Abstract
Literature is the creative work represent complicated relationships of human beings all over the world to entertain and to educate. In the novel The Memory Game by Nicci French, it is figured out how the unconscious mind affected the main character’s memories of a murderer. The memories could be figured out by understanding Id, Ego, and Superego. This study uses a descriptive qualitative method. The finding in this study is the memories which human do not want to remember, can be remembered by digging the unconscious. In the end, The unconscious mind has a relationship with the memories.
1. Introduction
Literature is referred to as the entirety of written expression, with the restriction that not every written document can be categorized as literature in the more exact sense of the word (Klarer, 2004:1). Literature is also can be the psychological development and a room to express the voices through the words. Literary means not only what is written but what is voiced, what is expressed, what is invented, in whatever form (Greil Marcus and Werner Sollor, 2009). Besides, the literary work is the inner experience of the writer to illustrate the human’s life in a specific time, a culture, social. Moreover, literary works can entertain and educate humans to have critical thinking.
There are so many literary works that interpreted the psychology matter to be analyzed. The writer’s aims to tell readers that psychology is an important issue in human life. Sigmund Freud’s theory has a relationship with the literary works, one of them is The Memory Game by Nicci French. His famous theory about psychoanalysis conscious and unconscious mind. Though he is not the first person who finds the unconscious theory, however, he makes it famous to the world.
In the novel The Memory Game by Nicci French, the psychology matter is obviously showed as the main issue. French illustrates the main character, Jane as an architect who decides to divorce her husband, Claud. Jane and Claud have two sons, Robert and Jerome. However, Jane still has a good relationship with her ex-husband’s family, the Martello family. One day, she joins the Martello’s family time after a long time from separates moment with her ex-husband. Never can be expected, in their family time the shocking moment appears when the bones of someone’s dead find in the Martello’s garden. Jane knows it, assumes that bones belong to the Martello family, Natalie. Natalie disappears for 25 years long, and nobody, no one from Martello’s family know where she is. Just the prayers and positive thoughts from Martello’s family for Natalie’s disappearance.
Because the whole Martello family wonder who is died in their garden, they ask to make an observation test to the police. The results prove that the bones are Natalie’s bones and she is pregnant before she died. Jane who is Natalie’s best friend shock to know that. After 25 years of disappearance, she finds that Natalies dies and pregnant. It is a hurtful feeling for Jane. The police still make observations and understanding deeply to find out who is murdered Natalie and who is the father of her baby. Jane’s behavior is changed, she drinks many wines and smokes after that hurtful moment. However, Jane still feels like she remembers something but cannot explain what is. She meets a therapist, Dr.Alexander Dermot-Brown to help her recover from her anxiety about Natalie’s disappearance. She does some therapy until she can remember the moment, the horrible moment when Alan Martello who is her father-in-law and Natalie’s father, murders Natalie and buries her bones in the garden before the big party. In the end, Alan Martello admits his guilty of being a murder for his daughter, the only daughter. He is sent to the jail after Jane remembers everything is the past 25 years long.
From Jane’s anxiety, the unconscious mind affects her behavior. She becomes a heavy smoker and drinks many wines to heal the terrifying memories that she cannot remember before. After the therapy with Alex, she feels calmer and keeps going for the next life. The memories which human do not want to remember, sometimes affect the behavior unwittingly. The unconscious is the real psychic; its inner nature is just as unknown to us as the reality of the external world, and it is just as imperfectly reported to us through the data of consciousness as is the external world through the indications of our sensory organs (Freud, 1920).
This study is to find out whether the unconscious mind affects the human’s behavior and how it can be. Through Freud’s theory, the analysis of Jane’s experience is a matter to be understanding. Her anxiety, how the therapy can help her is proof that the unconscious mind real exists.
2. Theoritical Framework
The unconscious mind is the key to human psychology, the unconscious is the thing which the conscious cannot reach. Freud states not only the conscious included in a literary work but also the unconscious. It shows when analyzing a literary work, the connection between the unconscious is bigger than conscious desires. The desire that arises from the repressed unconscious is always active and never die. The desire is very strong even from childhood life (Minderop, 2013: 16). Freud states that human psychology involved 2 things, the conscious and the unconscious. Freud assumes personality as an iceberg in the middle of the sea, that above the sea depicts as conscious and below the sea is the largest part as the unconscious.
1) The Conscious
The conscious is the mental life, this mental life has full of awareness. From the awareness, a human can figure out who are they, what are they doing, what is happening around them, and how to reach their desires. Freud states that the conscious is the smallest part of human psychology. The level of consciousness is Awareness, Rational Sense, Spiritual, and Tawhid (the indivisible oneness concept of monotheism in Islam).
a) Aware Consciousness
This is the lowest level of consciousness when a human can realize their consciousness with the five senses. With this level, a human can realize that they can see the sun and the sky. However, this conscious is only can be realized with the five senses.
b) Rational Consciousness
Rational consciousness uses the mind to reach out something beyond the senses. In this case, a human can see the sunrise and sunset, with mind human can find sophisticated tools to find out that earth is round.
c) Spiritual Consciousness
When a human cannot explain something with their rational consciousness, they would figure out with the spiritually conscious. The experts develop the big bang theory to explain the occurrence of the universe. However, the human rational sense is not being able to explain what is beyond the boundaries of the universe, what was in the second before the big bang occurred, and what purpose this vast universe with an earth speck of dust in was to occur. Through the rational sense brings humans to the spiritual level, which is to realize that there is something immense behind everything that is beyond the reach of the ratio.
d) Tawhid Consciousness
However, the spiritual consciousness still cannot explain accurately. The Spiritual sense based on conscience can still be misleading, for example in the Aztec culture humans were sacrificed to the sun god through beliefs based on conscience. At some level, the conscience is no longer capable. For example, why do we have the heart to slaughter a goat? Is not our conscience sad and considered it cruelty? The strong reason we believe that slaughtering a goat is something right (even though our conscience protests it) is because of the guidance of revealed religion. Revelation says that slaughtering a goat in the name of Allah is legal, while beheading (not slaughtering) or using an idol is something that is haram.
2) The Unconsciousness
To analyze the psychology in the novel The Memory Game, the writer uses Sigmund Freud’s theory about the unconscious mind. Freud (1920) states, “The unconscious is the larger circle which includes within itself the smaller circle of the conscious; everything conscious has its preliminary step in the unconscious, whereas the unconscious may stop with this step and still claim full value as a psychic activity” and the unconscious affect human’s personalities. He divides personalities into three, Id, Ego, and Superego.
a) The Id
Das Ed or in English The Id is the biological aspect in human personalities. Freud also calls it System der Unbewussten, which is an inner world or human’s subjective. The Id involves every element biological since human born. When a baby is born, he is just born with the id. The id is the first thing to form a human’s psychic, however, it is not affected by the ego and reality at all. The perception of the id is to abstain from discomfort and pursue pleasures, Freud calls it as “pleasure principle”, always find the pleasures to abstain the discomfort (Minderop, 2013: 21). To abstain from the discomfort to pleasures with the two processes, a) Reflex and automatic reaction such as blink and sneezes; b) Primer process like when human hungry, they imagine the food in their mind.
In the id, the structure times are unknown (timeless) and the logical laws is not found in the id. However, there is a specific structure in the id by dint of two instincts, the instinct of life and the instinct of death. The id is under control from the unconscious, always find the pleasures to abstain from the discomfort. It does not connect to reality. In the end, the id is the biological aspect of the personality which has a relationship with the pleasures, satisfaction in sexualism
b) The Ego
The aspect which connects the human personality to the objective world is the ego. Freud calls ego System der Unberwussten-Voberwussten, is the psychological aspect of human personalities which appears from organism needs to connect to the outside world. Ego is dominated by realistic principles and served by secondary principle, an effort to find out the reality with action planning which is affected by thoughts and minds. When a human is hungry, he needs food to eat and this is the condition to differentiate the imagination and reality about the food. The ego holds a “realistic principle” to find the object which appears from an organism with a “secondary process”. The secondary process is realistic thinking, with the secondary process human can figure out which the plan that would be done to fulfill the needs.
The function of ego holds “realistic”, the aims still in the organism circle which means to abstain from the discomfort and pursue pleasures. Even though sounds similar to the id, the ego just finds pleasure as real, whether it for things or social valuables. Moreover, the ego is the psychological aspect of the human personality after the affection from the outside world or environment. The ego presses the id strongly in the term of conscious and unconscious to hold the reality principle. The main role is to become intermediaries between instinctual needs and environmental conditions in the interest of the organism (Suryabrata, 1982:150-151).
c) The Superego
The superego is the sociological aspect of the psychology, it representatives from traditional values, branch of moral and justice. Superego is the opposite of the id, it uses the system from culture. In addition, superego “ideal” aspect than “real”, the more perfection than pleasures. The parent may educate their children with the culture values, give some rules which used traditional perspective. When the children is grew up, they would figure out which is good and not of the traditonal rules with their ideal principle. Therefore, the function of superego to figure out which is true or false, good or bad, so human can have moral actions in the society. It is also the heart of moral. The superego activities can produce the emotions like a guilty from the ego. Moreover, the feelings of confidence, self-critic, and inhibition is came from the superego.
The superego has three aspect of the psychology such as a) impede the id impuls of agressive and sexual which is strongly opposed in the society, b) encourage the ego to advance the morality than reality. c) advance the perfection (ideal) (Suryabrata, 1982: 152-153). In the end, the superego is the sociological aspect of the psychology to advance the ideal rather than reality, and advance the perfection rather than pleasures. Superego is the term to refuse something immoral and become conscience because has a relationship with moral.
3. Analysis
The main character, Jane is a woman who an architect in her city. She decides to divorce with her husband, Claud, She has two sons, Jerome and Robert. When the bones of Natalie is found, Jane feels anxiety because she feels like she knows something of Natalie’s death. She asks a lot of questions to Martello’s family because Natalie is disappeared after the big party is done. Like in her dialogue, “‘Do you remember what Natalie was like at the party?’” and “‘Did she seem depressed? Angry? Exuberant?’” (Page.39). From her dialogue, it illustrates that Jane is overthinking about Natalie’s murderer. The unconscious mind of Jane’s anxiety, change her behavior becomes a heavy drinker and a smoker.
When I got home, I would drink a glass of wine, smoke a couple of cigarettes, and go to bed with a thriller. The long Victorian novels which I’d promised myself would have to wait. At weekends, I watched fim matiness, and went for walks on the Heath. Were autumns always so damp? (Page.45)
From Jane’s narration, she looked wants to distract her anxiety with some activities. In this case, Jane shows the function of ego that she tries to have a realistic thinking. She realizes to distract the anxiety with watch film and walk at weekends. In addition, she tries to abstain the discomfort to find the pleasures. She needs a help from therapist to reduce her anxiety.
Jane explains in the first session, “‘… Natalie disappeared just after a big party out at the Stead-the Martello house in Shropshire. The party was to celebrate Alan’s and his wife Martha’s twentieth anniversary. Perhaps it was that there was nothing like a sudden event, the discovery of a body or something, which would have crystalized it all in my mind. What I vividly remember is that the last time Natalie was seen was on the day after the party, by a man from the village’” (Page.87)
In her fist session with Alex (the therapist), she tries to find her pleasures by remembering everything about Natalie before the disappearance. The function of ego is clearly showed because Jane wants to be “realistic” by remembering everything in the past.
Jane says, “Anyway, the truth about Alan’s (Jane’s father-in-law) behaviour became avoidable. To cut the whole sordid story shory, we discover that the summer before Alan had sleeping with a girl who was a friend of Natalie’s and mine.
Jane tries to tell truth to Alex about her father-in-law’s behavior. Memories by memories she gathers in mind to figure out the truth. The ego dominates Jane to see what the truly scene before Natalie disappears. This therapy is kind of hard because Jane has to remember almost every part before that sad moment.
I was sitting down, the dry moss of the stone scraping the curved ridge of my spine. I knew that Cree’s Top was behind me. The River Col was on my left, its surface slate gray, reflecting the cloud cover which has obscured the sun (Page. 199).
The session with Alex use the therapy of remembering memories which Jane already forget it. The unconscious is obviously shows that Jane tries hard to reach the perfection of her past. She wants to remember everything to figure out what the exactly of Natalie’s death.
It was clear. Silmutaneuos perceptions: A girl lying on the grass. Screaming and screaming. Natalie. Dark hair, flaming eyes. Held down. Above her was a man, his hands about her throat. Her arms and legs flapped uselessly, then showed and stopped. I tried to shout out but it was as if my mouth was stopped with ashes. I tried to run, but my feet were stone blocks. The girl was let fall and lay still. The man had his back to me. He was dark haired, not gray. He was slim not stout. He was cleas-shaven, not bearded. But there was do doubt. It was Alan (Page. 251)
Jane can remember who is Natalie’s murderer by remembering everything in the past. It is Alan, Jane’s father-in-law. The therapy helps Jane to encourage the ego to advance the morality. Perhaps if Jane does not want to go to the therapy, she might accept the fact or reality that Natalie’s murderer cannot be found. This case shows that superego is the widest of the human psychology. The therapy is also help her to refure something that immoral to reach out the truth.
However, Alan Martello who is Natalie’s dad and Jane’s father-in-law, cannot refure his guilty as being a murderer of his the only daughter. He said “‘Guilty. Guilty guilty guilty!” after being caught up by Jane that he raped and murdered Natalie. The feeling of his guilty is produced by superego.
I had felt no desire, I thought, as I cleared away the plates, wrapped the cheeses in their waxy papers. None at all. Instead, I’d felt a kind of dreary panic. I couldn’t just go back to my old life, as if I’d suffered a mid-life crisis and the recovered equilibrium (Page 318).
After the last moment of her and Claud, she feels like she loss her desire. The feeling of loss the desire is the emotion which produced by superego. Therefore, she success to prove her anxiety of Natalie’s death is the memory that she can find out.
4. Conclusion
Novel The Memory Game by Nicci French is the proof that the unconscious mind is the widest scope of human psychology. The unconscious is also the key of psychology to figure out human’s behavior. The id, ego, superego is the thing which has affection to the unconscious. Superego has a relationship with id and ego to produce human’s feeling such as guilty, self-critic, and confidence. In the end, the unconscious is automatically and sometimes it out of human control.
5. Bibliographies
Hamid, Ahmad (2014). Analisis Psikologi Bawah Sadar Novel Surat Dahlan Karya Krisna Pabichara dan Skenario Pembelajarannya di Kelas XI SMA. Purworejo: Universitas Muhammadiyah Purworejo
Yanti, Nova (2010). Analisis Konflik Batin Tokoh Yurij Dalam Novel Доктор Живаго/Doktor Živago/Doktor Zhivago Karya Boris Pasternak: Tinjauan Psikologi Sastra. Depok: Universitas Indonesia