Modern Drama and Psychological Forces

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how modern drama works closely with the concept of the repression of fear and aggression and how Freudian theory had a direct impact on dramatists after the 1920s. It looks at how Beckett's drama portrays the human condition through the depreciation of psychological forces and how, conversely, Chekhov allows his characters a sense of realization through negative capability whereby the characters are respectively voiced without emphasis on any one viewpoint. It also shows how like Ibsen he allows the characters the freedom to speak almost randomly, in what Freud would term the technique of free association used to cure patients by articulating their repressed fears and aggressions.

From the Paper:

"Freud formed a theory of the id and the ego which attempted to explain the unconscious psychological forces of an individual, and can be illustrated through Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1952). Vladimir and Estragon are embodiments of a mind and body duality. By reversing Vladimir's epithet Didi it is possible to form Id-Id, where, by psychological definition id represents the desire for physical contact and body warmth, characteristic of babies. Estragon, or "Gogo" can be reversed to (e)go-(e)go, the ego, which forms the conscious and socially aware psyche developed in adulthood. The mind is purely conscious, and can detach itself from the more base instincts of the body, an extended reality, which is controlled by specific laws."

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