Ambrosio’s Destructive Desire In Matthew Lewis’ The Monk

The refined and profound psychological descriptions in The Monk (1796) accredit it froma popular novel in18thcentury Britain into a classic gothic fiction in the world. In The Monk,the author Matthew Lewis (1775-1818) gives an insightful description of the whole process ofAmbrosio’s downfall and his hidden, subtle and complicated psychological world, especiallythe psychological disturbance and changes in his crossroads.In The Monk, Ambrosio suffers the process of lacked desire, repressed and obedientdesire, erupted desire and final perdition. The desire discussed in this thesis is refined toAmbrosio’s inherent secular needs as a normal human being and sensual desire as an adultmale. As an abbot, Ambrosio’s native desire has long been suppressed. Thirty years ofmonastery life makes him not know the difference between man and woman; three decades ofisolation forces him to be an indifferent and cruel person and tamped down the beautifulfriendship and happy love, all of which become the potential factors that lead to his finaldownfall; For Ambrosio, the deeply rooted social regulations and religious rules have alreadyoverwhelmed him. After a mental struggle, he chooses to obey. He not only reconciles hisfreedom with social responsibilities but also reconciles his personal desire with religiousbeliefs; At last, the fierce struggle between Ambrosio’s inner desire and morality andhumanity form his distorted personality. In order to satisfy his personal passion and evilpleasure, Ambrosio commits rape, incest, matricide and some unforgivable sins regardless ofmoral values and social norms, and even makes deal with Satan to meet his perdition.This thesis analyzes Ambrosio’s tragedy based on Freudian theory of personality, whichconsists mainly of id, ego, and superego with the central notion that only when people havetheir ego work in a balanced way can they form the complete and healthy personality which isnot only good for the individual but also for the society as a whole; otherwise, it is easy tofind themselves in the way to become cruel and indifference which will eventually lead todestruction or self-destruction. The former Ambrosio lives in his disguised idealized superego,tries his uttermost to be the “Man of Holiness”, innocent of sexuality, all of which makes hima cold-blooded executor. However, id is always in the process of searching the satisfaction ofdesire and will eventually find its forms, no matter in the indirect or the distorted way. Ambrosio’s extremely suppressed id finally erupted in a distorted way, which turns him froma “Man of Holiness” to “devil”.Based on a detailed analysis, this thesis tries to draw the conclusion that the imbalancedego is the main reason for Ambrosio’s tragedy. With the lesson that for the sake of socialcivilization and individual happiness, it is significant for an individual to achieve balancebetween primitive id and realistic conditions and have the desire released reasonably, that is,keep the ego balanced.