A Psychoanalytical Interpretation Of The Protagonist’s Personality Structure In Kepesh Trilogy

Philip Roth is the most famous contemporary American Jewish writer.Roth’s works are profound in thought and well-conceived,which deeply reflect the spiritual plight of contemporary American Jewish people.His representative works,Kepesh Trilogy,reveals the desire of American Jewish people and the predicament caused by desire.At present,there are many research perspectives in studying Kepesh Trilogy.Some papers explore the living state of the protagonist from the perspective of existentialism or analyze the Jewishness embodied by the protagonist from the perspective of Jewish traditional culture.Other papers investigate the theme of the novel or the image of the characters to explore the protagonist’s ethnic and identity issues.However,there is a lack of discussion on the protagonist’s personality structure and his spiritual dilemma.This paper uses Freud’s personality structure theory to explore the mental world of the main character,Kepesh,in a different way from previous studies.With psychoanalysis as a theoretical tool,this paper starts with the inner spiritual structure of the characters.It explores the relationship between the protagonist’s behavior and the internal personality structure from the inside out.The purpose of this paper is to probe into the meaning of Roth’s characterization of Kepesh to understand the author’s intention of creation better.In addition,this paper analyzes the process of individual identification and identity construction in the context of cultural conflict through Kepesh’s desire and the choices he makes in the face of desire.This thesis is composed of three parts: introduction,the main body,and Conclusion.The main contents are as follows:The introduction part reviews the domestic and international research status of Kepesh Trilogy,and puts forward the research significance and innovation of this thesis.Chapter One elaborates on the id of the protagonist of Kepesh Trilogy and the reason for its formation.The id is driven by the pleasure principle and exerts its individual instincts,which manifests itself as a thirst for desire in Kepesh.In his youth,Kepesh regards satisfying his own desires as a symbol for freedom and a means of rebelling against the tradition.Kepesh encounters a crisis of transformation in his middle age,hoping to use the desire to break free from difficulties to establish his identity.In his old age,with ageing and death are approaching,Kepesh sees desire as a weapon against them.This chapter analyzes the id of Kepesh at different life stages and reveals the reasons why he releases his id from the objective environment of American society and his subjective instinct.Chapter Two expounds on the ego in the personality structure of Kepesh and analyzes the contradictory ego and the deformed ego of him.Under the common suppression of the superego and reality principles,Kepesh struggles between desire and reason and forms a contradictory ego.The continuing contradiction has caused Kepesh to deform in multiple senses of body,mind,and identity.Chapter Three discusses the role of the superego in the personality structure of Kepesh.The superego is the inner intellectual and moral image of Kepesh.Kepesh’s superego personality has been subtly affecting his behavior.Whether he faces desires,crises,or illnesses,the Jewish traditional morals always remind Kepesh to maintain rational thinking at critical moments.When he is faced with a dilemma,the Jewish traditional morals help him recognize and establish his identity.The last part is the conclusion,summarizing the full thesis.Philip Roth expresses the dilemma of spirit and desire faced by Jewish people living in the United States in the process of trying to integrate into the American culture through Kepesh’s life.The plight of the protagonist of the novel reveals the confusion and perplexity of the new generation of Jews,and the significance of Roth’s works is not limited to this.Through the discussion of a particular ethnic group,Roth expresses a deeper level of humanistic care for all ordinary people.Nowadays,people are also in the current era of sudden changes.The researches on the novels can reveal the causes of spiritual dilemmas and regain the peace of mind by perfecting the personality structure.