A Psychological Analysis on Characters in Poe’s Short Stories

【Abstract】“The Tell-Tale Heart”， “The Black Cat”， and “The Cast of Amontillado” are written by Edgar Allan Poe， the protagonists all commit terrible crimes. This paper mainly analyzes the protagonists psychology under Freudian personality theory， points out that the reason for these terrible crimes or tragedy is the unbalance of id， ego and super-ego.

【Key words】Edgar Allan Poe； Sigmund Freud； Personality theory

【作者簡介】达娃央宗，西南民族大学外国语学院。

Freud studied he human psyche and outlined his theories of the id， ego and super-ego. Id is the system of “unconscious”， which contains human secret desires， darkest wishes， and intense fears. Ego is the rational and logical part of the mind. “The super-ego retains the character of the father， while the more powerful the Oedipus complex was… the stricter will be the domination of the super-ego over the ego later on.（Freud， 1989：30）” Based on the Freudian personality theory， we discuss the abnormal activities from the unbalanced personality in Poes stories.

In “The Tell-Tale Heart”， the narrator told us his mixed feelings about the old man whom he live with， he murdered the old man brutally， however， he confessed his crime before the policemen. The wish of killing is only the “death instinct” of protagonists id， which Freud states is one of the two classes of instincts， and the opposite one is “sexual instinct”（or life instinct）. The desire for killing burst out and the energy of id became stronger， a feeling of fulfillment made the man “fairly chucked” （Poe， 2007：5）. Suddenly， he heard the beating of the old mans heart. The heartbeat he heard represented his sense of morality in ego and warned him of the crime. But the energy of id once broke out， for fulfilling the desire of id he killed the old man and buried his body parts under the floor. However， the ids immoral behavior definitely cant escape the supervision of the super-ego. When the policemen came， he heard the loud heartbeat again and he confess. The heartbeat was his super-ego or his morality standards deeply rooted in his mind that guided him out to the police and managed to carry out its severe punishments.

In “The Black Cat”， the protagonist was a gentle young man， but suddenly became violent since he started drinking alcohol excessively. The evil instinct， Freud calls “death instinct ” or “aggressive drive”， started to control his mind. He began to abuse animals and his wife whom he used to love， he even cut one of Plutos eyes and hang it to death. Social morality in his ego had restrained him， but alcohol discovered the dark side of his nature and the “evil” id defeated the “vulnerable” ego. Months later， the narrator saw another cat looked exactly like the dead one， so he adopted it as an act of expiation. However， being pushed eagerly by the id， ego has no other options but gradually stepped on the road to collapse. One day， he took an axe towards the animal. But the action was stopped by his wife， he put the axe into his wifes head and walled the corpse up in the cellar. In the end， the policemen tore the wall down， found the decaying corpse and an one-eyed cat sat on its head. Actually it was the super-ego in narrators personality defeated id and ego， which punished the narrator with the sense of guilty and revealed his own crime.

In “The Cask of Amontillado”， Montresor planed to murder Fortunato for Fortunato was arrogant and the aristocratic features. By following the pleasure principle， id told him to take action against Fortunato and cure the unhappiness. At this moment， id and ego in his personality were in chaos and Montresor was in an extremely painful situation. As Montresor would achieve his goal in the cellar， his ego and super-ego came out in order to stop him from the crime. He warned Fortunato， but Fortunato insisted on continuing. Then the id was back in his personality， and continuously lured Fortunato to the end of his life. Finally Montresors id got fulfillment， he was ecstatic with satisfaction. But suddenly he hesitated and trembled. According to Freudian personality theory， his hesitation， tremble and sick at heart are all stings of conscience from ego and super-ego， by which super-ego tried to punish him for his immoral deeds. Id and super-ego in Montresors personality took charge in turns， and he chose to surrender to his id in the end of the story. With the surrender， his id， ego and super-ego failed to reach a balanced system.

This paper explores Poes abnormal characters in horror stories by analyzing tales like “The Tell-Tale Heart”， “The Black Cat”， and “The Cast of Amontillado”. Their personality is distorted by the conflict among id， ego， and super-ego. The unbalanced state of their personality drives these characters to behave abnormally. First， the desire of the id are released， and the ego controlled the id. But after the id gets its relief， it is followed by super-egos interference， thus the super-ego compromised to the id in the end. With such an unbalanced psychological state， these characters all committed terrible crimes.

References：

[1]Freud，Sigmund.The Ego And The Id.[M].Strachey，James.ed.New York： W.W.Norton & Company，1989.

[2]Poe，Edgar Allan.Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe[M].New York： Simon &Schuster; Paperbacks，2007.

[3]弗洛伊德.精神分析新論[M].长春：长春出版社，2004.