Sherwood Anderson’s “The Egg” is a work that. viewed through the eyes of Freud. would hold the theory of the three-party mind. The chief character’s position of his male parent and female parent inter play absolutely with Oedipal mentions. The character’s position of life in general is affected by his early childhood remembrances and experiences. and Freud would hold a flower if this patient were on his sofa. Ironically. the egg in the narrative relates to failures and devastation instead than the new life it should stand for.
Freud’s tripartite theory trades with three parts of the human mind: the Idaho. the self-importance. and the superego. The Idaho is the portion of our unconscious that wants whatever it wants irrespective of any effects. It deals with the pleasance portion of our encephalon. The self-importance balances the Idaho by controling the id’s impulses into socially acceptable behaviour. The 3rd portion is the superego that besides balances the Idaho by moving as the portion that delineates what is right and incorrect. “The Egg” is written from the point of position of a adult male remembering his childhood. All chief characters. the kid. the female parent. and the male parent. have an Idaho that shows its face at some point in the narrative. In the narrative. the female parent and father’s Idaho foremost become apparent in the 2nd paragraph when “The American passion for acquiring up in the universe took ownership of them. ”
The mother’s Idaho is to hold everything possible for her household. This is shown when the character provinces. “For male parent and myself she was incurably ambitious. ” She seeks to satisfy these desires by acquiring the male parent to “give up his topographic point as a farm-hand. sell his Equus caballus and embark on an independent endeavor of his ain. ” She besides made determinations for the household on urge when “She talked of it for a twelvemonth and so one twenty-four hours went away and rented an empty shop edifice opposite the railway station.
It was her thought that the eating house would be profitable. ” She challenged acceptable behaviour for a adult female of her clip. She acts as the superego for the male parent tardily in the narrative “When. nevertheless. he got into the presence of female parent something happened to him. He laid the egg gently on the tabular array and dropped on his articulatio genuss by the bed as I have already explained. ” The female parent acted as the scruples of the male parent. and he knew that the aggressive behaviour he was showing was incorrect because it produced guilt.
The male parent shows all three parts of the tripartite theory when he tries to demo off for a client in his eating house. The Idaho takes over first by desiring to entertain instantly when the client walks in. for earlier in the narrative “Father became a small hectic in his anxiousness to delight. ” The self-importance tries to command the choler the male parent experiences when his efforts to entertain get down to decline for “He grew a small angry and for a minute had to turn his face off and coerce himself to smile. ” every bit good as “He was angry because his visitant did non watch him as he began to make his fast one. but nevertheless went cheerfully to work. ”
When he didn’t acquire his manner. the Idaho in him reared its ugly caput once more as “A boom of choler rose from my father’s pharynx. He danced and shouted a twine of unarticulate words. Catching another egg from the basket on the counter. he threw it. merely losing the caput of the immature adult male as he dodged through the door and escaped. ” Afterwards. as explained earlier. morality regains command in the character of the female parent and balance is restored.
In Oedipus Rex. by Sophocles. Oedipus unwittingly kills his male parent and marries his female parent. Freud explains any male turning into maturity must quash sexual desires for the female parent. relate to his male parent. and hold his ain sexual brotherhood. for if non. he will hold ill will towards authorization. The chief character in “The Egg” in babyhood shows marks of wanting his female parent when “I lay beside her—in the yearss of her lying-in. ” He sees his male parent as a weak adult male. He relates to the male parent after the effusion when the male parent “began to shout like a male child and I. carried away by his heartache. cried with him. The two of us filled the small upstairs room with our howling voices… I remember merely my ain heartache and fear and the glistening way over father’s caput radiance in the lamp visible radiation as he knelt by the bed. ” He besides sees life similar to his male parent.
The egg is viewed as failures by the male parent. such as the failed poulet farm escapade. by bring forthing the grotesque mutants and bottling them ( in making so bottling his failures ) . and besides as the failed amusement venture ( by “a last despairing attempt to suppress the egg” ) . The son’s epiphany of failures was when “I wondered why eggs had to be and why from the egg came the biddy who once more laid the egg. The inquiry got into my blood. It has stayed at that place. I imagine. because I am the boy of my male parent. ” His position of failures is affected by his childhood memories of his male parent and the poulet farm every bit good when “From the beginning they were feelings of catastrophe and if. in my bend. I am a glooming adult male inclined to see the darker side of life. I attribute it to the fact that what should hold been for me the happy joyous yearss of childhood were spent on a lily-livered farm. ” This was his sudden passage to maturity. He realized the “American Dream” is a sad expansive impression like that of the poulet farm he grew up on.
Sherwood Anderson’s “The Egg” has legion struggles and characters that conveying out Freud’s Idaho. self-importance. and superego that make for a fantastic psychoanalytical read. The Oedipal composite of the chief character radiances brilliantly through his position of and relationship with the male parent. Overall. the actions of the male parent are truly out of his control due to his unconscious head. and he passed that trait onto his boy every bit good as his ability to neglect no affair how hard he tried. “And that. I conclude. is but another grounds of the complete and concluding victory of the egg—at least every bit far as my household is concerned. ”
