Freud’s Psychological Approach in
The Great Gatsby Film Analysis
Freud’s Personality Structures
suggests an analogy about the mind. He says that the mind is like an iceberg in
the ocean, floating 10% above the water and 90% below. The unconscious, Freud
proposes, makes up the vast majority of our mind. In Freud’s view, only about
10% of our behaviors are caused by conscious awareness—about 90% are produced
by unconscious factors. According to psychoanalytic theory, most of what
controls our behaviors, thoughts, and feelings is unknown to our aware minds.
Normally, the unconscious guides us. Freud said that the mind could be divided
into three abstract categories. These are the id, the ego, and the superego.
Although these are known as structures, do not take the term literally. Freud
did not mean that these are physical parts of our bodies or our brains. He coined
these terms and proposed this division of the mind as abstract ideas meant to
help us understand how personality develops and works, and how mental illnesses
can develop. According to Freud’s Personality Theories in C. George Boeree
article, he states that:
The nervous system, as id,
translates the organism's needs into motivational forces called, in German,
Triebe, which has been translated as instincts or drives. Freud also called
them wishes. The ego relates the organism to reality by means of its consciousness,
and it searches for objects to satisfy the wishes that id creates to represent
the organisms needs. This record of things to avoid and strategies to take
becomes the superego. There are two aspects to the superego: One is the
conscience, which is an internalization of punishments and warnings. The other
is called the ego ideal. It derives from rewards and positive models presented
to the child. (5-6)
The first character in The Great
Gatsby film that will be analyzed is the protagonist character, Gatsby. The
character of Gatsby represents 3 systems of personality which are id, ego and
superego. Gatsby in the film has shown an ambition of getting his satisfaction.
His satisfaction is his love to Daisy. Siegfried states, “The Id is an entirely
unconscious aspect of psyche and thus making it the primary component of
personality”. It shows that id is something unconscious, such as instinct,
feeling, thought, desires and so on. Gatsby shows his id by his feeling as in
love to Daisy represents the id. In the scene 00:58:18 - 00:59:05 shows how
Gatsby stares at Daisy with full of love. In this scene, it tells that Gatsby
meets Daisy again for the first time after they have separated. It means that
Gatsby cannot stop loving Daisy. However loving Daisy Gatsby revolves him to
become ambitious. The ambition makes Gatsby come back to meet Daisy and hopes
he will get his relationship back with Daisy. It represents that to satisfy his
feeling or love, he has to struggle to meet Daisy again.
For getting satisfaction, Gatsby
needs to do some action or struggle. It can be called as the ego. The ego is
the second part of Freud’s system after the id. Gatsby’s id is his feeling or
his love to Daisy. His desire is to live together with Daisy. While, the id is
something unconscious, the ego operates the id to the reality principle. In The
Great Gatsby film, it shows many things what Gatsby has done to struggle to get
his satisfaction. Daisy is one of his satisfactions. The ambition makes Gatsby
does anything for Daisy. In the scene 00:47:17 – 00:48:17, it shows that Gatsby
has done some struggles for Daisy. Miss Baker tells Nick about Gatsby’s
background which is related to Daisy. She tells that Gatsby has intention to
buy a house right across to Darsy’s house in order to get as close as possible
to Daisy. Gatsby also holds many parties in hope for her to come one night. In
that scene, it also shows that Gatsby asks Miss Baker to tell Nick about his
desire to meet Daisy. Gatsby asks Nick to help him arrange a reunion with Daisy.
All of the struggles are solely for Gatsby to satisfy his desire. When Gatsby
gets his satisfaction, he will feel happy and his life will be perfect with
Daisy. All of what Gatsby have done for Daisy represents the ego.
The third part is the superego. The superego
will consider the id and the ego. As a consequence of the superego conflicting
with the demands of the id, the ego often has to mediate between the two. In
The Great Gatsby film, the superego is represented when Gatsby decides to tell
to Tom about his dishonesty with Daisy. His ambition makes him does anything no
matter what the bad consequences he will get. Gatsby knows having dishonesty is
wrong. Daisy has been married to Tom, but Gatsby does not care about it, he
still wants to love and live with Daisy. Gatsby perhaps will break Tom’s family
if he has to. But his purpose is to tell Tom that Daisy does not love him, she
loves Gatsby instead. Another superego is when Daisy hits Myrtle in a car
accident, Tom’s dishonest woman, Gatsby tries to hide the truth that Daisy is
the one who drives the car and crushes the woman accidentally. His love to
Daisy makes him wants to protect her from any bad consequences. But he does not
realize that he will get the impact by hiding the crime that has been done by
Daisy. Gatsby more concerns to Daisy than himself. His love, ambition and
desire make him do everything no matter it takes.
Daisy Buchanan is the antagonist
character in The Great Gatsby film. She is the wife of Tom Buchanan, the
wealthy man from upper class. She is also from the upper class, her social
status is high in the society. Despite her beauty and charm, Daisy is selfish,
she is the woman who is interested in money, she thinks only about money, even
when she’s married to Tom, it is because of his wealth, and when she accepts
Gatsby back, it is also because she knows about the wealth that Gatsby
owns. Gatsby loves her in many senses,
for him, Daisy is his past that can make him struggles to get her back and
makes him extremely obsessed to have her by his side. Then in relationship to
the issue that this paper brings, it shows the analysis of Daisy Buchanan as
the antagonist character in The Great Gatsby film. As a normal human, the
character of Daisy is selfish, greedy, and materialistic. Every individual has
behavior caused the interactions among three component parts of the mind: the
id, ego, and superego. This component of human behavior can influence what the
human do, whether consciously or unconsciously, including Daisy Buchanan’s
behavior.
According to Sigmund Freud, he
states that, “The id is the impulsive (and unconsious) part of our psyche which
responds directly and immediately to the instincts. The id is not affected by
reality, logic, or everyday world. The idea that every wishful impulse should
be satisfied immediately, regardless of the consequences” (qtd.in Gholipur, et
al 2). It is related to Daisy’s id. Her need of money has pushed her to satisfy
it immediately. Daisy’s voice is full of money and Daisy herself is referred to
as the golden girl. Daisy is selfish, shallow and in fact, hurtful woman. In
the movie, Daisy’s appearance looks like an angel on earth. She is routinely
linked with the color of white (white dress, white flowers, and so on) always
at the height of fashion. But actually she is the opposite from what she
presents herself to be. Daisy is categorized in an upper class at that moment,
she comes from the rich family. Her family is greedy, and so does Daisy. Money
is like everything for her family and from this state, it turns into the need
that should be satisfied. That’s why she wants to marry Tom Buchanan, because
he has money and power and Daisy enjoys the benefits she receives from these
things.
The second component of human
behavior is Ego. Every individual has this component that can influence their
action as the result of the id. The researchers state, “The desires of the Id
give rise to the Ego, which is generally the component of the psyche that
ensures that the impulses of the Id are expressed in a way that is acceptable
to the real world” (Siegfried, 2014). It explains about Daisy’s action. When
Gatsby suddenly comes to her life back, Daisy seems to have found love in him.
Although she loves the attention of Gatsby, she has other considerations.
First, she knows well that Tom has had affairs for years, next is that Daisy’s
response to Gatsby’s wealth, especially the shirts for it represents wealth.
She doesn’t cry when she has been together and meets Gatsby again, she cries
because of the pure satisfaction all his material wealth brings her. That’s why
she wants to be with Gatsby for a while.
Then move to the third component of
Freud’s structure of personality which is superego. Every individual also has
this component in their psyche’s structures. The superego reflects the
internalization of cultural rules. According to McLeod, “Superego is the
conscience that tells what is right and wrong, and forces the ego to inhibit
the id in pursuit of morally acceptable, not pleasurable or even realistic,
goals” (qtd.in Gholipur, et al 2). This definition also represents what Daisy’s
action next. This component prohibits Daisy to do more with Gatsby’s offering.
When Gatsby thinks Daisy loves him and never has she loved Tom, he convinces
her to tell the truth to Tom but Daisy is confused. Because of her inability to
deny that she loves Tom. Tom also knows that after Daisy realizes Gatsby is not
of their same circle, she will return to Tom for the comfort and protection
that his money and power bring. Related to the superego, this component depicts
the behavior of Daisy’s character in The Great Gatsby film.
In The Great Gatsby film, Tom
Buchanan is also the antagonist character. Tom Buchanan appears in the
beginning of the film as a man who has important role to make the film still
alive. Tom Buchanan acts rude because he is one of the wealthiest influences
all the character in the film. Below are some evidences that as antagonist
character, Tom has his own personality based on Freud theory about three
aspects of personality.
Tom
Buchanan is a busy man who has many servants in his home. The way he appears in
the movie looks like a king that rides a brown horse and shows his American
inanimate things to Nick Carraway. His life is kindly perfect, surrounded by
beautiful girls behind, loyal servants, make him has an authorization to do
anything he wants. Talk about life, he has inspired by Goddard, “The Rise of
The Colored Empires”. It talks about everything that happens in life it depends
on us, dominant race should keep on guard against another race because we are
the one who holds the reins. According to DIGITAL book by monotype composition
entitled Psychoanalytic Theory, “Freud said that the id is totally unconscious,
that we are unaware of its workings. The id is not rational; it imagines,
dreams, and invents things to get us what we want.” (qtd. in psychoanalytic
theory 284). This explains that id in Tom’s personality is the need of having
more than what he already has, in this case more women. Related to his view, it makes him being
ambitious man who wants a dishonest affair with another woman.
The
next discussion is about ego. Ego is the way people act based on his or her
idea. Sigmund Freud states that “topographical model of personality, the ego is
the aspect of personality that deals with reality.” As a royal man, he has
another woman except Daisy in New York. The Valley of Ashes is a proof that Tom
Buchanan is a playboy. The place which is located between West Egg and the city
of burning stone he meets with a woman named Myrtle. He talks a lot of business
as much as he touches Myrtle. The ego that Tom does to fulfill his nature
desire of having another woman behind his wife is shown when he visits Myrtle.
He makes effort to secretly go to this small city where she lives and pretends
to have a small business with her when actually he is having an affair with
this woman.
Even
though Tom has an affair with another woman, inside of his cheat attitude he
does not want to abandon his true woman. It shows that Tom Buchanan has superego
which stops him from doing an affair with another woman behind his marriage
with Daisy. According to Freud, “the superego gives people feelings of pride
when they do something correct (the ego ideal) and feelings of guilt when they
do something they consider to be morally wrong (the conscience)” (qtd. in
Psychoanalytic theory 284). His superego is also a bridge which moves him to be
possessive against Daisy when he knows that Daisy shows love to Gatsby until he
reminds himself that he must defend his wife. It can be seen in the beginning
scene when they come to Gatsby’s party. Tom always stares at them. In an
addition, in the party when Daisy hides with Gatsby in a small garden, Tom asks
to Nick but Nick pretends that he doesn’t know where Daisy is. Tom begins to
feel suspicious. Thus his structure of personality of superego appears to help
him to be more aware of the moral deed for the sake of his marriage. In the
film, Myrtle is died because of Daisy. Since that incident Tom has no another
woman again.
In
the conclusion, according to Freud’s theory of personality structure we find
that every character in the film has these three aspects of id, ego and
superego. The matter that lingers in the film is a complicated love between
Daisy and Gatsby with the appearance of Tom as the third person in their
relationship. Based on the analysis we know that Gatsby’s id is love for Daisy
which leads the plot to the reunion of Daisy and him while Daisy’s id is the
fortune which provokes her to change the plot by coming to Gatsby wish and
Tom’s id is his desire to have more women which supports Daisy to enjoy her
affair with Gatsby as well. The ego makes Gatsby pursues Daisy to the plotting
where he convinces her to leave Tom and comes to Gatsby’s side while Daisy pursues
whoever has fortune which contributes to the act where she has to choose which
man can comfort her the most and Tom who secretly meets his other woman as the
result for his satisfaction. The superego of each character is pretty
surprising as well because it is significant in the resolution of the plot
where Gatsby becomes blind of love that he miserably dies because of Daisy,
then Daisy stays with her husband because Tom can give her more comfort and
last but not least is when Tom stops his affair after the death of his
dishonest woman who is killed by Daisy in a car accident which Gatsby takes as
his fault.
Bibliography
Boeree,
C. George. 2006. “Personality Theories”. Sigmund
Freud (1856-1939). http://www.ship.edu/%7Ecgboeree/perscontents.html.
Gholipur,
A. Motjaba & B. Mina Sanahmadi. 2013. “A Psychoanalytic attitude to The Great
Gatsby”.
“Personality
Theories”. 2004. DIGITAL monotype composition. 278-316_CH08_61939 8/11/04
12:14 PM Page 278.
Siegfried,
William. 2014. “The Formation of the Human Psyche”. Id, Ego, and Superego –
The Dynamic (Libidinal) and Static Unconsciousness, Sublimation, and the Social
Dimension of Identity Formation.
