Analysis of main characters in Fleabag.doc

(论文)摘 要系列英剧伦敦生活以其黑色幽默的风格及对现代生存困境的深刻描写，自2016年开播以来便受到广泛关注。本文运用西格蒙德·弗洛伊德的人格理论，对剧中三个主要人物的精神历程进行论述分析，比较他们的人格特征，揭示作品主题。虽然弗洛伊德的精神分析理论很长时间里都为相关领域的讨论热点，但将其运用到影视作品分析的研究并不多。本文运用弗洛伊德的人格结构理论，对电视剧Fleabag中的三位主要人物的本我、自我以及超我进行分析解读。在理论中，本我代表爱与性的本能冲动，自我代表社会规则下的行为约束，超我代表道德驱动的高尚品质。本文基于人格理论的基本框架和相关研究，通过分析剧中人物的人格特点，揭示了主角Fleabag的放荡不羁、对爱与性的渴望；姐姐Claire的精英主义、压抑与克制；神父Priest的自我救赎、虔诚与博爱，从精神分析角度对人物性格和内在世界进行了探究。运用人格理论对系列影视剧伦敦生活进行分析，不仅可以深度剖析主要角色的心理机制，透析人物心底深邃幽微的情感，还能引发受众对爱与欲望、现代生存困境的思考，同时这也是将精神分析方法与影视文学评论相结合的一次积极尝试。关键词：伦敦生活，人格理论，弗洛伊德，精神分析- I -(论文)Analysis of Main Characters in Fleabag from the Perspective of Freuds Personality TheoryAbstractThe series Fleabag, with its black humor style and deep description of modern survival dilemma, has been widely concerned since its launch in 2016. This paper uses Sigmund Freud's personality theory to analyze the spiritual process of the three main characters in the play, compare their personality characteristics, and reveal the theme of the work.Although Freud's theory of psychoanalysis has been a hot topic in related fields for a long time, there are not many researches that apply it to the analysis of film and television works. In this paper, Freud's personality theory is used to analyze the id, ego and super-ego of the three main characters in the TV series Fleabag. In the theory, the id represents the instinctive impulse of love and sex, the ego represents the behavior restriction under the social rules, and the super-ego represents the noble quality driven by morality. With the basic framework of personality theory and related research, this paper reveals the protagonist, Fleabag's Bohemian, desire for love and sex; her elder sister Claire's elitism, repression and restraint; Priest's self salvation, piety and fraternity. It explores the characters personality and inner world from the perspective of psychoanalysis.Using the personality theory to analyze the series Fleabag can not only analyze the psychological mechanism of the main characters, but also provide a chance for the audience to think about love, desire and modern survival dilemma. It is also a positive attempt to combine the psychoanalysis method with film and television literature criticism.Key Words：Fleabag， Personality Theory， Freud， Psychoanalysis- III -本页为“7毕业论文目录（1页或若干页）”，点击菜单“USTB本科论文各部分”中的本部分菜单进行相应操作。本提示信息为非打印信息，可一直保留，不影响打印。(论文)Contents摘 要IAbstractIII1 Introduction11.1 Background to the study11.2 Purpose of the study and research questions21.3 Approach to the study21.4 Data collection21.5 Organization of the study32 Literature review42.1 Introduction42.2 An overview of Personality Theory and Psychoanalysis42.3 Application of Psychoanalysis62.4 Previous studies of Fleabag82.5 Summary103 Analysis of main characters in Fleabag113.1 Personality of Fleabag113.1.1The id: Libido and impulse113.1.2The ego: Emptiness and awareness133.1.3The super-ego: Goodness and confession143.2 Personality of Claire153.2.1The id: Jealousy and love instinct163.2.2The ego: Repression and control173.2.3The super-ego: Tolerance and emotion control183.3 Personality of Priest203.3.1The id: Disobedience and libido203.3.2The ego: Rejection and responsibility213.3.3The super-ego: Celibacy and capacity of love223.4 Summary244 Conclusion25References27Academic Achievements29Acknowledgements31- VI -本页为“10毕业论文正文页（若干页）”，点击菜单“USTB本科论文各部分”中的本部分菜单进行相应操作。本提示信息为非打印信息，可一直保留，不影响打印。(论文)1 Introduction1.1 Background to the studyFleabag tells the story of a bohemian London woman whose life is in a mess and lacking love. The play premiered in the UK on July 21, 2016, and it has aroused great repercussions and received a lot of praise. The second season aired in 2019 has won four awards of Emmy for the Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actress, Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Directing. This autobiographical drama, which interweaves tragedy and comedy, presents the conviction and confusion in modern society with the most vulgar language and sincere emotion in a form of black humor.The plot revolves around three different characters. The protagonist, Fleabag, who is impulsive and unrestrained, wanders in all social occasions with a joking attitude and always puts her own enjoyment at first. From her, the primal desire of man can be fully seen. Her elder sister Claire, as a middle-class elite, always cares about social rules no matter in work or in life. She tries to maintain her dignity even if her life is already in a mess. Unlike these two characters, Priest seems to disobey the commandments from some aspects, but in fact he is the most devout believer of god, preaching love and putting religious belief above personal desire. His existence represents the holy morality.Based on Freud's personality theory, this paper adopts psychoanalytic method, which is a world-famous theory founded by Sigmund Freud. Freud proposed that human psychology can be divided into three parts: id, ego and super-ego, which together create complex human behavior to ensure the normal development of personality. According to this psychological model, the id is a group of uncoordinated instinctive trends; the super-ego plays the role of moral restraint; the ego is an organized and realistic part, playing an intermediary role between the id and the super-ego's desire. This paper is mainly from the perspective of Freud's personality theory to analyze the psychological performance of the three main characters in Fleabag, and to find out the most prominent personality of each of them.1.2 Purpose of the study and research questionsUsing the personality theory to analyze the main characters can theoretically explain the psychological factors which lead to form their personalities and even reveal the personalitys influence on their destinies. In the practical sense, taking such a realistic work as the research object can also guide people to correctly handle the relationship between id, ego and super-ego in the contemporary society with serious survival difficulties.In the following parts, the main body will explore the following questions:(1) What are the main features of the id, the ego and the super-ego in Freuds personality theory?(2) What are the three main characters most obvious characteristics according to their behavior?(3) How does the main personality of each the three roles be reflected in their performance and influence their life? 1.3 Approach to the studyThis paper will use qualitative research methods to analyze the behavior and psychology of the heroine, the heroine's sister and the priest from the perspective of Freud's psychoanalysis, so as to get their main characteristics. And the personality theory model of id, ego and super-ego will be used to analyze their characters and further reveal the reasons and practical significance.1.4 Data collectionThe materials of this paper are the two seasons of Fleabag. In terms of data collection and sample selection, the research is based on the following principles. First of all, because the purpose of this study is to explore the personality of the main characters, the different personality aspects of the roles should be focused. Secondly, the selection of the contents should be based on the structure of the paper, corresponding to the three aspects: id, ego and super-ego. Thirdly, due to the complexity of human character, the selected contents should be as much as possible to cover the performance of characters in different scenario.Based on the above principles, the contents of this series can be screened and organized more reasonably, and the personality of the characters can be mastered as a whole.1.5 Organization of the studyThis paper can be divided into the following four parts. The first section introduces the background, purpose, research problems, methods and organization of this study. The second section reviews the previous studies on the application of psychoanalysis, especially personality theory in the field of film and television literature, and introduces both the theories used in this paper and studies on the play from other perspectives. In the third section, the main characters of the three roles are compared with the id, ego and super-ego model in the theory, and analyzed horizontally. Finally, a general conclusion will be given in section four.2 Literature review2.1 Introduction This chapter is mainly divided into two parts: an overview of the theoretical framework and previous studies on Freud's personality theory. In the first part, we will briefly introduce the general framework and content of Freud's personality theory. The second part will discuss the previous studies on personality theory itself and its application in the field of film and television literature, and expound the advantages of using it in this paper.2.2 An overview of Personality Theory and PsychoanalysisSigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was a physiologist, medical doctor, psychologist and influential thinker of the early twentieth century. He put forward many important theories. His most famous theories are subconsciousness, especially the theory of repression mechanism, his redefinition of sexual desire, his therapeutic relationship and the hypothetical value of dreams theory. He also established seduction theory, psychosexual development theory and personality theory. In addition, he also made outstanding contributions in the fields of neuroscience, literary criticism and feminism. In 2001, Time Magazine regarded Freud as one of the most important people of last century.At the beginning, personality theory is divided into: consciousness and unconsciousness. “Being conscious” is a purely descriptive term in the first place, resting on perception of the most immediate certain character.” (Smith, 2000). And unconsciousness can be divided into preconsciousness and subconsciousness. The preconsciousness refers to the experience that we are not consciously aware of, but can be retrieved into consciousness when needed (p.3949). The subconscious mainly includes the primitive instinct impulse and desire, especially the sexual desire. The difference between consciousness and unconsciousness is that the former can be perceived by subject and expressed by words, while the latter cannot be felt by people, and usually cannot be described. Consciousness is obvious and clear while unconsciousness is latent and vague. The three parts, consciousness, preconsciousness and subconsciousness, resemble an iceberg of ones inner world. And then, Freud developed the personality theory more adequate by writing his book The Ego and the Id, in which the theory was composed of id, ego and super-ego.Id is the most primitive part of personality structure, which exists since birth. The elements that make up the id are the basic needs of human beings, such as hunger, thirst and sex. When the demand of id comes into being, the individual demands immediate satisfaction. Therefore, from the principle of dominating human nature, its the pleasure principle that dominates the id.Ego is a kind of demand which comes from the differentiation of the id in the real environment after ones birth. If it can't be satisfied immediately in the real world, it must accommodate the limitations of the reality and learn how to meet the demand in the real world. From the principle of dominating human nature, it is the reality principle that dominates the ego.Super-ego is the highest part of the personality structure, which is gradually formed because the individual receives the education of social culture and moral standards in life. There are two important parts of super-ego: one is ego-ideal, which requires that one's behavior conforms to one's ideal standard; the other is conscience, which stipulates that one's behavior is free from mistakes. Therefore, the super-ego is the moral part of the personality structure. From the principle of dominating human nature, its the perfection principle that dominates the super-ego.The three levels of personality structure interweave with each other to form an organic whole. They have their own responsibilities, which respectively represent one aspect of personality: the id reflects the biological instinct of human beings, acts according to the pleasure principle, and is the "primitive human" the ego seeks to satisfy the instinctive impulse under the condition of social environment, and is the executor of personality, acts according to the reality principle, and is the "realistic human" the super-ego pursues perfection, and represents the social nature of human beings, its the “moral human”.Personality theory is a part of psychoanalysis that is a kind of theory about personality and mental mechanism of psychology. It is initiated by Sigmund Freud in 1900 by publishing a book named The Interpretation of Dreams. The book distinguishes the unconscious from the conscious behavior, and thinks that the essence of dreams is the satisfaction of unconscious desire, especially sexual instinct impulse after modification. It marks the birth of psychoanalysis. Freud thinks the so-called analysis refers to the therapist's calling back the patient's repressed psychological primitives to consciousness. Analysis is to open and analyze these psychological primitives. The symptoms and pathological manifestations of patients are like a lot of complexes, and their constituent elements are various motives and instinctive impulses. The patients have no consciousness about them. Through analysis, they can know their essential components, and thus make them conscious.Psychoanalysis has been widely used in various fields. Freud divides psychology into two parts: consciousness and subconscious. The origin, foundation and motive force of consciousness exist in subconscious. He thinks that there is no accidental psychological phenomenon. Trivial matters, mistakes in life, dreams and psychosis all have subconscious motive and meaning.2.3 Application of PsychoanalysisBecause of the theorys universality, the application of psychoanalysis is far from limited to the training and education of clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers. Many researchers are studying it, especially in the fields of sociology, anthropology, literary criticism and philosophy. It has even become the general attitude of some intellectuals and the popular language of the general public (Chen, 1987).Psychoanalysis is closely related to literary criticism. In the 1870s, before becoming a doctor, neurobiology researcher and psychotherapist, Freud had received a solid classical education in Austria, and had a strong interest in beautiful language and literature. In 1930, as a writer who wrote in German, Freud won the Goethepreis der Stadt Frankfurt