Personality Structure In Hard Times

Hard Times, a novel written by the famous British novelist Charles Dickens, appraises the society of that era and reveals the suppression of the people during the burgeoning industrialization. It is regarded as a realistic novel reflecting the historical period when British Industrial Revolution was developing with strong momentum. This thesis attempts to study Dickens’s Hard Times from the perspective of Freud’s personality structure theory. It mainly focuses on the embodiment of the id, ego and superego-the three parts in the personality structure in Hard Times, revealing its accurate representation of this psychological mechanism.Chapter One analyzes the embodiment of id in Hard Times:Tom and James. Following the "pleasure principle", both of them seek pleasure beyond morality or any restraints. They are doomed to suffer the tragic fate.Chapter Two illustrates the incarnation of the ego in Hard Times: Sissy and Mr. Sleary. They observe the "reality principle" and enjoy the harmonious lives. What’s more, both of them play the mediator’s role between the id, superego and reality.In Chapter Three, the representation of the superego is discussed mainly by focusing on Gradgrind and Bounderby. Gradgrind applies utilitarianism into every aspect of his life and Bounderby is obsessed with industrialism. As the representation of the superego, the two influential figures bring about a lot of negative influence on people in Coketown.This thesis attempts to reveal the inner psychological factors of characters’fate in Hard Times by analyzing it from the perspective of personality structure theory. Characters in a novel mirror social reality. The study of personality structure of characters in Hard Times provides us with an access to the understanding of people’s living conditions and social reality of that historical period. Therefore, it is of certain literary and social significance.