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What Motivate HC Andersen in Writing His Fairy Tales?

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What Motivate HC Andersen in Writing His Fairy Tales? Psychoanalysis on HC Andersen: What motivate H.C. Andersen in writing his fairy tales? THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan Aditya Hartono Wijaya 112014708 ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY SALATIGA 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all writer would like to thanks the God for allowing writer to finish the Thesis project. In this good opportunity writer also wants to express his gratitude to everyone who supported him throughout the course of this Thesis project. Writer wants to say many thanks to his beloved parents and sister who always support him spiritually and financially and also never stop to pray for his success day and night. Their sacrifices will never be equally paid. The writer also wants to give his gratitude to Lany Kristono, M. Hum. as his advisor for her time, guidance, patience, kindness, and contribution in correcting and helping him in finishing this Thesis. Last but not least, writer also would like to express his trustworthy gratitude to these persons; writer friends Adi Pratama, Christian Ade Chandra, Christiawan Adi Nugroho who has kindly lend writer sources and references for this Thesis project. Thesis Name: Aditya Hartono W NIM: 112014708 Abstract Andersen’s fairy tales are considered children’s literature although they contain an element that may not really fit to be presented as children’s literature. These tales also share some similarities or repeated parts. As literary works may depict human life, it is interesting to analyze how an individual life experience influences his/her work and vice versa, how a character represent the author’s behaviour. Therefore, this study would like to analyze and describe what motivate Hans Christian Andersen to write his tales, particularly the similar parts they share by applying Freud’s psychoanalysis theory. The analysis results in a finding that the author’s motivation and past experience is expressed through his works while his works itself reflects the repressed desire and motivation of the author’s unconscious feeling. Key words: the unconscious, sublimation, repressed desire Introduction Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) a.k.a H.C. Andersen was a Danish author and poet who wrote plays, travelogues, novels, and poems but is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen can be called the pioneer of this sub genre as his fairy tales were originally written by ‘his own hands’ and is a brand new story; while other fairy tales writers only rewrote and retold old legends and existing fairy tales in their own style. Furthermore, even after 100 years, Andersen’s fairy tales have been translated into more than 125 languages and are one of the world’s best sellers (Bin 104). The fame of Andersen’s works is reflected in the worldwide-spread of his fairy tales and their popularity among children as well as adults. Regardless their popularity, there are a few interesting things about Andersen’s works. First, although fairy tales are considered children’s literature, some of Andersen’s stories seem to be more appropriate for adults. For example, in “The Little Mermaid”, the main character suffers a lot of hardships of life so that, at the end of the story Andersen ‘saved’ her by turning her into foam. The story shows one reality of life to the readers; i.e. life may not end happily. Such a sad reality of life should not be aimed at children, but adults. Moreover Andersen’s works implicitly present lessons of morality and endurance in facing the hardships of life which fit adult readers. Take a close look at “Little Mermaid”, “Ugly Duckling”, and “The Wild Swans”, in which the characters have to face a great misery and struggle over it before they have a happy life. However since the stories are regarded as fairy tales, they are considered children’s literature. Despite the big number of literary works for children, Andersen’s stories are different and unique, particularly because they share similar characters who suffer great pain when they are still young. For example, The Ugly Duckling has to spend a miserable winter outdoors alone, hiding in a cave by a lake that partly freezes after suffering from verbal and physical abuses from those it thought to be its family (Andersen 379- 387).Or, Thumbelina who was forced to leave her happy childhood (Andersen 141) Another interesting fact about Andersen’s works is that his stories have not only been translated, but also adapted to have different styles of narrating and happy ending. Since the adapted versions emphasize on the stories’ happy ending, the original plots are often changed to soften or eliminate the suffering their characters have to endure. Such an adaptation causes some of Andersen’s stories be different from their original versions, in which the characters suffer more than those in any other fairy tale stories. Although Andersen’s protagonists suffer a lot in their early life, some of them find happiness. Interestingly, Andersen mostly portrays the happy life as life that starts with finding a soul mate and a wedding. These have triggered the writer to analyze what motive the author has in writing the similar elements of his works. Therefore, this research would like to address the following questions; i.e. “What motivate H.C. Andersen in writing his fairy tales? However, due to time limitation, this study will only examine the similar parts of some of Andersen’s fairy tales; particularly those related to his characters and plots. Based on the problem stated above, this study is aimed at finding out the reasons which motivate Andersen in writing the similar elements in his characters and plots which characterize his fairy tales. The possible findings of this study are expected to make readers more aware of the relationship between author’s past experience and his works. The findings may also help readers realize that what lie in the unconscious may go to the conscious as well as to identify what may shape their ideas and thoughts so that they will understand themselves better. To dig out the answer to the research question, Psychoanalysis would be used as a tool of analysis. Freud’s psychoanalysis was selected since this study is concerned with finding out the reasons which motivate Andersen in writing the similar elements in his characters and plots which characterize his fairy tales. Psychoanalysis is chosen since it can be used to assess literary works as Psychology can explain creativity process, such as an author’s habit in writing his/her works. Moreover it can be used to analyze characters in a novel, story, drama or film psychologically as sometimes an author or writer subconsciously inserts his/her adopted psychology belief in his/her works. Furthermore, Psychoanalysis can also be used to analyze author’s mental state through their works (Barry 71). Since this study would like to focus on Andersen’s motivation in writing the similar elements in his characters and plots which characterize his fairy tales, Psychoanalysis is the right tool to be used in this study, especially the part that discuses human character (Paris 3) My search for previous studies brought me to the works of Knight and Eggers. Both studies focus on a particular Andersen’s fairy tale. Knight discussed that Disney’s Mermaid is against Native American’s belief. On the other hand, Eggers examined the differences between Andersen’s Mermaid and Disney’s version from female’s point of view. It is different from Knight and Eggers’ works because this research emphasizes more on the reason behind Andersen’s similar characters and plots; it is different from Knight and Eggers’ works. In short, this study has never been done previously. Psychoanalysis Coined by Freud, Psychoanalysis is a ‘tool’ or academically known as systematic knowledge to make a better understanding on human experience and behavior (Chaplin 394 & Tyson 11). To elaborate, it is closely related to human subconscious realm/mind, part of a person's mind that has ideas, feelings, etc., that the person is not aware of (Chaplin 349) Freud, during his psychoanalytic therapy observation, deduces that there are three mental activities; i.e. the Unconscious, Subconscious, and Conscious. The unconscious is part of the mind beyond consciousness that has a strong influence to human being’s actions (qtd. in Schustack and Friedman, 10) , The Subconscious is a ‘box’ which contains memories of experiences that our conscious realm do not even remember that they once happened; while the Conscious is the ‘power holder’ upon what we are doing at present. (qtd. in A. Freud 10). In short, Conscious acts as the ‘vehicle’ and Unconscious its ‘driver’ Freud’s experience in giving therapy to his patients convinced him that the Unconscious is the deciding factor of individual’s important and dynamic behavior. Freud explains that the unconscious is composed of suppressed ideas, experiences, and repressed feelings of the conscious. In other words, the unconscious accepts ‘the products’ of repression or refrain, i.e. the process of suppressing unwanted or unpleasant experiences and feelings. (qtd. in Barry 70 & Schustack and Friedman 10 & Semiun 55 ) Freud also suggests the division of human mental’s area. He believes that human personality is constituted of three components; which are id, ego, and super ego (qtd. in Rennison 38). Id consists of motivation and instinct or stimuli and is oriented upon the principle of pleasure or tension reduction, which refers to immediate satisfaction attainment of biological desires, such as eating and sleeping. Id attains pleasure through reflex and primary process, that is by reducing tense by fantasizing (qtd. in Chaplin 236). Therefore, it is more fantasy or virtual-oriented.
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