An Analysis of Individual Psychology and Responsibility in Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea.

Journal Title: Notions A Journal of English Literature - Year 2017, Vol 0, Issue 3

Abstract

This study aims at analyzing Henrik Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea in terms of the main character’s psychology and responsibility through realistic portrayal. This study defines the process of how a character develops when the play progresses and finally reaches its climax and at last identifies the responsibility as an individual. Freud’s theories of personality and psycho-sexual development are used to expose the effects of repressed wishes of the female characters’ behaviour. It will be achieved through analyzing the selected characters’ unconscious motives and their emotional suppression. Psycho-analysis explores the dynamics of the psychological progressions inside the human mind. Ibsen’s plays depict how the bourgeois family becomes an institution full of conflicts and how they create conflicts. The play is about a woman’s dilemma in choosing the one between her husband and her lover, and the freedom for making a choice. Ibsen’s drama stages a neurotic woman who has a divided self-dwelling in two worlds and is clearly hindered by her entanglement to the past. Ellida is emotionally of two minds when her past lover visits unpredictably and reminds her of the promise she made with him several years earlier. Ellida’s mental captivity to the Stranger is a budding force distressing her marriage to Wangel. The play deals with the rescue of the right to live one’s life without being influenced by will power or sponging interests. Doctor Wangel’s wise and thoughtful restraint during Ellida’s crisis is an antithetical approach which results in the opportunity to separate the reality from illusion. Ellida regains a privilege of the youth, of choosing freely between two options. This event coincides to re-claim her position as a wife who is set free from the dissatisfaction and regret of a wrong choice. The play shows how the interplay between the conscious and unconscious mind influences the individual identities and their progress.

Authors and Affiliations

H. Annshini, Dr. S. Florence

Keywords

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  • EP ID EP532409
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How To Cite

H. Annshini, Dr. S. Florence (2017). An Analysis of Individual Psychology and Responsibility in Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea.. Notions A Journal of English Literature, 0(3), 46-53. https://europub.co.uk./articles/-A-532409