The paper explains the reasons behind the aggressive and revengeful action of "Unleashing the Beast"'s protagonist. The protagonist, who once appears as a peaceful person waiting for someone to sell his bike, suddenly changes into a killer.
I assume that every motivation to act violently comes from the unconscious and is activated by the external event (injury, injustice). In order to prove this assumption, I take evidence from Freud's theory of ego, superego and id that is source of aggression and death instinct. Unconscious aggression is unleashed in the story as revengeful hatred long after the injury was done.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- Literature Review
- Personality structure
- Defence Mechanisms
- Rationalization
- Reaction Formation
- Research Questions
- Analysis
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This paper analyzes the protagonist's violent actions in Fergus Caulfield's short story "Unleashing the Beast." The study investigates the psychological motivations behind the protagonist's transformation from a seemingly peaceful individual to a killer, utilizing psychoanalytic theory, particularly Freud's concepts of id, ego, and superego.
- Unconscious motivations for aggression and revenge
- Freud's psychoanalytic theory and its application to literary analysis
- The role of defence mechanisms in shaping behavior
- The psychological impact of injustice and injury
- The connection between aggression, pleasure, and the human psyche
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
The introduction explores the concept of revenge and its psychological roots, drawing on research by Dan Ariely who suggests a biological basis for the pleasure associated with revenge. It introduces "Unleashing the Beast" and its protagonist, highlighting the transformation from a peaceful individual to a violent one. The literature review delves into psychoanalytic theory, specifically Freud's structural theory of personality (id, ego, superego) and the concept of aggression as a basic biological drive. It further discusses defense mechanisms, focusing on rationalization and reaction formation.
The research questions section outlines the paper's objectives: analyzing the conscious and unconscious motivations of the protagonist and exploring the influence of psychoanalytic mechanisms such as repression, aggression, reaction formation, and rationalization on the protagonist's actions.
The analysis chapter is expected to delve into the psychological underpinnings of the protagonist's behavior, employing psychoanalytic theory to uncover the unconscious beliefs and motivations driving their actions in the short story.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The main keywords and focus topics of this paper are: Unleashing the Beast, revenge, aggression, violence, Freud, id, ego, superego, psychoanalysis, defence mechanisms, rationalization, reaction formation, injustice, injury.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Ifra Anam (Autor:in), 2017, Fergus Caulfield's "Unleashing the beast". A psychoanalysis, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/413659
