Id, Ego and Superego Through Lord of the Flies Novel - Essay Example

Id, Ego and Superego The central idea of this lecture primarily based on three forces of mind, id ego and superego. They can be similar to the Indian concept of Satvik (Superego), Rajas (Ego), and Tamas (Id). While describing the concept of psychoanalysis Freud describes that id ego and superego are the dynamic relations between conscious and unconscious. It is ego who is between the conscious (Superego), and unconscious (Id). It is the ego according to Freud which has to play a crucial role for the survival of the individual. And the ego is constantly suppressed and threatened by the superego and the id as well as the external world. Rather according to Freud id and the superego are the masters of the ego. And ego goes on struggling to keep his existence. Through the novel of William Golding, “Lord of the Flies,” we are going to discuss some major questions. First is what are the ego and its masters second is what conflict is there between the ego and his masters? And third question is why ego fails and what happens when it fails? This novel can best be described as the Freudian psychological understanding of human kind. Keywords: id, ego, superego, symbolic microcosm, Freudian psychological understanding Ego and its masters: According to Freud there are three aspects of the personality. Id, ego, and superego. Among them ego is the rational part of mind and it develops out of the awareness that whatever you demand cannot always be achieved. Freud calls the Ego as only the portion of the id. “A portion that has been expediently modified by the proximity of the external world with its threat of danger” (Page 109). Ego is basically the conscious part of the mind. It is governed mainly by the reality principle, mediating between external reality, the id and the superego. From dynamic point of view ego is weak according to Freud. Freud gets sympathetic towards ego according to him, “The poor ego has things even worse: it serves three masters and does what it can to bring their claims and demands into harmony with one another.”(110) thus ego has three masters, id, superego and the external world. In Lord of the Flies Golding shows the tyrannical circumstances of the ego through the character of Ralph, the protagonist of the novel, who is constantly under the influence of id (Jack), and superego (Piggy). The entire novel is the conflict between ego (Ralph) and its two masters, i.e. id (Jack), and superego (Piggy). Conflict between ego and its masters: The ego has to preserve its existence and for that he constantly fights with his three powerful and influential masters. It is always difficult and often impossible for him to content all of the three at a time. Id motivates the ego to get the pleasure if he accepts the proposal of id it has to face the discontent of the superego. If he tries to get the pleasure through the framework of the attitude of superego, the external world doesn’t allow it to get the pleasure. Here I would like to quote Freud’s statement regarding this context, “it owes service to three masters and is consequently menaced by three dangers: from the external world, from the libido of the id and from the severity of the superego’ (Standard Edition, XIX, pp. 12–66, at p. 56). Throughout the whole novel the ego Ralph is facing these three masters. He has been threatened by Jack and Piggy as well as from the outside world. Freud regards the ego as the mediator between the id and the superego. The ego has to play a very crucial role to face the three masters the id, the superego and the external world and he is always on the line of discontent from any one or any two of these three masters but he is more loyal to the id. It is always the inclination of the superego to be in opposition of the evil deeds of the id. That is why there is a great hostility in id towards the superego. Same thing is shown in Lord of the Flies where Jack hates Piggy, because Piggy is the major obstacle between him and Ralph. According to Freud the ego has been emerged out of id and the ego tries to express the impulses of id in that manner which is acceptable in the world. The ego thus functions in conscious, preconscious and unconscious mind. The failure of ego and its consequences The major duty of ego is to harmonize its three masters. But as mentioned above it is quite difficult task and very often ego fails in his efforts. The id and superego are rigid and not subject to change while controlling the outside world is beyond the limit of ego. In such cases life is a misery for ego. It is a Herculean Task for the individual to keep his wills and pleasures in the framework of the society. So it is naturally the responsibility of the ego to accomplish the golden mean between these two. The ego constantly juggles to weld these two rigid forces. Ego is at the center of his powerful masters. When the ego comes under the constant demand by these three masters it feels threatened, overwhelmed and it collapses totally. Such feeling is the feeling of anxiety. Here Freud has mentioned three types of anxieties, realistic anxiety that can be called fear second is moral anxiety and third is neurotic anxiety. Thus the ego breaks into the anxiety. And naturally this is a great mental tragedy for the human being. Anxiety of failure from all parts is a great cause for mental collapse. “The ego’s relation to the id might be compared with that of a rider to his horse. The horse supplies the locomotive energy, while the rider has the privilege of deciding on the goal and of guiding the powerful animal’s movement. But only too often there arises between the ego and the id the not precisely ideal situation of the rider being obliged to guide the horse along the path by which it itself wants to go.” (Page, 109,). Thus in “Lord of the Flies” Ralph in the end was defeated by Jack The superego was finished forever when Piggy was killed by Jack’s hunter. and Ralph, the ego cannot control the id from the evil savagery. Freud’s negative attitude towards id. Freud regards the id in a negative manner and according to him id is associated with the egocentric and amoral instinct. Id is generally compared with a spontaneous and innocent child but Freud has depicted a very dark image of id. According to me the reason behind this opinion is that Freud might be thinking that children are never innocent. They are destructive and possessive. Their world is not the world of romanticism or of fairies but it is always the world of dystopia. They are always the pervert. Same idea has been adopted by William Golding in “Lord of the Flies.” He has shown the height of cruelty and brutality in the world of the children. There was no vestige of innocence at all in them. Perhaps Freud might be thinking in a same way and so he does not accept the idea of innocence in human nature. So naturally it is very essential for the ego to hold control on the id. Conclusion According to Freud these three components should be well balanced to keep mental health and individual stability. While expressing the term ego strength, Freud wants to refer the ego’s ability. If this ability develops in a proper way, then it will definitely be able to manage the pressure from id and superego. Finally we might conclude that if id, ego, and superego are managed in a balanced way one can achieve a psychologically healthy personality. Read More