Login/Register

AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 5, Number 1. February   2021                                Pp.262 -278

Pip’s Ego Oscillations in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations

English Department, College of Science and Humanities, Hotat Bani Tamim, Prince Sattam Bin
AbdulAziz University, Al-Kharj, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
English Department, ISEAH, Kef, Jendouba University, Tunisia

Lama Fahad Al-Eid

English Department, College of Science and Humanities, Hotat Bani Tamim, Prince Sattam Bin
AbdulAziz University, Al-Kharj, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Noura Mohammed Al-Break

English Department, College of Science and Humanities, Hotat Bani Tamim, Prince Sattam Bin
AbdulAziz University, Al-Kharj, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Rahaf Saad Al-Samih

English Department, College of Science and Humanities, Hotat Bani Tamim, Prince Sattam Bin
AbdulAziz University, Al-Kharj, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Tarfah Abdullah Al-Hammad

English Department, College of Science and Humanities, Hotat Bani Tamim, Prince Sattam Bin
AbdulAziz University, Al-Kharj, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract:

This research project studies Pip’s ego fluctuations in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. Freud’s division of the human psyche into id, ego and superego is appropriate for the analysis of the rise and fall of the hero in his pursuit to attain gentlemanhood. Four main questions have been addressed: First, what makes up Pip’s id? Second, what are the main components of his superego? Third, does Pip’s ego succeed or fail in striking a balance between his id and superego? In what ways does it fail? And fourth, how does Pip’s ego eventually succeed in striking a balance between his id and superego? The study finds out that Pip’s id is demonstrated through his fascination with high-class lifestyle and relinquishment of common life. It shows that his superego is constructed from the hurdles that prevent him from pursuing gentlemanhood, namely past common life restraints and present high class deficiencies. It also demonstrates how Pip’s faulty ego comes as a result of his frustration at high class lifestyles and resentment of his old common life. The study eventually reveals that two important factors contribute to the success of Pip’s ego: His reconciliation with the past and appreciation of the present in order to have more realistic expectations of the future.

Cite as:

Saoudi, B., Al-Eid, L. F., Al-Break, N. M., Al-Samih, R.S., Al-Samih, R. S., & Al-Hammad, T. A. (2021). Bechir Saoudi. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 5 (1) 262 -278.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol5no1.19

References:

Allingham, P. V. (1861). An Introduction to Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. In All

the Year Round. Ontario: Lakehead University. Retrieved from http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/ge/pva12.html

Bloom, H. (Ed.). (2010). Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations: Great Expectations.

Chelsea House Publications.

Dessner, L. J. (1976). Great Expectations: “The Ghost of a Man’s Own Father”. PMLA, 91(3),

436-449.

Dickens, Charles. (1861). Great Expectations. London: Chapman and Hall.

https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/140/great-expectations/

Freud, S. (1927). The Ego and the Id (J. Riviere, Trans.). Hogarth Press. (Original work

published 1923)

Freud, S., Strachey, J., & Richards, A. (1984). On Metapsychology: The Theory of

Psychoanalysis : ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle, ‘ ‘The Ego and the Id’ and Other

Works. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Great Expectations. (2020). In Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Expectations-novel-by-Dickens

Ingham, G. (2007). The Superego, Narcissism and Great Expectations. The International

 Journal of Psychoanalysis, 88(3), 753-768.

Lehman, D. (2004). Repressions in ‘Great Expectations’. Retrieved from

https://danielmlehman.wordpress.com/2004/04/20/repressions-in-great-expectations/

Reynolds, C. W. (2015). Desiring Estella in Great Expectations: Understanding Pip’s

Fantasy. Retrieved from

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/ge/reynolds.html

Schlicke, P. (1999). Oxford Reader’s Companion to Dickens. Oxford: OUP.

Snyder, C. R., & Lopez, S. J. (2007). Positive Psychology. Sage Publications Inc.

Tyler, D. (2011). “Feeling for the Future: The Crisis of Anticipation in Great

Expectations”, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth

Century 0(14). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.16995/ntn.607

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Tumblr
Reddit
Email
StumbleUpon
Digg

Bechir Saoudi got his Ph.D. in English Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of Manouba, Tunisia. He is currently an Assistant Professor of English literature at the English Department of the College of Science and Humanities, Hotat Bani Tamim, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia. His research interests are in the literary and cultural studies domain. ORCiD: https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-5593-6891
The rest of the authors are graduate students of English Language and Literature at the College of Science and Humanities, Hotat Bani Tamim, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia.