In 1925, Sigmund Freud said, "where such men love they have no desire and where they desire they cannot love." This quote draws attention to the two mutually exclusive ways that society constructs a female 's sexual identity. This mindset is commonly known as the Madonna-whore complex. The attitude existed long before Freud spoke about it. He believed this attitude fell under the framework of psychic impotence. Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, argues that this mental complex originates from oedipal and castration anxiety fears. The Oedipus Complex is a child 's subconscious desire for their opposite-sex parent. Which, according to Freud, is a crucial stage in psychosexual development. Oedipus was a figure in Greek mythology who, unknowingly, killed his father and married his mother. Many psychologists in the 21st century agree with Freud 's observation, but contend with his reasoning. Psychoanalysist Richard Tuch offers another explanation. He argues men often look for someone with maternal qualities, hoping to fulfill a need for maternal intimacy that was unmet in childhood.
In the Madonna-whore complex, men love woman that they can put on a pedestal and devalue woman that they view as promiscuous. This dichotomy is depicted in the Bible, the Virgin Mary is a perfect example of a respectable motherly and holy character. In contrast, Eve is shown seducing Adam and being a dangerous temptress. The Virgin Mary, depicted as passive and obedient, is considered to be the
A large portion of the last paragraph in the passage demonstrates this. Her face being "calculated", "blend of white and cream and baby-blue eyes, small nose, pink little nostrils", and comparing her to an "expensive baby doll" shows the side of his feelings besides fear. Even though she may seem like a monster, she's still a woman. Almost like a baby who throws a fit of rage and wants to destroy everything in their path. He then goes on to say that adding her "big, womanly breasts" were a mistake.
This story portrays Eve as an independent and prideful woman, who refused to obey God. By refusing to listen to God, she fought submission. She is recognized as the Devil’s willing agent and symbolized women-as-evil. Most of the accused were women. Not only that, but most women had “rebelled” in some way, either by demanding land, speaking out in church, etcetera.
The book perfectly displays the objectification of women. This objectification can be seen in the book whenever Victor regards Elizabeth as “his” and claims ownership of her as someone would to a piece of land. He goes as far as comparing his need to care for her to the way he cares for all of his other animals. Lastly we can see these gender roles and stereotypes in the book yet again with Elizabeth. She is stuck at home helping the Frankenstein family in place of Victor’s mother that passed away.
Psychoanalysis, founded by Sigmund Freud, is a type of therapy which aims to make the unconscious mind conscious by releasing repressed emotions . In this type of therapy, they believe the patient’s condition can be determined by any repressed memories of childhood as well as any conflict between their conscious and subconscious which can result in these mental illnesses. We also now know of the Oedipus and Electra complex, both based on two great Greek plays (one of which this essay is about). The Oedipus complex concerns a son’s desire for his mother and his competition with his father for her attention whereas the Electra complex is the female version of this and involves a daughter’s competition with her mother for her father’s attention and love . The themes of madness in The Bough Breaks are thought to be caused by the gods as well as Agamemnon’s ghost, but now we can analyse these symptoms of madness using psychoanalysis but also show that the Electra complex is
The majority of Horror film and books are suffused with female monsters, with many of these female monsters developing from ancient myths. Yet literary criticism has tended to focus more on the woman as the victim of the monster, rather than the woman-as-monster. The majority of monsters in classical mythology are female and the Homeric myth of Demeter and Persephone is a primary archetype for the classical myths that have informed the horror genre’s construction of the feminine. The myth recounts the abduction and rape of the maiden Goddess Persephone by Hades the King of the underworlds. As David Greven states that the grief of Demeter, Persephone’s mother presents a crucial precedent for the recurrent theme of the return to origins in horror and provides a basis for the representation of the maternal figure in modern horror.
Child psychology, also called child development, is the study of the psychological processes of children and especially, how they develop as young adults and how they differ from one child to the next. It basically tends to map onto children’s physical, cognitive and social/emotional development. Psychologists attempt to make sense of every aspect of child development, including how children learn, think, interact and respond emotionally to people around them and understand emotions and their developing personalities, temperaments and skills. It also includes how individual, social and cultural factors may influence their development. Child study is of comparatively recent origin.
Firstly, what does the Madonna/Whore complex even mean? According to Gottschall, it is defined as how “men and/or society divide women into two binary types: virgins and whores.
She was beautiful in the sight of men, and it was almost impossible to be resisted. However, there is no clear record that shows that she used her beauty to lure men to be with her. Therefore, one would conclude that although she was beautiful, she was also moral. This notion of being a moral person with integrity made her reputation spread. In modern times, however, she is portrayed as being flirtatious and sophisticated.
Psychoanalysis of the Wizard of Oz Of the many literary theories that have come about over the years, one of the most interesting is the idea of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis was first introduced in the 1880s by Sigmund Freud, he claimed that unconscious desires were the reasoning behind most behavioral problems. Furthermore, Freud speculated that one’s subconscious desires were influenced by what happened in one’s childhood ("Purdue OWL: Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism", 2018). Freud also said that children go through various stages of development where they focus on one body part or another, such as the oral or anal stage, and that children may fixate on their parent of the opposite sex, known as the Oedipus Complex ("Purdue OWL: Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism", 2018). After reading about psychoanalysis it is easy to apply the theory to one of the most beloved movies of all time, The Wizard of Oz.
Lucifer and Mary Anne both carried the appearance of beauty; a beauty that had undoubtedly made some men awe at the sight of
In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, Elizabeth, Caroline, and Justine represent a seemingly “perfect” woman. Mary Shelley ironically writes about each woman with a brief impersonal description of their status and relevance to the story. Elizabeth is presented to Victor as a object for his affection. Victor refers to his cousin as “My more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only” (Shelley 25).
Graceful, beautiful, loving, nurturing, subdued, diminished, female. All of these adjectives and more can be applied to some of the more overlooked characters of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. The central conflict between Victor Frankenstein and his Creature casts a shadow over other historical and cultural issues at work in the novel particularly that of the treatment of women. Mary Shelly brilliantly includes an examination of their condition through four women that suffer and, in some cases, break free from their oppressive mold imposed on them by their patriarch society regardless of their differences in socio-economic status. The four characters of Justine, Elizabeth, Agatha, and Safie represent four different versions and treatment of women
Published in 1915, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a tale of a salesman named Gregor Samsa who one day wakes up to discover that he has quite literally transformed into an insect. Unable to support his family as an insect, he is only able to stay in his room and eat the rotting scraps of food that his sister brings him. Over time, Gregor’s transformation into a large bug begins to affect the lifestyle of his family, and they slowly become resentful of him. His family secretly wishes Gregor would leave, and knowing this, Gregor willfully dies in his room.
Indeed, in the article The Ideological Impediment: Feminism and Film Theory, Jennifer Hammett said that women “constituted as subjects by patriarchal representations, women do not have the epistemological resources necessary to escape patriarchy” (Hammett 86). In fact, Mulvey does understand that psychoanalysis is "an important political weapon,” but this weapon often in the hands of men. In his essay The signification of the Phallus, Lacan tried to point out the difference between “to have” and “to be” the signifier, the phallus (Lacan 1309). He stated that
This form of objectification is often used as a means to appeal to men's sexual desires in order to promote and attract consumers, because marketers still latch onto the old “sex sells”, or so it would seem (Rowland, 2016). Music videos, magazines, fashion commercials, are all channels through which women are exploited and put out to be headless objects isolated for their bodies solely for sexual pleasure and viewing purposes. Rowland explains that although this charade may allure and trap most men, this is not the case for women. Emma Rooney cites in The Effects of Sexual Objectification on Women's Mental Health, “the sexual objectification of women is a driving and perpetuating component of gender oppression, systemic sexism, sexual harassment, and violence against women”. Jessica Vanlenti writes in ‘Worldwide sexism…Women’, that researchers from The University of Missouri-Kanas and Georgia State found these forms of objectification to be linked to women’s psychological distress, and are leading causes of suicide among young adolescent women.