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Turner's 'Morality In Regarding Henry'

Decent Essays

Sigmund Freud was the first human to suggest that everyone is unconscious. He identified that all humans had three parts that made up the personality; the id, ego and superego. The id operates on the pleasure principle, the ego operates on the reality principle, and the superego operates on the moral principle. In "Regarding Henry", Henry Turner is a fierce lawyer who operates only on pleasure that can be found in the moment. After his incident, he becomes a man of morality. Naturally, Henry Turner operates more on his pleasure principle. The id is the pleasure induced personality. Henry shows a tendency early in the film to react to his id. The first example of this occurrence is when he yells at his daughter for spilling juice onto his piano. This shows the id because it was quick tempered and selfish. Furthermore, his id is also shown in a negative manner when he does not give up his wallet to a shoplifter and he ends up getting shot because of it. His selfishness proved to be his downfall that night. However, the id can also be positive, not simply just selfishness. This is shown …show more content…

Before the incident, everything that he did or said was based off of selfishness. Everything that he did was to pleasure him in the current moment. After his incident he still predominantly used the id, but rather in a spontaneous manner. Quitting his job, buying a puppy on a whim, and taking his daughter out of school were all positive and spontaneous, yet still for the sake of immediate pleasure. Even the moments of morality could be taken a moments of the id showing. Furthermore, when he knocked over his own juice, it was moral, yet also spontaneous and done for pleasure. Whenever he yelled at his daughter for spilling her juice, that could be easily argued that he yelled at her simply out of selfishness. therefore, the id is the natural state of Henry

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