Background information

Psychoanalytic Criticism splits into the theories of psychology of Sigmund Freud and post-Freudian psychoanalytic theorists. The Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud’s theories are directly and indirectly concerned with the nature of the unconscious mind, with these views commencing a whole new criticizing take on literature. This theorist is divided into many parts, mainly those of Freud and Jung. A segment of Psychoanalytic Criticism is that of the unconscious, the desires, and the defenses. This implementation holds Freud’s belief that our unconscious was influenced by childhood events. Another fraction to this theorist is the Id, Ego, Superego stage. In literature, id is irrational, instinctual, unconscious fears and wishes that is the source of psychosexual desires. Id can also be the location of the drives. The ego involves rational, logical, walking part that regulates its desires from id. Oedipus complex involves children’s need for their parents and conflict that arises as children mature and realize that their mother has stopped making them their absolute focus. Freud argues that both boys and girls wish to possess their mother but see that their father is the one getting the attention making them feel a murderous rage against their father. Boys want their mother and eventually want to be like their father in possessing a woman like their mother. Girls shift their desires from mother to wanting to obtain someone like their father. Oedipal complex is also the penis envy stage that can be used to interpret thematic elements in a story. Freud believes that males have the advantage due to girls never being able to posses a penis and is given a determined duty to find fulfillment in relationship to a male in her adult life to make up for the lack of masculinity.
To understand the psychoanalytical criticism one could ask themselves, “How do the operations of repression structure or inform the work? Are there any oedipal dynamics at work here? How can characters' behavior, narrative events, and/or images be explained in terms of psychoanalytic concepts of any kind (for example...fear or fascination with death, sexuality - which includes love and romance as well as sexual behavior - as a primary indicator of psychological identity or the operations of ego-id-superego)? What does the work suggest about the psychological being of its author? What might a given interpretation of a literary work suggest about the psychological motives of the reader? Are there prominent words in the piece that could have different or hidden meanings? Could there be a subconscious reason for the author using these "problem words"?”
Carl Jung’s view takes on what he calls the collective unconscious of the human race. In literary analysis, a Jungian critic would look for archetypes, being the shadow, the animus, and the spirit, the anima being beneath the shadow taking the feminine side of the male self, animus corresponds to the masculine side of the female. With this understanding, the analyst would seek connections to the archetypes, mirroring of the characters to archetypal figures, the symbolism of imagery, the way the protagonist reflects the hero of myth and if the hero boards a journey in physical or spiritual sense, and the trials or ordeals the protagonist faces. With Jung’s views the dark side we possess is referred to as the shadow. Jung claims that we own characteristics that we don’t like about ourselves and stay with us like a shadow haunting its owner never endlessly.
To further analyze and know what to look for with Jungian Criticism one may ask What connections can we make between elements of the text and the archetypes? (Mask, Shadow, Anima, Animus) How do the characters in the text mirror the archetypal figures? How does the text mirror the archetypal narrative patterns in quests or journeys at dark times? How symbolic is the imagery in the work? How does the protagonist reflect the hero of myth? Does the hero embark on a journey in either a physical or spiritual sense? Is there a journey to an underworld or land of the dead? What trials or ordeals does the protagonist face? What is the reward for overcoming them?