Id, Ego And Superego In Christmas Carol

No one lives in the world without having a problem. Generally, a kind of problem can motivate a person to do something to be better, so they feel challenged. But, many existing problems can make me uncomfortable and anxious. Sometimes, people are capable of solving the problem rationally by facing the problem squarely. Anxiety is a problem in the real world that becomes a problem for people. Some people try to reduce anxiety by escaping the problem and getting happiness from the environment. Anxiety is closely related to fear and has motivational consequences.

A Christmas Carol was published almost two centuries ago. This novel tells about the human’s life that may still exist in this real world. It is about wealth, belief, arrogance, greedy, position, and miracle. A Christmas Carol describes the life of an arrogant rude man, Scrooge, the one who considers that a Christmas celebration is useless. He says that celebrating Christmas just wasting time, money, and has no use. There is nothing to thank. He has a different personality. Moreover, he is a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone. No blowing wind is chilly enough for him. Even his nephew cannot influence him to celebrate Christmas or at least to realize the meaning of Christmas Eve. Something should be realized that everything must be thankful for Christmas until the day Jacob Marley comes after his death. He is Scrooge’s partner for a long time ago. There will be three spirits haunting him. They are the spirit of the past, the present, and the future. These three spirits guide Scrooge based on theirs. Scrooge meets many events he had passed or will happen. Those events have their own impact on Scrooge. At the end of the novel, Scrooge becomes the one who respects Christmas the most. Based on the data above, the researcher analyzes A Christmas Carol and Other Holiday Treasures novel by using the Psychoanalytic Approach to reveal the personality of Scrooge entitled An Analysis Psychology of Scrooge In Dickens’ novel A Christmas Carol and Other Holiday Treasures (1843).

Psychoanalysis is the part of psychological study that focuses on personality of human being. It is a method of therapy personality disturbances and technique for investigating an individuals unconscious thoughts and feeling. Sigmund Freud proposes this of personality organization according to this model psyches life can be represented by three levels: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious each of them have different content of thought (Hjelle and Ziegler, 1992: 86). Freud states that consciousness plays as relatively minor rule in psychoanalytic theory. It is the only level of mental life directly available to us. Further, states that “the ideas can reach consciousness from two different directions. The first is from the perceptual conscious system and the second is from the mental structure: Example of the material that might be found in human unconscious includes a forgotten trauma is childhood, hidden feelings of hostility toward parent and represent sexual desires of which human unaware. Such unconscious material is responsible for much of human everyday behavior. According to Freud (Hall, 1985: 30) unconscious material remains hidden away until it finds expression in our dreams or fantasies (were it is usually disguised) or in our conscious association to material in our dreams. Freud is not the first to focus on the important of unconscious process in understanding human function but he gives the concept of an unconscious life and empirical status. He gives great attention on the importance unconscious process in the understanding of human’s action.

Freud believes that the individual’s personality is the scene of a never-ending battle. On one hand, there are primitive and unacceptable drives striving for expression, while on the other hand there are forces trying to deny or disguise their impulses. There are three type of psychoanalytic personality structure: id, ego, and superego. In this research, the writer focuses on the development of the human personality of the major character in A Christmas Carol novel.

The Id

The Id is the biological aspect and the original system in personality. The id represents the biological substation of humans. It is something desirability that are hidden in the heart. It is unknown part, unconscious, irrational, selfish, egoistic, and the most of them is to be a winner. The first id begins when Scrooge heard the information from two panhandlers who said that there were many destitute people who were not yet going to the Union workhouse and shortage of food. Most of them choose to die. Through his id presses his ego, where the id said that it will give benefit to world to decrease the surplus population. Scrooge feels to be happy when all poor people die because he will not have obligation to give the contribution for them. Therefore, Scrooge’s ego attempts to satisfy his id. His ego decides that he will not give contribution to poor people and let them to die.

The second Scrooge’s id is dominated by his ego which occurs when Marley's Ghost comes to Scrooge. Marley informs him that Scrooge would be visited by three ghosts for three nights. The Ghosts will guide him for being a better man. Scrooge’s id said that it was a terrible thing if he met the Ghosts band thought that it was not good idea. To satisfy his id, Scrooge’s ego refuses the presence of three Ghosts. His ego forces Marley to give the other way.

The third id is dominated by superego. It occurs when Scrooge wants to know the forms emotion of the people from the man’s death that is shown by Phantom. His id feels to be anxious to find out the people’s feeling when they know the creditor who died. They will feel to be happy or sad. From those, Scrooge’s id wants the Phantom to show the people. The Phantom’s finger points the house where the family lived. They feel happy when they know that a stingy creditor died. They think that they have a sag time to pay their debt. From this, Scrooge’s superego comes and he realizes that he is in the wrong way. The id is always supported by pleasure. It attempts to get the satisfaction from its desirability. When, the requirement does not give the satisfaction, it will cause anxiousness and tension. The id always forces to get the happiness. But sometime the id also tries to avoid the badness which come suddenly and spontaneous.

The Ego

The ego is operated the reality principle that means gratification of instinct it delayed until an optimum time when human being can get the most pleasure with the least of unpleasant consequences. The ego has function to make the reality action in conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. It attempts to satisfy the id through reality and society. It thinks about the advantages of the action before it decides to do it or sometimes the ego will leave the impulse. The id’s impulse can be fulfilled through delays its satisfaction but finally the ego will take the action in time and place exactly to fulfill id’s impulse. The ego also reduces the tension that is caused by impulse that can not be fulfilled. Here, the ego tries to find the real object that appropriates to the id’s imagination.

The first ego is dominated by the id. It occurs when Scrooge’s nephew comes to Scrooge’s office. He invites Scrooge to dinner in his house on Christmas Eve. His id does not want to celebrate Christmas. Then his id forces his ego to refuses Fred’s inviting to dine.

The second ego occurs when Scrooge debates to his nephew who is Fred. Fred informs that God will bless and will give safety for them at Christmas. Scrooge’s ego said that Crachits should not give applause to Fred. Scrooge also threats him that he will be stopped from his job if he defends Fred. The third ego of Scrooge is dominated by his id. It occurs when two beggars come to Scrooge’s firm. They asked for a contribution to Scrooge for the poor band destitute. Scrooge thinks that poor people should not merry in Christmas because they do not have enough money. His ego decides that he will not donate his money and forces them to go away from his office soon.

The fourth ego appears when Scrooge speaks to his clerk in his firm. Scrooge’s ego forces Crachits to work at Christmas. He does not give a holiday to Crachit at the time. Scrooge thinks that he will get a big loss in his company if he pays his clerk a day without working. His ego decides to Crachit to work in Christmas.

The fifth ego occurs when Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge about his past. There gets dispute between Scrooge and his fiancé. His fiancé chooses to leave Scrooge because he has changed and choose to chase the money than everything. From this shadow, it makes Scrooge be angry and wants to leave the place.

The Superego

Superego is the sociological aspect that represents the moral branch of bour functioning, containing the ideals we strict for and the punishment (guilt) we expect when we have gone against our ethical code. Superego is aspect personality that gives the standard moral. It has the assessment orientation namely wrong or true. Superego works to perfect the behavior. It attempts to pressure all things from the id that can not be accept and it efforts to make the ego can be ideal. It comes in unconscious, preconscious, and unconscious.

The first superego occurs when Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present. The Ghost will bring Scrooge to see his past. His superego decides to accept its guidance. He believes that the Ghost of Christmas Present will give his best for him.

The second superego is more dominant than his id. It occurs when Ghost of Christmas Present shows the signs of Tiny Tim’s death. Scrooge’s id appears that if many poor people died, they can decrease the surplus population in the world. But his superego comes and reduces his id. Scrooge feels pity to Tiny Tim who actually is poor person. From his superego, he begged to Ghost to give long time to Tiny Tim to live in the world. The third superego appears when Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come comes to Scrooge. It brings Scrooge to see bad event that will happen to Scrooge in future if he does not change his bad behavior. Scrooge’s superego appears when he submits his fate to the ghost. He knows that it will guide him and he decides to accept the Ghost’s guidance.

The fourth superego appears when Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come shows a human corpse that lies down in bed. Scrooge does not know who the human corpse but he guesses that it is him. His superego realizes that he will take the event as his lesson live.

The fifth superego occurs when Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come invites Scrooge to see a grave. He sees his name that is written in gravestone. He is shock and afraid. His superego realizes that he has changed his behaviors and he is not before.

The sixth superego appears when Scrooge waits Crachits in his office at Christmas. But, that day Crachits came late. His superego comes when Scrooge gives surprise to Crachit through rises his wages and helps his family. He also asks Crachits to buy a lump of coal to warm the office room. In the day, Scrooge gives to Crachit a holiday and he will celebrate Christmas with him together.

Conclusion

From the data stated I conclude that a Christmas Carol novel has a good quality which gives a moral lesson to the readers. The author draws a lesson that the wealth can subordinate the human that can cause the negative behavior and money is not everything that can take control our life. Here, the character and characterization, setting, plot, point of view, style, and theme influence each other. All of those aspects related to one other and became a good literary work. Based on psychoanalytic analysis, it shows the conflict as the result of the contradiction between the id and the ego. As a human, Scrooge tends to fill his id when he wants to get wealth. Here, his personality, it is dominated by his id. So the superego as the person’s moral code does not take a part in his personality. Then, Dickens also shows the development of human personality-perfection in the major character, Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge realizes and develops his personality to be a good man, it is caused by the appearance of three ghosts which realize and guide Scrooge from his error way. There gets the personality transformation to be better. People usually undergo the development of personality which is caused by the contradiction that is between id and superego