Emily McCoy
November 7, 2012
Mr. Curley
English 11 Pd. 2 Psychoanalysis Philosopher Sigmund Freud came up with the idea that our personalities were composed of three different elements. These elements are known as the Id, Ego and Superego and together they compose complex human behaviors. According to Freud’s’ model of the psyche, the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends; the ego is the organized, realistic part; and the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role. The psychoanalytic theory of the Id, Ego and Superego can be directly related to dark romantic stories such as Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart. The id is said to be driven by the pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification of all desires, wants and needs. This directly relates to the story when the narrator says “It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night… I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.”. In this quote the narrator states that once the idea of killing the old man entered his brain he couldn’t get rid of it until fulfilled. This is an example of how the id works until its needs are satisfied. Another example would be when the narrator acts on impulse and it leads to the murder of the old man, “And now a new anxiety seized me - the sound would be heard by a neighbor! The old man's hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once - once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him.”. This ties in with the theory of the id because when the desires are not satisfied immediately it results in anxiety and tension and the narrator even says “anxiety seized me”. The ego comes from the id and deals with the reality behind those wants and needs. Just like the id is driven by the pleasure principle, the ego is fueled by the reality principle. An example of this comes from the quote “But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded - with what caution - with what foresight - with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.”. This relates to the ego in the sense that the narrator had to realistically plan out how he was going