Joseph Conrad’sHeart of Darkness

Analysis Using a Psychological Lensby Julia Jones, Rachel Harshaw, and Allen Li

What is a “psychological” critical lens?

This lens is based off the idea that everyone has unconscious desires, impulses and feelings that drive people to partake in certain behaviors.Using this strategy, we can explore the motivations of the author, the readers, and the characters as well as any important symbolism.

Classic Freudian TheoryId• The “pleasure principle”• Desire to have basic needs metEgo• The “reality principle”• Filter• Ensures that the impulses of the id

are controlledSuperego• The “conscience principle”• Moral compass• The idea of what is considered "right

and wrong" based off of society or parents.

The Oedipus Complex

• Idea that a boy has a natural instinct to kill his father and marry his mother

• Developed by Freud• Name derived from Oedipus in Sophocles’

play Oedipus Rex

You’re ready.Let’s enter a psychological viewpoint.

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