Preview

The Ego, And The Superego In Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
599 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Ego, And The Superego In Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
Staying up until 6 a.m. to talk to a friend knowing that sleeping is a better idea can be considered an unwise decision. The devil on the shoulder might say to stay up. While the conscience says to go to bed. This situation displays the id, the ego, and the superego. The id says to stay up and talk, to give into the impulse and immediate satisfaction. The superego says to go to bed, that the right choice is to sleep. The ego acts to help make a compromise like only staying up until 2 a.m. then going to bed. In the story “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” the Cheshire cat displays the ego, the rabbit represents the superego, and Alice embodies the id.
The cheshire cat represents the ego. He thinks about what Alice wants from the id and also
…show more content…
She acts purely on instincts. She acts without a second thought. When she first spots the rabbit, she chases after it without thinking of the danger it might lead her into. Then the book says “In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.” The id demands immediate satisfaction and Alice gives into this desire. She wants to venture through the small door so badly that she drinks an unknown substance. She thought to herself “However, this bottle was NOT marked ‘poison,’ so Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice…” She also does not care about what the society in Wonderland thinks. She even talks back to the queen “‘I won’t!’ said Alice.” Alice embraces her id more than the others.
Freud believed that every human possesses an id, ego, and superego. Some people reflect more of one of these than the other two. In the story “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” the cheshire cat reflects the ego, the rabbit represents the superego, and Alice herself gives into her id more than anything. These exist in every human even though some people may choose to only ever listen to one of them. Which one truly prevails over the others in most

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    7. id, ego, and superego – Freudian terms to describe human behavior, which Freud saw as basically irrational. (p. 929)…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    SOCI 310 Mid Term

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Freud’s theory viewed patients as personality as an endless series of psychic conflicts and compromises. Late in his career he created an order to the psyche by creating a framework of three basic structural components known is the Id, the Ego and the Superego. Freud felt that these three components were in a constant state of flux to create equilibrium within the self. The Id was entirely is entirely unconscious and only concerned with the satisfaction of primal needs. The ego is the part of the psyche that is in contact with the external world. It stands for reason and good sense as well as controlling voluntary functions such as movement. The Superego is like a secret police department that serves as judge or censor over the activities and thoughts of the ego.…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lewis Carroll wrote a story about a young girl ‘Alice’ who fell through a rabbit whole into a fantasy world inhabited by strange, humanlike creatures. Alice encounters lots of different humanlike creatures throughout her journey through the world of nonsense, poetry and mind-boggling logic, like, the talking flowers, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Queen of Hearts, Jabberwocky and the White Queen. Alice’s adventures in Wonderland included shrinking, growing to the size of a giant, attending the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, playing Croquet and attending the Queen of Hearts court.…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Psy/210 Week 5 Assignment

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Using Freud’s psychodynamic theory, I learned that my ego is what keeps the id and superego in check and that sometimes the failure of the ego to satisfy both results in my anxiety about certain…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Next, the theory of the id, ego, and superego that Sigmund Freud developed is very interesting and has been in media since the mid-1950s. The theory says that the id is the pleasure drive of your body and it seeks immediate pleasure for things you need like immediate satisfaction if you’re hungry, then the ego lives in reality and it is basically the person. The ego…

    • 729 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lewis Carroll had written two books and they were “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass.” The character of Alice is based on a real girl, called Alice Liddell, who was one of the author 's child-friends. Alice is the main character of the story "Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland" and the sequel "Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there". She is a seven-year-old English girl with lots of imagination and is fond of showing off her knowledge. Alice is polite, well raised and interested in others, although she sometimes makes the wrong remarks and upsets the creatures in Wonderland. She is easily put off by abruptness and rudeness of others. While in “Alice in Wonderland” she has an identity crisis, believing she has been swapped by someone else, and in “Through the Looking Glass” she loses her identity completely by forgetting her name and other stuff about her. Along the way she learns who she is and learns to become more mature as she goes through this adventure in her imagination. “Although the Alice character is only seven, far too young to be on the verge of adulthood, the real-life Alice Liddell, for whom Carroll wrote the book and whom he based his young heroine, was, at the time he wrote the book, 11 years old, an adolescent who would have begun questioning herself identity” (Brackett).…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    I consider the knowledge I have about myself as strength. On my journey to self discovery I realized that humans, at the core, are the same, (projective system.) Learning the theory of Sigmund Freud in about the id, ego, and superego, also helped to change my views about diverse people. Sigmund Freud stated that man has three distinct personality structures, the id, ego, and superego. The id operates according to the pleasure principle, id pursues pleasure and avoids pain, and it has qualities of a spoiled child (selfish). To me the id is the personality structure of the flesh. The superego is the opposite of the id. Superego represents the moral branch of our being. It functions to control behavior according to moral and ethical rules, offering rewards (peace, self-love) for “good” behavior and punishments (guilt, feelings of inferiority) for “bad” behavior. To me the superego represents the spirit part of our being. Finally, the ego the third part of our structure, seeks reality. Its’ function is to learn about life and choose between the id and superego. To me the ego represents our soul. The knowledge of this personality structure I consider my strength, but I am weak when I give in to the principles of id. To avoid this weakness, I try to remain mindful of this struggle and look at diversities with an open…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies the author depicts that humans are inherently evil. In the novel, a group of adolescent boys are deserted on an island, they try to survive and maintain civilization through rules and leaders. Golding employs Freud’s Theory of id, superego, and ego in the novel. He illustrates how humans are genetically linked with evil. Jack represents the id, his focus is to ensure survival of the which he lives. Ralph is expressed as the ego. He uses reasoning to make choices, without thought of whether something is right or wrong. Piggy is limn as the superego. Piggy takes…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    counselling theory essay

    • 1682 Words
    • 7 Pages

    “Freud used the terms Id, Ego and Super-ego to illustrate his ‘map’ of the internal relations within the psyche.”…

    • 1682 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Psychodynamic Perspective

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Freud proposed that the adult personality has three parts the id, ego and superego. The id is the combination of pleasure seeking desires and we are born with it. The ego develops later and it controls the desires of the id. The superego is the moralistic part of personality which develops as a child interacts with significant others such as its parents. The superego can be seen as the conscience. It is the role of the ego to maintain a balance between the id and the superego.…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For example, the Grinch throws Cindy Lou in the mail machine, the power of his id is increasing. Max, his dog, convinces the Grinch to rescue her; so he does. Max is a good symbol in the Grinch’s life, he is the superego. By the Grinch responding to Max and rescuing Cindy Lou, this shows his personality is trying to balance but it is difficult for him because the id is overwhelming. In another example, the Mayor proposed to Martha, this made the Grinch very upset. Previous to this, the Mayor gave the Grinch an electric razor as a gift. It turned his whole attitude around and brought back past memories from his childhood causing a quick reaction from the id. Since the id overtakes him, this makes his actions heartless and aggressive and his personality is not able to balance. Max and Cindy Lou act as mentors for the Grinch seeing as they bring out the good in him. They represent his superegos. Superego represents a person’s conscious and internal ethics and administers standards for judgment. This is proven when his superego became stronger and he rescued the sled before it fell off the side of the mountain. Moreover, ego is the conscious “decision-making” part of the…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alice in wonderland is an adventurous book full of mystery, conflicts, and surprisingly allegory. Alice goes through trails, revelations, and at one point even gets accused of “being the wrong Alice.” In this story, Alice believes that she is dreaming and having a weird one at that, but in reality she is not really dreaming. Alice is really trying to find herself and with that she is portraying the conflicts in her life through the world of wonderland. To me wonderland is just a dimension of realization and a way for Alice to find the answers to the questions that she needs. But will Alice realize this in time or will she go on through her “dream” without any realization at all? In Alice in wonderland there are many cases of allegory. The cases the i will be pointing out and defining in my own words are “The Rabbit Hole”, “Size and Growth”, and “The Looking - Glass.” In this essay i will explain my theories and definitions of the allegory in Alice in Wonderland.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Freud stressed that human behavior is a result of “intrapsychic forces in conflict” and that in order to analyze these forces he had to find ways of tapping into the unconscious of his patients. He believed that there are three elements of personality: the id, the ego, and the super-ego. The id is the only component of personality that is present from birth. This aspect of personality is completely unconscious and includes instinctive behavior, and is the primary component of your personality. The id strives for immediate gratification of all desires, wants and needs. The ego on the other hand, is a component of personality that is responsible for dealing with reality. Freud Believed that the ego develops from the id and makes sure that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a way that is acceptable in the real world. The last component of personality is the superego. The superego holds internalized moral standards and ideals and ideas of right and wrong that we acquire from our society. It is important to note, that it is not a separation of the mind into three structures and functions, they separate aspects and elements of the single structure of the mind.…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    To better understand the psychology of both characters, the reader must understand what Freud’s theory means. Freud’s theory of the ego, id, and superego were created by Sigmund Freud who was born on May 6, 1856, in a small town a part of the Austrian…

    • 1505 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Cat in the Hat the Cat best exemplifies the Freudian personality aspect of the Id as shown through his actions and verbal responses. The Id is the part of our personality that only wants what whatever feels good and its actions revolve around obtaining self-pleasure without regard for the circumstances of the situation. First off, when the Cat initially comes and wants to play a game he says “Why, we can have/Lots of good fun, if you wish/With a game that I call/UP-UP-UP with a fish!” (Seuss 12) and in response the fish says ““Put me down” said the fish/“This is no fun at all!/Put me down” said the fish/“I do NOT wish to fall!” (Seuss 13). The cat says he wants to play a game with them but he ends up playing a game that only he finds fun.…

    • 219 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays