRACT
2. INTRODUCTION
3. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY
4. ANALYSIS
5. CONCLUSION
Objectives and Themes
This study examines how anxiety affects the existence of the main characters in Katherine Mansfield’s short stories Miss Brill and The Daughters of the Late Colonel. It asks how personality, relationships within a community and defense mechanisms shape the characters’ experiences of anxiety.
- Anxiety and its relationship to social existence
- Freud’s psychoanalytic models of personality
- Miss Brill’s experience of her community
- Josephine and Constantia’s lives after their father’s death
- Defense mechanisms used to manage anxiety
Excerpt from the Book
Main Character’s Personality in Creating Anxiety
Miss Brill is a lonely spinster who survives in her life on the community. She has to act and react on Jardins Publiques, the place where she is struggling her existence. The Jardins Publiques, as the background of place in the story represents the community according to its various visitors. The visitors are started from a fine old man, a big old woman, the old couple, little children, two young girls, two young soldiers, two peasant women, a beautiful woman, a gentleman, a couple of girl and boy and Miss Brill herself. At this rate, all of them unite as one in the Jardins Publiques to build a community where Miss Brill alive to become exist. In other words, the community in Jardins Publiques is Miss Brill’s community.
Miss Brill is a kind of ignorance person. She follows the drive of her will without examine what the reality will react over what she’s been doing. Her will drives her to use her fur so that her ego lets it become real. She needs to use her fur because she needs to use it. She likes the fur. The primary process then transforms her need to satisfy the wish. She doesn’t put her ears on what people talk, think and judge about her. She still wears her fur although she already knew that the weather is nice. The sky is blue and the air was motionless, yet, the fur that she wears is not completely necessary except it is her own decision about her fashion. But on the contrary, people who see her fur think that it is an old fashioned and queer.
This condition has put her into situation where anyone who has their sight on her gives her a queer sight to express their strange feeling of seeing a woman wears a fur on a good and warm weather. The ego receives this sight as a signal of a potential danger and then creates anxiety on Miss Brill. This unpleasant threat by another member of the community discomfort Miss Brill. It is also jeopardies her position on the community. Miss Brill’s anxiety categorized into real anxiety, the potential danger faced by Miss Brill comes from her surrounding on the community. As her strange look appears, a judge and prejudice naturally appears as well. The character of Miss Brill mentioned as a strange old lonely spinster creates a different judgment and valuation on her from another people in her community. This is normal for person to have prejudice on Miss Brill as seeing her strange look. This prejudice has put Miss Brill into discomfort situation in her community.
Chapter Summaries
ABSTRACT: The abstract outlines the study’s qualitative approach, its two literary texts and its focus on anxiety, existence and defense mechanisms.
INTRODUCTION: The introduction connects individual identity and community relationships with anxiety and introduces the three characters examined in the study.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY: This section presents Freud’s psychoanalytic approach, including the topographic and structural models of personality, and identifies the two stories used in the analysis.
ANALYSIS: The analysis considers the characters’ personalities, their existence within their communities and their efforts to cope with anxiety.
CONCLUSION: The conclusion brings together the discussion of anxiety, social existence and the characters’ defense mechanisms.
Keywords
anxiety, existence, community, psychoanalysis, Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill, The Daughters of the Late Colonel, personality, defense mechanisms, Sigmund Freud, literary analysis, social relationships
Frequently Asked Questions
What is this work about?
It examines the effects of anxiety on the existence of characters in two short stories by Katherine Mansfield.
What are its central themes?
The central themes include anxiety, personality, community relationships, social existence and defense mechanisms.
What is the main research question?
The study asks how anxiety affects the main characters’ existence within their communities.
What research method does the author use?
The author uses a qualitative approach, interpreting phrases, sentences and paragraphs from the stories through Freud’s psychoanalytic theory.
What does the main analysis cover?
It examines the characters’ personalities, the relationship between anxiety and their social existence, and their efforts to cope with anxiety.
Which keywords characterize the work?
Key terms include anxiety, existence, community, psychoanalysis, personality and defense mechanisms.
Which stories and characters are examined?
The study examines Miss Brill in Miss Brill and Josephine and Constantia in The Daughters of the Late Colonel.
How does Freud’s theory inform the analysis?
The author uses Freud’s psychoanalytic approach and discusses the id, ego and superego as part of the theoretical framework.
What role does the Jardins Publiques play in the analysis?
The study treats the Jardins Publiques and its visitors as Miss Brill’s community, providing a setting for examining her social experience.
- Citation du texte
- Tami Rizki (Auteur), 2015, Anxiety Effects towards Existence in Katherine Mansfield’s Short Stories "Miss Brill" and "The Daughters of the Late Colonel", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/359354
