Applying Critical Readings

1. Applying Critical Readings Brave New World

2. Freudian Reading Id, ego and super-ego… These are the three parts of the psychic apparatus defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche.He believed that these three parts make up a human personality. The id - is the only part of our personality that is present from birth. This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and includes the instinctive and primitive behaviours. The ego - is the part of the id that is affected by external forces. The ego is more rational and uses reason. Like the id, the ego seeks pleasure and avoids pain but unlike the id the ego is concerned with devising a realistic strategy to obtain pleasure. Freud made the analogy of the id being the horse while the ego is the rider. The super-ego - The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learnt from one's parents and others. It develops around the age of 4 – 5

3. Which aspects of our personality would influence each of these actions? Lost in the Australian outback, Bob has been deprived of food for five days. He happens upon a camper who is eating a hot-dog. • He rushes towards the man to grab the hot-dog. • He stops before grabbing it in order to explain his predicament and ask for some food. • The camper refuses to give Bob any of the hot-dog. • Bob kicks the camper in a painful area and grabs the hot-dog, eating it hungrily. • After devouring the hot-dog, Bob immediately feels bad and apologises profusely to the camper.

4. And Here…? Macbeth…..the Scottish play… • Macbeth believes the witches because he wants to be King. • As much as he wants to be King, he does not want to kill a man who he respects and loves. • He is persuaded by his wife that he should kill the King. • He feels instant remorse. • In a panic for his own survival, he plans further murders.

5. Let’s apply it to Regeneration • What would a Freudian reader say about Prior an his behaviour? • What happens to his id, ego and super-ego? • How about Rivers and his behaviour? • How would a Freudian reader respond to River’s inner conflict about “healing the men” to send them back to war?

6. Discussion Question • Freud says that the id contains sexual and aggressive tendencies. • How can we apply this theory to Prior’s behaviour in the novel?

7. So, how can we apply a Freudian reading to the character of Rivers in Regeneration? In her novel “Regeneration”, Barker is concerned with the mental anguish of World War One soldiers who become emotionally crippled by their experiences in the trenches. Its very setting, in a psychiatric hospital, provides a psychological focus to the characters and the fact that the partially biographical Rivers bases much of his therapy on the work of Freud, lends the novel perfectly to a Freudian reading, though this is clearly a conscious decision by the writer. Whilst Rivers himself applies the theories of Freud to the treatment of his patients, such as dream analysis and talk therapy, a Freudian reader is likely to interpret River’s character as sharing many of the traits of the men he treats. Rivers puts his stammer down to “genetics” as opposed what he describes as “neurasthenic stammers” which can result from “a conflict between wanting to speak and knowing that w-what you’ve got to say is not acceptable.” However, Barker allows us an insight to his childhood in chapter 14, where a memory ends with River’s acknowledgement that “he’d forced his father to listen to what he had to say, and not merely to the way he’s said it.” A Freudian reading is likely to view River’s stammer as a direct result of his father’s constant pressure and expectation, making him no different to his patients with stammers or muteness. Both have been affected by “prolonged strain”.

8. Your Turn… Write your own AO3 response demonstrating a Freudian reading of the character of Stanhope in Journey’s End.

9. Using Critics Once you have found some critical readings that suit your question and argument, you will need to decide whether to challenge or support them. For example: Samuel Hynes, historian and reviewer for The New York Times, criticises the novel’s ending, asking “Why not follow Sassoon to the front” and “there is a narrative cost in stopping where she does”. To actually move the narrative to the trenches, would for me, have lost much of the novel’s focus, which is on the emotional stress of the war rather than the fighting itself. OR Samuel Hynes, historian and reviewer for The New York Times, criticises the novel’s ending, asking “Why not follow Sassoon to the front” and “there is a narrative cost in stopping where she does”. I agree that it would have added to the emotional impact of the novel, if Barker had allowed us to witness the contrast between this important character when he is safe in Scotland and when he is actually face to face with the war that he feels so angry about.

10. Your Turn…. Choose one of the following critical responses and write a paragraph where you either support or challenge the reading. Regeneration: • Peter Kemp of The Sunday Times comments on how successfully Barker presents human suffering “without a Tremor of sensationalism or sentimentality”…. • Several reviewers, including Jackie Wullschlager and Kevin Ray, feel that the novel lacks depth in its historical development and characterisation….. Journey’s End: • Robert Little, in his Broadway review in The Theatre Arts Monthly,1929, declared that “There is not a single caricature” in ‘Journey’s End’…. • Many critics argued that his play would have had more impact if he did not just write about the officers, who had it easy compared to the lower ranks…..