Free English Literature Dissertations - According To Freud, A Female Is A Male Other’ Due To The Fact That She Does
According to Freud, a female is a male other’ due to the fact that she does not have a phallus, and although Rotwang considers that his cyborg is formed in his own male image, Maria Cyborg belongs to another realm to the world of women. The creation of Maria Cyborg symbolises the differentiation between male power and female weakness; although Rotwang considers that he controls this female cyborg, she finally appears beyond his control and power. Thus, the cyborg gradually acquires her identity, rising against the psychoanalytic concept of the Oedipal process and acquiring freedom14.
The similar idea is expressed earlier in the gothic novel The Italian written by Ann Radcliffe; although the writer applies to various gothic elements throughout the narration, she makes her principal characters reject their superstition and obsession with supernatural powers. As Radcliffe puts it, Vivaldi dismissed, as absurd, a supposition, which had begun to thrill his every nerve with horror15, while Ellena finally destroys her inner prison that deprived her of understanding reality and her true self. Thus, Radcliffe pays much attention to psychological states of her characters, slowly withdrawing them from the realm of darkness and illusions that haunt them, as they collide with inexplicable phenomena. In view of the fact that such gothic novel as The Italian brings up the aspects of horror and suppression, it is usually analysed through Freud’s or Lacan’s psychoanalysis that uncovers unconscious elements of the character’s psyche. For instance, in this novel Ann Radcliffe applies to Freud’s concept of narcissism, that is people’s beliefs in the power and necessity of their desires. If a child fails to successfully pass narcissism, he/she becomes egoistic and self-cantered in adult life, similar to Radcliffe’s character Marchesa, mother of Vivaldi.
Marchesa’s emotionality is so intense that at times she seems to lose her consciousness, and this is just the case with almost all characters of The Italian. In particular, Vivaldi expresses great emotionality in his collision with supernatural powers. In fact, the character is so obsessed with gothic traditions and superstition that he is unable to distinguish natural from supernatural. Vivaldi regards an unusual monk as supernatural, failing to reasonably explain such attitude. Similar to Vivaldi, Ellena is preoccupied with fantastic dreams and dark images of supernatural powers. But Ann Radcliffe specifically eliminates the possibility of rational explanation to intensify horror in her narration. Both Vivaldi and Ellena expect horror because of their extreme emotionality and their religious upbringing that, on the one hand, evoke their powerful desires, but, on the other hand, make them suppress them.
Dissertations - Free English Literature Dissertations
