Psychological Study of the character of 'Lavinia' in 'Mourning becomes Electra'

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Psychological Study of the character of 'Lavinia' in 'Mourning becomes Electra'

Introduction:

‘One’s behavior represents one’s psyche.’ Psychology is the study of mind and behavior. It is an academic discipline and an applied science which seeks to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles and researching specific case. (Wikipedia) Psychology studies one’s behavior with the society, one’s emotions, feelings etc. 

Brief about the author & play:

The play ‘Mourning becomes Electra’ is written by the American play writer Eugene O’Neill published in 1931. He was born on 16^th October 1888 and died on 27^th November 1953. The play is much inspired by the Greek ancient play ‘Oresteia’ by Aeschylus. Of course because here it is modern play it has modernist features. In both the plays the characters are much similar. The play ‘Mourning becomes Electra’ is divided into three parts: 1) Homecoming 2) The Hunted & 3) The Haunted.

The play ‘Mourning becomes Electra’ tells the story of the Mannon family. All most all members were having high position in the society. That is why they were the talk of the town. Many people also tried come near to the Mannon family to know about them. The town was proud upon Ezra Mannon, but not upon her wife Christine Mannon; because she was having foreign look. Lavinia and Orin are the siblings. The other thing about this family was almost all the male family members were having same kind of look.

This is the story of Lavinia Mannon. She loves her father so much and from the childhood she thinks that her mother is her envy. Her father spends 10 years in army and stay away from the house. During these 10 years her mother Christine falls in love with her husband’s stepbrother Adam Brand. When Ezra comes back he feels gap between husband and wife. He behaves as if during these ten he was here with his wife. He tells her wife to forget about these 10 years. It was not so easy for her and she openly confesses her love with Adam Brand. She tells that when she marries Ezra she was in love with him but after marriage she feels disgusting towards Ezra. She needs a lover and that’s why she goes to New-york to meet Adam Brand. Hearing this truth Ezra feels something in his left side may be heart-attack. And after taking the medicine he died. Here ambiguity remains that whether it was his nature death or he died because of medicines given by his wife Christine.

Here other notable thing is that Lavinia also wants to receive her father’s love. When her father was away from her she all the time was thinking that when her father will be here she will receive all his attention and love. Even when Peter proposes her she denies his proposal and says that her relationship with him is like brother and sister and she can’t marry him because her father needs her. Here we can see Lavinia’s too much love towards her father. Even when after ten years her father comes at home he ordered her to go into bedroom which doesn.t like. Her father wanted to spend some time with his wife, and that is why Lavinia thinks that her mother is competitor. Here we can see the Electra complex in Lavinia’s character. 

What is psychology? : Electra Complex

Psychological knowledge is often applied to the assessment and treatment of mental health problems; it is also directed towards understanding and solving problems in several spheres of human activity. The word psychology derives from Greek roots meaning study of the psyche. (Wikipedia) Here Lavinia’s psychology is connected with Electra complex. This complex is the other side of Oedipus complex. This complex is reversal complex of Oedipus complex. This complex shows the sexual desire between the daughter and father or brother and sister. The theory of the Electra complex was discovered by Freud from the mythological character Electra, and the term was coined by Hung in 1913. In classical psychoanalytic theory, the child's identification with the same-sex parent is the successful resolution of the Electra complex and of the Oedipus complex; his and her key psychological experience to developing a mature  identity. Sigmund Freud instead proposed that girls and boys resolved their complexes differently. (Wikipedia)

Psychological study of Lavinia:

As above said that this play is much inspired by the Greek ancient play, like in that character here also Lavinia feels attraction towards her father.

“CHRISTINE: What are you moon gazing at? Puritan maidens shouldn't peer too inquisitively into spring! Isn't beauty an abomination and love a vile thing? Why don't you marry Peter? You don't want to be left an old maid, do you?
LAVINIA: You needn't hope to get rid of me that way. I'm not marrying anyone. I've got my duty to Father. (Homecoming, Act 3)” - (Shmoop)

Here we can say a hint of Electra complex, excessive love towards father. Here other ambiguity remains about the death of Ezra Mannon that was his death natural or naturalized? He soon died after taking the medicine. Here a question arises in our mind that whether the medicines were wrong given by his wife or it was already changed by Lavinia. Because when her father was on death-bed she was the first to enter in the room and said that she saw a night-mare. At that time her mother was hiding something may be the right medicine. And when Ezra was dying her mother told her that he is taking rest. In reality she knew that he is on his death-bed. Nothing is clear about Ezra Mannon’s death. But then in the very next chapter Eugene uses the word murder for Ezra Mannon’s death. So he was murdered that is the truth. 

We can say that may be this action was taken by Lavinia to take revenge. She was behaving with her mother as if she is her rival. May be she killed her father thinking that he will think that his wife has killed him. She wants to be the wife of his father. And she wants to marry her father. Here are the some glimpse of the psychology of Lavinia and her mother Christine both.

“CHRISTINE: No. I loved him once--before I married him--incredible as that seems now! He was handsome in his lieutenant's uniform! He was silent and mysterious and romantic! But marriage soon turned his romance into--disgust!
LAVINIA: So I was born of your disgust! I've always guessed that, Mother--ever since I was little--when I used to come to you--with love--but you would always push me away! I've felt it ever since I can remember--your disgust! (Then with a flare-up of bitter hatred) Oh, I hate you! It's only right I should hate you!
CHRISTINE: I tried to love you. I told myself it wasn't human not to love my own child, born of my body. But I never could make myself feel you were born of anybody but his! You were always my wedding night to me--and my honeymoon! (Homecoming, Act 2)” - (Shmoop)

After the death of her father Lavinia’s love converted towards her brother Orin, may be same looks of the Mannon family. Orin was very much near to his mother but there was the absence of oedipal complex, the way it is in Lavinia’s case. When he came to know about his mother’s affair he kills Adam. Soon after this his mother also committed suicide. At that time Lavinia tells him that though now their mother is not alive, but she is here with him. Here we can see the attraction of Lavinia towards her brother. After the death of his mother he was not in a mood to go out anywhere but Lavinia forces him to go on the tour of south sea and islands. Here we can see the force of Lavinia upon his brother. Peter’s sister Hazel was in love with Orin. Christine wanted that her son marry to Hazel, but after her death Hazel was not much liked by Lavinia. She wanted all the control upon her brother.  

Conclusion:

Orin also committed suicide at the end. At that time Lavinia speaks that ‘Forgive me Orin’. At that time we can see a little change in her. May be she was realizing her mistakes. She interferes in everybody’s life. At the end Peter again proposes her but again she denies. She said that now she is the last Mannon member of the Mannon family. Now she will lock up herself in this Mannon house and will not even allow the sun rays to come in. “The dead forget us, we forget the dead”. This is the line spoken by her at the end of the play. And she shut the windows and also the doors. She also said that “I will not commit suicide”.  Symbolically she is dead now not physically but mentally. She is now broken within. At the end she locks up herself in the Mannon house with the same look like her mother.

 

Works Cited

Shmoop, Editorial Team. Mourning Becomes Electra Sex and Lust Quotes. 11 november 2008. 13 october 2015 <http://www.shmoop.com/mourning-becomes-electra/sex-lust-quotes.html>.

Wikipedia, Contributers. Psychology. 2 november 2015. 14 october 2015 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology>.

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Existentialism & Identity Crisis in 'Waiting for Godot'

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Existentialism & Identity Crisis in 'Waiting for Godot'

Introduction:

Yesterday deform us, and we deform yesterday – Existentialist Critics

The basic idea of Identity Crisis and Existentialism is with thinking and here Rodin’s statute of ‘Thinker’ becomes a symbol.

What is Existentialism? What is the Identity Crisis? How it is reflected in the play ‘Waiting for Godot’? These are the some questions about which I have tried to give answers.

Brief about the author & The Play:

The Play ‘Waiting for Godot’ is written by Samuel Beckett and was published in 1952. The play was originally written in France language and later translated into English language by Beckett him. He was born on 13^th April 1906 and died on 22^nd December 1989 at the age of 83. ‘Waiting for Godot’ is his one of the notable works. The setting of the play is much similar to the painting ‘Longing’ by Caspar David Friedrich. The play is divided into two acts. Critics labeled the play “the strange little play in which ‘Nothing Happens’”.

Existentialism & Identity Crisis:

Existentialism is a movement in 20^th century philosophy and literature that centers on the individual and his or her relationship to the universe or God. This existentialist label has been applied to writers, philosophers, visual artist and filmmakers; the movement flourished in Europe. What is Existentialism? To give answer to this question in very simple words then one’s way of living life, the way an individual wanted live life is existentialism.

The basic idea of Existentialism is do whatever you want to do. Means there is the difference between ‘My World’ [Emotional] and ‘Your World’ [Logical]. Generally our approach towards society remains like this that ‘My World is better than Your World’. There are two ways of looking toward the society: one is Secular way of looking and another is religious way of looking. If I start from the self then when somebody asks us who are you? Then our answers must be like this that I am John or David or any other name. But who said this that my name is so and so? Then our next answer must be like this that my parents or relatives. Apart from this we don’t know much about ourselves. Our names are related with our physical appearance only. But this are the not appropriate answers for who am I? When we think about all these questions then we find that everything is meaningless. Why? The answer is because our ultimate destiny is death.

GWF Hegel, Soren Kierkegaard, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche, Edmund Husserl, Kafka, Sartre, Beckett, Beauvoir, Camus these are the well-known names in the field of existentialism. (Wikipedia) Basically the existentialism asks us the question about our existence in this universe. Why we are here? Who am I? The basic consult is search for the self.

That is why the existentialist critics would say that our birth is not in our hand so at least our death must be in our hand. It means the way I want to die I must be free to do so. And that is why other critics say that Existentialism is a negative criticism. That is way many critics would say that Existentialism is Nihilism. There is a minor difference between existentialism and nihilism.

It is true that Existentialism talks about the death idea but here death in the sense the philosophical death. Every day we wake up in the morning, do our routine work and end of the day goes to our bed. Apart from this we never tried to think about existence that why I am here? What is my purpose in this human world? Who am I?

Among the most famous and influential existentialism propositions is Sartre’s dictum. “Existence precedes and rules essence”, which is generally taken to mean that ‘there is no pre-defined essence to humanity except that which we make for ourselves.’ For Sartre humans are fundamentally different from the things like car, fan etc. before making a car we can say that what will be the work of the car but about human we can’t say, and still we try to bind ourselves in different identities. I.e. religious identity, family identity, community identity etc. and then we see the clash between all these identities. 

Then next question arises in our mind that what is identity crisis? The concept originates in the work of developmental psychologist Erik Erikson who believed that the formation of identity was one of the most important parts of a person's life. (Kit)

Existentialism and Identity Crisis in Waiting for Godot:

Basically the play ‘Waiting for Godot’ is an absurd play. But from where this absurdity comes? When we think that from where I am belonging, my being and my purpose in this nature. In the play the characters are tramps. First of all this is a kind of new experiment which Beckett does with his play. Generally tramps are those people who are out casted from the society. Society never cares for their being. For the society this tramps are insignificant, the same way for this tramps the society is insignificant. How from time to time and person to person the point of view changes. And this is known as Existentialism. May be according to nature we human beings are also insignificant.  

So first of all let’s start with the setting of the play. The setting of the play is inspired by the painting ‘Longing’ by Caspar David Friedrich. So if here we focus on the word ‘Longing’ means deep desire of something. This desire is connected with my desire. And when this word ‘My’ comes Existentialism also comes. May be the characters are in search of something (Mr. Godot). May be this is the search of Beckett himself or let us apply universal touch that may be this search is all of us. In our life each and every mode we are always in search of something. All the time we want something.

The second thing is that we put lots of impression in our name. This very basic thing of human nature is falsified by Beckett. We are not sure about the names of the characters in the play. When the messenger comes to convey the message from Mr. Godot at that time he calls Vladimir as Mr. Albert and Estragon calls Vladimir as Didi so here the ambiguity about his name remains. The same way Vladimir also calls Estragon as Gogo. So this thing is connected with existentialism as well as identity crisis. Who they actually are? What they are doing here? I.e. ‘BOY: Mister Albert . . . ? VLADIMIR: Yes.’

Yesterday is memory and tomorrow is hope. I.e. ‘ESTRAGON: I'd forgotten. VLADIMIR: Extraordinary the tricks that memory plays!’ This play is in between this situation. Both the tramps try to recall their memory and hope which is connected with the tomorrow which is never going to come. Here this thing we can connect with us. We don’t know about our last life, and we also don’t know about our future the only thing we can do is hope. And still we go on living our present life. I.e. ‘BOY: Mr. Godot told me to tell you he won't come this evening but surely tomorrow.’

Here we are talking about hope, we Hope for everything. We hope for our home, we think that at the end of the day I will go to my home. So with this at sub-conscious level there is also a fear that may be I will lose my home. We connect this home with God. Existentialism is all about the absence of the God from the universe. We think that there is God and so if I will do wrong thing then God will punish me. But Beckett’s characters are tramps. Means they must not be having home so they have no fear about losing their home. Basically Existentialist critics would say think rationally. Where God is not responsible for anything rather we human beings are responsible for everything.  

The other thing about Existentialism is that it talks about the repetitive nature of human beings. I.e. ‘ESTRAGON: I'm tired breathing.’

The other example of Identity Crisis is about the name of Mr. Godot. We can say that Mr. Godot is may be the almighty God and we are waiting about Him and the way it happened in the play He is never going to come. We don’t know about God’s identity and that is way we creates different identities of God the way we want to depict him. We have never seen God and the same the characters in the play also never seen Mr. Godot.

Conclusion:

Existentialism is the world where God is absent. We are remembering God because there is lack of confidence in ourselves. And that is why we are afraid of God. And that is why there is a kind of fear that I will lose something. Everybody wants freedom and it is also good but the thing is that we also have to be ready to pay the price of our freedom. There is Life plus anxiety and that is why there is Existentialism in our life.

Works Cited

Kit, Advertising & Press. Identity Crisis. 2015. 13 October 2015 <http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/childdevtheory.htm>.

Wikipedia, contributors. Existentialism. 27 October 2015. 30 October 2015 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism>.

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Psychological Study of 'Black Skin, White Masks'

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Psychological Study of 'Black Skin, White Masks'

Introduction:

“I am black; I am in total fusion with the world, in sympathetic affinity with the earth, losing my id in the heart of the cosmos -- and the white man, however intelligent he may be, is incapable of understanding Louis Armstrong or songs from the Congo. I am black, not because of a curse, but because my skin has been able to capture all the cosmic effluvia. I am truly a drop of sun under the earth.”

― Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (Chandler, 2007)

          Brief about Fanon’s life:

Frantz Fanon was born in the French colony of Martinique on July 20, 1925. , Fanon left the colony in 1943, at the age of 18, to fight with the Free French forces in the waning days of World War II. After the war, he stayed in France to study psychiatry and medicine at university in Lyons. The theory which he gave this book is his own experience as a psychiatrist. He was a scholar psychiatrist, but being a black he was always known as a black thinker or Negro intelligent. He himself felt this kind of insult. “Introducing someone as a "Negro poet with a University degree" or again, quite simply, the expression, "a great black poet." These ready-made phrases, which seem in a common-sense way to fill a need-or have a hidden subtlety, a permanent rub.”  (Chandler, 2007)  
So he records everything in this book, his experiences as a psychiatrist and his own experiences. It was his research work, later on published as a book form.

       His idea in this book:

He gave several ideas in this book and at length he talks about the mentality of the black people. His basic idea is to understand the color of the skin and the race. “Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief.”  (Chandler, 2007) This quotation is taken from his book. We can understand that if the people around you create an identity of yours then it will be very difficult for us to break it. And even if we try to break it with the new evidences then they will not allow us to come out from that. If we try to look at this idea with the racism then we can say that ‘Black’ is the identity created by the white. And though the black people tries to come out from this they will be not able to come out from this CONSTRUCTED identity, or rather we can say that they are not allow to do so.

“What does a man want?”

“What does the black man want?”

“The white man is sealed in his whiteness, the black man in his blackness.”
 If we tries to look at this ‘Blackness’ and ‘Whiteness’ as a concept then we come to know that there is always a men’s wish to be a white. If tries to see it from the psychological point of view that it is called as a ‘Desire’. Desire to be white and desire means you do not have that, it is lacking in you. When a black sees him he feels ‘State of Being’. State of being means when a Negro see, Negro sees the white face not the way they are. Means they try to find out the whiteness in them. Now this blackness or whiteness belongs to their skin color and they wish to change it they can’t.

Here I would like to give example of Michael Jackson. He goes on performing plastic surgery upon his body and turned himself from black to white. Though he was very much popular among the people but still we can say that he was obsessed by his skin color. Black people think that their being is with their skin color. So, these were some ideas, Fanon talks about the ideas in detail.

                Psychological study of black men:

Fanon in his book also talks about the mentality of the Black people. How because of their skin color they are marginalized from the society, and the black people’s wish to become white. He says that the black men always remain in dilemma, turn white or disappear. Here also we can apply the ‘State of Being’. He furthermore talks about the black men’s mentality that how it changes when they goes into the white world. In the white world they behave like a white man. In a sense they adopt everything from the white world from their behavior to their mother tongue. Once they master it they feel superior. When again they come back to their own community they feel superior or upper hand from the other black men. Their behavior totally changes. In their own community they feel like a white man.

Lacan says that language constructs our unconscious. So, here also language plays a vital role behind one’s mentality. Through language we constructs ourselves, our identity or rather we can say that our cultural identity.  “To speak pidgin to a Negro makes him angry, because he himself is a pidgin-nigger-talker. But, I will be told, there is no wish, no intention to anger him. I grant this; but it is just this absence of wish, this lack of interest, this indifference, this automatic manner of classifying him, imprisoning him, primitivizing him, DE civilizing him, that makes him angry.
If a man who speaks pidgin to a man of color or an Arab does not see anything wrong or evil in such behavior, it is because he has never stopped to think.”  (Chandler, 2007) We can say that how language operates in the society and especially conditioning one’s mind.  

                Psychological study of white people:

When a white person looks at a black person, how he will look at him? Surly he will try to differ himself from him. He will think that he has the power and he is superior to the fellow. Now this it becomes the narcissistic approach. We can say that they are so much obsessed by their color that they can’t see other things. Suddenly they start thinking that they are the most civilized people in the world. They are the educated people. From this ‘The White Men’s burden’ came those they are from those intellectual people who have burden to civilize the society. Knowingly or unknowingly they do harm to the other people’s culture and their identity. They never respect a black man rather they feel hatred towards them. The white people always try to protect the white women from the black people. They think that the black men are always hungry for the white women’s body. They always portray animalistic characteristic of the black men.

Here I would like to give the example of the play ‘The Tempest’ by Shakespeare. In this play Prospero tries to save her daughter Miranda from Caliban who is a black slave. Prospero thinks that Caliban is hungry for his daughter and Miranda herself was also so much afraid by Caliban because of his look and color.

                Psychological study of black women:

Fanon as a psychiatrist studied a black woman’s case named Mayotte. He says that it was her wish to marry a white man. She was aware about the truth that she as a black woman can’t marry to a white man. They are not much respected in eyes of the white man. And even if she marries to a white man the society will never accept them.

Civilization is based on two ideas: 1) Incest Taboos and 2) Kinship Rituals. Here I would to talk about only Incest Taboos. Incest Taboos are created to avoid some situations, situation like mingling of the race, or blood. We can stop or avoid this kind of situations by law but we can’t stop thinking or someone’s desire. Here if a black woman desires to marry a white man then she is breaking Incest Taboos made by the society to stay pure by blood. So, we can say that desire is an abstract idea which can’t be fulfilled. Here I would like to give the example of ‘The Bluest Eye’ by Toni Morison. How eagerly Pecola Breedlove the protagonist of the novel was waiting that some a white man come and will marry with her and her every problems will be solve.

                Psychological study of Black skin White masks:

Here I also would like to mention Mulatto also known as Creole. They are the child of mixed race. Fanon studies their mindset also. How they are humiliated and abused in the society. He says that their condition is worse than the black people. They feel superior to the black people but they are also afraid again being black. As I above said that when a black man visits the white world, the black man’s world changes totally. Here Fanon says that a black man has two dimensions one with his fellows, the other with the white man. When the black master the white men’s language he behaves differently with another black person. In the white men’s world he tries to be a white means black skin, white mask. He tries to put the white mask on his black skin.

Conclusion:

Fanon resists many questions but he also tries to give answers to those questions also. He says that black skin or white skin is something which if the fellow wants to change then also he can’t change. And that is why Fanon says that, know your lack, face your limitation and be happy with your being. He says that it is social problem that is why white people can’t be happy with whiteness and black people with blackness. Rather becoming upset with whiteness or blackness celebrates yourself as you are. “Everything begins with you and ends with yourself.”

Works Cited

Chandler, O. (2007, january). goodreads. Retrieved october 2, 2015, from goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/949036-peau-noire-masques-blancs

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