The Id, Ego and Superego in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night’s Dream"

Abstract

Dealing with human nature, literature is considered to be intertwined with the science of psychology. Psychoanalysis is a method of descending to the unconscious sources of desires, instincts and thoughts and bringing conflicts to the consciousness. Sigmund Freud previously divides the human personality into two systems as unconscious and conscious; however, he then reaches the distinction between ‘id’, ‘ego’ and ‘superego’. While the id works in accordance with instincts, the superego pays regard to morality, but the ego tries to equalize these requests with the reality of the outside world under appropriate conditions. This study aims to analyze the psychological attitudes underlying the behaviors of the characters in William Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" through the Freudian concepts of id, ego and superego. Shakespeare changes spaces from society (reality) to nature (dream) in order to arrive at comedy. The Athenians Theseus and Hippolyta are doubled with their fairy counterparts Oberon and Titania, and this doubling offers that the forest in the play is the dreamscape of Athens in which suppressed personalities can emerge. There is reality in daytime and Theseus and Egeus are controlled by the superego in the society. Here, the male-dominant world causes unhappiness to Lysander and Hermia through oppression. There is dream in night-time and the characters are surrounded by the id in the forest. Here, the male-dominant world causes happiness through wish-fulfilment. There is a struggle within all the lovers between the patriarchal superego and the primitive id. The use of psychoanalytic theory in drama is put forward to help readers appreciate this literary text from a different aspect.