A Freudian Analysis of the Absent Mother in Dicken's Oliver Twist.

A detailed Summary of A Freudian Analysis of the Absent Mother in Dicken's Oliver Twist.

In this essay I will look at the absence of the mother in the novel Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, using a Freudian analysis. The main focus of this paper will look at how Sigmund Freud uses his psychosexual theories, defense mechanisms, and his analysis of the psyche and apply them to the missing mother in the Dickens novel. With Freud's ideas I will try to explain how the main character Oliver Twist should have grown up in a different manner then what Dickens depicted in his book. In the end one will be able to see the psychological perspective of Freud and how the absence of a mother can effect the maturation of a child.

Freud is one of the pioneers in his field of psychology and paved the way for future psychologists in many aspects. The most famous piece of work that Sigmund accomplished is his theories of psychosexual development of children. In the book, Insights Into Child Development, by Stanley K. Fitch, an author who received " Man of Achievement -1973 award from England, states that " Each child's personality could be explained according to this theory" (38). Freud states that each person goes through three levels of awareness, three functional divisions of the psyche, five stages of psychosexual development, and

Fitch 40). For example in Fitch's book, " Freud noticed many of his patients experienced considerable turmoil or conflict" (40).

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see that the best care for Oliver is not at hand. He is given barely enough food and clothing toped of with an elderly woman to look after him with "twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders" (4). With out the presence of a mother giving attention to a child they will never go through Freud's Phallic stage when the Oedipus complex takes place. During this complex the child is supposed to be fixed sexually on his mother and resolves the attraction to his mother by relating to the father (Fitch 296). The child resolves its complex by picking up his father's moral judgments and values to help form the core of the child's conscience (296). Thus its easy to see that Oliver would not have grown out of this complex because, first he had no mother to sexually desire and build a strong relationship with, and if he did there was no real father figure for him to dissolve the complex. " The child will grow up normal if caregivers strike a proper balance between the two opposing forces" (!

Of the five stages that Sigmund has developed one is of utmost concern with the development of the Oedipus complex . This complex takes place during the ages of three to six years of age and marks the beginning of a major conflict in the child's life that must be resolved by identifying with the parent of the same sex (Click 32). With this idea in mind one can see that Oliver did not grow up

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Approximate Word count = 1067
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels