The Balance of Dorian Gray's Structure of Personality in Oscar Wilde's Novel the Picture of Dorian Gray: a Study of Psychoanalysis

The psychodynamic theory argues that the personality contains three major components. The components are id, ego, and superego. ID is the unrestrained, pleasure-seeking component that a person is born with. Ego develops by living in the world and superego develops by interactions with others. When all three components are well balanced the individual lives a normal life. Now, when they are unbalanced and one

Since adulthood, the structure of the development of personality current is observed under the terms of whether he or she passed with success the different psychosexual stages of childhood, youth and adulthood. Different mental illnesses are the result of a failure in the progression through the early childhood development (for example, - caught up in the “annals “of the stage), which in turn, translate into problems with the balance of the structure of the personality (the ego, the superego and the id). Some of the unconscious reasons for the majority of human behavior are sex and aggression. (Herkov, M. G. (2013, January 30). For example, perhaps the superego is much stronger than it should be and the ego is unable to always counteract its demands for

Freud attempted to explain how the unconscious functions by dividing it into three structures, the id, ego, and superego. The id holds our primitive instincts that demand immediate gratification, because it operates on the pleasure principle (McLeod, 2010). Similarly, the ego also seeks pleasure. However, instead of seeking immediate gratification, the ego acts realistically in order to avoid potentially negative consequences that may arise. On the other hand, our superego represents our conscious. It encompasses the morals and values we learn by society and our parents as we go through the stages of

Most people are taught from a young age what is right, and what is wrong. These teachings set up the basis for later discovering one’s personal values. In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, these same principles are applied and challenged by Wilde. Not only does he question morality and human nature, but also the ideas of the Aesthetic movement- which influenced the ideals and behavior of Dorian Gray. Through Dorian’s morally ambiguous character, Wilde asserts that one is not purely good or evil, but a mixture of the two; Wilde establishes this theme when Dorian breaks up with Sibyl Vane, murders Basil Hallward, and stabs his decaying portrait.

As Sigmund Freud theorized, the mind is broken up into both the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. Within the unconscious mind exists three different apparatuses: Id, Ego, and Superego. The Id is associated with satisfying instinctive actions such as sex or hunger, the ego is associated with reason and reality, and the superego is associated with the values

Freud’s structural and topographical model of personality, revolves around the id, ego and superego (McLeod, 2008). As a newborn, I was born with my id which allowed me to get my basic needs met. As an infant, I would cry if I was hungry or tired or just wanted to be held, I did not think of anyone else. The second part of my personality started around when I was three years old, and according to Freud this is when I began to develop my ego. An example of this would be if I was hungry I would want to satisfy my id, but at the

The environment one lives in is one of the major factors in the development of human behavior. The unpredictability of human behavior shows that people are unique and operate based on their different ideas and backgrounds. Growing up one learns something from someone everyday whether they want to or not through interaction. This interaction makes connections with people and they influence our behavior. According to Freud, human behavior is a result of the interaction between the three components of the mind: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the part of our subconscious that is driven by desires the conscious mind doesn’t want to acknowledge. The ego is the conscious sense of the mind. The superego is the part of the conscious that knows the rules and expectation of society. The id contains the libido which in psychoanalytic theory, libido is defined as primitive biological urges that is expressed through conscious actions. In Euripides’s Medea, Medea is driven by her libido. The motivations for Medea’s actions do not come from outside problems, but from her id and ego constantly being at war with one another.

The unconscious mind houses the preconscious, a small section that houses material that is non-threatening, and easily brought to mind. But deeper in the unconscious mind are the instinctual drives, the wishes, desires, demands, and needs that are kept hidden from out conscious selves because of the conflicts and pain they would cause if they were brought to bear every day. Psychoanalytic personality theory tells us that the personality consists of three separate, but forever intermingling elements, id, ego, and superego. The id section of a personality is by far the largest, the only section that we are born with, and the section that contains the unconscious thoughts, it is raw, unorganized, and from the time of birth it tries to reduce tension caused by our primary drives. The ego, a section that develops soon after birth, balances the instinctual desires of the id and the realities of the outside world. Last of course is the superego, the final personality structure that is developed in childhood, and represent the rights and wrongs of society, contained within the superego is the conscience, the part of us that prevents us from behaving in a morally deplorable way and is responsible for guilt. Psychoanalytic personality theory is not without its virtues; Freud’s proposed five psychosexual stages – oral, anal, phallic-oedipal, latency and genital – are all supported in life.

Superego: This is that part of our psyche that determines how we think we should react in a given situation. This is the development of morals, what is right and what is wrong. It is a further development of control over the id response.

In the preface of the novel, Wilde reminds the readers that, “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all” (The Picture of Dorian Gray 3). In starting with a group of aphorisms concerning his beliefs, Wilde sets the tone for the rest of the criticism in the novel. He states that the novel should be analyzed based on style and not on the ideas implied, whether they be good or evil.

Freud proposed the psychological structure of personality to include three systems called the id, the ego, and the superego. At birth, the id is the original system of personality and is ruled by the pleasure principle. It is driven towards satisfying instinctual needs. The ego can be described as a mediator between ones instincts and their surrounding environment. The ego is ruled by the reality principle, using realistic and logical thinking to formulate action plans for satisfying needs. The superego includes a person’s moral code and strives for perfection, not pleasure. Psychic energy is distributed between these three systems creating dynamics of personality. This psychic energy is what determines behavior (Day, 2008).

In chapter 20 of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Dorian reflects on his past crimes and wonders whether he will ever change and retrieve his innocence again. Throughout the final chapter of the novel, the elements of Gothic novel that Wilde explores conveys the idea of the pursuit of individualism. Dorian’s wild, racing emotions clearly show how much he is driven by his readiness to fulfill his desires under any circumstance. Through this, the use of specific words and punctuation markings highlight Dorian’s personal yearning of removing himself from his past.

The psychoanalytic perspective was the result of the experiments that were conducted on the patient who was referred as Anna O. in the studies that were being conducted by Freud and his friend and colleague Dr. Josef Breuer (Duke, 2002). In his definition of personality in the context of the psychoanalytic perspective, Sigmund Freud provided that personality has three main elements which are ID, ego and superego. He described ID as being the elements of personality that are driven by the internal and basic needs of an individual and that they influence a person to avoid pain and seek pleasure. The ego elements was defined as being driven by the reality principles and that it works to balance and regulate the ID and superego. On the other hand, the superego is based on the morality principle and it controls the way a person appreciates the morality of the higher thoughts and actions. In this regard, it is clear that Sigmund Freud, through his psychoanalytic theory was defining personality based on the id, ego and superego, which are the three main elements that define all types of

Throughout his life Oscar Wilde had many strong influences exerted upon him. During his early childhood his mother influenced him and into college some of his professors and certain philosophers left a substantial impression upon him. Into adulthood these influences leaked out in his writing. These influences gave him ample ideas for writing The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde's study of the Hellenistic ideals of Epicurus, his coddled lifestyle as a child and his devotion to the movement of Aesthetics and Moral Ambiguity have produced one of the most astounding works of horror fiction.

Freud strategized that the personality was composed of three elements; the id, ego, and superego. The id is the component of personality that is present from birth, and is exclusively unconscious. “According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality” (Cherry,1). On the other hand, the ego is the element of the personality that is responsible with reality. “According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world” (Cherry, 1). It