AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 5, Number 1. February 2021 Pp.262 -278
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol5no1.19
Pip’s Ego Oscillations in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations
Bechir Saoudi
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
Correspondent Author: ctat.ctat@yahoo.com
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
Received: 12/10/ 2020 Accepted: 2/2/2021 Published: 2/24/2021
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.
Keywords: Charles Dickens, ego, Freud, Great Expectations, id, oscillations, superego
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