Psychoanalysis of Roald Dahls Matilda - Essay Example

A Psychoanalysis of Matilda Introduction Psychoanalysis is the branch of epistemology concerned with the human psyche. The psyche is the immaterial part of the person and takes dimension from the moment of birth and continues until death. Unlike the brain, head or the heart, the psyche is not a physical or biological component of the person and is instead a socially and culturally construct. (Pope, 2002) Freud constructs three compartments for the psyche and calls them the id, the superego and the ego. The id is the place where the human being sweeps away all desires, chaotic thoughts, experiences and feelings and is a lifelong process. This place is otherwise known as the subconscious. The superego is the opposite extreme of the id and is the force used by the father and the social and cultural institutions he represents to check and drive the person's desires into the id. The superego includes tradition, inherited values, religion and its institutions, education and its peripheries and all forms of authority. The ego is the self that emerges after an on going and continual negotiation between the id and the superego. If the person's superego is weaker than his/her id the result will be a loose, permissive, carefree, easy going or even a mad person. If the person's superego is stronger than his/her id, then that person will become a conformist to the moral and social values of the person's medium. (Douglas, 2007) The process of pyschoanalyzing a text has several approaches. One can read a text and isolate the elements in the text that reveal the inner conflicts, desires and suppressions in the person of the artist. Another way is examining elements that define the psychology of the characters in the narrative. A third way is seeing if the text reveals the collective psychology of the people and the culture that produces the work of art. In any case, the analysis should consider one or both of the two basic assumptions of the theory. The first assumption is the tripartite nature of the manifest self, whether it is the self of the author, the fictitious character, or the collective consciousness behind the work while the second one is the work of art as a dream work that reflects the suppressed content of the id of either the author or his/her characters. (Pope, 2002) In this essay, I shall be concerned in the first assumption which is determining the tripartite nature that is present in the character of Matilda. I will be trying to learn the psyche of Matilda. I would begin by providing a summary of the story Matilda written by Roald Dahl in 1988. When conducting the research, I came to realize that there are elements of the story derived directly from the experiences of the author. While this may be a good topic for psychoanalysis, our focus would be on Matilda and her psyche. Plot Summary Matilda Wormwood has the potential to be a genius but her parents do not care about her as shown by the fact that she is discouraged from reading books and encouraged in watching TV. In spite of this, Matilda perseveres and became intellectually superior in her class. TO combat her parent's being so uncaring, she devises clever pranks such as "the hat and the super glue," "the parrot-in-the-chimney-affair," and "the great hair oil switch." Her great intellect catches her teacher's, Jennifer Honey's, attention and appeal for her to be accelerated. Agatha Trunchbull, the evil headmistress, refuses. Miss Honey learned of how Matilda's parents treat her when she consults them for Matilda being sent to the university. Throughout the story, Miss Trunchbull treats her students in abusive manners such as ploughing straight through children so that they "bounce off her feet like footballs", makes regular visits to classes to "show" the teachers a few tips on discipline, throws students out of windows and even locks them in a contraption known only as "the Chokey." Matilda becomes her primary target when she learned that it was her father that sold her a second car that barely works. Meanwhile, Matilda discovers she has psychokinetic powers and uses it to get back at Miss Trunchbull. Miss Honey learns of Matilda's power and decides to talk to her at her home. Matilda discovers that Miss Honey is living in poverty because Miss Trunchbull, her aunt, has acquired her father's properties and has even acquired her salaries. With this information, Matilda formulates a plan as to how she can get rid of the Trunchbull for good. Matilda uses her powers to pretend to be the spirit of Miss Honey's father and threatened Miss Trunchbull to give Miss Honey her wages and her father's house. Miss Trunchbull fainted at the sight of chalk writing with itself on the blackboard. The day following the chalkboard incident, Miss Trunchbull disappears while Miss Honey acquires what is rightfully hers. After the incident, Matilda loses her ability because the stored brainpower has been depleted and she can no longer afford to store again because she needs it for her schooling. Matilda's father turns out to be selling stolen cars and is discovered by the police. He decides to move to Spain with his family but Matilda asks them to remain with Miss Honey. They agreed to this arrangement and drove away forever. Matilda and Miss Honey lives then lives happily together. The Superego As noted earlier, the superego represents the force imposed by society on its members to make them follow rules of the society. In the case of the story of Matilda, the main superego is the complicity required by her parents. It is her parents who are preventing her from fulfilling her desires which is to develop her potential to be a genius. Obedience to parents is one of the most highly valued norms in society. The general assumption is that the parents know best and disobeying them would earn you the mark of a juvenile delinquent. Orders from parents are absolute and no child with good moral character would break it. Adults exercise and even take advantage of this social understanding to impose their will on their children. (Lanyado, 2004) Another superego is the evil headmistress character, Miss Trunchbull, who represents the school system albeit in a more wicked fashion. If we contemplate further, however, we note that the school does represent a form of social control. According to Mencken, the aim of education is not for enlightenment but to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level as determined by adults, to breed and train a standardized citizenry and to put down dissent and originality. Schools are even considered as prisons because it imposes upon them laws and penalties which make them conformist. Schools comprise a system that inculcates patriotism, national values and fills the job gaps in our social structure thereby keeping the economic network running as smoothly as possible. The nature of the school as a form of social control is undeniably present but to what purpose it is used is not the subject of this paper. What is important is to acknowledge that the school is indeed a superego as stated also by Winnicott (2006). Miss Trunchbull represents the most villainous form of superego because of her methods in 'disciplining the children'. These methods included throwing students out of classrooms, imprisoning them inside a contraption named as Chokey and exploiting children's weaknesses such as making a fat student eat a multi-layered cake. This, according to her, is in the spirit of straightening the ways of the children. Miss Trunchbull represents the school that would not allow disruptive behaviour from their students and which will employ punishments just so to straighten them and mould them into 'law-abiding' citizens. Then again, we note that Matilda is fond of her teacher Miss Lovely who is part of the school system. Matilda even went as far as devising a plan to help her teacher from her aunt who was getting all that she had. In this sense, we can see even further that Matilda was indeed in search for a true parent figure. She needed someone who would care for her, someone who would acknowledge her abilities. That someone was Miss Honey. In this case, we note that Matilda is not going against social institutions but only through a personal level. The Id It was earlier discussed that the ID represents the hidden desires of our selves. After reading Matilda, one can say that in Matilda's case, the id or the desire was to realize her potential to be a genius. She was, after all, capable of being one and she felt that she deserved to be cared and nurtured so that she will realize this but her parents simply did not care for her. If we think this way, then we can also realize that another one of Matilda's desire is to get back at her parents for not caring for her the way she deserved to be cared for. She wanted to exact revenge at her parents and so she did with her pranks. This brings to a rather interesting idea and that is the fact that most children love their parents. However, it is likewise true that children love their parents if their take care of them properly with love and affection. If this is not fulfilled, they will start disliking the parents. There is a condition and that is children want their needs to be fulfilled. If parents are unable to fulfil their requirements of love, money, understanding and independence, the children will usually develop dissatisfaction which could transform to hate. They also want that parents must help them to develop their personality in every manner. Sometimes parents have too many arguments or does not even care that it disturbs the children too much. They are surprised at the behaviour of their parents and so they start to rebel. This is indeed the case for Matilda who had uncaring parents. Matilda is an extraordinarily gifted child whose father was a crass, dishonest used-car dealer and a self-centered, blowsy bingo addict who regard her as "nothing more than a scab." Living with her beastly parents is only made bearable because she teaches herself to read, finds the public library and discovers literature. The lively intelligence she had developed enabled her to perpetrate daring acts of revenge on her father. She further develops it when she enrols in Crunchem Hall Primary School where she meets the evil Miss Trunchbull. Miss Trunchbull was every child's nightmare of a head teacher. She was terrifying, mean and villainous that she exactly fits the criteria. Like every child, Matilda desired to get back on this mean teacher whose wrath focused on her due to the nature and conduct of her father which is the primary object of her utmost desire for revenge. Adults may cringe at Dahl's excesses in describing the cruel Miss Trunchbull but the overextended characterization aptly suits the description of children with their teachers. Children, with their keenly developed sense of justice, are likely to develop hidden desires to punish Miss Trunchbull. The revelation that Miss Trunchbull was the one who was causing despair and poverty to Miss Honey provided further fuel to the already blazing desire to take revenge on the headmistress. The psychokinetic ability of Matilda is the utmost expression of her id. It was the crystallize form of her innermost desires. The knowledge that Miss Trunchbull was mistreating her beloved teacher Miss Honey could have led to it taking full form and manifesting itself. This was the expression of her id, all the hidden desires that she could only express through pranks. The Ego The ego is the self that results from negotiation between the superego and the id. Matilda turned to be the most virtuous of heroines because of the fact that she used her power to help someone close to her heart without any conditions on the other. The feelings of revenge she had for her parents transformed her somehow into an avatar of those that were maltreated. In the end, Matilda's ego was shaped more by her id which is her innermost desires. These desires were originally vengeance but eventually transformed into desires of helping the 'parent' she had always wanted. She turned out doing what she desired and is therefore not a conformist. Among the elements of social control such as imposing parents and controlling schools, Matilda, representing a new generation of children, is born and brought up to maturity. Matilda, like her generation of children, at the beginning of the story is lost between her loyalties to her id and her fear of the superego. She does what she desires in secret: she goes to the library in secret and plays pranks with her parents. All these activities are manifestations of the id. She wants to learn, she wants to taste sweetness of being cared for and she desires subconsciously to betray the superego. She is unable to air her desires in public fearful of offending the strong superego that she thinks she should conform to. Eventually, when Matilda realizes that the superego is far too selfish, irrational, and hypocrite, she embarks on the vessel of her id and sails out of the superego's port. Thus Matilda act of asking her parents to leave her to Miss Honey at the end of the story presents to the mind an image of a society whose ego is being renegotiated. She is now free to do what she truly desires. Conclusion Understanding people thru psychoanalysis implies that the person has hidden desires which are tempered or suppressed by forces that form the superego. In the end, it is how the person decides to act that ultimately defines who he is Will he be a conformist and be loyal to the system or will he be acting his inner desires without regard for consequences and authority It is the decision formed from answering this questions that will determine the character of the person. Applying psychoanalysis provided many revelations with regards to the character of Matilda. The book authored by Roald Dahl turns out not to be purely for entertainment but as a learning module as well. Children have certain desires and expectations especially coming from their parents and when these desires are not met, it is highly likely that there will be some form of disillusionment on the part of the children. Other sectors of society tend to add more to that disillusionment and making the child have even more hidden desires. While Matilda had the psychokinetic ability as an outlet, not many children have one that is not as destructive as that of Matilda. Oftentimes, the outlet would come in the form of disobedience, spending more time with other less disagreeable people such as friends who offer 'thrills' or a commission of an act that would show the world how repressed the child is. If there is one important lesson that we could learn from applying psychoanalysis with Matilda is that we need to be more sensitive to the feelings of children. We need to understand them more and even take actions so that they may turn out to have good personalities. Trying to control them is of no use since it will only provide basis for more hidden desires. There is a need for someone to fulfill their desires for parental love and a friendly school where they can develop into good people. References: Dahl, Roald (1988). Matilda. UK: Jonathan Cape and Puffin Books Publishing. Douglas, Hazel (2007). Integrating Psychoanalytic Theory and Child Development Research for Work with Children. London: Routledge. Lanyado, Monica (2004). A Question of Technique: Independent Psychoanalytic Approaches with Children and Adolescents. UK: Beville. Pope, J. (2002). Book Review: Child Analysis and Development: A History of Child Psychoanalysis. Am Psychoanal Assoc.2002; 50: 685-689 Winnicott, D.W. (2006). The Family and Individual Development. London: Routledge. Read More