See, the darkness is leaking from the cracks.
I cannot contain it. I cannot contain my life.
The following research concerns an analysis of Sylvia Plath's personality, especially as it is presented through the character, Esther Greenwood, in the autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, in terms of the psychological theories of Freud, Jung and Rank.
The usual development of the Electra complex in females can go array and lead to psychological problems and Sylvia Plath seems to be an excellent example of the kinds of personality that could result. Freud explains the Electra complex as follows in his essay, "Some Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes," which has been included in the book Women and Analysis:
The girl has to accept identification with her
mother and at the same time abandon the mother as
love object, turning to her father instead. Her
abandonment is brought about . . . by defeat . . .
girl . . . will never be able to possess the mother
sexually . . . does not have a penis. She turns to
her father only out of resentment against her mother -
for not only is the mother lost as a love object, but
she has brought her daughter into the world inade-
But in "One Freud and Distinction Between the Sexes," also inn Women and Analysis, Juliet Mitchell slightly modifies this outline of the Electra complex. Instead of:
Ms. Mitchell diagrams the change as:
and explains that both infants love the mother and abandon her at the intervention of the father: "The dual relationship of mother and child is broken into by the father, who prevents the incestuous desires of both his offspring for the mother, whom he alone is allowed to possess."
The fact that "the father . . . asserts his rights differently in the case of girls and boys" is an important point which Freud's theory bypasses. In the case of Sylvia Plath (Esther Greenwood) I b...