the personality structure and defense mechanism...
TRANSCRIPT
THE PERSONALITY STRUCTURE AND DEFENSE MECHANISM OF
THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE
STREET FILM
A Thesis
Submitted to the Faculty of Letters and Humanities
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Strata One (S1)
Eris Widya Astuti
1111026000046
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
JAKARTA
2015
i
ABSTRACT
Eris Widya Astuti, The Personality Structure and Defense Mechanism of the Main
Character in the House at the End of the Street Film. A Thesis. Department of
English Letters, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, State Islamic University
Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta, 2015.
This research focuses on Ryan Jacobson as the main character in House at
the End of the Street film. The aim of this research is to know the personality
structure of Ryan Jacobson and analyze his defense mechanism using
Psychoanalysis theory by Sigmund Freud. This research uses qualitative method
and descriptive analysis as the technique to analyze the data with theory of
Psychoanalysis that related to structure of personality and defense mechanism in
the film. The data are collected from dialogues in the script and pictures in the
film.
The findings show that Ryan Jacobson as the 18 years old man has
abnormal obsession to have his sister named Carrie Anne alive. His sister is died
after falling from the swing in 6 years of age. Ryan kidnaps a girl resembles his
sister in white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes at the basement. His parents blame
him for her death and treat Ryan as Carrie Anne to substitute his sister. Due to
that traumatic experience, Ryan has unbalanced personality structure caused by
disturbance in his childhood. His ego is dominated by the id when it is about his
secret and trauma in the past. Although Ryan has done some defense mechanism;
repression, fixation, denial, projection and fantasy, but it is not enough for him to
remove his trauma and anxiety.
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DECLARATION
I hereby declared that this submission is my own work and that, to the best
of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or
written by another person non material which to a substantial extent has been
accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other
institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgement has been made in
the text.
Jakarta, December 2015
Eris Widya Astuti
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful
May peace and blessing of Allah be upon all of us
First of all, I would like to give the most appreciation and many thanks to
Allah SWT, for His blessing and guidance all these years so I could finish this
thesis. Then, may peace be upon to our beloved prophet Muhammad SAW, his
family, his companion and all his followers.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Mrs. Inayatul
Chusna, M.Hum., for her great patience, time, guidance, kindness, and
contribution in correcting and helping me to finish this thesis. Thanks for all of
her advices and efforts that have been given to me. May Allah SWT bless her and
her family.
I also would like to convey his sincerity grateful particularly to these
following people:
1. Prof. Dr. Sukron Kamil, M.A., the Dean of Letters and Humanities
Faculty.
2. Drs. Saefuddin, M.Pd., the Head of English Letters Department.
3. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum., the Secretary of English Letters Department.
4. Pita Merdeka, M.A., and Maria Ulfa, M.A., M.Hum., as the thesis
examiners.
5. All lectures of English Department for helping and educating me during
my study at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta.
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6. My family; especially my beloved Father and Mother who always give
their never ending love, patience, prayers, spirits, motivations, advices,
hopes, and supports in financial and material to me all the time. I also
extend my gratitude to both of my beloved sisters for their motivation,
support, and prayers.
7. My closest people; especially Aab Abdullah who has accompanied for
years. Thanks for his time, patience, affection, supports, prayers, advices,
knowledge and many inspirations to me. My best friends; Euis, Maydina,
Mita, Vina, Anita, Erni, Ardhina, Maya, and Gresshia for their joy,
laughter, affection and supports that bring happiness to me.
8. My beloved classmates in English Letters Department; the students of
Class B and Literature since 2011 for spending time and supporting each
other during study at University. And for all those who cannot be
mentioned here, may Allah always give His bless in every our step.
Finally, I realize that this thesis is far from being perfect. Therefore, I
welcome any constructive criticism, suggestion, and advice for better
improvement.
Jakarta, December 2015
Eris Widya Astuti
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... i
APPROVAL SHEET .......................................................................................... ii
LEGALIZATION ............................................................................................... iii
DECLARATION ................................................................................................. iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................. v
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 1
A. Background of the Study ........................................................ 1
B. Focus of the Study .................................................................. 3
C. Research Question .................................................................. 4
D. Significance of the Study ....................................................... 4
E. Research Methodology ........................................................... 5
1. The Objectives of Research ............................................. 5
2. The Method of Research ................................................. 5
3. The Instrument of the Research....................................... 6
4. The Unit of Analysis ....................................................... 6
5. The Technique of Data Analysis ..................................... 6
6. The Research Design ....................................................... 7
CHAPTER II. THE THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION ................................. 8
A. Previous Research .................................................................. 8
B. Character ................................................................................ 10
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C. Characterization in Film ......................................................... 12
1. Characterization through Appearance ............................ 13
2. Characterization through Dialogue ................................. 13
3. Characterization through External Action ....................... 14
4. Characterization through Internal Action ....................... 14
5. Characterization through Reactions of Others
Character ......................................................................... 14
D. Sigmund Freud‘s Psychoanalysis ........................................... 15
1. Structure of Personality ................................................... 18
a. Id............................................................................... 18
b. Ego ........................................................................... 18
c. Superego ................................................................... 19
2. Psychosexual Development Stages ................................. 21
a. Oral Stage ................................................................. 21
b. Anal Stage ................................................................ 22
c. Phallic Stage ............................................................. 23
d. Latency Stage ........................................................... 23
e. Genital Stage ............................................................ 24
3. Defense Mechanism ........................................................ 24
a. Repression ................................................................ 26
b. Fixation..................................................................... 27
c. Denial ....................................................................... 28
d. Projection ................................................................. 28
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e. Fantasy ..................................................................... 29
CHAPTER III. DATA ANALYSIS / FINDINGS ............................................ 31
A. Character Analysis ................................................................. 31
B. Structure of Personality and Defense Mechanism ................. 38
CHAPTER IV. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ............................... 59
A. Conclusions ............................................................................ 59
B. Suggestions ............................................................................. 62
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 64
APPENDICES ..................................................................................................... 68
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Films often portray and represent about life, culture and social reality. The
different traditions, beliefs, and cultures of the world are shown in films. It is a
media to illustrate about the world with a lot of meaning that inspiring and
entertaining people. Cesare Zavattini asserted, ―film is overwhelming desire to
see, to analyse, its hunger for reality, is an act of concrete homage towards
other people, towards what is happening and existing in the world.‖1
Films portray life in its own when it records and reveals the reality. It tries
to narrate something in real situation. Colman wrote, ―through its various
assumptions and different purposes, film represents and questions the ways in
which we think about things in the world, including the very nature of thinking as
a perceptual activity that is entirely mediated in some form or another.‖2
Therefore, films should not be created in perfunctory way because it can
affect the viewer about things around them. Sandy added in his journal, ―it is
really interesting about the unconscious process of film transformation that
permits us to relate the illusory story to the real life.‖3 Films are easy to influence
1 Stephen Synder and Howard Curle, Contemporary Perspective, (Canada: University of
Toronto Press, 2000), p. 51. 2 Felicity Colman, Film, Theory, and Philosophy: The Key Thinkers, (Canada: McGill-
Queens University Press, 2009), p. 17. 3 Sandy Flitterman et al., ―Psychoanalysis, Film, and Television‖, The International
Journal of Advertising (May 1998), accessed on April 13, 2015.
http://journalism.uoregon.edu/~cbybee/j388/psych.html.
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visually and verbally. Siegfried implied, ―those films are true to the medium to the
extent that they penetrate the world before our eyes.‖4
Films start to portray the personality and behavior of character that refer to
psychological films. This genre relates to the psychological disturbance in mental,
mind and behavior of character in the film but it is often presented in the form of
thriller according to Sharon in his book, ―a distinguishing characteristic of a
psychological thriller is a marked emphasis on the mental states of its character:
their perceptions, thoughts, and general struggle to grasp reality about death‖5.
Although the character in films are fiction, but it can be interpreted as person and
analyzed as human. A famous theory that is related to the psychological analysis
of character in the film is Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud. As Moesono stated,
―psychoanalysis has special relationship with cinema before appointed as one of
the approaches and considered as a proper method for the world of
cinematography.‖6 This theory has provided a useful way of analyzing the
character in films.
House at the End of the Street is 2012 psychological horror thriller film
about Ryan Jacobson as the main character who has psychological problem. He
has trauma and mental illness about his dead sister, Carrie Anne. His sister is died
after falling from the swing when they were playing together at backyard. His
parents get angry to Ryan and blame him for her death because they were on the
4 Siegfried Kracauer, Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality, (London:
Oxford University Press, 1960), p. ix. 5 Sharon Packer, Movies and the Modern Psyche, (London: Greenwood Publishing
Group, Inc., 2007), pp. 87-90. 6 Moesono Anggadewi, ed., Psikoanalisis dan Sastra, (Depok: Pusat Penelitian
Kemasyarakatan dan Budaya Lembaga Penelitian Universitas Indonesia, 2003), p. 59.
3
swing together. Carrie Anne is the heart of the family. Hence, his parents punish
him to dress like Carrie Anne. It is their way to pretend that she is not dead yet.
When Ryan refuses to act like Carrie Anne, his parents will hit and yell at him.
Due to his unpleasant memories in childhood, Ryan has obsession to make
Carrie Anne alive. He kidnaps a girl who resembles his dead sister—in blonde
hair, white skin, blue eyes, and skinny body—at his basement. If the girl tries to
run away, he will inject tranquilizer in high doses. Overdosing of tranquilizer
often leads to death. When the girl is dead, he will find another girl that resemble
of Carrie Anne. Ryan still believes that he needs his sister to stay alive, so his
parents will not hurt him. These are the painful memories from his childhood that
haunt his life. Ryan stuck in his memory about the death of Carrie Anne and his
abusive parents.
Based on the explanation above, I am interested in analyzing the
psychological condition of Ryan Jacobson as the main character House at the End
of the Street film by using Sigmund Freud‘s Psychoanalysis because this theory is
considered as the proper method to analyze the psychological condition of the
character.
B. Focus of the Study
Based on the background of the study above, I analyze the characteristic
and psychological problem of Ryan Jacobson in House at the End of the Street
film by using the theory of Sigmund Freud‘s Psychoanalysis. To make the
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research more focus, I limit the scope of the research on the characteristics,
personality structure, and defense mechanism in Psychoanalysis.
C. Research Question
According to the background of study, the interesting research problems
are as follows:
1. How is the character of Ryan Jacobson described in the film?
2. How does the psychological condition of Ryan Jacobson reflect his
structure of personality and defense mechanisms according to the theory
of Sigmund Freud‘s Psychoanalysis?
D. Significance of the Study
The result of this research is expected to give the benefit of the
information and the knowledge for the readers in understanding Sigmund Freud‘s
Psychoanalysis. I also hope this research can provide an interesting explanation
about the personality structures and defense mechanism of character, especially
Ryan Jacobson in House at the End of the Street film. Moreover, this study can be
used as one of the references in studying and comprehending movie which uses
psychoanalysis approach of the literary work in English Letters Department,
Faculty of Letters and Humanities at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University,
Jakarta.
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E. Research Methodology
This research methodology includes several important aspects of research,
such as the objectives of the research, the method of research, the instrument of
the research, the unit of analysis, the technique of data analysis and the research
design.
1. The Objectives of Research
The objectives of the research are to explain the character of Ryan
Jacobson showed in the film, his structure of personality and defense mechanism
according to the theory of Sigmund Freud‘s Psychoanalysis.
2. The Method of Research
The method of this research is qualitative method with descriptive
analysis. Noeng stated in his book, ―qualitative research methods observe the
relationship between words or sentences that forms particular meaning. The word
or phrase is a system of signs that parse the data in deep appreciation will be
achieved as good.‖7 As a whole, Nyoman made another statement that,
―qualitative used a ways of interpretation by presenting it in the form of
description. In study of literature, the data source is the work and the script. The
data research, as the formal data are words, sentences, and discourse.‖8
As the qualitative method, I try to explicate, describe, and analyze the
personality structure of Ryan Jacobson using the Psychoanalysis theory of
Sigmund Freud and finds the answer of the research question through the data
7 Noeng Muhadjir, Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif, (Yogyakarta: Rake Sarasin, 2002),
pp. 301-302.
8 Nyoman Kutha Ratna, Teori, Metode, dan Teknik Penelitian Sastra, (Jogjakarta: Pustaka
Pelajar, 2008), p 47.
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analysis and relates it to the theory. I use two data sources; the primary source of
the data is House at the End of the Street film and the secondary data are taken
from other sources that support the data such as articles, journals, books, pictures,
dialogues and the scenes of the movie.
3. The Instrument of the Research
This qualitative research sets I myself as the main instrument in collecting
data by watching House at the End of the Street carefully, analyzing the scenes or
the parts that describe the problems, and collecting the data by writing down some
dialogues and taking some snapshots of the scene to support the research that
related to the changing of personality structures from the main character.
4. The Unit of Analysis
The unit of analysis that used in this research is House at the End of the
Street film that released in 2012 directed by Mark Tonderai and starring by Max
Thieriot as Ryan Jacobson, Jennifer Lawrence as Elissa, Elisabeth Shue as Sarah
Cassidy and Gil Bellows as Officer Bill. This film is produced by Film Nation
Entertainment and distributed by Relativity Media Aliance Films.
5. The Technique of Data Analysis
In this study, I use descriptive analysis technique to analyze the data and
use the theory that related to structure of personality in the film. First, I give the
description about the film and the character. Then, I start to analyze the structure
of personality and defense mechanism using Sigmund Freud‘s Psychoanalysis.
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6. The Research Design
In this study, I divide some chapter to discuss the research. Chapter 1 as
the introduction section, it consists of background of the study, focus of the study,
research question, significance of the study, and research methodology that
includes several important aspects; the objectives of research, the method of
research, the instrument of the research, the unit of analysis and the technique of
data analysis. Chapter 2 as the theoretical description, it consists of previous
research and the concept. Chapter 3 as the data analysis or findings, it consists of
the data description and the data analysis. And the last is Chapter 4 as the
conclusions and suggestions; it consists of the conclusion of the research and the
suggestion to the reader about the research.
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CHAPTER II
THE THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION
A. Previous Research
For consideration in this study, I have found some of the studies by several
researchers related to psychoanalysis. Because the House at the End of the Street
film as a corpus of research is rarely analyzed by others, I study the similar issue
of Psychoanalysis in other film criticisms. The first paper is The Character of the
Joker from The Dark Knight by Hannah L. McCormack.9
This paper examines the personality case study of a fictional character, the
Joker, in the 2008 Batman film, The Dark Knight. The writer uses psychoanalysis
of Freud, cognitive-behavioral and trait perspectives to identify the Joker‘s
personality. This paper also demonstrates that the Joker is likely affected by
antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), it is often equated with psychopathy. The
Joker appears visually to be a type of clown, with green hair, painted on make-up,
colorful outfits, and painted on crudely red grin and barely cover disfiguring scars
on either side of his mouth. He appears disheveled and unkempt; his appearance
reflecting his maniacal attitude.
From the psychoanalytic perspective, the Joker has the weak ego and
superego, but disproportionately strong id. He operates on the pleasure principle
of doing what he wants. The Joker cannot control or manage his id, like an adult.
This is because his id, ego and superego imbalance due to disturbance in
9 Hannah L. McCormack, The Character of the Joker from The Dark Knight, Yorkville
University PSYC 6113, accessed on March 3, 2015 http://www.lopdf.net/preview/Hannah-L-
McCormack-Yorkville-University-PSYC-6113.html?query=Characteristics-of-Thanatos.
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childhood and problematic relationships with his parents. The Joker absolutely
has imperfect psychosexual stages; it is possible he is fixated at the anal stage of
psychosexual development due to cruel treatment by his sadistic and abusive
father. His father is the one that disfigure his son‘s mouth with a razor; that is the
reason he has a smile grin on his face. He is growing up in an abusive family that
makes him apathetic, contempt for society, and triggered into madness.
From the behaviorist perspective of personality, the Joker learns his
aggressive and violent behavior from family, peers, or society. He is unable to
read the emotions of others or he chooses to ignore them, low in emotional
intelligences; as he does not display empathy, smooth social interactions, and has
fatalist view of human nature and society. And the last is trait perspective, he
enjoys being wild, creative, energetic, and original in masterminding his criminal
plans. He is low in agreeableness and high in neuroticism, it is indicating a
possible personality disorder, closely linked to psychopath which is serious and
extreme mental condition. The Joker has no motive or logic for his crimes, he
only wishes to dominate, control, and have fun to prove his narcissistic desire of
being a master manipulator.
The second paper entitled Bullying in Harald Zwart’s Karate Kid: A View
of Freud’s Psychoanalysis from Its Characters by Irfan Rifai10
. This paper
analyzes the character in the Karate Kid by Harald Zwart as cause and result of
bullying act. This analysis uses psychoanalytic study, three provinces of mind by
Sigmund Freud; id, ego, and super-ego.
10
Irfan Rifai, Bullying in Harald Zwart’s Karate Kid: A View of Freud’s Psychoanalysis
from Its Characters, accessed on March 15, 2015 http://eprints.binus.ac.id/id/eprint/26153.
10
This film is about the main character as a victim of physical bullying. Dre
wants to take revenge on Cheng even he has incapability to defend himself. Cheng
always mock Dre about his brown skin. Dre also throws a pail of dirty water to
Cheng and his friends to fulfill his pleasure. The ego is weaker, but it is more
organized and logical if it is compared with the id. The ego also takes part in
Dre‘s struggle to defend himself by learning Kung-Fu. He realizes that he has to
adapt in new environment although he does not like it. Although Dre receives
physical bullying because he has brown skin and lives in different type of skin
color in China, but he successfully passes through his fear being a victim of
bullying and manage his id, ego and superego in a good way.
Both papers explain that every character in the film has their own
psychological condition and could be analyzed as a human. The unpleasant
feeling and trauma in childhood could affect and change someone‘s attitude and
personality structure. The family role is very important in the form of a
character‘s personality. After I analyze both of paper above, I use the same
Psychoanalysis issue in this research that focus on character‘s structure of
personality.
B. Character
Another element in film that has important role is the character. The story
in film can not exist without the character‘s role. The character is created in such
way to make an interesting story, Jens asserted ―Characters are important points
of reference in the criticism and the analysis of films and also occupy a central
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position in the production process: film scripts are rejected because one cannot
identify oneself with the characters, or they are accepted because they offer good
parts for stars.‖11
The role of character can not be played carelessly, because all
that appears in the film such as the appearance, feelings, and dialogue, will
describe the character in the film. The image of the character also continuously
exists as the remembrance of the movie.
The character that appears in film as human could be imagined as ―real
person‖, Richard Barsam wrote:
―We can imagine as real people, with complex personalities and lives. […]
Thus, when we talk about characters in our analyses of movies, we should
consider them both as beings who (much living, breathing people) have
discernible traits, habits, and dispositions and as formal elements that help
develop the narrative.‖12
But not only Richard, Lloyd also gave his statement that the character as
‗possible person‘ reflecting either someone or something,
―Film characters are real, it seems at least reasonable to consider a movie
character as a ‗possible person‘—the view that will be taken here—when
she is represented by a real person, or, more properly, the image of a real
person formed by light reflecting off a real performer and reacting with a
chemical emulsion.‖13
Therefore, the role of character in film is very necessary, because they
tend to be considered as imaginary human beings. If the character has special and
unique properties or traits, it will make the film more interesting. When people go
to see the movie, the first thing that attracts them is the character.
11
Jens Eder, The Character in the Film. Basics of Character Analysis, (Marburg: Stoke,
2008), p 7. 12
Richard Barsam, Looking at Movies: an Introduction to Film, 2nd
ed., (New York: W.
W. Norton & Company, 2007), p. 72. 13
Lloyd Michaels, The Phantom of the Cinema: Character in Modern Film, (New York:
State University Of New York Press Albany, 1998), p 3.
12
The character also has a special attraction to be analyzed. It can be
analyzed as human, but certainly it is not easy to analyze the character, Jens Eder
asserted, ―The process of analysis, as a rule, follows certain steps: one watches the
film or reads the script several times, concentrates on the aspects relating to
characters and supplements the resulting impressions with additional information,
e.g. about viewers or historical contexts.‖14
Richard Barsam also made another interesting statement in analyzing the
character,
―We develop our knowledge of all characters in several ways: from their
traits, motivations, and actions; from the ways in which a narrator or other
characters describe them; and from the style in which the actors who play
them interpret them. Part of the challenge and enjoyment of interpreting a
movie is figuring our characters‘ motivations, something we do all the
time in our daily lives when interpreting other people‘s behavior.‖15
In creating the character can not be separated from the role of filmmaker.
They create story and character through a lot of consideration, it is crucial to
capture the features of characters and to reach agreement about them, Jens added,
―Filmmakers discuss their creation, viewers the experiences they evoke, critics
their interpretation, cultural theorists and practitioners their causes and
consequences.‖16
C. Characterization in Film
After discussing the character, I discuss the characterization. The character
and characterization are different things. Character is a figure that plays a role in
14
Jens Eder (2008), Op.Cit p. 14. 15
Richard Barsam, (2007), Op.Cit. p. 74. 16
Jens Eder, ―Understanding Characters‖, Berghahn Journals Volume 4, Issue 1,
Summer 2010: 16–40, (2010), doi: 10:3167/proj.2010.040103, p. 16.
13
the story and characterization is how a character portrayed in the film. As Richard
Barsam emphasized:
―Here we must distinguish between character and characterization, the
process of the actor‘s interpreting a character in a movie. Characterization
differs according to the actor, the character, the screenplay, and the
director. As narrative movies developed through their history, filmmakers
increasingly left things out of their movies‘ characterization, or left them
implicit, or left them to viewers to determine.‖17
In order to make an interesting story and attract the viewer, the
characterization of a character has to be looking real, unique, and easy to
understand. Therefore, Joseph and Dennis have mentioned 8 characterizations, but
I apply 5 characterizations which are:
1. Characterization through Appearance
A major aspect of film characterization is revealed visually and
instantaneously. When the actors are on the screen, their facial features,
mannerism, and physical build become the assumption from the viewer.18
2. Characterization through Dialogue
Characters in fictional film naturally reveal a great deal about themselves
by what they say and how they say it. Their true thoughts, attitudes, and emotions
can be revealed in subtle ways through word choice and through the stress, pitch,
and pause patterns of their speech. From their grammar, vocabulary and dialects
also reveal their character‘s social, economic and educational background.19
17
Richard Barsam, Op.Cit. p. 74. 18
Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis W. Petrie, The Art of Watching Films: 7th
edition, (New
York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2008), p. 50. 19
Ibid, p. 50.
14
3. Characterization through External Action
The best reflections of character are a person‘s action, the real character
are more than mere instruments of the plot that do for a purpose. Thus, there
should be a clear relationship between a character and his or her actions; the
actions should grow naturally out of the character‘s personality. Every action that
the character takes in some way is reflecting the quality of his or her particular
personality. Sometimes the most effective characterization is achieved not by the
large actions in the film but by the small, seemingly insignificant ones.20
4. Characterization through Internal Action
Some of internal actions from character are mind, emotions, unspoken
thought, aspiration, memories and fantasies. People‘s hopes, dreams, and
aspirations can be as important to an understanding of their character as any real
achievement, and their fears and insecurities can be more terrible to them. The
filmmaker reveals inner reality by taking us visually or aurally into the mind so
that we see or hear the character remembers, thinks, and imagines about.21
5. Characterization through Reactions of Others Character
The way other characters view a person often serves as an excellent means
of characterization. Sometimes, a great deal of information about a character is
already provided through such means before the character first appears on the
screen.22
All characteristics above are portrayed as the way to understand the
character when acting in the film. The character is considered as the real image
20
Ibid, p.52. 21
Ibid, p.53. 22
Ibid, p.53.
15
that represents as human and reality. Dudley emphasized, ―All films present
themselves to us as real or image according to various ratios. Reality is here taken
to be a type of consciousness characterized by certain indices of appearances and
a certain mental activity.‖23
D. Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is originally known as the method of healing people with
mental illness by knowing the conscious and unconscious elements in mind. It is
also an approach to understand the behavior of person. Daniel stated,
―Psychoanalysis is one of those rare intellectual achievements that had the effect
of radically transforming human self-understanding.‖24
This theory was developed
in late nineteenth century by Sigmund Freud, Ferdinand added, ―he is one of the
figures that succeeded in introducing Psychoanalysis‖.25
Psychoanalysis extends the fundamental idea that all thoughts and
consciously actions are the process in unconscious. Our behavior in everyday life
is conscious which buried in the unconscious, and affect the conscious behavior.
Sigmund Freud asserted,
―Freud‘s immense influence arguably revolves around his basic claim that
most of our behavior is a product of an unconscious but very active part of
the mind. This unconscious is full of unacceptable urges, intolerable
memories, conflicts, defense mechanisms, and so forth. Part of Freud‘s
23
Dudley Andrew, Concepts in Film Theory, (New York: Oxford University Press,
1984), p 43. 24
Daniel K. Lapsley and Paul C. Stey, Id, Ego, and Superego (appear in Encyclopedia of
Human Behavior 2nd
Ed.), (Indiana: Elsevier, published by University of Notre Dame, 2011), p. 1. 25
Ferdinand Zaviera, Teori Kepribadian Sigmund Freud, (Jogjakarta: Primasophie.
2008), p. 91.
16
lasting significance in the history of ideas is that psychoanalysis was
conceived as a means of opening the black box of the unconscious.‖26
The basic concept of psychoanalysis consists of conscious and
unconscious. The conscious is only a small part of mind that contains certain
moment in awareness and it will be repressed to the unconscious. We can think
and talk rationally based on this mental processing. William wrote,
―Consciousness, he believed, is a transitory mental state since what is
conscious one moment may not be conscious the next moment. That which
exist on the fringe of the conscious Freud called the preconscious. The
preconscious consists of what was earlier verbalized ideas and can again,
with relative ease, be verbalized. [. . .] Freud regarded them as only a small
portion of the total mental life of the person.‖27
Related to conscious, there is also preconscious; a bridge between
conscious and unconscious that contains ideas or memories that could be retrieved
at any time and brought into our awareness. Ferdinand has noted, ―in
psychoanalysis, the unconscious takes precedence over the conscious because it
affects person's behavior and demands to be satisfied.‖28
The ordinary memories,
desires and believes in the preconscious are not currently conscious, but it can
easily appear in our mind.
The unconscious is the most important of the human psyche which
contains desires, thoughts, and behavior since childhood. Unconscious is the most
dominant and important in determining a person's behavior and experience. Most
of the contents of unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as the feeling
of pain, anxiety, or conflict. Moesono stated in his book, ―this unawareness is the
26
Sigmund Freud, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, translated by Alan Tyson,
(New York: Norton, 1965), p 238. 27
William B. Arndt, Jr., Theories of Personality, (New York: Macmillan Publishing
Company, 1974), p 322. 28
Ferdinand Zaviera, (2008), Op.Cit. p. 22.
17
experience that we never realized, it occurs out of the focus and we are not aware
of this case or tries to eliminate it, because we think it is disturbing our mind.‖29
Large parts of human thought remain unconscious. It needs much effort to make
the certain troubling ideas appear in conscious. Undesirable thoughts will be
repressed from consciousness by the ego. Freud mentioned his idea about the
normal personality structure,
― An investigation of normal, stable states, in which the frontiers of the
ego are safeguarded against the id by resistances (anti-cathexes) and have
held firm, and in which the superego is not distinguished from the ego,
because they work together harmoniously—an investigation of that kind
would teach us little. The only thing that can help us are states of conflict
and uproar, when the contents of the unconscious id have a prospect of
forcing their way into the ego and into consciousness and the ego puts
itself once more on the defensive against this invasion.‖30
The ego is the part of the system that manages the id and superego wisely.
When the ego is weak, it would be happened abnormal behavior because the ego
can not balance the strong desire from id and superego. William Siegfried added
in his journal, ―As humans our behavior, our thoughts and actions, are the product
of our psyche. In order to have an understanding of why we behave as we do, it is
necessary to identify the formation and structure of the human psyche.‖31
In 1923, Freud introduced his book The Ego and The Id about the structure
of human personality; the id, ego and superego. The structure of human
personality contains thoughts, feelings, social adjustment, and behavior influence
29
Moesono Anggadewi, (2003), Op.Cit. p 3. 30
Sigmund Freud, An Outline of Psycho-analysis edited by James Strachey, (New York:
W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 1949), p. 22. 31
William Siegfried, ―The Formation and Structure of the Human Psyche Id, Ego, and
Super-Ego‖, Athene Noctua: Undergraduate Philosophy Journal Issue No. 2, (2014), published by
Florida Atlantic University, p. 1.
18
on expectations, responses, values, and attitudes. As the id, ego and superego has
different function.
1. Structure of Personality
a. Id
Id is the oldest of physical provinces. Id lies in the unconscious mind;
there is the native instinct of sexual and aggressiveness in repression or on hold.
Id is obtained from the childhood as basic formation of a person's life. Yustinus
has written in his book that ―Id works with pleasure principle that always tries to
get away from something that makes it uncomfortable. The id ignores and
demands to fulfill as soon as possible; as the infant who has native desire to
suckle at mother as his pleasure and he will cry if his pleasure is not immediately
fulfilled. The id does not recognize the morality.‖32
Actually, the id represents as
human biological needs. Id also can be regarded as the inner world before people
have the experience of the outside world. Freud also added, ―It contains
everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, that is laid down in the
constitution—above all, therefore, the instincts, which originate from the somatic
organization and which find a first physical expression. […] moreover, the
investigation of psychoanalysis started with it.‖33
b. Ego
The ego connects the world in the level of human consciousness. Yustinus
added in his book, ―The ego distinguishes between fantasy and reality with the
principle of reality (reality principles). Ego can not operate on the pleasure
32
Yustinus Semiun, Teori Kepribadian dan Terapi Psikoanalitik Freud, (Yogyakarta:
Kanisius, 2006), pp.61-63. 33
Sigmund Freud, (1949), Op.Cit. p 2.
19
principle because the real world does not operate on that principle. Ego runs the
defense mechanism to reduce the anxiety and fear that may be appear.‖34
Freud
gave his statement:
―[…] the ego has the task to mediating between the external world and the
id. It must seek a compromise between the strivings for immediate
gratification of the id and the realities of the external world. The tools with
which it accomplishes this task of arbitration are attention, perception, the
control of motor activity and repression‖.35
In relation to the id, the ego works to satisfy the needs, relieve anxiety or
desire and solve the conflict that does not fit each other. The ego also controls the
task by deciding whether satisfaction is allowed, postponed or repressed. The ego
is continually changing depends on the situation.
c. Superego
The last personality structure is superego. Yustinus wrote in his book,
―Superego is the manifestation of values and norms prevailing in society. The
superego is formed in four to six years of age. Superego evolves from prohibition
and rule from the outside. The superego is the fundamental of moral conscience
which contains the applicable rules and has an explanation about right and wrong
to help the ego holds the desire of id.‖36
Superego has two sides; conscience about
warning of punishment and the ideal ego contains praise and positive examples.
Conscience is the result of the child‘s experience when parents give the
punishment to them in doing inappropriate behavior and telling the child about
prohibited behavior. The ideal ego evolves from the experience when children do
34
Yustinus Semiun, (2006), Op.Cit. pp. 64-66. 35
William B. Arndt, Jr., (1974), Op.Cit. p 269. 36
Yustinus Semiun, (2006), Op.Cit. pp. 66-68.
20
proper behavior then his parents give the reward and tell their child another proper
behavior. It could be said that a child receives the moral norms from parents.37
The superego is controlled by the principles of moralistic and idealistic
that contrary to the id in pleasure principle and the ego in reality principle.
Superego has self-control that requires human perfection in thought, action and
word.38
Sigmund Freud stated in his book about Superego,
―Superego is the long period of childhood, during which the growing
human being lives in dependence on his parents, leaves behind it as a
precipitate the formation in his ego of a special agency in which this
parental influence is prolonged. An action by the ego is as it should be if it
satisfied simultaneously the demands of the id, of the superego and of
reality—that is to say, if it is able to reconcile their demands with one
another.‖39
Superego begins to develop when ego is internalizing social norms and
moral, it could be said that superego is an internal manifestation of the values and
ideals of traditional society. The superego will control the sexual impulse and
aggressiveness through the process of repression. Superego does not repress the
desire but orders the ego to do repression. The feeling of guilt occurs when the
ego is acting contrary to the moral norm of superego. The feeling of low self-
esteem or inferiority will arise when the ego is unable to get the perfection of the
superego. The feeling of guilt is the conscience while feeling of inferiority due to
the ego-ideal.40
―A person is healthy psychologically when the ego has been coordinating
the demands of the id and superego; she or he is the person who can control both
37
Ibid, pp. 66-68 38
Ibid, pp. 66-68 39
Sigmund Freud, (1949), Op.Cit. p. 3. 40
Yustinus Semiun, (2006), Op.Cit. pp. 66-68.
21
the pleasure and moral principle. In summing up, the system of personality
structure is not the system that running a person‘s personality. These three
systems are just the names for various psychological processes with the different
systems each other.‖41
2. Psychosexual Development Stages
Freud believed that human had passed number of psychosexual stages
since childhood into an adult. When someone unsuccessful to complete a certain
stage, he or she will stuck in certain characteristics that relate to the failed stage.
―It may well be believed that psychoanalysis provoked astonishment and
denials when, partly on the basis of these three neglected facts, it
contradicted all the popular opinions on sexuality. Its principal findings
are as follows:
a. Sexual life does not begin only at puberty, but starts with plain
manifestations soon after birth.
b. It is necessary to distinguish sharply between the concepts of ‗sexual‘
and ‗genital‘. The former is the wider concept and includes many
activities that have nothing to do with the genitals.
c. Sexual life includes the function of obtaining pleasure from zones of
the body, a function which is subsequently brought into the service of
reproduction. The two functions often fail to coincide completely.‖42
a. Oral Stage ( 0 – 15 month)
This is the first stage of psychosexual development stages. In this stage,
the mouth is the first pleasure organ for the infant. Most of libido is available
since at birth in the oral zone and all activity is concentrated to this zone. The
infant achieves gratification through oral activities such as feeding, thumb
sucking, babbling or putting something into the mouth, tongue and lips. The infant
only has the id that always wants to be satisfied and fulfilled immediately, and the
41
Ibid, pp. 67-68. 42
Sigmund Freud, (1949), Op.Cit. p. 9.
22
baby will be crying if his demands are not fulfilled. The success of this stage
depends on the quality of parents as the caregiver and the relationship between the
infant to his parents. Parents have an important role in fulfilling the desire of the
baby, but the role of a mother is more needed by the infant. Infant‘s basic desire is
derived in the mouth by sucking the breast of mother and it makes the infant
satisfied. The infant only makes a respond toward other by biting, smiling and
crying.43
b. Anal Stage (1,5 – 3 years of age)
In this anal stage, the satisfaction of the infant is concerned in the
excretory function. The child learns to respond some of the demands of society
(such as bowel and bladder control). The role of caregivers is also important in
this stage how to dispose feces. The major portion of Freud‘s work on the
formation of character focused on the anal type.44
Freud noticed that,
―the three character traits of orderliness, including cleanliness, parsimony,
and obstinacy, were often found in combination with a history of marked
difficulty in toilet training such as retention of feces. He postulated that in
this cases pleasure in the stimulation of the bowel and anus was intensified
because of innate, constitutional factors.‖45
In this stage, the formation of ego continues to form. The children could
distinguish and balance the demands of the id and social boundaries. A child who
is treated with extremely hard by parents during this stage to control the bladder
will be a rude person and uncontrollable.46
43
William B. Arndt, Jr., (1974), pp. 200-201. 44
Yustinus Semiun, (2006), Op.Cit. pp. 103-105. 45
Sigmund Freud, Character and Anal Erotism: Collected Papers, translated by In Joan
Riviere, (London: The Hoghart Press Ltd., 1950), p. 45. 46
William B. Arndt, Jr., (1974), Op.Cit., p. 418.
23
c. Phallic Stage (3 – 6 years of age)
This stage focuses on children‘s development of sexual feeling for their
parents, gender identity formation, and discovery masturbation. Genitals are the
focus of sexual activity. This is the important development stages of Oedipal
Complex in boys and Electra Complex in girls. It is the most important case in the
child‘s mental life. The child learns to realize the differences between male and
female and they become aware of sexuality.47
Ian Ridgway also added, ―If this
complex is not resolved, males (or females) will remain attracted to women (or
men) who are like their respective mothers (or fathers) perhaps to their great
detriment. Freud understood this stage to be a problem-generating stage for later
life because of the Oedipal complex.‖48
d. Latency Stage (6 / 7 – 12 years of age)
Freud considered in this stage, the puberty of boy and girl experienced a
stop period of psychosexual development. Yustinus noticed about latency stage in
his book, ―This stage known as latent phase because the suppression of sexual
instinct and others organic factors that received from others‖49
. In this stage, the
restrained sex drive, ego and superego begins to develop and has the ability to
adapt to the environment. The child continues his or her stages of development
and his defense mechanism. Latent stage is reinforced by feeling of shame, guilt
and politeness. Children also become more social in developing same-sex and
47
Ibid, p. 418. 48
Ian Ridgway, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), accessed on January 15, 2015
http://myauz.com/ianr/articles/lect3freud07 p. 9. 49
Yustinus Semiun, (2006), Op.Cit., p. 111.
24
cross-sex friendships. In latency, the sublimated libido is aimed in social and
cultural achievement, such as schoolwork and establishes friendships.50
e. Genital Stage ( 12 years of age – Adult )
The genital stage is the sexual reawakening period; the sexual libido that
holds in previous stage is now appearing. The pleasure relates to someone other
than the family. Freud believed that if someone had unresolved conflicts in
previous stage with parents during adolescence, it would appear in this stage. But,
when the conflicts are resolved, the individual is capable to develop a mature love
relationship as an adult.51
William gave his statement, ―The earlier sources of
sexual pleasure are coordinate and subordinate to the genital organ. This is the
adult stage of psychosexual development that is seldom, if ever, completely
attained.‖52
This stage is signed with the puberty at the adolescent when the sexual
purposes are awakening. The sexual life of someone in puberty enters the second
phase that is different from infantile phase.53
Each aspect of personality structure
has its own unique features that often conflict with one another but they also work
harmoniously to resolve these conflicts.
3. Defense Mechanism
Defense mechanism is the ego‘s method to reduce anxiety, threatening and
unpleasant feeling. Freud believed that the person who had conflict with
personality components and his ego did not run the defense mechanism; he would
50
Ibid, p. 111. 51
Myre Sim, Guide to Psychiatry, 3rd
ed., (London: Churchill Livingstone, 1974), p. 396. 52
William B. Arndt Jr., (1974), Op.Cit. p. 420. 53
Yustinus Semiun, (2006), Op.Cit., p. 112.
25
be under so much stress and mental illness that lead to suicide. When the ego is in
conflict with the id and superego then the id creates tension and emotional
problems, the ego runs defense mechanism to get rid of this tension. This is as the
way of ego to reduce the anxiety. 54
Freud stated that anxiety was, ―(i) something
felt, an unpleasant affect, (ii) certain physiological reactions, such as changes in
heart and respiration rate, distinguish anxiety from other unpleasant emotions, and
(iii) involves perception of the unpleasant affect and the physiological reactions‖55
Cramer asserted about defense mechanism, ―In such cases, it is necessary
for the self to have some mechanism or process to defend itself against the
threatening implications of this event. Such processes are commonly called
defense mechanisms‖56
In other word, the ego will control the unacceptable feeling or behavior
caused by either id or superego. The person experiences anxiety as the response to
that treat and unpleasant feeling. According to William Siegfried, he noted that
defense mechanisms are not necessarily direct or conscious. The ego reduces the
tension by covering up our impulses that are threatening.57
Phebe wrote, ―Among
these unconscious processes are a group of mental operations referred to as
defense mechanisms. Different from conscious coping strategies, these
54
William Siegfried, (2014), Op.Cit. p. 3. 55
William B. Arndt Jr. Op.Cit. p. 381. 56
Roy F. Baumeister, et. al., ―Freudian Defense Mechanisms and Empirical Findings in
Modern Social Psychology: Reaction Formation, Projection, Displacement, Undoing, Isolation,
Sublimation, and Denial‖, Journal of Personality 66:6, (December 1998), published by Blackwell
Publishers, p. 1082. 57
William Siegfried, (2014), Op.Cit. p. 3.
26
mechanisms operate at an unconscious level, so that the individual is unaware of
how they function.‖58
Although defense mechanism is normal and used by everyone, if someone
using in an extreme way, it will impact a compulsive, repetitive and neurotic
behavior. Jess Feist asserted, ―Freud saw defense mechanism as helpful to the
individual in that they reduced or avoided the pain of anxiety, but with the
exception of sublimation, they are not helpful to society.‖59
There are several
kinds of defense mechanism that I will explain:
a. Repression
Repression is the basic defense mechanism. It involves an unconscious
process of blocking a threatening memory from conscious awareness. Example:
abuse victims sometimes do not recall their memories in childhood. This defense
mechanism is employed by the ego to keep the disturbing or threatening thoughts
appear in conscious. The id‘s unacceptable impulses are pushed down into the
unconscious.60
William wrote in his book, ―Freud believed that most of the
contents of the unconscious were unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or
conflict. Freud also believed that the unconscious continually influences behavior
and experience, even though there is no awareness of the influences.‖61
58
Phebe Cramer, ―Seven Pillars of Defense Mechanism Theory‖, Paper presented at the
Annual Meeting of the Rapaport-Klein Study Group, (June 13, 2009), accessed on September 13,
2015 www.psychomedia.it/rapaport-klein. 59
Jess Feist and Gregory J. Feist, Theories of Personality: fifth edition, (New York: The
McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2002), p. 53. 60
Roy F. Baumeister, et. al., (1998), Op.Cit., p. 1084. 61
William Siegfried, Op.Cit. p. 2.
27
Freud also believed, there were several possibilities about impulses in
unconscious,
"First, the impulses may remain unchanged in the unconscious. Second,
they could force their way into consciousness in an unaltered form, in
which case they would create more anxiety than the person could handle,
and the person would be overwhelmed with anxiety. A third and much
more common fate of repressed instincts is that they find expression in a
displaced or disguised form.‖62
b. Fixation
Fixation is the defense mechanism by returning to the phase when
someone in early stages development. When someone thinks the next stage
provokes too much anxiety, the ego finds a way by deciding to not take the next
step in stages development. Someone who has fixation usually chooses to do the
things in childhood because he/she does not need to scare about something and
they already choose to not take another step. They think being a child is the right
way to avoid the problem and fear. Their age is an adult, but their attitude and
mind is a child. Fixation usually rigid, infantile and permanent; it needs more
effort to escape from the comfortable stage and continue the next stage.63
As
Freud wrote,
―Psychical growth normally proceeds in a somewhat continuous fashion
through the various stages development. The process of psychologically
growing up, however, is not without stressful and anxious moment.
When the prospect of taking the next step becomes too anxiety
provoking, the ego may resort to the strategy of remaining at the present,
more comfortable psychological stage.‖64
62
Jess Feist and Gregory J. Feist, Op.Cit. p.34. 63
Ibid, p 37. 64
Ibid, p 37.
28
c. Denial
Denial is a defense of refusing to admit something unpleasant is happening
or ―a form of refusing to accept the reality of a situation‖65
. Denial is also the way
to solve the painful experience and memory by denying their existence and
ignoring the reality. As Cramer said, ―Denial is the least complex of the three. As
base, denial is accomplished by attaching a negative marker (e.g., ―no‖, ―not‖) to
a perception, thought or feeling. In this way, thought or feelings that would be
upsetting, if accurately perceived, are ignored or misrepresented.‖66
Through denial, someone rejects to perceive an experience in awareness,
or at least they choose to ignore and hide the fact of unpleasant memory or
anxiety.
d. Projection
The ego reduces the anxiety by projecting the uncontrolled impulses to
another object; it could be a person or a thing. It is also gives another definition of
projection as seeing unacceptable feeling toward something or a person, but the
actual feeling is on his/her unconsciousness. Someone distributes his anxiety or
fear to people or objects surrounding him.67
In simple word by Cramer,
―projection can be explained as the attribution of hostile feelings or intentions, or
other normatively unusual feelings or intentions, to a character.‖68
65
Ruth Snowden, Teach Yourself: Freud, (Chicago: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2006), p.
110. 66
Phebe Cramer, Op.Cit. p. 2. 67
Gerald Corey, Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy 8th
ed., (Belmont:
Thomson Books, 2009), Op.Cit. p. 64. 68
Ibid. p. 2.
29
Unacceptable impulses are first repressed, and then attributed to others.
William also gave his statement, ―projection is when anxiety-provoking id
impulses are attributed to some object in reality. The model of projection is
regurgitation. In highly exaggerated form, projection constitutes the main
dynamic in the paranoid reactions.‖69
When a person has unpleasant thought or feelings, they project these onto
other people by blaming them and make an excuse for own fault by projecting to
another person.
e. Fantasy
This is imaginary situation of someone about his/her own desire. In
fantasy world is free from the thinking of the prohibition from superego because
in this fantasy, the superego has no rule. Steven added, ―we will argue that fantasy
is central to all psychoanalytic work and that inference about the consequences of
different meanings or usages of the term distort and exaggerate differences in
clinical work.‖70
Freud also said that fantasy was created to fulfill frustrated wishes,
―Freud himself, especially in his central usage, and even more for his
immediate followers, phantasies is conceived as imagined fulfillments of
frustrated wishes. Whether they originate in the system conscious or the
system preconscious, they are an activity of the ego and are formed
according to the principles of the secondary process.‖71
69
William B. Arndt Jr., Theories of Personality, (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.,
Inc., 1974), p 349. 70
Steven T. Levy and Lawrence B. Inderbitzin, ―Fantasy and Psychoanalytic Discourse‖,
The International Journal of Psychoanalysis Volume 82, Issue 4, June 28, 2008, accessed on
September 5, 2015 DOI: 10.1516/3V6W-Y42Y-RXDH-UU13. 71
Spillius EB, ―Freud and Klein on the Concept of Fantasy‖, International Journal
Psychoanalysis, (April 2001) pp. 361-73 accessed on September 5, 2015
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11341067.
30
Actually, the defense mechanism is normal to cope the fear and anxiety. If
someone always uses it excessively to hide and run from trouble in his life it
would be harms to other. Thus, in this research I find that Ryan Jacobson as the
main character in House at the End of the Street film has an abnormal personality.
His ego has done defense mechanism to reduce his anxiety but it is not enough to
defeat his anxiety and trauma. Based on this problem, I am interested to analyze
his personality structure, failure in developmental stages, and the defense
mechanism.
31
CHAPTER III
DATA ANALYSIS / FINDINGS
A. Character Analysis
In this chapter, I describe about the research by dividing into three parts.
First, the analysis of the character of Ryan Jacobson especially his characteristics;
second, the analysis of the personality structure of Ryan, his failure stage on
psychosexual development and his defense mechanism to reduce fear and anxiety.
The writer describes the research by analyzing the words, acts, attitudes, and
psychological problems of Ryan Jacobson by using Sigmund Freud‘s
Psychoanalysis theory.
The main character in this film is Ryan Jacobson; 18-year-old man in
blonde hair (characterization through appearance) as the only surviving member
of his family after the horrible murder that is occurred four years ago in his house.
According to neighbors‘ story, Carrie Anne as his sister had mental disorder and
killed their parents. After that incident, Carrie Anne runs away into the woods and
Ryan lives with his aunt in another country. Ryan returns to his home because his
aunt is died of stroke. Not long after Ryan returning home, Sarah Cassidy moves
next door with her 17-year-old daughter named Elissa.
In the beginning of the film, Ryan Jacobson shows his normal behavior
and good character. He is depicted as the figure of kind, calm, good listener,
gentle, and care about woman. The first scene in this film shows Ryan is kind
32
man when he offers a ride to Elissa who walks alone after attending famine relief
group at her friend‘s home.
Ryan: Hey, do you need a ride?
Elissa: No, I'm fine. This is my driveway.
Ryan: No, it's not. I saw you move in on Sycamore Lane. I live
next door. It looks like it's going to rain. Can I give you a
ride?
Elissa: No. I'm fine with walking.
Ryan: You're ten miles from home, let me give you a ride.
Elissa: OK.
(00:18:18,973 - 00:18:44,962)
Although Ryan never talks directly to Elissa, he already knows her
existence from Bill as the police officer there that appears to be Ryan‘s only
supporter. Remembering of his kindness offer a ride (characterization through
reaction of other characters), Elissa as the band participant invites him to come at
the Battle of the Band. Actually, Ryan refuses to come because he feels
uncomfortable in crowd and difficult to socialize with other. Since his willing to
be friend with Elissa, Ryan fulfills his promise to come at the Battle of the Band.
Another good side of Ryan is when he tries to be a good listener for
Elissa, this is another way of Ryan to be friend with her (characterization through
external action). Elissa often comes to his house to tell her stories. Knowing this,
Sarah forbids her daughter to come alone to Ryan‘s house because she does not
want unexpected thing is occurred there. Ryan understands and he starts to avoid
her, but Elissa still comes to his house behind her mother‘s back. The way he
treats woman has attracted Elissa to get closer with Ryan.
33
Ryan is also portrayed as calm person when he answers the question
about the tragedy; he always speaks within soft tone (characterization through
dialogue). He convinces Elissa as his only friend about the truth.
Elissa: Your parents got killed. I'm sorry. I know the people were
talking about it, and I knew I shouldn't say...I'm going to
shut up now.
Ryan: It's OK. You just said what you were thinking. It's all
anybody can think around me anyways.
That, and why do I still live in the house my parents got
killed in?
Elissa: Yeah, why do you still live in the house your parents got
killed in?
Ryan: My family sent me away when I was seven. That house was
really all I had left of them.
But actually living there, it's been too hard. I'm fixing it up
and I'm going to sell it.
(00:19:44,308 - 00:20:31,481)
Sarah also asks him repeatedly about the rumors and his reason could
survive there with no one else takes care of him. Ryan replies calmly that his
parents give the house and little money that enough for him. Ryan shows his calm
attitude (characterization through appearance) in facing the questions that has
been answered repeatedly by him, but they still hesitant about the answer.
Ryan‘s character is also depicted as good man when he cares about
woman. In some part of the scene, there are some pictures about Ryan and Carrie
Anne taped in front of the refrigerator (see picture 1 below).
Picture 1 (00:23:42) Picture 2 (01:10:50) Picture 3 (01:10:52)
34
From the pictures above, Ryan loves his sister so much. His affection to
his sister is proved from the number of pictures by Ryan when they were sitting in
the swing (see picture 2) and the way Ryan tells about his sister. Ryan said that
Carrie Anne‘s favorite thing was to play on the swings. They usually run and play
tag most days. From his attitude toward Carrie Anne, he cares about woman and
always tries to guard woman like his sister. Ryan cares about Elissa and also her
friend, Jillian. It can be evidenced by the scene when Elissa and Jillian who
walking together from school then Ryan offers a ride to their house. Ryan always
shows his good character when it is about woman, because he sees them as his
sister, Carrie Anne. In other word, Ryan shows his affection to his sister through
another woman (characterization through external action).
Picture 4 (00:30:18)
Ryan's house that is located far from neighbors as describe his life that is
far from the social and isolated by his neighbor. The house that has been
abandoned after the murder also illustrates the same condition about Ryan, who is
abandoned by parents and neighbors. Although Ryan already shows good
characters, his neighbors do not feel that Ryan is a good man. He has tried to
show his good behavior but his neighbors still avoid him. It is because of the
rumors that Ryan helps his sister to kill their parents. Tyler‘s families have plan to
35
burn the house because they think it lower home values there with rumors about
Carrie Anne still alive, it can be evidenced by the dialogue below.
Tyler’s Mom: The Jacobson boy pretty much keeps to himself.
Jenny (neighbor): Thank God. Somebody should burn that house
down. I didn't say Ryan Jacobson had to be in it.
But come on. Why is that kid still living there?
Tyler’s Dad: He's driven down all our home values.
Gibbord (neighbor): The town tried to buy the house and we were going
to tear it down and donate the land to the state park.
Elissa: And what happened to Carrie Anne after they got
killed?
Tyler’s Dad: Well, there was a massive search, but she drowned
in the dam.
Tyler: But they never found her body, so some people think
she still lives in the woods.
Elissa: What?!
Tyler’s Mom: Tyler!! Just ignore him. It's just an urban legend.
(00:11:52,754 - 00:12:42,228)
Tyler‘s families feel strange about the murder in his family; because Ryan
is the sole survivor while Carrie Anne is never found. They also feel strange about
Ryan (characterization through reactions of other characters), who decides to
come back and fix that house after the incident. They think Ryan should burn that
house to erase the rumor rather than live and fix that terrifying house. Based on
those reasons, he is isolated by his neighbor although he always shows his good
character and never hurt anyone to prove the rumor is not true.
After unacceptable presence by his neighbors, Ryan starts to show his
strange attitude in this film. His flat expression, curious, mysterious and bad
attitude to other than women are revealed after Elissa moves near his house.
Actually, Ryan has shown his strange attitude in the beginning of the film when
he felt curious about Elissa.
36
Picture 5 (00:13:31)
When Ryan watches his new neighbor (see picture 5), he sneaks among
the bushes from distance. As good attitude to get acquainted with her, he should
introduce directly to her instead of watch her quietly from distance. Nevertheless,
Ryan has found another way to know her when he offered a ride to her. They also
become closer and share their stories.
Actually, Ryan is difficult to socialize with his neighbors because they
also avoid him. Ryan just talks with Elissa and has little conversation with Sarah
although there are several characters appear in this film. He wants to be friend
with Elissa because she never talks negative things about his family and does not
influenced by the rumors. Elissa is the only friend because Ryan never has a
friend before, it can be seen when Ryan only tells her about his family not his
friend or schoolmate.
Ryan, who lives alone in his house, never allows other to get into his
house without his permission, especially Bill. He comes to Ryan‘s house to give
information about the situation around their place and find out Ryan‘s condition.
Ryan allows Elissa to enter his house but Bill only stands in front of the house
(see picture 6). He is very careful to other people and he does not trust anyone
37
except Elissa. Ryan‘s attitude is like he hides something in his house
(characterization through appearances).
Picture 6 (01:16:21) Picture 7 (00:32:21)
Ryan talks about his family in flat expression (characterization through
appearance) as clearly describe that he hides something about his family. He does
not show his sad expression when it is about the death of his family. Ryan uses
same unexpressive face (see picture 7) when he answers other question. In this
part, Ryan has clearly shows his strange and abnormal attitude.
Although Ryan has unexpressive face, he is an imaginative person from
the way he draws the picture about Carrie Anne. But, Ryan shows his strange
imaginative (characterization through internal action) when he is showing Elissa a
tree which he said resemble human face. It can be seen from the dialogue below:
Ryan: I want to show you something. Here, sit down.
I don't remember much when I was little.
I remember my mom sitting here and telling me everything
has a secret. Everything. And at first I couldn't see it. But
then one day...One day I could.
Elissa: See what?
Ryan: Look, I'll show you. Look.
Elissa: Oh, my God, it's a face. I see it.
Ryan: People don't notice all the secrets around them. Even
though they're right in front of them, just hiding, waiting to
be found.
(00:49:47,026 - 00:51:09,109)
38
At that time, Elissa believes him about a tree resembles human face.
Actually, it is just an ordinary tree. The reason why Elissa agrees the strange thing
of Ryan is because she falls in love with Ryan. Elissa tries to get Ryan‘s attention
by doing and looking the same thing with him.
But the strange imaginative of Ryan becomes more excessive. From his
way imagines a tree like human face, he also sees girl in white skin and blonde
hair like Carrie Anne (characterization through internal action). Ryan imagines
those girls like his sister and he will do anything to have Carrie Anne in his house.
This strange attitude will show the truth of the Carrie Anne‘s story.
B. Structure of Personality and Defense Mechanism
According to Freud in his Psychoanalysis theory, he asserted that these
three structures—id, ego and superego—were part of the mind, and not the
function of the brain. According to that theory, there are three human personalities
structure: id; the basest personality form, seeks for pleasure, present since at birth,
wants to get immediate gratification for needs, and ignores the time. Ego; operates
on reality principle, tries to balance real world of demands by the id and the
superego, engages to compromise which is to be delayed, allowed or postponed
satisfaction. The last is superego; the internal parental and social value, contains
the right and wrong that operates on morality principle. If someone violates the
rules from superego, it could make someone feel guilty. Parents and family roles
are so important in the formation of these three structures.
39
Already explained previously, normal people have balance three provinces
in mind between the id, ego, and superego, but it does not work to those who can
not control his ego with the strong desire of the id and the weak superego. People
who have imbalance of personality structure usually have bad habit and even do
not have guilty. The same condition happens to Ryan who has weak superego and
his strong id dominates the ego.
Actually at the beginning of the film, Ryan can balance his id, ego and
superego from his effort to be friend with Elissa and another good attitude he did
previously. Ryan is isolated by his neighbors but he still wants to get acquainted
with Elissa, his new neighbor. Ryan considers that Elissa will be a good friend to
him. She looks Ryan as a good man and never influenced by the rumors. To get
attention from Elissa, he offers ride to her home when he sees Elissa is walking
alone at the street. From this scene, Elissa is attracted by his way treat woman.
Not only Elissa, he also cares about Jillian as Elissa‘s friend when he meets Elissa
who is walking with Jillian from school (see picture 8) and delivers both of them
to their house (see picture 9).
Picture 8 (00:47:30) Picture 9 (00:48:28)
Already explained previously, Ryan shows his affection to his dead sister
toward another woman. In this case, Ryan shows his normal attitude since Elissa
moves near his house. He considers Elissa as friend who never treat him as
40
neighbors did. Elissa also shows her affection to Ryan; she gives Ryan a CD
about music, she frequently visits Ryan, she never avoid him although her
neighbors already warn her about his strange attitude and her mother also forbids
her to get closer with him. When Sarah forbids Ryan to get closer with her
daughter, Ryan‘s superego wants him to obey her willing. So, he should keep his
distance with Elissa, because someone already warns him about the rules. The ego
does not want to violate the rules from the superego and he chooses to ignore
Elissa. This is another way of Ryan to be considered as a good man by Sarah. But,
Elissa always try to get closer with him and Ryan can not forbid her to come to
his house. Since Ryan‘s willing to have a friend, he breaks the rules and they meet
each other behind Sarah‘s back.
Another scene that proves Ryan is normal person when he can balance his
personality structure against neighbors who always mock his strange attitude.
Tyler‘s families as his neighbor, always mock him about the death of Carrie
Anne. Tyler tells the rumors that Carrie Anne still alive and Ryan is an odd man
to another people. Ryan just tries to ignore them as his way to avoid problem if
Ryan takes revenge on them. He represses his desire to angry to Tyler as an ego‘s
effort to reduce anxiety. His ego makes him to ignore Tyler‘s attitude because the
superego warns him that retaliating is not acceptable and inappropriate thing. He
still tries to be calm and ignore Tyler even when Tyler insults him in front of
Elissa‘s friend at the Battle of the Band (see picture 10).
41
Picture 10 (01:00:46) Picture 11 (01:00:53)
From the pictures above, Ryan just passes them (see picture 11), but
Tyler—who angry being ignores by Ryan—chooses to damage Ryan‘s car. Ryan
intends to stop Tyler who continuously damages his car, but then Ryan is attacked
by Tyler and his friends. Their violence by hitting and striking him triggers his
traumatic experience in childhood. Ryan has experienced violence and pain from
his abusive parents. Ryan ignores Tyler previously every time Tyler mocks him
verbally, but since Tyler dares to hurt him physically it brings back his trauma and
pain. His anxiety and fear then start to emerge and it creates unpleasant feeling.
Picture 12 (01:01:55) Picture 13 (01:01:59)
To release the unpleasant feeling, Ryan‘s id which works on pleasure
principle, begins to take control. Ryan starts to show his aggressiveness; he grabs
Tyler‘s leg that continuously tramples him (see picture 12) and then breaks it.
Ryan does this to stop Tyler from hurting him. After Ryan breaks Tyler‘s leg, he
42
runs and leaves his car at the Band‘s Battle and Elissa drives his car to Ryan‘s
house to check his condition.
After that incident, he starts to show his true behavior. Ryan, who already
shows his balance of personality structure from his good attitude, can not hold his
trauma anymore. Ryan‘s id is dominated when it is about his secret and his past
life. His trauma about the abusive parents appears at that time. He has trauma in
his childhood that haunts him and changes his personality. His superego can not
work well and his ego is dominated by the strong desire from id. It is already
mentioned previously—when he breaks Tyler‘s leg (see picture 13)—Ryan starts
to show his destructive behavior and aggressiveness. His trauma begins in his 7
years old. It is started after the death of Carrie Anne when she was on the swing
with Ryan. She falls backwards (see picture 14), smashing her head against the
ground that make her head bleeding.
Picture 14 (00:34:09) Picture 15 (00:34:15)
When Carrie Anne is dying, Ryan‘s parents are under the influence of
drugs and Ryan can not do anything but screams to his mother (see picture 15).
Actually, Bill is there and he is also under the influence of drugs. Bill Weaver is
actually the family friend of the Jacobson‘s; he supplies the drug to John and
Mary Jacobson as Ryan‘s parents. After Ryan‘s father buries Carrie Anne behind
their house (see picture 16), he asks Ryan and Bill not to tell their neighbors about
43
the death of Carrie Anne. After that incident, they hide from the neighbors to keep
their secret.
Picture 16 (01:12:42) Picture 17 (01:12:44)
Ryan‘s mother is depressed about the death of Carrie Anne (see picture
17), because Carrie Anne is the heart of the family and she loves her daughter
very much. Ryan‘s parents blame Ryan about her death. He should guard and care
his sister while his mother and father are using drugs (see pictures 18 and 19).
Ryan also loves his sister but he does not know what to do about her death and he
chooses to take responsibility.
Picture 18 (00:34:00) Picture 19 (00:34:06)
Ryan‘s mother still insists that Carrie Anne is not dead yet. In her high
depression, she sees Ryan in blonde-haired resembles like Carrie Anne. She
forces Ryan to wear Carrie‘s cloth and lengthen his hair to replace his deceased
sister. She will hit Ryan if he refuses to act like Carrie Anne. Ryan chooses to
obey his mother because of his guilty and he should take the punishment. In this
44
stage, Ryan‘s ego makes him obey his mother and Ryan represses his desire to
rebel and angry to parents. His superego makes Ryan realize that he must obey his
parents and the ego chooses to repress unpleasant feeling to the unconscious. In
doing repression, Ryan still can manage his personality structure. His ego can
balance the id and superego by solving the id‘s desire without violates the
superego concept of morality. He chooses to obey his mother because his
superego still works although Ryan does not want to be a girl.
Ryan still holds his desire to rebel from parents until his birthday comes.
Ryan feels glad because his parents still remember about his birthday.
Unfortunately, Ryan‘s mother mentions his name as Carrie Anne (see picture 20).
Ryan tells his mother that he is not Carrie Anne (see picture 21) but her mother
gets angry, yells at Ryan and slaps him (see picture 22). After that incident,
Ryan‘s identity is changed becoming Carrie Anne and his parents lock him at
Carrie Anne‘s room, they attempt to raise Ryan as girl.
Picture 20 (01:33:17) Picture 21 (01:33:20)
Picture 22 (01:33:24)
45
Ryan in his early age, he should go to school and have friends but he stays
at home as girl. Ryan does not get affection and he holds his fear when his parents
abuse him. They also build bars on the entire of his window so Ryan can not run
away from home. His parents always try to remove his personality as Ryan
Jacobson to be Carrie Anne in their house. And Ryan can not do anything but stay
there as Carrie Anne until his 14 years of age.
According to Freud, he believed in six stages of psychosexual
development that all human progress passed through. The certain characteristic of
someone is related to the stage from child into adult life, this depends on someone
failure or could successfully pass those stages. In psychosexual development,
there is possibility of failure that will be occurred and someone gets stuck in one
of the developmental conflicts. Failure in development is called fixation.
Someone experiences fixation when receive too little or too much pleasure in
certain stage and it will influence the structure of personality. The role of family
and people around someone are very important in development stages. The
structure of personality of Ryan—id, ego and superego that form in psychosexual
development stages—becomes imbalance because of the disturbance or trauma in
childhood and the lack of parent‘s role.
In Ryan‘s case, he can not pass the psychosexual development stages
without the role of mother and father. His trauma occurs when he was 7 years old
in the Latency stage; this stage occurs between 6 or 7 until 12 years of age. At this
stage, the ego and superego begin to develop and adapt to environment, then
sexual desires are repressed. The child also continues developing defense
46
mechanism and they become more social in developing friendships. Ryan is
difficult to socialize because of his trauma when parents lock him at house in
latency stage and his superego can not form well because lack of father‘s figure in
his age. Freud implied that the superego as the symbolic internalization of the
father figure and cultural rules. Father is the important role at this stage that son
regards his father as model to find his identity and the figure who teaches him
about the social norms and values; which is good attitude or should be inhibited.
Actually, Ryan‘s structure of mind has been formed well, but after the abusive
and unpleasant treatment from his parents, he becomes difficult to balance his
personality structure. His ego has built repression as defense mechanism to
reduce his fear about violence but it is not enough for him. Ryan can not do
anything to his parents and they still consider Ryan as girl to deny the reality that
Carrie Anne is dead. Bill also chooses to ignore Ryan because he is police officer
and does not want this case make him lost his job. Bill leaves Ryan in that home
with his junkie parents.
But Ryan‘s ego can not hold his id to rebel from parents. He can not pass
his life as girl and get violence anymore. His weak ego can not hold the strong
desire from id and ego starts to ignore the superego. Ryan has strong desire to
rebel from parents. He can not find any solution then he kills his parents to repay
them for punishing him. His strong id dominates the ego and makes Ryan do
anything to please himself by killing the parents with hammer (see pictures 23).
The superego has forbidden his desire to kill parents but it is defeated by the
strong id. Ryan has lost his balance of personality structure.
47
Picture 23 (00:03: 53)
After that incident, rumors floating that Carrie Anne who has mental
illness after falling from swing that kills both parents and she runs away to the
woods. Ryan is the one that survives. Because his parents and Bill never tell their
neighbors about the death of Carrie Anne, they assume that Carrie Anne still alive
while Ryan stays with his aunt. They also assume that his sister who has brain
damage after falling from the swing that attacks their parents then kills them.
Before Carrie Anne dies, Ryan grows into normal child and cheerful. He already
knows that his parents are drug addict and he will take care of his sister while
their parents are using drugs. After that incident, he acts normally like everything
is fine but he can not escape from his trauma of mental and physical torture as
child.
The trauma that occurs in his childhood really affects his structure of
personality and behavior. Already explain previously that Ryan shows his good
attitude since his new neighbor live near his house. Elissa is clearly defined as
something new for Ryan that gives him pleasant feeling. Elissa never tries to
avoid him as strange and dangerous person. It can be said that Ryan gets what he
wants from Elissa and it makes his personality structure balance. Ryan, who never
gets attention and love from his parents, finally receives that feeling from Elissa.
48
Although Elissa‘s mother forbids her to get closer with Ryan, she still gives Ryan
her attention and love. Ryan considers the way Elissa treats him is very different
from his angry parents that always smack and yell him at house. There are some
pictures about his angry parents created by Ryan. He hates them because they
always treat him like girl and never give him their love like parents did to their
child.
Picture 24 (01:33:52) Picture 25 (01:33:53) Picture 26 (01:34:25)
The pictures above, it symbolizes an attempt to cover an unpleasant
condition. The drawing of angry father and mother (it is shown by the eyebrows
pulled down together and narrowed lips) are covered by the flowered wallpaper
(see pictures 25 and 26) and there is a picture that showing happy children play in
the swing (see picture 27) in front of the new wallpaper. However, the unpleasant
condition can not be entirely covered since there is some ripped wallpaper
revealing the angry parents. This setting reflects Ryan‘s condition. He tries to
repress the traumatic experience and lives a quiet and peaceful life. According to
Freud, the memory and anxiety in repression will be reappearing in the conscious.
Someone should find the way to relieve his anxiety rather than hold the memories
and anxiety to the unconscious. Ryan only avoids his fear and unpleasant feeling
by remembering his pleasant with Carrie Anne. The ripped wallpaper shows the
49
hidden picture behind it as clearly describes that Ryan‘s effort to repress and
forget his painful memories is failed. Repression is not enough for him to recover
his trauma.
Picture 27 (00:32:10) Picture 28 (00:32:25)
There are another evidence that clearly shows Ryan never happy when he
is living with his parents in that house after the death of Carrie Anne. When Elissa
tells him that his family looks really happy (see picture 28), Ryan is only smiling
(see picture 29). From his expression above, it clearly describes that Ryan never
feel that he has a happy family. Based on the pictures of angry parents behind the
wallpaper, his parents only angry and abuse him all the time. Ryan is still looking
for happiness and love that he never felt since his childhood from parents. From
Elissa, he gets the feeling of being loved by other. This is the reason why Ryan
does good thing at the beginning of the film or since Elissa‘s arrival because he
can balance his personality structure and his strong id does not dominate the ego
anymore. When the id gets pleasure from Elissa which he never gets since
childhood, the id will not demand the ego for another pleasure.
After passing his horrible childhood, he tries to become the normal person
but he can not remove his trauma, so that, as the impact of this trauma affects his
psychological condition. Ryan shows his aggressiveness when it is about Carrie
50
Anne, he denies that his sister has died by refusing to accept the reality of this
situation. Moreover, the unacceptable feeling in repression will be projected to
others and Ryan projects Carrie Anne to another girl. It can be seen from his way
looking a girl in the bar after he buries the fake Carrie Anne who dies after the
high doses of tranquilizer (see picture 29). Ryan will look the girl carefully,
especially her hair and eyes (see picture 30). Ryan has strong desire to make his
sister still alive and it will bring happiness to him.
Picture 29 (00:58:31) Picture 30 (00:59:08)
As the result of projection, he creates fantasy about his life and Carrie
Anne. Ryan finds his pleasure with Carrie Anne so he chooses to live at his
fantasy in childhood when Carrie Anne is alive. It can be argued that Ryan has
fixation in Latency stage when he thinks that living in his fantasy in childhood is
more comfortable. He is afraid to take the next step as an adult that provokes too
many anxiety and unpleasant feeling.
Picture 31 (00:25:57) Picture 32 (00:36:00)
51
His fantasy makes Ryan kidnapping a girl that resembles of Carrie Anne‘s
appearance and locking her in the basement (see picture 31). He also dresses them
like girl in 6 years old (see picture 32). The ego wants to pleasure his desire to
have Carrie Anne by making fantasy and considering that the girl is Carrie Anne.
His weak superego can not make him realize about the kidnapped girl because his
id dominated. He will do whatever he likes to make his feeling pleasant and
comfort.
The way Ryan locks the girl at the basement clearly describe that he
avoids the unpleasant feeling and fear in his memory. Ryan locked at the Carrie
Anne‘s room by his parents before. His parents locked him at Carrie Anne‘s room
to consider that Carrie Anne was not died yet. So, Ryan reduces the unpleasant
memories and trauma by avoiding the room. It can be seen by his words (see
picture 33) that Ryan never comes to the room since the death of his family. Ryan
chooses to get out of the room and he shows his unpleasant feeling when entering
the room (see picture 34).
Picture 33 (00:33:16) Picture 34 (00:35:02)
From his words above, Ryan shows his unpleasant feeling about Carrie
Anne‘s room and it triggers the trauma he has in his childhood. This is the reason
why Ryan put the girl into the basement (see picture 35) because he wants to erase
52
his trauma about that room. Ryan always avoids all things that make him
remember about his childhood.
Picture 35 (00:24:45) Picture 36 (00:25:23)
When kidnapping the girl, he treats the fake Carrie Anne well by giving
the food, drink and sometimes stroking her hair, but he will inject the tranquilizer
when the girl is screaming and trying to escape (see picture 36). Ryan gives them
the tranquilizer more than once until ‗Carrie Anne‘ is quite. He does not want to
hurt the girl, it is just Ryan‘s way to make the girl calm and quite. The high doses
of tranquilizer accidentally kill the girl, Ryan feels regret and sad about it for a
moment then immediately finding another girl.
Ryan‘s behavior when injecting the girl also related to his fixation. He
always thinks that Carrie Anne is a child in 6 years of age, who does not have
power, dependent, fragile, and obedient. When the fake Carrie Anne shows her
wild behavior by screaming and trying to escape from Ryan or it could be said the
characteristics from child above disappeared, he will inject the girl to make her
calm like a child.
53
Picture 37 (01:04:15) Picture 38 (01:10:41)
Although Ryan has abnormal obsession about Carrie Anne, he knows how
to treat woman. When the woman is having menstruation, he will buy tampon72
for them (see picture 37). He will also buy the blue contact lenses (see picture 38)
to make them look like Carrie Anne. The blue eyes help him to connect with his
sister. But, there is peculiar thing about Ryan and Elissa, he never tries to kidnap
Elissa although she has blonde hair and white skin like Carrie Anne. This is
because Elissa as the pleasure for Ryan that gives affection and attention by trying
to come to his house just to know his condition although her neighbors and
mother warn her to avoid him, giving him a CD about music and sharing her
stories. Ryan could distinguish Elissa as the pleasure of being loved or Carrie
Anne as girl who can stop his abusive parents.
This is another example of the weak ego and superego, but with the strong
id. The ego fulfills the strong desire to make his id comfort and pleasure by
ignoring the guilty feeling. As explained previously, ego works with such defense
mechanism to indicate what object or situation is necessary to satisfy the need
from id. Ryan does negative way to pleasure his feeling and avoids his anxiety of
being abused and treated as girl.
72
Tampon is a plug (as of cotton) introduced into a body cavity usually to absorb secretions (as
from menstruation) or to arrest hemorrhaging.
54
Ryan, who previously cares about Elissa and treats her well, then he dares
to hurt her because she already knows the truth about the kidnapped girl. She
discovers the girl on the basement when she is looking for Ryan after the incident
in the Battle of the Band when Ryan breaks Tyler‘s leg. Elissa is shocked and she
decides to go from that house, but Ryan holds her.
Ryan: You have to promise me you won't tell anyone about Carrie Anne.
Elissa: Is this yours? (pointing at blue contact lenses and tampon)
Ryan: Yeah. Promise me you won't tell anyone about Carrie Anne.
Elissa: Yeah. Yeah, I promise. I have to go. My mom called.
(01:11:21,402 --> 01:12:08,242)
In this dialogue, Elissa shows her different attitude to Ryan. She uses her
mother as her reason to go from that house whereas she always ignores her mother
and begins to see him behind her mother‘s back. Realizing that Elissa starts to
avoid him, it reminds him of unpleasant memories in his childhood about parents
who avoid him as Ryan Jacobson and treats him as Carrie Anne. His anxiety
appears and the ego finds the way to reduce his anxiety by slamming Elissa‘s head
to the wall to make her faint and kidnaps Elissa in the basement (see picture 39).
Ryan hates anyone who treats him like his parents and he thinks that Elissa will be
the same as his parents. In this part, she is not his pleasure anymore.
Picture 39 (01:16:00)
While Ryan binds her hands in the basement, Bill comes to his house and
asks Ryan about Elissa. Then Ryan lies about Elissa is not there and leaves Bill in
55
front of his house. Feeling suspicious, Bill enters the house to find Elissa and
when he reaches the basement door, Ryan comes from behind pushing him down
the stairs.
Ryan : You could've stopped all of this a long time ago, but you didn't.
Bill : I protected you.
Ryan : No! You protected yourself, even though you knew what they did to
me!
(01:21:03,525 - 01:21:42,781)
Ryan has repressed his anger when Bill does not care about him who
suffers mental and physical torture as child by his parents, but his anger and
anxiety appears again. He blames Bill who does not care and defend Ryan in front
of his neighbor and Bill only protects himself. Ryan projects his ruin in life by
blaming Bill, he thinks that his life would be better if Bill does not supply drugs to
his parents, cares about him, and tells other people about the truth of his junkie
parents and the death of Carrie Anne. Bill actually can prevent Carrie Anne‘s
death if he has not sold the drugs to his parents; it refers to picture 40 when Bill
only looks Ryan when his parents punish him. Because of this, the id dominates
the ego to get satisfy immediately and the ego ignores the superego. He does
anything that only makes his id pleasure like previously he did to parents; he kills
the people who threaten him.
Picture 40 (01:21:28) Picture 41 (01:21:41)
56
Bill never protects Ryan when he is treated as girl to pay the death of
Carrie Anne, moreover Bill does not want his habit using drug is known by their
neighbors because he is a police officer there then he acts like he does not know
everything about Ryan‘s family. Bill is never really looking out for Ryan, but for
himself by making sure Ryan does not tell anyone about the cop giving his parents
drugs. Besides those reason, his id does not get any pleasure because the fake
Carrie Anne is died and Elissa starts to avoid him like other. When the id does not
get any pleasure, it will dominate the ego to get pleasure immediately. To let go of
his anger, Ryan stabs Bill to death (see picture 41) to satisfy his feeling and
reduce anxiety; this is such the way to release of annoyance because Ryan can not
express his unpleasant thought and feeling to Bill in which make his anxiety
become worst.
At the end of the story, Elissa who has been kidnapped by Ryan finally run
from him. Ryan can not let her go then threatens her with gun. Elissa grabs his
gun and shoots him. Ryan is not died there but Elissa puts him in Mental
Institution (see picture 42).
Picture 42 (01:33:06) Picture 43 (01:33:29)
Although Ryan is in Mental Institution, it does not recover his trauma and
mental illness. He still lives in his fantasy about Carrie Anne and remembers the
57
violence. He always brings back his memory in childhood when his parents
consider and treat him as Carrie Anne. It can be seen from the way he always
flashback to the time when his mother always calls him as Carrie Anne in his
birthday party (see picture 43).
Mary Jacobson: Let's get ready to blow out the candles, baby!
Make a wish, Carrie Anne.
Ryan Jacobson: My name's not Carrie Anne! It's Ryan!
Mary Jacobson: (slapping Ryan)
Yes, it is! Your name is Carrie Anne!
(01:33:09,542 - 01:33:26,606)
Based on the explanation above, I conclude that Ryan Jacobson in House
at the End of the Street film is having disturbance in his personality structure
because of his trauma in childhood. The title of this film as clearly describes about
Ryan‘s life. At the words ‗the end of the street‘ clearly describes Ryan‘s life is
ended there; at that house. Although he is in Mental Institution to recover his
trauma, he still lives in his fantasy at that house in childhood. That house also as
the symbol about Ryan after the murder is occurred; the house is abandoned by
the people and Ryan is also abandoned by his parents and neighbors. The house is
located at the end of the street and far from neighbors as the same condition with
Ryan that is isolated by neighbors and his mind is ended at his house as the child.
Ryan has been trying to live as normal person, but people around him can not
accept and help him. His superego is weak and the ego is dominated by the id. It
can be seen that Ryan‘s personality structure begins to break; they can not work in
harmony. His unpleasant memory that has repressed in the past tries to appear in
his conscious and the ego is unable to solve his emotional conflict of this
unpleasant feeling, so the id takes over his mind to reduce the anxiety
58
immediately. Ryan can not distinguish his own reality in mind that he has no
sister, to let go of his fear of losing Carrie Anne, he fantasizes that the girl in
white skin and blonde hair is Carrie Anne. He considers that his imagination and
fantasy about Carrie Anne are real.
As the conclusion, someone‘s behavior and personality structure are very
influenced by his or her childhood. When someone gets trauma in his childhood,
it needs more energy to remove unpleasant feeling in the past. The influence of
family and environment are very important in healing the trauma of someone. So,
the same condition is happened to Ryan. The lack of caregiver‘s role in
developmental stages in his childhood makes the personality of Ryan grows into
figure with no empathy about the bad thing he did and causes disturbance in his
personality structure. Ryan only does whatever he likes without thinking of other
people. All of his efforts to release of trauma are failed because he does not have
anyone to help him release his pain and he cannot solve his pain alone. He always
lives in his fantasy that Carrie Anne is the only one can bring happiness to him.
59
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
In this research, House at the End of the Street film is the unit of analysis.
This film tells about the house inhabited by 18 years old man, Ryan Jacobson. At
the beginning of the story, Ryan is depicted as kind man, calm, good listener,
gentle and care to woman. As the trauma and anxiety haunts Ryan‘s life, his
personality changes become abnormal and strange. Therefore, I am interested to
analyze the personality structure of Ryan Jacobson as the main character in this
film by using Sigmund Freud‘s Psychoanalysis theory; the appropriate theory to
analyze the changing structure of personality.
After analyzing the film, the conclusion is that Ryan has trauma in his
childhood that changes his personality structure. Ryan has trauma when he was 7
years old; he is abused by his parents when Carrie Anne is died after falling from
the swing when she was playing with Ryan. He is changed into girl by his parents
as the punishment to substitute Carrie Anne‘s role. Then, Ryan kills his parents
because he can not suffer more violence from them. Ryan‘s id dominates his ego
to release from pain as soon as possible and he does anything to please the id
when parents abuse him. If the superego always forbids the ego to not kill the
parents, then Ryan will suffer more pain and treat as girl throughout his life, so
the ego ignores the superego to stop his angry and junkie parents by killing them.
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The ego can not find any solution to stop the parents‘ behavior but kill them for
the reason that he has enough of their dress up games, mental torture and regrets.
Ryan develops psychological issue that make him has obsession to have
Carrie Anne with him all the time. Ryan becomes emotional and unstable after his
sister is died. Ryan‘s behavior becomes strange and abnormal when he kidnaps
the girl at basement that resemble of Carrie Anne‘s appearance in white skin,
blonde hair, and blue eyes. The fake Carrie Anne is the pleasure thing for Ryan,
because only his sister can reduce his fear and anxiety from abusive parents. If the
girl is died because of high doses of tranquillizer from Ryan then he will find new
girl to replace the dead girl. He does this repeatedly just to make his feeling
pleasure and comfort. Ryan‘s id always demands the ego to reduce anxiety and
fear by doing anything without consider the superego rules. When someone
knows his secret about the kidnapped girl then Ryan will kill him or her without
thinking about them. It could be said that Ryan‘s behavior is dominated by his id
to always get pleasure and satisfied as soon as possible, the ego fulfills the id by
ignoring the superego rules.
However, Ryan has done some good attitude in this film. He shows his
changing personality structure that he can balance his id, ego and superego like
normal person. This is because Elissa as his new neighbor treats him well by
giving him attention and affection. Ryan never gets love and attention since his
childhood. Ryan‘s id gets the pleasure from Elissa‘s behavior. Ryan could
distinguish Elissa who has the same appearances in white skin and blonde hair
like Carrie Anne, because both of them have different pleasure for him. Elissa
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gives Ryan pleasure as love, attention and affection while Carrie Anne as his
pleasure to feel safety, comfort, and free from the violence.
Ryan has disturbance in stages of development because the lack of
parents‘ role in his childhood. Ryan has fixation at the Latency stage; it makes
him become introvert, hard to socialize, and does not have friend because his
parents only lock him at Carrie‘s room. With this fixation, he finds the pleasure
only when in his childhood with Carrie Anne. Ryan will try to get the same
satisfaction in the latency stage when he finds much pleasure there by making
fantasy that Carrie Anne still alive.
In this film, there are some efforts from Ryan‘s ego to cover his fear and
anxiety by using several kinds of defense mechanism. The first is repression;
Ryan represses his unpleasant feeling when he gets violence by parents. When he
represses unpleasant feeling, he still can manage his structure of mind. He can
balance the ego that represents reality principle, with the id as pleasure and
superego that contains moral values. Ryan also represses his anger to Bill who
knows the truth of the death of Carrie Anne but he did nothing to help him from
his parents, then Ryan represses his anger to Tyler as his neighbor who always
mocks him. Second is denial; Ryan denies the truth that Carrie Anne is died and
he is the murderer of his parents. Third is projection; Ryan projects his failure in
his life because Bill never cares about him. Ryan also projects the dead Carrie
Anne to another girl he kidnapped by considering that Carrie Anne still alive; this
is his way to reduce fear and anxiety. He also does this to fulfill his desire to have
Carrie Anne so he did not get any violence. Fourth is fixation; Ryan feels that his
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life is more horrible when Carrie Anne is died and he chooses to avoid his fear by
living in childhood when his sister still alive in his 7 years of age. Ryan considers
that Carrie Anne is the only person that gives him pleasure feeling and free from
abuse. The last defense mechanism is fantasy; Ryan scares about the memory of
his abusive parents and his feeling of guilty about Carrie Anne that fall from the
swing, then he fantasizes that Carrie Anne still alive. Ryan fantasizes that the girl
at the basement as the real Carrie Anne. Ryan does this to let go of his desires
having Carrie Anne because he can not face reality that he has no sister then his
parents will abuse him into girl. However, Ryan is failed to reduce the anxiety
even the ego has done some defense mechanisms. It is not enough for Ryan to
solve his anxiety that reappears in his conscious. Ryan‘s personality structure is
dominated again by the strong id because trauma and anxiety always haunts him.
His ego is unable to solve the emotional conflict when he does not have Carrie
Anne near him, so the id uncontrollable and the ego ignores superego. It causes
him can not distinguish reality and his own mind. Ryan still considers his
imagination about Carrie Anne still alive is real.
B. Suggestion
From the analysis and conclusion above, I suggest readers who are
interested in doing the same research by using this film as the unit analysis to
watch the film seriously and understand the story of film well before analyzing it.
The reader should watch carefully every scenes and dialogues that might be show
interesting part to be analyzed. However, the reader can use another theory and
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approach—not only Psychoanalysis—to analyze some aspect in this film. There
are still some interesting aspects that readers could find in this film. Readers can
use other psychological issues such Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or analyze other characters in this film.
Finally, I hope this research could give the contribution and information to the
students in English Letters Department who want to analyze character in other
film using Psychoanalysis theory by Sigmund Freud, especially in the structure of
personality; id, ego and superego.
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APPENDICES
A. Cover of House at the End of the Street Film