Psychological Problem of Amy Elliot Dunne Character

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM OF AMY ELLIOT DUNNE CHARACTER

IN GONE GIRL FILM (2014)

A Thesis

Submitted to Faculty of Adab and Humanities

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Strata One

YUNIA SARI CHAIRUNNISA

1112026000073

ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA 2019

ABSTRACT

Yunia Sari Chairunnisa. Psychological Problem of Amy Elliot Dunne Character in Gone Girl Film (2014). A Thesis: English Language and Literature, Faculty of Adab and Humanities State Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2019.

This thesis focuses on Amy Elliot Dunne as the main character in Gone Girl film. The aims of this thesis to observe the psychological problem of Amy’s character from the concept of characterization, personality structure, anxiety, and defense mechanism. This research employs descriptive analytical as the technique to analyze the data with the theory of Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud and also characterization by Petrie W. Dennis and Joseph M. Boggs. The data are collected from the narrative of scripts and several pictures in the film. From the analysis of this film, the writer concludes that Amy Dunne has some genuine characterization those are; emotional, manipulative, and lack of remorse. Her negative personality occurs because she suffers from neurotic anxiety. The antecedent of her anxiety based on the presence of Amazing Amy book who portrayed the life of a fictional perfect girl. Furthermore, unpleasant treatment from her parents and the shadow of the Amazing Amy makes her unconsciously has an obsession towards the Amazing Amy. Based on the research findings, the writer finds that Amy's obsession motivates her to always forces her life as perfectly as the Amazing Amy. When there is an object that prevents her from accomplishing her obsession and causes her in discomfort situation. Thus, she does not hesitate to act destructively to her obstacle. This action is due to an imbalance of the three parts of Amy's personality structure. Although her ego uses some defense mechanisms to protect against anxiety, these methods are not enough for her to eliminate her anxiety.

Keywords: Personality Structure, Anxiety, Defense Mechanism, Trauma, Psychoanalysis.

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this submissions is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other diploma of the university or another institute of higher learning, except where due the acknowledgement has been made in the text.

Jakarta, 7th May 2019

Yunia Sari Chairunnisa

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

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, the writer would like to give the most appreciation and eternal gratitude to Allah SWT, for his infinity guidance and blessing to the writer so she could accomplish her thesis. Then may peace be upon to our beloved prophet Muhammad

SAW and all of his followers.

This thesis is dedicated to the writer’s everlasting role models Sutikah and H.

Chairun Anwar who always give their never-ending supply of love, energy, and patience for her in accomplishing this thesis. The writer also wants to express the highest gratitude to her great advisor; Inayatul Chusna M. Hum for her great patience, time, kindness and contribution in correcting and helping the writer to finish this thesis.

Thanks for all of her advices that have been given to me. May Allah always bless her and her family.

Another special gratitude is also dedicated to all writer’s anti stressors during her study - Rumpun Tawa member; Sharfina Shabirahannisa, Mita Ekasari, Fitri and

Mustika Oktavia who always encourage the writer to finish her thesis. The writer is truly thankful that you are always being her daily dose of happiness. To Fita Megeta

Sari for being her endorphins who always create positive synergy

The writer also would like to convey her sincerity grateful particularly to:

1. Saiful Umam, Phd., the Dean of Faculty of Adab and Humanities.

2. Drs. Saefudin, M.Pd., the Head of English Letters Department.

3. Elve Oktaviyani, M.Hum., the Secretary of English Letters Department.

4. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum, and Pita Merdeka, M.A, the writer’s thesis

examiners.

5. All lecturers of English Letters Departments who could not be mentioned one

by one.

6. Ika Chairina Nurul A, Septianto Arief, Permata Vyrna Andani and

Berlianamora who always being the writer’s ultimate support system.

7. Riska, Tiara, Bella, and Indri who always cheers and gives support to the writer.

8. ELD B 2012, Literature Class 2012, and KKN Prasasti 2015 members who

cannot be mentioned one by one.

Finally, the writer hopes this thesis will be useful for the readers or researchers who are interested to analyze the unit of analysis by applying Freud’s psychoanalysis theory.

The writer realizes her thesis is far from being perfect. Thus, the writer welcomes any advice, criticism, and suggestion for better improvement.

Jakarta, May 15th 2019

Yunia Sari Chairunnisa

TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………. i

APPROVAL SHEET………………………………………………………….. ii

LEGALIZATION……………………………………………………………… iii

DECLARATION………………………………………………………………. iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………………………………... v

TABLE OF CONTENT……………………………………………………….. vii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION………………………………….…... 1

A. Background of the Research………………………… 1 B. Focus of the Research……………………………….. 4 C. Research Question…………………………………... 4 D. Significance of the Research…………………….…... 4 E. Research Methodology…………….………………... 5 1. The Objectives of the Research…………………. 5 2. The Method of the Research…………………….. 5 3. The Instrument of the Research…………………. 5 4. The Unit of Analysis…………………………….. 6 5. The Technique of Data Analysis………………… 6 6. Research Design…………………………………. 6 CHAPTER II THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION……………………. 8

A. Previous Research…………………………………… 8 B. Character Theory……………………………………. 10 C. Techniques of Characterization……………………... 12 D. Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis…………………… 15

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1. The Structure of Personality……………………. 18 2. Anxiety…………………………………...... 22 3. Defense Mechanism……………………………. 24 CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDINGS……………………………… 27

A. Character Analysis…………………………………. 29 B. Amy Dunne’s Psychological Problem……………... 40 C. Personality Structure of Amy Dunne………………. 53 CHAPTER IV CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTION……………… 61

A. Conclusions…………………………………...... 61 B. Suggestions..………………………………………. 62 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………. 64

APPENDICES………………………………………………………...... 66

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Research

Presently, film is one of the media that are often used by the scriptwriter, and director to express their ideas about issues which related to the element of human life, such as political, social, and psychological problems. There are many characters in film who suffers from psychological problems, such as; Tyler Durden the main character in

Fight Club (1999) film who suffers from dissociative identity disorder, he does not realize that he has two different personalities in his body, the character of Jerry

Hickfang in The Voices (2014) film who has a schizophrenia problem, he cannot understand what is real and what is imaginary, and also obsessive-compulsive disorder in Nina character in Black Swan (2010) film.

Another film that also deals with the psychological issue is Gone Girl. This film depicts the life of a woman, named Amy Elliot Dunne who looks perfect but actually has a psychological problem. She is a career woman and works in a women's magazine company as a writer questionnaire. Both of her parents are the author of a children's book Amazing Amy. This book tells about the life of a fictional girl character named

Amy which is portrayed as a perfect girl. Amazing Amy has several series, that tell the life of Amy character from childhood to adulthood, and it ends with happiness when the character of Amy married with a perfect man. The book series of Amazing Amy is very popular and successful in America. As the effect of this book, Amy Elliot Dunne

who is the main inspiration behind this book is considered by American public as a perfect girl figure.

At first, Amy Dunne is described as a smart woman, beautiful, and rich. She is the only child of her parents. Many people admire her because they believe that the character of Amy in Amazing Amy represents Amy Dunne whereas, behind all of her achievements, she has a dark side that is not known by people around her. She has a psychological problem that is caused by the pressures that she experienced when she was a child. Amazing Amy portrays herself as the perfect girl, and that perfect side is the strong pressure for Amy Dunne. Amy hates her parents because she has to be perfect image and live behind the shadow of Amazing Amy fictional character.

Amy Dunne is married to a man named Nick Dunne. He works as a writer in a men’s magazine. Their married life is perfect, but after several years, their married life begins to deteriorate. One day, Amy Dunne discovers her husband having an affair with a young woman, Amy feels betrayed by her husband. She wants to take revenge on her husband by making herself disappear. Through a variety of evidence that has been prepared, Amy wants her disappearance to be a murder case, and make her husband as the murderer. To succeed her plan, Amy has no doubt to do anything such as kill someone or even herself. Besides her husband, Amy has also framed her ex- boyfriends, Tommy O’Hara, and Desi Colling. She reported to the police that Tommy has raped her, and she is also set Desi as the person who kidnaps her.

The summary above indicates that the main character suffers has a psychological problem, she does many excessive actions to several persons who hurt

her. This is the main reason Gone Girl film is chosen as the object of this research. To find out the background of the main character actions, it required a study of psychology that related to the literary studies. In the case of the psychological problem that is suffered by Amy Dunne, Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis is the most appropriate approach to examine the collected data.

The writer also specifically uses structure of personality theory to reveal Amy

Dunne character personality. Some of the personality problem in Amy Dunne character is interesting to be analyzed, such as Amy Dunne’s change behavior, her distress feelings since childhood, and also defense mechanism that she uses to relieve her anxiety. These things are closely related to the three models of the nervous system.

Freud divided it into three parts: the Id, ego, and superego. The Id assigned to deliver human needs, and related to instinctive human impulses, such as desire, urge and lust.

The Id based on the pleasure principles. Beside the Id, there is also ego. The ego has a function as a connector between the desire, and reality, this part based on reality principles. The superego is a rule or norm that has been formed by parental standards.

Superego consists of two subsystems: conscience (prohibition, and punishment), and ego-ideal (praise, or reward) (Feist, 30). If it is analyzed, it can be known that since childhood Amy Dunne felt anxious by the presence of the Amazing Amy book and as the result, she has a psychological problem.

B. Focus of the Research

This research will focus on how character, and psychological problem of the main character Amy Elliot Dunne in Gone Girl film. Based on those problems,

Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis theory is the most appropriate theory that should be applied in this research.

C. Research Question

Based on the background of study, and the focus of the research above, the writer concentrates on answering questions as follows:

1. How is the characteristic of Amy Elliot Dunne as the main character

depicted in Gone Girl film?

2. How are the psychological problems of Amy Elliot Dunne viewed from

Psychoanalysis theory of Sigmund Freud?

D. Significance of the Research

The writer hopes the results of this study can be used:

1. As information for common people to understand about psychoanalysis

theory of Sigmund Freud along with the sample of problem.

2. For the readers who are interested in the study of literature, especially

psychological issue.

3. As reference for the other researchers who wants to analyze a film, and

using personality theory by Sigmund Freud to reveal the personality, and

also psychological problems of the main character.

4. As input for literary studies in Faculty of Adab and Humanities, State

Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.

E. Research Methodology

This research will be divided into some parts: The Objectives of the Research,

The Method of the Research, The Instrument of the Research, The Unit of Analysis,

The Technique of Data Analysis, and Research Design.

1. The Objectives of the Research

Based on the research question above, the objective of this research is to know the character of Amy Elliot Dunne that is depicted in film, and also her psychological problems that are reflected in this film.

2. The Method of the Research

In this research, the writer uses qualitative methods. This is related to the questions and object of this research, which is a literary text. Silverman argued that qualitative methods are usually the most appropriate method to find out the social facts or the causes of some phenomenon. Qualitative methods are best suited if the research uses ‘what’ and ‘how’ questions (Silverman, 25). Therefore, this method can be useful in this research to explain, describe, and interpret the meaning of which appears in the corpus.

3. The Instrument of the Research

In this research, the writer roles as the main instrument by watching the film several times, interpreting, or analyzing the scripts of Gone Girl film, identifying, and classifying of the collected data.

4. The Unit of Analysis

The unit analysis in this research is the script and screenshot images of Gone

Girl film. This film officially released on October, 3rd 2014 by Twentieth Century Fox

Film, and Regency Enterprises.

5. The Technique of Data Analysis

The writer begins the research process by observing the script of Gone Girl film, and watching the corpus repeatedly. This step helps the writer to understand the character of Amy Elliot Dunne. Furthermore, the writer also uses descriptive analysis to analyze the data.

6. Research Design

This research consist of four chapters, chapter I is an introduction started with

Background of the Research, Focus of the Research, Research Question, Significance of the Research, and ended with Research Methodology in which consist of the

Objectives of the Research, the Method of the Research, the Instrument of the

Research, the Unit of Analysis, the Technique of Data Analysis, and Research Design.

All of them are to inform about the research.

Chapter II entitled the Theoretical Description. It consists of Previous Research, and Concept. The previous research aims to the writer know the position of this research, whether as the new research or continue the previous research to analyze this film as the unit of analysis. In addition, the character and characterization theory as the proponent to answer the question of this research.

Chapter III entitled Research Findings. It consists of the analysis of the characterization of the main character Amy Elliot Dunne, and her psychological problem through the anxiety and defense mechanism concept of Freud’s

Psychoanalysis theory.

Chapter IV is conclusions and suggestion which contain the conclusion of the analysis about the psychological problem that is suffered by Amy Elliot Dunne as the main character in the film and the suggestion of the writer to the reader who are interested to analyze the research by applying Psychoanalysis theory by Sigmund

Freud, especially personality structure, anxiety, and defense mechanism concept.

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION

A. Previous Research

As consideration of this study, the writer attaches several previous researches has also conducted an analysis of the research object of Gone Girl film. It is intended to find out how far this object has been analyzed.

The first paper is taken from an article analysis of Dr. Paul Puri (psychiatrist) in Huffington Post. http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5922842.html. In Puri’s analysis, he declared that the character of Amy Dunne suffered from psychiatric problems that

DSM Cluster B which includes Antisocial and Borderline disorders. He explains that someone who commits violence against another person to their satisfaction, and no guilt feelings are the traits of Antisocial personality disorder, and both of these behaviors are represented in the character of Amy Dunne in this film.

According to his paper, the character of Amy Dunne also has behavior tends to hurt herself, and it happened when she hurt herself with a bottle of wine, and this behavior indicates that she suffered from Borderline disorder. Puri added that Amy's behavior really kind of tracks with the lack of perspective on what she's doing compared to society norms. Within her world and her narrative for herself, she's the

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hero, and she has to paint a picture for herself that we all do of how these kinds of circumstances could make her as the hero.

Moreover, in Amy’s case, she's really playing the victim, so she's creating a real dramatic victim role, so that she can be the hero. In Puri’s analysis, he only examined the character of Amy Dunne in general by using the theory of psychopath. He did not analyze more detail about the reasons of Amy Dunne character suffered from

Borderline personality and Antisocial disorders.

Second, the research taken from a final project, which written by Erie Putri

Rachmadany; Dynamics of Personality in the Character of Amy Dunne in David

Fincher's Movie Gone Girl. In her analysis, she uses Freud's psychoanalytic theory, and focuses on the concept of personality structure. Errie explained that there are several aspects of the dynamics of personality represented in Gone Girl film, and these are represented in the distribution, and disposal of psychic energy that is shown through the main character of Amy Dunne, towards the conflicts of her life. She explains that immoral actions of Amy Dunne character caused by her Id structure more dominate than the other structures.

In addition, the disharmony interaction between the Id, ego, and superego of

Amy Dunne causing her dynamics is unwise, because of that she shows signs her psychological problems, such as murder her ex-boyfriend Desi Collings, and also frames her husband Nick Dunne as a murderer of her. In this paper, the writer only

focuses on Amy’s personality structure, and she does not apply another concept of

Freud, like the anxiety and defense mechanism that Amy Dunne character uses.

Therefore, this research will be focused to complete explanation of the psychological problem of Amy Dunne character. Then give more detailed information about the personality structure, anxiety and the defense mechanism on the main female character of Amy Dunne that has not been explained by other researchers.

B. Character Theory

Character is one of the principal elements in a film. Character has a function to illustrate the events, and make the story more interesting to the audience. Igartua expounded that characters are a central component of the film fictional narratives, and therefore it is appropriate to expect that a greater identification with the main characters in films will lead to a greater enjoyment ... (Igartua, 352). Actually, the character remains an important aspect of a film in any kind of genre, and it is not limited in fiction genre.

Jens Eder also has an interesting opinion which support that the character is a major aspect in film;

“the topics of narratives and other artworks growing niche to be linked to the properties, values, conflicts, needs, weaknesses or developments of characters; conversely, characters give relevance and unity to stories or artworks as a whole.” (Eder, 46)

The majority of the contents of film story are commonly found all materials that are related to the character, and also several aspects that support detailed explanation of a character in the film. Therefore, without the presence of the characters, the audience will not understand the ideas, and topic of a film story in it is entirety.

The process of character creation is one of the most important parts in the production of a film, in this process the filmmakers created a character through a lot of consideration, and cannot be carelessly. If they were reckless in creating the character, this can lead to incoherence between the story, and the characters. Boggs believed that characters must seem real, understandable, and worth caring about. For the most part, the characters in a story are believable in the same way that the story is believable

(Boggs, 60). If the characters appear in a film seem plausible, it causes the film story also appear unreasonable.

These two aspects led to a film become not good. Boggs has written in his book that one of the characteristics of good story is a story that has credible value, (Boggs,

42) and consequently the filmmaker must be careful in creating the character.

A character which appears in a film as a human being can also be imagined by the audience as a "real person", Bortolussi asserted that the characters are assumed to have coherent, fully developed, and consistent personalities. Like real people, they are assumed to have psychological motives and unconscious drives. (Bortolussi, 135).

Although, the human character in a film is a fictional character, the author must equip their characters with some aspects of humanity to make the characters in their film believable, and the audience can imagine if these characters are real people.

According to Jens Eder, there are several important things to be known by filmmakers in the process of creating a character,

“We shall in the following understand by the concept of character human beings or human-like living beings in literary text, whereby similarity to human beings is established by at least one of the following features; intentional action, speech, internal life and external appearance.”(Eder, 213)

Some features in above will help the audience to more understand of a character in the film, and this definition is commonly referred to as characterization.

C. Technique of Characterization

Characterization always presents in every character. Characterization plays a vital role in describing about main qualities of a character in detail. Moreover, the image of a character in the film is also very dependent on the role of characterization.

Eder argued that its deal readers will build an image of a character through statements, and descriptive detail given by narrators and other characters; readers will infer personality traits through written details of the characters, inner action with other characters. (Eder, 322)

A film should be made as attractive as possible for the audience interested to watch it. In order to make a story to be interesting for the audience, the characterization of a character must seem real, understandable, and trustworthy. Filmmaker can create the illusion of truth in a variety of ways to convince the audience to their film story.

According to Boggs, there are several kinds of characterization, but in this research the writer only applied five kinds of characterization, which are:

1) Characterization Through Appearance

Spectators make certain assumptions about character because of their facial features, dress, physical build, and mannerisms and the way they move. It causes a major aspect of film characterization is revealed visually and instantaneously, but the first visual impression may be proven erroneous as the story progresses (Boggs, 60).

In this sense, appearance aspect does have a great influence in analyzing a character, but the characterization of this type cannot be used as a benchmark in determining the disposition of a character, because the outside appearance can deceive the true personality of the character.

2) Characterization Through Dialogue

Characters in a fictional film naturally reveal a great deal about themselves by what they say, and also 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. The characters' educational background, social status, and economic levels can also be identified through the application of their grammar, and sentence structure (Boggs, 61)

3) Characterization Through External Action

The best reflections of character are a person's actions. The real characters are more than mere instruments of the plot, that they do what they do for a purpose, out of motives that are consistent with their overall personality. 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. If the motivation for a character's action is clearly established, the character and the plot become so closely interwoven that they are impossible to separate, and every action that the character takes in some way reflects the quality of his or her particular personality. (Boggs, 62)

4) Characterization Through Internal Action

There are several internal actions that are present on a film character, such as secrets, unspoken thoughts, daydreams, memories, fears, and fantasies. Bogs postulated that 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 than any real catastrophic failure (Boggs, 62).

In reality, internal actions cannot be seen, and heard by others, but the reasons of filmmaker to keep showing some internal actions, because this action has a great influence in revealing the real personality of a character. Thus, the filmmaker will do anything for audience to conceive their character. Commonly, they revealed inner reality is by taking us visually or aurally into the character's mind so that we see or hear the things that the character imagines, remembers, or thinks about. (Boggs, 62)

5) Characterization Through Reactions of Other Characters

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. (Boggs,

64)

Characterization is reputed to be the best revelation, or analysis of a character in a film, and there is no other way to convey to the audience how the original disposition of a character when acting in the film. Bortolussi had a notion that characterization would seem to be an overriding motivation of the implied author, with the events of the narrative merely serving to provide information about the characters

(Bortolussi, 133). As a result, characterization is eminently beneficial for the audience to understand a character in depth.

D. Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis

At this time the term of psychoanalysis was known to be closely related to the psychology, and literature, before it formed into a literary theory, psychoanalysis concept was originally used as a treatment that aims to cure mental disorders "by investigating the interaction between the elements of conscious and unconscious in the mind". (Barry, 113). This method is an approach that is often used by doctors to understand the behavior of psychiatric patients. End of the nineteenth century is a remarkably decade for the advancement of psychoanalysis, this theory successfully developed by Sigmund Freud into a general theory of the human mind. (Rennison, 41)

Sigmund Freud was a neurologist from Vienna, he constructs his idea of this theory is based on his experience when dealing with patients with mental problems

(Rennison, 13). Freud devoted the rest of his career to evolve his psychoanalysis theory, he analyzes his own dreams, and reads the various of sciences, and humanities books.

These experiences provided the basic data for the evolution of his theory during 50

years (Feist,17). Because of his great contribution, today the influence of psychoanalysis extends into almost all dimensions of modern literary theory.

The main hypothesis of psychoanalysis theory stated that human behavior, actions, and thoughts are determined by psyche energy, and it constituted largely by the unconscious part in the human mind. Freud postulated that,

“we bear a form of “otherness” within ourselves: we cannot claim fully to comprehend even ourselves, why we act as we do, why we make certain moral and political decision, much of our thought and action is not freely determined by us but driven by unconscious forces which we can barely fathom” (Habib, 571).

There is no action that taken by humans without any reason, because every action has a cause, and there are mental processes that lies behind human action. This interpretation leads the way to understanding the deeper explanation of human mental activities, and Freud explained it clearly in his book Introduction to Metapsychology.

In this book, he described the mind from three points of view. First, there were the different parts of the mind; the unconscious repressed urges and memories; the preconscious, which filters materials that can be brought into the conscious mind; and the conscious mind itself. (Muckenhoupt, 116).

The conscious plays a relatively minor role in human mind. In this part, all bad experiences of human will be repressed, and stored into the unconscious mind.

Conscious mind contains all the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions that you are

presently aware of. (Larsen, 289) The conscious part is the only level of mental life directly available to human, and this part also contributes to human behavior although not dominating. Freud described that unconscious processes often enter into consciousness but only after being disguised or distorted enough to elude censorship.

(Feist, 24) Based on this mental process, people can think logically.

Between unconscious, and conscious, there are also preconscious. This part of the mind generally represents ordinary memory. We are not consciously aware of the information contained in the Preconscious; however, we can retrieve it and pull it into consciousness at any time. (Siegfried, 2) In other words, the preconscious mind is a repository of easily accessible memories, and the contents memory in this part is not threatening to the human personality.

Unconscious mind is a founding factor of human psyche which stores memories, feelings, and urges that are outside of conscious awareness. Unconscious has the strongest influence than any other part on the human action, and behavior. The majority of content in this part are memories that are so alarming to the conscious mind.

Freud added that most of the contents of the unconscious were unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict. […] the unconscious continually influences behavior and experience, even though there is no awareness of the influences

(Siegfried, 2). All memory that are potentially disturb of human psyche will never be aware, because they automatically expunged from the conscious mind, and need much effort to retrieve them.

The third viewpoint give a significant influence on the development of Freud's theory to comprehend human behavior, but the process of human mental life is very difficult to explain by a researcher, because it has an intangible form. Moreover, is also too simple to conclude that human behavior is only based on the concept of unconsciousness, and consciousness.

To decipher the complexities of the human mental life, in the early 1920s, Freud had arrived at a view which extended this to a tripartite structure. With some small modifications, Freud introduced that the three parts of the mind, he named the ego, the

Id and the superego. (Rennison, 38) This concept is known as structure of personality.

According to Siegfried’s journal, if you want to have an understanding of why we behave as we do, it is necessary to identify the formation and structure of the human psyche. (Siegfried, 1)

1. The Structure of Personality

As mentioned earlier, in the human mind there is an interaction between the main three components; the id, the ego, and the superego. The third component has its own function, purpose, and also operates according to different principles. All components of the personality have contributed to human behavior, and all of the components must in balance. As Rennison described, mentally healthy individual the id, ego and super-ego interact in a balanced way (Rennison, 40)

a. The Id

The Id is the oldest component of personality, and it present since the infant was born. The Id contains all human’s instinctual drives, such as needs, urges, impulses, human bodily needs, sex, and aggression.

When there is a desire that unfulfilled, it will lead to increased tension, and it must be discharged. Therefore, the Id always wants to obtain immediate pleasure and avoid pain, regardless of how harmful it might be to others. This process is a natural matter that happens to everyone. William Siegfried declared,

“The Id acts according to the pleasure principle, and is unresponsive to the demands of reality. The pleasure principle drives the Id to seek immediate gratification of all needs, wants, and desires. […] Psychological tension is created that needs to somehow be discharged” (Siegfried, 1).

The Id is the most primitive components because they are never had direct interaction with reality. In contrast, the ego, and superego components are an important new development of the Id that has been differentiated by the external world. Lahey mentioned that as we grow up, our interaction with our parents and other parts of the real world lead us to convert part of the Id into two other parts of the mind-the ego and superego that help us cope more effectively with the world. (Lahey, 414)

b. The Ego

Ego is a component of personality that interacts directly with the reality. Ego plays a vital role in organizing a dialogue between the individual, and the external world. They are also not operated by the pleasure principle, because the real world does

not operate with these principles. The Ego is governed by the reality principle, which it tries to substitute for the pleasure principle of the Id. […] the ego becomes the decision-making or executive branch of personality. The ego constantly tries to reconcile the blind, irrational claims of the Id and the superego with the realistic demands of the external world. (Feist, 29) Through reality principles, the Ego can delay

Id’s gratification until the situation is possibly for ego to satisfy unfulfilled desires.

The Ego was instrumental in determining whether or not a healthy personality of person. The strong ego that capable to maintain the stability of the interaction between internal and external realities becomes the criterion of a perfect mental. Feist considered that in the healthy individual, the Id and superego are integrated into a smooth functioning ego and operate in harmony and with a minimum of conﬂict. (Feist,

31)

As a stabilizer in human personality, the Ego uses several methods to defense itself against anxiety that can interfere of human mental life. Feist gives a statement that;

“the ego continues to develop strategies for handling the id’s unrealistic and unrelenting demands for pleasure. At times the ego can control the powerful, pleasure-seeking id, but at other times it loses control. They identify with their parents and begin to learn what they should and should not do. This is the origin of the superego” (Feist, 29) c. Superego

The last component of personality is Superego. Superego represents the moral and ideal aspects of personality and is guided by the moralistic and idealistic principles

as opposed to the pleasure principle of the Id and the realistic principle of the ego.

(Feist, 30)

Superego is a component that emerges through the process of interaction between an individual, and their parents. This component contains the moral values which they obtained during that process, so that the person can comply with the regulations that apply in the real world. Rennison stated in his book,

This super-ego demands perfection of the ego, that it meets impossible ideals of thought and behaviour. In essence, the superego is the internalized voice of parents, careers and society which provide the individual with the rules and regulations that guide it. Often operating unconsciously, the super-ego provides us all with our conscience, our sense of what is right and what is wrong, and demands that we often behave in ways acceptable to society (Rennison, 39-40).

As a result of the internalization of a parent figure, the superego is divided into two subsystems; the conscience and the ego-ideal. The conscience results from experiences with punishments for improper behavior and tells us what we should not do, whereas the ego-ideal develops from experiences with rewards for proper behavior and tells us what we should do. […] Guilt is the result when the ego acts or even intends to act contrary to the moral standards of the superego (Feist, 30). The role of parents is crucial in the formation of superego component, because they are the first role model for human in the external world. Morals taught to the individual will be absorbs by them, thus the superego can be established.

In addition, personality structure is not really actual entities in the human mind.

Hothersall insisted that they are just concepts that Freud devised to describe processes he inferred from behavior. (Hothersall, 372)

2. Anxiety

Anxiety it plays as one of the most important concepts on Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, and also has a great influenced to the development of personality. Freud (1933/1964) emphasized that anxiety is a felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation that warns the person against impending danger (Feist, 33). The sources of anxiety are come from any object, one of the them is the attitudes of the object that create in the ego experiences of amorous rejection and abandonment. (Arbiser, 110). Freud divided the anxiety based on their sources, and there are three kinds of anxieties:

a. Neurotic anxiety

Neurotic anxiety is deﬁned as apprehension about an unknown danger. The feeling itself exists in the ego, but it originates from id impulses. People may experience neurotic anxiety in the presence of […] authority ﬁgure because they previously experienced unconscious feelings of destruction against one or both parents. During childhood, these feelings of hostility are often accompanied by fear of punishment, and this fear becomes generalized into unconscious neurotic anxiety.

Besides being a signal to the ego, anxiety can be the risk for individual, Hall postulated that the increasing pressure of neurotic anxiety may cause a person to lose his head and do something very impulsive. The consequences of the impulsive deed

are reckoned by as being less painful than the anxiety itself. Neurotic anxiety is not only a signal impending danger to the ego, it is also the danger itself (Hall, 69). He added, acting out one’s impulses reduces neurotic anxiety by relieving the pressure which the Id exerts upon the ego (Hall, 67).

b. Moral Anxiety

Moral anxiety is the result of a conﬂict between the ego and the superego. This anxiety appears when a person experienced as feelings of guilt or shame in their ego, and as the moral agent the superego dictate the ego if the person is failed to behave consistently with what they regard as morally right (Feist, 34).

c. Realistic Anxiety

Realistic Anxiety is closely related to fear. This anxiety is deﬁned as an unpleasant, nonspeciﬁc feeling involving a possible danger to the real object (Feist,

34). In addition, Freud explained that there is a relation between trauma and anxiety, according to him the fundamental determinant of automatic anxiety is the occurrence of a traumatic situation. The traumatic situation itself is clearly the direct descendant of the accumulation of unsatisfied desires and it leads to a situation of helplessness

(Freud, 81). When the person cannot satisfy his Id, it causes him overwhelmed by anxiety, and release the anxiety by act destructively. his capacity to be aggressive’ is mobilized by the ego in order to avoid unpleasure and pain. He identifies the aggressor where the main motivation is anxiety, and aggression is initiated by the ego. (Perelberg,

23).

3. Defense Mechanism

Defense mechanism is the ego’s method to reduce tension, anxiety, feelings that threaten the personality. As Hall expounded that one of the major tasks imposed upon the ego is that of dealing with the threats and dangers that beset the person and arouse anxiety. The ego may try to master danger by adopting realistic problem-solving methods, or it may attempt to alleviate anxiety by using methods that deny, falsify, or distort reality and that impede the development of personality. The methods are called defense mechanism of the ego (Hall, 85). Hence, defense mechanism is useful to protect an individual from the pain of anxiety.

When people confront a conflict in the external reality, in unconsciously their ego develop a mechanism to cope with that conflict. This process is normally performed by humans to defend themselves in the external world, but it can also be destructive if that person is using this method in an extreme way. Feist claimed that when people carried to an extreme they lead to compulsive, repetitive, and neurotic behavior. Because we must expend psychic energy to establish and maintain defense mechanisms, the more defensive we are, the less psychic energy we have left to satisfy

Id impulses (Feist, 34).

In summary, the primary intention of defense mechanism is to meet the demands of Id without being in conflict with the external worlds, and this method could effective if the person can implement it in properly.

a. Repression

Repression is the most fundamental mechanism. This mechanism works unconsciously to forget the unpleasant experiences, or memories that may conflict with external reality. Freud assumed that whenever the ego is threatened by undesirable id impulses, it protects itself by repressing those impulses; that is, it forces threatening feelings into the unconscious (Feist, 35). Moreover, Freud explained when the ego is threatened by undesirable Id impulses, it protects itself by repressing those impulses into the unconscious (Freud, 1926/1959a) (Feist, 35).

However, all memory that has been pushed into unconsciousness still has influence on the later behavior of the individual, despite those memories will never be realized by humans. In Freud’s view, repressed material never dies. Somehow it will return in symbolic acts, dream symbols, slips of the tongue, and other ways.

(Hothersall, 374)

b. Introjection

According to Feist, this mechanism works by apply other people's personalities into himself in order to reduce the problems that intrude him. People of any age can reduce the anxiety associated with feelings of inadequacy by adopting or introjecting the values, beliefs, and mannerisms of other people (Feist, 38). Individuals who implement this mechanism will consider that they are getting better when they introject characteristics of other people that they see as valuable (Feist, 37).

c. Reaction Formation

This mechanism substitute behavior, thoughts, or feelings that are unacceptable becomes the opposite of them, and it included as a primitive mechanism. Feist assert that reaction formation mechanism is one of the ways in which a repressed impulse may become conscious is through adopting a disguise that is directly opposite its original form. Moreover, reactive behavior can be identiﬁed by its exaggerated character and by its obsessive and compulsive form. (Feist, 35)

d. Rationalization

Rationalization is an attempt of the ego to distort perceptions of reality and give reasons that seem reasonable, so that a reality that was originally dangerous because it can disturb an individual personality, now becomes more easily accepted (Arief, 36).

This mechanism works unconsciously, because the people who implement rationalization mechanisms do not realize that their perceptions about reality have been distorted. The distortion process of reality occurs because it may potentially intrude their personality. Therefore, they changed the reality to be more easily accepted for them. The aim of this mechanism is to maintain the balance of human personality.

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Based on the previous chapter, this chapter is intended to answer the research questions; How is the characteristic of Amy Elliot Dunne as the main character depicted in Gone Girl film? and How are the psychological problems of Amy Elliot

Dunne viewed from Psychoanalysis theory of Sigmund Freud? In order to answer the questions, the writer divides her analysis into two sections; firstly, the writer will expound characteristics of the main character Amy Dunne by using characterization theory of Petrie, and Boggs. Secondly, the writer will analyze the psychological problem of Amy Dunne character and also the defense mechanism that she used by applying psychoanalysis theory of Sigmund Freud.

Data for analysis are taken from the story which presented by Gone Girl film.

Moreover, the writer will insert some evidences to support the argument in the form of literary texts; statement, dialogue, monologue, and visual; action, scene, facial expressions portrait, and appearance.

To begin the analysis, the writer will identify Amy Dunne character by using several methods of characterization by Petrie and Boggs, those are; characterization through appearance, dialogue, external action, internal action, and reactions of other characters.

Gone Girl is a film which narrates about a woman who suffers a psychological problem. The main character in this film is Amy Dunne. She is the wife of Nick Dunne.

They have been married for five years. Their married life seems happy, although they do not yet have a child. Some examples of Amy’s marriage life can be shown in the picture and quotation below.

Picture 1 (00:20:35)

Amy Dunne : Everyone told us and told us and told us marriage is hard work. And compromise and more work. Well it’s not true. Not for me and Nick. With us, two years—it’s just good. (00:19:59 - 00:20:25)

The quotation above explains that Amy’s marriage life is going well. It is shown from Amy's statement that uses the word of good to describe the life of her marriage, whereas the others use the word of hard work and compromise. This comparison explains that Amy’s married life is different from others. After five years of marriage,

Amy feels that her marriage life seems fine and that other people's perspective about marriage requires hard work is not true. Picture 1 is one of the moments in the film which portrayed their harmonious marriage life. In this picture, Nick holds her hand tightly, and smile also appears on their faces. Their demeanor suggests that their marriage life is going well.

On July 5, 2012 Amy Dunne disappears from their house in Missouri, and the date of her disappearance coincides with their fifth wedding anniversary. Nick reports to the police that his wife disappears under mysterious circumstances because when he returns to their home, he finds the living room is very messy, their sofa cushions are laid anywhere, and the coffee table is upside down causing the glass scattered around the floor. This condition seems suspicious and strange for him because their house is always in tidy condition. After the police investigate the crime scene, there are many evidences are found which indicates Nick Dunne is the accused of Amy Dunne’s disappearance.

A. Character Analysis

Amy Elliot Dunne character in Gone Girl film is described as a woman in the early thirties and has long blonde hair (characterization through appearance). She is the only child of Rand and Marybeth Elliot who are the author of the children's book series

Amazing Amy which Amy Dunne as the source inspiration. Amazing Amy achieves great success in sales in America. The success of this book makes Amy’s family become richer and Amy also gets a trust fund with a large amount from her parents as compensation for the sale of the book series of Amazing Amy. By her own trust fund, she might live without working because her trust fund is enough to pay for all her needs.

Through the book, the figure of Amy Dunne also become famous for the American public as an America sweetheart that has beauty, intelligence, and success.

Besides, having beautiful faces, Amy Dunne is always well dressed. The pictures below describe Amy’s appearances.

Picture 2 (00:33:47) Picture 3 (00:45:29)

Picture 4 (00:03:41) Picture 5 (00:11:38)

Several pictures above show that in every activity Amy Dunne always looks attractive and chic. In her daily outfit, she never wears luxury clothes with flashy colors, even though Amy Dunne comes from a wealthy family. On the contrary, she often wears simple clothes such as a cardigan, sweater, and long sleeve, and tends to wear an outfit with monochrome color, such as black, white, and grey. From her appearance in dress, it shows that Amy Dunne is a modest woman who does not like to show off her wealth by using expensive stuff, and fancy dress (characterization through appearance).

Picture 5 shows Amy Dunne is also described as highly educated. She receives her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Harvard University with cum laude, and also

a master in psychology from Yale University. With her intelligence on the scientific study of psychology, she manages to achieve success as a personality quiz writer for several popular magazines in America. This job also requires broad knowledge, and it supports a statement that Amy character is a person who has high intelligence.

From the previous description, it can be deduced that Amy Dunne is a woman who has all the good qualities in her characteristic. Her good life more completes when she meets Nick Dunne, a handsome man from Missouri. Amy and Nick first met at a party gathering of writers and from this party, their love story begins. After dating for two years, Nick decides to marry Amy Dunne. In the beginning, their marriage seems perfect, they live happily and it can be seen how happy Amy Dunne does some surprises to her husband.

Picture 6 (00:20:29)

Picture 6 shows their activity in solving the treasure hunt. The treasure hunt is

Amy’s unique habit to celebrate the anniversary of her weddings, and her husband must solve the clues that have been arranged by Amy. This unique habit described that Amy

Dunne is a meticulous person because in the process of making a treasure hunt requires high discipline, and have big attention to details (characterization through external action). Her job as a personality quiz writer also signifies her meticulous characters,

this is because there are many steps to create a personality quiz, such as observe every characteristic or typical of a person by interpreting their habitual, gesture, perspective, lifestyle and etc.

Amy Dunne’s habit in making treasure hunt to her husband explains that she really loves him, although she is busy in managing her career, she still takes her time to plan a treasure hunt for Nick. But then their harmonious marriage life begins to crack after Amy Dunne found out about her husband's affair. This problem also makes the drastic changes in the character of Amy Dunne, and it will be explained in the following pages:

1. Amy’s Characters Before Nick’s Affair

a. Compassionate

The first impression that is shown in Amy Dunne character in the film is compassionate. It can be seen when their harmonious marriage life encounters an obstacle. Nick confess to Amy Dunne that he would be fired from his job. In this situation, Amy shows her good character as a compassionate wife when she receives this problem with a big-hearted, as shown in the picture, and quotation below.

Picture 7 (00:32:37) Picture 8 (00:32:40)

Amy Dunne : Promise me we'll never be like them.

Nick Dunne : Like Who? Amy Dunne : All those awful couples we know. Those wives who treat their men like dancing monkeys to be trained and paraded Nick Dunne : Husbands who treat their wives like the highway patrol... to be out-foxed and avoided. Nick Dunne : I think I’m gonna be laid off. Amy Dunne : We’re in a recession. If it happens, we’ll deal with it. I’ll probably be next. We have each other everything else is background noise. Nick Dunne : You are exceptional. (00:32:05 - 00:32:41)

In this conversation, there is no complaint, scolding, or negative reaction of

Amy Dunne towards her husband after she knows that her husband would be fired from his company. Instead, she acted with full attention to Nick and it shows from her statements that tend to blame the recession on the dismissal of her husband, she also gives moral support to her husband that they will deal the problem together, and she thinks that the issue is not important as long as they have each other. It relates to the use of the phrase everything else is background noise in her statement. It means that all things beside both of them, such as a job, and salary are inessential things that do not bother them.

Amy’s attitude who does not dispute about her husband dismissal makes Nick admires her (characterization through reaction of other characters). Afterward, Amy

Dunne also got discharged from her job. It causes the two of them do not have any income, and their life depends only on Amy’s trust fund

b. Calm

Another good side of Amy Dunne also appears when Nick starts a debate with her. Nick feels annoyed with Amy because she lent almost her entire trust fund to her

parents without telling him. In this condition, Amy only responds to the debate by replying her husband’s gripe with a soft tone (characterization through dialogue), and it shows that Amy Dunne is a calm person.

Picture 9 (00:33:53) Picture 10 (00:34:21)

Amy Dunne : More games? Nick Dunne : Yeah, I just wanted to shoot some folks. Amy Dunne : What’s the laptop for? Nick Dunne : Laptop-ing…Oh, I see. You can give your parents $879,000 without talking to me... but God forbid I buy a video game without getting your permission. Amy Dunne : You are spending a lot. Nick Dunne : You don't trust me. You don't trust my judgment. You certainly don't trust my intention…. Amy Dunne : I don't get why you're daring me to be someone I don't wanna be the nagging shrew, the controlling bitch. I'm not that person. I'm your wife. Nick Dunne : (He takes a breath) I’m sorry. I just don't know how to do this. I've never not had a job. I flipped burgers… Amy Dunne : You’ll get another Nick Dunne : and it’s great that we have your money. At least when I had a job. Now it’s different I’m beholden to you. (00:33:38 - 00:34:24)

Nick always begins a quarrel with Amy, and he also wastes a lot of Amy’s trust fund to buy several kinds of stuff that are relatively unimportant but she never responds to her husband emotionally. Amy Dunne tried to be calm when her husband grumbles about the trust fund, and it is seen from her expression when they were bickering

(characterization through appearance). Amy’s calm attitude makes Nick regrets that he starts a fight, and he apologized to Amy.

Based on the above explanation, it is seen that Amy loves her husband so much, she can receive all the weakness of her husband who did not have a job, wasteful with money, and temperamental. However, Amy's character begins to change when she knows about her husband’s affair. After that, the character of Amy drastically changed into arrogant whereas before she always portrayed as a calm person.

2. Amy’s Character After Nick’s Affair

a. Emotional

Picture 11 (00:46:42)

Amy Dunne : You're out so much…Then, can I come? Nick Dunne : You would hate it. It's a bunch of my dorky high school friends. Amy Dunne : Do our code. No bullshit. Nick Dunne : I thought we weren't gonna be that couple. Okay, bye. Amy Dunne : Hey, I've been thinking…Something positive. Maybe it's time. Nick Dunne : Now is literally the worst time. Amy Dunne : It would be a new start for us. And for me, I would have a real purpose here. Nick Dunne : A child is not a hobby. Amy Dunne : Not a hobby. An inspiration. Nick Dunne : We could have had this fight four hours ago. I'm late. You really wanna be the couple that has a baby...to

save their marriage? Reboot, retool, rekindle, whatever! Amy Dunne : And you're gonna walk out the door now? You're a fucking coward. No, it can't go on like this. Nick Dunne : You won't? You won't? Why, it's not good enough for you? Amy Dunne : It's not even close! (00:45:28 - 00:46:40)

Since her husband’s affair, Amy Dunne becomes an emotional person. The quotation above explains that Amy Dunne responds to her husband in a rage. She uses the high pitch when she debates with Nick, and also curses him with an offensive exclamation that is usually used by people to express their anger feeling

(characterization through dialogue). She even did a physical attack on husband in this quarrel (characterization through external question). Those behaviors contrast to the depiction of Amy character at the beginning of the film, and her vicissitudes reach a climax when she decides to make herself disappear.

b. Manipulative

In the film, the writer finds manipulative behavior on the main character of

Amy Dunne. After Amy knows her husband’s affair, she wanted to revenge her husband by framing her husband as the defendant of her disappearance case, and she arranges this plan in detail as can be seen on several of the pictures below.

Picture 12 (01:08:36) Picture 13 (01:08:42)

Picture 14 (01:08:53)

Some pictures above demonstrated a scene when Amy Dunne starts to create a variety of evidence that would put Amy’s husband as the murderer of her

(characterization through external action).

Picture 12 is a scene when Amy Dunne flips over a table at their house, she did it intentionally in order for the police to assume that she fights against the felon before she disappeared. She also does not forget to wear gloves, because she knows that the police will search for any fingerprint at the crime scene.

In addition, in picture 13 and 14 shows Amy Dunne secretes a lot of her blood through the syringe, then she pours to the floor and put her palm above the spill of blood in order for the police to suspect that Amy Dunne severely injured in her home before disappeared. To succeed in her plan, Amy Dunne even has no doubt to hurt herself.

From her actions, it proves that she is very skilled in making the crime scene, she was very attentive all the matter in painstaking detail so that the crime scene that she made look real. These actions show the other side of Amy character as a

manipulative person. This characteristic is also portrayed by the reactions of people who believe all falsification of evidences by Amy Dunne.

Picture 15 (02:02:09)

Det. Boney : Judy's missing handle. Big as a two-by-four, right? Big as a club. We found this day one, in the fireplace in your home office. We didn't know what the hell it was, but fire in July? We bagged it. Nick Dunne : I've never seen that before either. Det. Boney : We just tested it. Fire doesn't erase blood, Nick. So, finally, Nicholas Dunne... you're under arrest for the murder of your wife Amy Elliot Dunne. Nick Dunne : What about my side?!! (01:58:38 - 01:59:00)

As shown in picture 15 there are many people who gathered around Nick’s car to vent their anger by mock him and also hit his car window. The American public believes that Nick is a murderer of Amy, and there is no suspicion of them that Amy framed her husband as a murderer of herself. This is because they regard her as an

America's sweetheart who does not have any vices, and this public perception is an effect of the book of Amazing Amy. She is also even successfully manipulate the police.

The dialogue between Detective Boney and Nick explains that the police believe all the artificial evidences, and because of this reason, Nick becomes the prime suspect in the case of his wife’s disappearance, or murder. From the police reaction, it

can be known that Amy Dunne is a professional manipulator, and through her behavior is definitely that she must have done this action more than once.

c. Lack of Remorse

As the writer described before, the main character of Amy Dunne can justify any means in order to actualize her desire although she has to manipulate the crime scene, adverse others, and even endanger herself. This explanation indicates that Amy

Dunne lacks of remorse. Besides that, some pictures below also evince that she has no remorse.

Picture 16 (02:05:25) Picture 17 (02:06:11)

The picture above happened when Amy Dunne murders Desi Collings who is

Amy former boyfriend. The main reason she murders him because he is the only person who knows the fact that Amy Dunne deliberately framing her husband as a suspect on the case of Amy’s disappearance. From the picture 16, it can be seen clearly that Amy’s facial expression is emotionless after murdering Desi, and there is no grief or regret expression on her face (characterization through appearance).

In addition, picture 17 is a scene when Amy Dunne, returns to her house. She intentionally does not clean Desi’s blood on her body in order to use it as a reason for her disappearance. Amy Dunne cancels her plan framing her husband and she also does

not want the public to know the fact that she pretends to disappear to revenge her husband. Because of that, Amy blames Desi as an abductor on the case of her disappearance during this time. Through several actions by Amy Dunne, the writer concludes that lack of remorse is one of the characterizations of Amy Dunne character.

Based on the discussion above the writer concludes that Amy Dunne is a woman who has beauty, intelligence, and wealth. She also obtained success as a personality quiz writer, and there are many people who admire her. This situation seems that she was a perfect woman, but behind those perfect lives, Amy’s actions after found out Nick’s affair indicate that she has psychological problems. Amy’s psychological problems will be discussed in the following discussion.

B. Amy Dunne’s Psychological Problem

In this subchapter, the writer identifies the psychological problems of the main character Amy Dunne by using Freud's psychoanalytic theory. Gone Girl's film tells the story of a woman who has a mental problem. Based on the previous explanation of the character's analysis, it shows that Amy Dunne's behavior changes completely after knowing her husband’s affair.

When Amy’s husband has a mistress, he begins ignores Amy and displaces his attention to his mistress. The change of Nick’s attitude makes Amy in a state of discomfort and as a result, she becomes destructive by framing her him as the suspect

of Amy's disappearance case. In her effort to succeed in this plan, she can do everything, such as manipulating, endangering others and even herself.

Before framing Nick, it revealed that Amy Dunne's character also has been done this similar action before to her ex-boyfriend named Tommy O’Hara. Seven years ago when she had not personally acquainted with Nick, Amy has been dating with Tommy. They like each other, but after a few months Tommy feels tired, and then he decides to keep his distance from Amy. Thus, Tommy begins ignores Amy and the change in his attitude makes Amy feels uncomfortable and has a desire to frame him as a suspect of her rape case, it can be seen in the following dialogue.

Tommy : No, dude, she said I raped her. First degree, felony rape. Nick Dunne : Did you do it? Tommy : Fuck, no. Do I look like I would do well in the yard? I pled down, man. Sexual assault one, no jail time. Oh, yeah. I've been unemployed for the last eight years... because I have to write "sexual offender" on every job application. I'm on a neighborhood watch list because I have to register as a predator. I haven't had a date in almost a decade because if a girl googles me... Nick Dunne : Could you walk me through what happened? Tommy : I meet Amy at this party, you know? We click. She's perfect…I think, "What's the catch?" A few months, it hits me. This is not going to be easy... Nick Dunne : So, you broke up with her. Tommy : No, I just backed away. Gave her some space. No big deal, right? So, I thought. Then one night, Amy comes over to my place... with a bottle of bourbon and a bootleg of this band I love. And within two minutes… Nick Dunne : You had sex? Tommy : Yeah, consensual. It was rough, but she was screaming for it. Next morning, there's two cops at my door. Amy has wounds that are consistent with rape. Ligature marks on her wrist, and my semen. It looks like I've tied Amy to my bed, and raped her. Me! And then, guess what they find.

Headboards of my bed, one on each side. (01:22:05 - 01:24:11) From the dialogue between Nick and Tommy above, it can be seen that Amy

Dunne is succeeded to frame Tommy as a defendant of her rape case. As the impact of her destructive action makes Tommy's life destroy. He does not have a job, spouse, and even his neighbors are avoided him as a result of this case. Her destructive action indicates that her mental is not healthy. As Freud said, mentally healthy individual the Id, ego, and super-ego interact in a balanced way (Rennison, 40). Meanwhile, the revenge action of Amy shows the dominance of her Id compares to the superego and her ego. Domination of Amy’s Id allows her to commit an act that violates the morality principle of the superego.

Based on the writer's observations in these two cases, there is a similarity pattern on the main reason Amy Dunne performs several destructive actions that is when she recognizes that her partner begins to show their uncaring attitudes and ignore her. The neglectful behavior from her partners reminds her traumatic experiences in the past from her parents who also ignore her.

Amy’s trauma begins in from childhood. At that time, her parents make a children's book entitled Amazing Amy. Unexpectedly, this book is very popular, and earn a huge success in America. Amy Dunne's parents gain financial and social benefits from the Amazing Amy book, so they continue to make several series of this book since the fictional character of Amazing Amy in childhood to adulthood.

The release of Amazing Amy book caused uncomfortable feeling for Amy

Dunne, she felt anguish even though it was not clearly seen but Amy Dunne's statement which implies that she experienced neglectful by her parents, as shown in the following statement.

Amy Dunne: Amazing-fucking-Amy is getting fucking married. That's how the night started..With me, regular, flawed, real Amy, jealous, as always, of the golden child. Perfect, brilliant, Amazing Amy, who's getting fucking married. (00:12:00 - 00:12:16)

From the statement above shows that Amy is always jealous of Amazing Amy, she uses the word "golden child" which means that everyone including her parents prefers the fictional character of Amazing Amy than her. In Amy’s statement, she also revealed that Amazing Amy is a perfect child, while in describing herself Amy

Dunne tends to be pessimistic by mentioning some traits which have negative connotations. Amy's perception signifies that she is not confident about her qualities, because in her view Amazing Amy always surpass her in every matter.

Furthermore, the behavior of Amy's parents who gave more attention to

Amazing Amy makes Amy Dunne feels excluded. In response to this unpleasant treatment, she repressed her anxiety by obeying her parents' orders as described in the following dialogue.

Amy’s Father : Hey, sweetheart. Big night for your mom. It would mean so much if you would talk to a few reporters... bloggers, give them a little Amy color. People wanna hear from you. Amy Dunne : We can't stay long. Amy’s Father : Fantastic, Fifteen minutes, tops.

(00:12:47 - 00:13:02)

Amy’s Mother : I thought you were gonna wear white to match the wedding theme. Amy Dunne : I thought that would be creepy. Amy’s Mother : "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing..." Nick : Hold up! I know how this end. Don't tell me. Amy’s Mother : You're very cute, Nick. Amy, you know what would make Dad's night. Amy Dunne : Oh, I'm on it. (00:13:13 - 00:13:27)

The dialogue above happened when Amy Dunne's parents control her to interview and she always obeys her parents' orders. Unpleasure treatment by Amy's parents makes Amy Dunne hate them, but these feelings are intolerable for her and could not be recognized consciously. She knows that society demands affection toward parents, and her hatred would produce too much anxiety. As Freud explained, when the ego is threatened by undesirable Id impulses, it protects itself by repressing those impulses into the unconscious (Freud, 1926/1959a) (Feist, 35). Thus, her ego tries to reduce the anxiety by using reactions formation mechanism. As Feist postulated, this mechanism is one of the ways in which a repressed impulse may become conscious is through adopting a disguise that is directly opposite its original form. This reactive behavior can be identiﬁed by its exaggerated character (Feist, 35). Moreover, this mechanism is also seen in Amy Dunne's other actions as shown in the following dialogue.

Amy Dunne : My parents' publisher dropped them […] and they need to borrow from my trust fund Nick Dunne : How much? Amy Dunne : Almost a million.

Nick Dunne : That's almost all of it, if you're laid off and I'm laid off Amy Dunne : I said I'd do it! Nick Dunne : Without talking to me? Amy Dunne : Their money, technically (00:32:52 - 00:33:15)

The dialogue above shows Amy Dunne’s exaggerated action. She insists to lend almost all of their money to her parents without seeing her own financial condition which was lacking because they have no incomes and trust fund is the only support for their daily life expenses. This action is the result of her reaction formation mechanism.

Throughout the story of Gone Girl film, the character of Amy Dunne is described as a daughter who never disobeyed her parents. She always tries to fulfill all of her parents' orders, although she often gets unpleasant treatment from both of them and they always also insert success and perfection on Amazing Amy character in every edition of the book series. As seen in the following pictures.

Picture 18 (00:12:15) Picture 19 (00:12:26)

Picture 20 (00:11:48)

Amy Dunne : When I was 10, I quit cello. In the next book, Amazing Amy became a prodigy. Nick Dunne : Did you play volleyball? Amy Dunne : I got cut, freshman year. She made varsity. Nick Dunne : When did you have a dog? Amy Dunne : She got the dog. Puddles made her more relatable. (00:12:00 - 00:12:37)

Amy’s Father : Amy is our only child. She's bright, she's beautiful. She's kind. She really is Amazing Amy. You know, there are millions of people out there who grew up with her and care about her. (00:25:48 - 00:26:01) From the pictures and dialogues above depicted some of Amy Dunne's experiences who live under the shadow of the Amazing Amy fictional character.

Every time Amy Dunne fails, the Amazing Amy character is always described as successful in everything by her parents. Some of Amy Dunne’s failed experiences cause her in an unpleasant state and her condition is increasingly serious due to the unconscious hatred feeling towards her parents. By this condition her ego repressed the undesirable Id desires which results in an obsession towards Amazing Amy. Freud hypothesized that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder symptoms result due to these repressed mental processes, desires, and wishes which obtain discharge via conversion or substitution (Freud, 59). Additionally, her parent treatment who are regarded Amy Dunne as the real version of Amazing Amy as explained by her father statement also as the main factor of Amy’s obsession. This obsession makes Amy

Dunne unconsciously has the perception that she must be as Amazing Amy if she

wants to be accepted by people and also become her main factor to enforce her life is perfect as well as the life of the Amazing Amy fictional character.

When the Amazing Amy Complete edition is released, Amy feels anxious because this series tells the story of the Amazing Amy fictional character married to a perfect man and lives happily. Whereas at the time of the release of this series Amy is not married, it causes her to be passionate about having a perfect marriage, with a perfect man named Nick. At the moment of the first meeting with Nick, Amy assumes that Nick is the most appropriate partner for her to accomplish her obsession. She associates quality of Nick resembles Andy's fictional character who is described as a perfect man. As stated by Amy's monologue “I’m so crazy, stupid happy. I met a boy. A great, sweet, gorgeous, cool-ass guy” (00:03:31 - 00:03:43).

In the statement above, Amy mentions four positive descriptions of her first impression of Nick Dunne and in her opinion, there is no weakness in Nick’s figure.

This statement clearly indicates that Amy is convinced that Nick's perfection is similar to Andy's fictional character. Thus, Amy feels secure in the presence of

Nick’s in her life, because she is capable to achieve her obsession as Amazing Amy who has a happy married life.

In the early years of her marriage, Amy Dunne is more showing the Amazing

Amy image through several actions such as not give a negative response to her husband's dismissal, always encourage her husband when he feels depression, and she even try to calm when Nick wastes her trust fund as explained in the previous

subchapter. These positive attitudes make Amy look like a perfect wife who is very tolerant of her husband's shortcomings. Amy brings out these attitudes to release the uncomfortable feeling that always haunts her.

In contrast, on the fifth anniversary of their marriage, her anxiety begins overwhelmed Amy Dunne when she found out Nick has an affair with others woman.

This affair makes her obsession is thwarted and Nick also begins ignores her because he is more concern to his mistress. Her husband’s behavior triggers Amy’s traumatic experience. Freud explained the relation between trauma and anxiety, according to him the fundamental determinant of automatic anxiety is the occurrence of a traumatic situation. The traumatic situation itself is clearly the direct descendant of the accumulation of unsatisfied desires and it leads to a situation of helplessness

(Freud, 81). By this condition, Amy does not hesitate to act aggressively towards the party that she considered as an obstacle for her to complete her obsession and remind her painful memories in the past so that she wants to frame Nick as the suspect of

Amy’s disappearance case. Amy's aggressive actions are Amy's ego attempt to release the anxiety which overwhelms her. Hall postulated, acting out one’s impulses reduces neurotic anxiety by relieving the pressure which the Id exerts upon the ego

(Hall, 67).

The act of her husband who ignored and betrayed Amy caused her anxiety becomes intolerable, her ego cannot hold back her trauma anymore. This problem accumulates and makes her has a perception that death is better than her life does not

fit the perfect life of the Amazing Amy fictional character and it can be seen from

Amy's monologue statement.

Amy Dunne : I am so much happier now that I'm dead. Technically, "missing”. Soon to be presumed dead. Gone. And my lazy, lying, cheating, oblivious husband will go to prison for my murder. Nick Dunne took my pride and my dignity and my hope and my money. He took and took from me until I no longer existed. That's murder. Let the punishment fit the crime. (01:06:08 - 01:06:45)

In the statement above, Amy revealed that death is the best choice for her.

She mentions several times the words that are related to death such as missing, dead, and gone. The use of these words confirms that Amy lost her desire to live because she perceives that her life has not meaningful since her obsession is failed. Hall assumed that the increasing pressure of neurotic anxiety may cause a person to lose his head and do something very impulsive. The consequences of the impulsive deed are reckoned by as being less painful than the anxiety itself. Neurotic anxiety is not only a signal impending danger to the ego but it is also the danger itself (Hall, 69).

In Amy’s statement, she also changes her opinion and assumes that her husband is a lazy, lying, cheating, oblivious husband. The change of Amy’s perspective about Nick shows that she begins has hatred feelings to her husband and wants to destroy her husband's life. The reason behind Amy’s excessive act because she blames Nick for her failure to fulfill her obsession and it also evident from Amy's statement that her husband took her pride, dignity, hope, dan money which she

considered as the most important things in her life. She even equates these matters as a sign of her existence in the world.

When Amy executes her plan to frame Nick, she faces an obstacle and asks for help from Desi who is her ex-boyfriend to help her to hide so that her plan is not revealed by society. Amy prevaricates the story about Nick makes Desi feels sympathy for her and allows her to occupy his house. During in Amy’s hideaway, she watches Nick's interview on television, he makes a public confession about his regret betraying Amy and apologizing to her. Nick's actions make Amy's obsession becomes reappear, so she tries to find a way to get back to Nick without making people suspicious of her lies all this time.

Amy regards Desi as tension because he is the only witness who knows the fact that Amy pretends to disappear, so she must eliminate Desi in order to accomplish her obsession. The superiority of Amy’s Id over the superego and her ego is the main reason behind her destructive action. Siegfried stated that the pleasure principle drives the Id to seek immediate gratification of all needs, wants, and desires. Psychological tension is created that needs to somehow be discharged (Siegfried,1)

Amy Dunne begins to compile several fake evidences to corroborate her statement that all this time she has disappears because Desi kidnaps and captives her.

To succeed her plan, she can do everything that she can to strengthen her story even she has to hurt herself and kill the person that she thinks is necessary.

Picture 21 (02:11:15) Picture 22 (02:11:45)

After Amy Dunne finishes to collect the evidences and murder Desi, She comes out from her hiding place and tells that she disappear because Desi kidnaps her. Amy's plan to frame Desi is succeeded. As pictures above portrayed Amy's pleasure feelings because her obsession is obtained and she also get the attention of people who are sympathetic to her case. Public, detectives, and the police believe in every Amy's statements because several pieces of evidence that are found by the police indicates that Desi is the perpetrator of Amy's disappearance. In contrast, her husband who is a victim of Amy’s manipulation before, do not believe Amy’s story,

Nick realizes that his wife is a manipulator so he tells his desire to divorce Amy.

Her husband's desire is potentially hinder Amy's obsession to have a perfect life like the Amazing Amy, then Amy plans her pregnancy so that Nick cannot leave her.

Nick Dunne : I didn't touch you. Amy Dunne : You didn't need to. Nick Dunne : Bullshit. That notice of disposal. I have that. You threw it out. Amy Dunne : The notice, yes. Nick Dunne : I want a blood test. I want a paternity test. Amy Dunne : I love tests. Nick Dunne : You can teach those people to hate me all you want. I

don't care. I am leaving you. Amy Dunne : I won't have to teach your child to hate you. He'll do that all by himself. (02:20:49 - 02:21:29)

The dialogue above explained that Amy could get pregnant by using a sample of her husband from a fertility clinic that they have visited a year ago. This action is carrying out by Amy to prevent Nick’s plan to divorce her, so her obsession being

Amazing Amy could still be fulfilled. Amy actually does not care about her fetus, because she only uses this pregnancy as her weapon to control his husband.

Based on the explanation above it can be concluded that the reason behind

Amy Dunne’s destructive action is because she suffers anxiety. Perelberg suggested that the ‘capacity to be aggressive’ is mobilized by the ego in order to avoid unpleasure and pain. He identifies the aggressor where the main motivation is anxiety, and aggression is initiated by the ego (Perelberg, 23). Specifically, the writer found that Amy suffers from neurotic anxiety type. The onset neurotic anxiety of her is from the neglectful by both of her parent that makes Amy feel discomfort since the release of Amazing Amy book in her childhood. Thus, Amy's anxiety always arises when she meets people who remind her unpleasant and traumatic experiences.

Neurotic anxiety is deﬁned as apprehension about an unknown danger. The feeling itself exists in the ego, but it originates from the Id impulses. People may experience neurotic anxiety in the presence of […] authority ﬁgure because they previously experienced unconscious feelings of destruction against one or both parents. During childhood, these feelings of hostility are often accompanied by fear of punishment,

and this fear becomes generalized into unconscious neurotic anxiety (Feist, 34).

Amy’s anxiety is also triggered another psychological problem that is obsession towards the fictional character of Amazing Amy.

C. Personality Structure of Amy Dunne

As the writer explains on the previous subchapter, the main character Amy has a psychological problem named neurotic anxiety. The presence of Amy’s anxiety is influenced by the weakening of the ego role in balancing the interaction between the

Id and superego. Siegfried explicated that the conscious individual the Ego is driven by the Id and confined by the Super-Ego, it sometimes struggles to bring about harmony among the forces […] causing it to break out in anxiety (Siegfried, 3).

According to Hall, anxiety itself has a function to act as a danger signal to the ego, so that when the signal appears in consciousness the ego may institute measure to deal with the danger (Feist, 63). In response to this threat, the ego is trying to reduce anxiety through several methods. Hall stated that the ego may try to master danger by adopting realistic problem-solving methods, or it may attempt to alleviate anxiety by using methods that deny, falsify, or distort reality and that impede the development of personality. The methods are called the defense mechanism of the ego (Hall, 85). Thus,

Amy Dunne who suffers the anxiety also employs the defensive mechanism in order to resolve her anxiety and conflict. The writer found that there are several defense mechanisms that Amy’s employs to protect her ego from anxiety.

First, Amy employs rationalization after her parents release the Amazing Amy book. As the main inspiration of this serial book, Amy feels discomfort in throughout her life because in reality, she is not as perfect as the Amazing Amy fictional character.

Amy Dunne : This is why I have my brownstone. My trust fund. I know I can't complain. Nick Dunne : Your parents literally plagiarized your childhood. Amy Dunne : No, they improved upon it and then peddled it to the masses. (00:13:02 - 00:13:13) From the dialogue above, Nick argued that Amazing Amy book is plagiarized

Amy's childhood, but Amy refutes Nick’s opinion because she only thinks that her parents are just improvising. Amy's perspective is the result of the defense mechanism of rationalization that she uses to reduce her discomfort and anxiety. Rationalization is an attempt to distort perceptions of reality and give reasons that seem reasonable, so that a reality that was originally dangerous because it can disturb an individual personality, now becomes more easily accepted (Arief, 36). Therefore, Amy unconsciously distorted the fact that her parents are plagiarized her entire life stories into the book of the Amazing Amy series. This fact is distorted by her ego because it can potentially disrupt Amy's personality structure, so her ego reduces her anxiety by giving logical reasons that are more easily accepted by her to believe that her parents only improve it. Even though Amy deflects the reality, through this method she is able to maintain the balance of her personality structure interaction.

Defense mechanism has an important role to protect individuals from their anxiety, but this method also has a negative impact when individuals overuse it. As

Feist postulated, although defense mechanisms are normal and universally used, when carried to an extreme they lead to compulsive, repetitive, and neurotic behavior.

Because we must expend psychic energy to establish and maintain defense mechanisms, the more defensive we are, the less psychic energy we have left to satisfy the Id impulses (Feist, 34).

In an effort to accomplish her obsession to have a perfect life as the Amazing

Amy, Amy faces an obstacle that is Nick's affair. This affair thwarted Amy’s Id to fulfill her obsession and also trigger her trauma in the past. This condition creates Amy's anxiety increase drastically so she cannot hold back her trauma anymore. Amy's ego has no recourse to defend it and as a result, her anxiety becomes intolerable. In fact, the defense mechanism that Amy has used in her difficult times such as rationalization, and reaction formation are unable to cover up her anxiety. This affair makes Amy's Id who worked on the pleasure principle begin to take over. The following dialogue illustrates the impact of Amy’s Id domination on her personality structure.

Amy Dunne : To fake a convincing murder, you have to have discipline. You befriend a local idiot. Harvest the details of her humdrum life. And cram her with stories about your husband's violent temper…With the help of the unwitting, bump up your life insurance. Purchase getaway car. Pay cash. You need to package yourself so that people will truly mourn your loss. And America loves pregnant women. As if it's so hard to spread your legs. You know what's hard? Faking a pregnancy. First, drain your toilet. Invite pregnant

idiot into your home and ply her with lemonade. Steal pregnant idiot's urine. Voila A pregnancy is now part of your legal medical record. Happy anniversary. (01:06:45 - 01:08:16) Amy's statement above shows the results of the Id domination on her personality structure that appears in this film. It can be seen that Amy has no doubt to commit several actions that violated the norms and social values, such as lying, slandering, manipulating data, murdering and etc. Amy executes various actions in order to fulfill her Id desire to destruct her husband life, in spite of the fact that her actions are a criminal and illegal. According to Sandler, this behavior emerged, due to the basic nature of the Id is primitive, chaotic, inaccessible to consciousness, unchangeable, amoral, illogical, unorganized, and ﬁlled with energy received from basic drives and discharged for the satisfaction of the pleasure principle (Perelberg,

28). Therefore, in the process of framing her husband, Amy does not have feelings of fear or guilt because the dominance of the Id makes her lose her morality and logic. To succeed in her plan, Amy does not even hesitate to hurt herself or even commit suicide.

Picture 23 (01:15:19) Picture 24 (01:10:07)

Amy Dunne : And if I get everything right, the world will hate Nick for killing his beautiful, pregnant wife. And after all the outrage, when I'm ready I'll go out on the water with a handful of pills..and a pocket full of

stones. And when they find my body, they'll know...Nick Dunne dumped his beloved like garbage. And she floated down past all the other...abused, unwanted, inconvenient women. Then, Nick will die, too. Nick and Amy will be gone. (01:09:51 - 01:10:21) Based on the narrative above explains that Amy's readiness to commit suicide.

In this sense, Amy’s Id that cannot fulfill its desire to have a perfect life like Amazing

Amy causes her ego produces the anxiety. Furthermore, the level of intensity her anxiety in this problem is very high and makes her ego cannot reconcile it. As the effect, her strong Id dominates the ego and makes Amy Dunne do anything to please her Id even she has to commit suicide. This action has a motive to strengthen her counterfeit evidence that her husband is the main suspect in the case of Amy’s death.

She does not care that her actions are very risky to herself. It can be seen in picture 23 she looks calm when she marks the calendar date as her schedule to commit suicide and she even imagines how is the way she died later as portrayed in picture 24.

Based on Freud's theory of psychoanalysis, Amy's daydreaming activity as pictured above is one of the common examples of primary process thought. Freud explained that the Id uses the primary process to fulfill the need to act on an urge that is dangerous or unacceptable by creating a mental image of the desired object to substitute for the urge. This mental representation then diffuses psychological tension and relieves anxiety (Siegfried, 1). Thus, in temporary Amy's anxiety can be reduced by daydreaming about what her Id wants to do but she cannot yet fulfill. This is due to

the fact that Amy must spend a long time to prepare and execute her plan. The duration of this compilation process contrasts with the principle of the Id which needs to satisfy the desire of the Id as soon as possible, therefore Amy’s ego tries to overcome the feeling of anxiety in several ways one includes by daydreaming.

Picture 25 (01:09:28)

Besides daydreaming, Amy also uses an introjection mechanism to reduce her anxiety. She relieves her anxiety feeling by writing an imaginary diary that contained all the disrepute of her husband, this book is also Amy uses as another evidence to frame her husband. The writer found that Amy’s action has similarity with her parents’ behavior who always write Amy’s daily life which is not according to reality. As shown in picture 26 the character of Amy really enjoys the process of writing the diary.

Introjection mechanism itself is the process of apply other people's personalities into themselves in order to reduce the problems that intrude them. By adopting or introjecting the values, beliefs, and mannerisms of other people, they can reduce the anxiety associated with feelings of inadequacy (Feist, 38).

The destructive actions of Amy character towards her partners are her response when she realizes that her partner starts to ignore her Amy. This behavior reminds her

uncomfortable and traumatic experience. She also perceives that her husband is the most responsible party behind the failure of her obsession because he fails to be as

Andy's fictional character in the real version. Those reasons unconsciously motivate

Amy to act destructively towards her husband and the biggest Amy’s satisfaction after

Nick’s affair is seeing her husband life destroy.

Based on the explanation above, it can be seen that Amy's character in this film always shows her negative behavior. Although at the beginning of the film story she is portrayed as a kind-hearted, and perfect woman but in reality, those are not her genuine characterization. The real Amy's characterization appears after she faces problems regarding her husband's affair. Some negative behaviors that Amy shows are destructive, manipulative, and lack of empathy can occur because of the inability of

Amy's ego to reconcile between her Id and superego. According to Freud, individuals who have an unbalanced personality structure cannot overcome their problems, they tend to solve their problems through negative ways. The inability of Amy's ego is closely related to the unharmonious relations between Amy and her parents.

Picture 26 (02:15:36)

Amy Dunne: I can't say I didn't enjoy some of it. Nick teased out of me things I didn't know existed. A lightness, a humor, an ease. (01:11:24 - 01:11:34) Several of Amy’s negative behaviors that are portrayed in this film does not change in a more positive direction, this is due to the lack of a good relationship between Amy and her parents. Even in Amy's parents' last scene, they only monitor of their daughter from a distance when Amy Dunne gives her sign to the fans of the

Amazing Amy book. In addition, Amy's monologue above also proves the poor quality of the relationship between Amy and her parents. In her statement, Amy reveals that in her entire life she has never felt the comfort from her family.

The unharmonious relationship between Amy and her parents greatly influenced Amy's negative behavior. According to Freud (1940/1949), the importance of child and parent attachment provides the motivational core of a great deal of behavior throughout the lifespan. Moreover, the conflict in early attachment relationships continues to assert themselves throughout life in the form of various personality disorders (Richters, 2).

In addition, the writer also found that the defense mechanism that Amy uses has correlated to the condition of her imbalance personality structure. As Arief stated, individual who has an imbalance of personality structure is tend to use the defense mechanism which immature. He added that rationalization, reaction formation, and introjection mechanism are categorized as an immature type of defense mechanism

(Arief, 33).

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusions

In this research, the writer uses Gone Girl film as the unit of analysis. This film is produced by Twentieth Century Fox and directed by David Fincher. The film portrays the life of a woman named Amy Elliot Dunne. At the beginning of the story,

Amy Dunne is depicted as a perfect woman who has intelligence, beauty, and popular.

As the trauma and anxiety overwhelmed her, her personality changes significant after she deals the problem in her marriage life. In this research, the writer identifies and analyzes the main character of Amy Dunne to comprehend what psychological problem that is suffered by her. In order to answer the question, this research applies the theory of character and characterization by Joseph M. Boggs and Petrie to describe the genuine character of Amy Dunne through several methods, and psychoanalysis by Sigmund

Freud to identify Amy Dunne’s psychological problem; the appropriate concept to analyze it those are personality structure, anxiety, and defense mechanism.

Based on the analysis in the previous chapter, the writer will give three major conclusions. First, the writer finds that Amy Elliot Dunne Elliot Dunne as the main character is depicted as a calm, and compassionate woman at the beginning of the film, but these characterizations are not her genuine traits. Her genuine characterization

appears when she deals problem in her marriage life, those are; manipulative, emotional, and lack of remorse. Several Amy’s destructive behavior shows that she has a psychological problem.

Second, since Amy’s childhood to adulthood she always feels anxious by the presence of the Amazing Amy book series and she also feels ignored by her parents, these two factors that cause Amy Dunne suffered neurotic anxiety and develops into a trauma. When someone triggers her traumatic, as the results her anxiety become intolerable.

The domination of Amy’s Id that causes her always insist to satisfy her desires even though it violates moral principle of the superego. When the gratification process of her instinct is thwarted, the ego of Amy produces anxiety and establishes the defense mechanism to protect the ego from her anxiety. In this film there are several defense mechanisms that Amy Dunne uses those are; rationalization, reaction formation, and introjection.

B. Suggestions

Based on the analysis and conclusion, the writer suggests readers who are interested in doing the same research by using this film as the unit analysis should use the appropriate theory to comprehend the story of the film. However, the reader can use another theory beside psychoanalysis to analyze several aspects that readers could

find in this film. The reader can apply the theory of Hierarchy Needs by Abraham

Maslow, Feminism by Laura Mulvey, and Structuralism by Ferdinand de Saussure.

Finally, the writer hopes that this research could give the contribution to all students of English Letters Department who want to analyze character in other film applying the theory of Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud.

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APPENDICES