Pyschoanalysis of Wuthering Heights Anonymous 11th Grade

Literature and psychological theories, even if developed in different time periods or one before the other, may parallel because of both an author and psychologist’s ability to understand the human condition. For this reason, it is possible to take psychoanalytic approaches to texts that may have been written long before more popular psychological theories were introduced. Some of the characters of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, Wuthering Heights, reflect the personality theory of Sigmund Freud. Wuthering Heights is the story of two diametrically opposed households, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, starting from the time that a young boy named Heathcliff is adopted and arrives at Wuthering Heights. The novel describes the emotional story of Heathcliff, Catherine, Edgar, and others as they grow from young children, through adulthood, and many to their final demise. Sigmund Freud, known as the father of psychoanalysis, developed the psyche theory of the id, super ego, and ego in the early 1920s. Simply stated, the id controls basic and mostly subconscious impulses, the super ego controls adherence to social values and morals as part of the conscious, and the ego balances the two by understanding the demands of reality. Three...