Cocoon Oneself Like A Silkworm,or Break The Cocoon Into A Butterfly

The Silence of the Lambs is a masterpiece made by Thomas Harris which is regarded as the gem in the history of the Twentieth Century's literature.Later it was edited into the film and thus became the third one of achieving five Oscar awards in history.It is especially famous for the suspense and horror that are created.There are three main characters in the novel —— Clarice Starling,Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill.With similar childhood experience,they all suffered from terrible psychological traumas to a certain degree,but due to different treatments,they had completely different results.Eventually,they led extremely different lives.This thesis probes into the different defense mechanisms they adopted and the relevant personalities they presented based on the theory of psychological analysis.It is not easy to analyze The Silence of the Lambs with the theory of psychological analysis.This novel is so marvelous that it has received extensive attentions from numerous scholars both at home and abroad.Nevertheless,the current studies mainly focus on a few angles such as the horror and the suspense of the novel and there are few researching into the novel from the perspective of Freud's personality structure theory thoroughly.If the detective novel is analyzed with Freudian psychology theory,it can leave a deep impression on readers and audiences.Therefore,with the help of Freud's personality structure theory,this thesis re-interprets the renowned novel.It not only probes into the relations of the id,the ego and the superego of the three main characters,but also analyzes their various personalities from the perspective of the defense mechanisms.Furthermore,the author explores the inner causes of their totally different behaviors and results to give some enlightenment to human beings.Based on Freud's theory of personality structure including the defense mechanisms,the personalities of Clarice Starling,Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill are explored respectively.The analysis consists of three parts.The first part explores Buffalo Bill's confusion of genders in the childhood.He wanted to be a girl.However,due to the strong id,his ego gave way to it,which led to his self-destruction.In the conflict between the id and the ego,Bill adopted the negative defense mechanisms mainly including denial,displacement and reaction formation.Due to his sociological ambivalence,he failed to fulfill his dream of breaking the cocoon into a butterfly by adopting these defense mechanisms.On the contrary,he cocooned himself just like a silkworm.The second part centers on Hannibal Lecter who is the savior and cannibal.The double personalities were formed due to the childhood trauma he had suffered from.Due to the severe conflict between the id and the superego,his personality structure was severely twisted.On the one hand,he was the savior as a psychologist.On the other hand,he was a cannibal who took pleasure in eating people.He mainlyused repression,rationalization and regression as the defense mechanisms.The last part is about Clarice Starling.The experience of failing to save the lamb out in the childhood propelled Starling to rescue Catherine who was trapped.With successful balance of id,ego and superego,she could be on the road to redemption and achieved great success.In the process,she adopted the positive defense mechanisms which mainly included repression,identification and sublimation.As a trainee agent without any experience,Starling succeeded in arresting the serial killer Buffalo Bill and saving Catherine out at last,which was a great surprise to the FBI.Therefore,she achieved her dream just like breaking the cocoon into a butterfly.In the end,the thesis makes a conclusion and presents some revelations to people.Firstly,in order to be psychologically healthy,the structure of personality must be balanced through the coordination of the ego.This is of great importance for both a person and the society.Under the guidance of the proper superego,one should consciously strengthen the drive of ego to let it effectively satisfy the reasonable id and appropriately confine the unreasonable id at the same time.Secondly,when the ego is faced with serious threats due to setbacks,we should make proper use of the defense mechanisms and positively apply the sublimation mechanism.Only in this way can a person live a colorful life.Thirdly,the childhood life is of vital importance to a person which has profound influence on his whole life.Thus,as grown-ups,we should do our best to provide children with a harmonious environment to let them grow up happily and healthily.