Freud in the Goblin's Glen Anonymous

Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market beautifully illustrates sin and sacrifice in the lives of twin sisters Lizzie and Laura. These sisters are so alike and separate they can be likened to the ying and yang. It has been argued that they are one person split in two. Because of certain personality traits it can also be argued that these two women represent the subconscious alter egos - the superego and the id. However, while Laura is the id she is also a more fully developed person. Lizzie, being the moral superego, seems little more than Laura's conscience. Lizzie's voice of reason runs through the poem warning the id-like Laura about the goblin men. Laura however must succumb to desire. It is experience of desire and consequence that finally pushes Laura away from the choices of the id, making her a well-rounded person governed not by the pleasure principle, but the reality principle.

Sigmund Freud was the first to identify conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. The mind consists of three parts: the Ego, the Superego, and the Id. The ego is the conscious part of the mind that acts as a balance between the id and the superego.

In Sharon Heller's Freud A to Z, she writes the id is "completely submerged in...