Psychological Criticism Essays - Psychology, Psychoanalysis

Psychological Criticism Psychological criticism really brings the characters you're reading about to life. When an action done by a characters is explained psychologically, that perhaps they had repressed desires, or that it's due to painful memories which reflected them to be who they are now. It becomes as close to real life as it could get. Because a person is shaped into who they are now by past experiences. Sigmund Freud also thought the same thing. Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and some others (The followers of Sigmund Freud) believed that for literature to be good there are certain expectations for it. Those expectations were for literature to truthfully reflect and show the reality we live in and life. He thought that the written matter in literature such as dreams and actions done by characters were w reflection of the author's thinking process and repressed desires. The analysis of Oedipus is a great example, it shows a lot of insight about the human mind. To use this theory you need to show how the literature piece affects the reader's mind, the thinking process of the writer himself, and to be able to apply the modern insights into fictional characters, all in your work. The girl on the train analysis The girl on the train is a story about Rachel, a woman that takes the train everyday to and from work. As she goes by everyday she notices these couple who live near the train tracks, and she feels like they are the perfect couple. She likes them so much that she even names them. Then something happens that changes everything, and let's her be a part of their lives. The story really focuses on Rachel's mental illnesses and personal problems, such as depression, insomnia and a drinking problem. The author talks a lot about Rachel's past experiences, she emphasizes the fact that Rachel has issues a lot. She also includes detailed sexual scenes in the story too much, sometimes, even more than needed. With those two points: Sexual scenes and drinking problems. I can't help but think that the author herself has had a drinking problem at some point in her life; she also has suppressed sexual desires that she tries to express by writing. The author also goes deep into each characters mentality. She shows how each and everyone of them has gotten to this point in the book. How they evolved and changed even behind what we as reader's were reading.