Unconscious Mind and Psychology of Incongruity: A Psychoanalytical Reading of Melville'sPierre, or the Ambiguities

Abstract

Herman Melville'sPierre, or the Ambiguitiesprimarily deals with the anatomy of incestuous and immature love, and its psychological impact on the characters in a physical world or society where rules, norms, systems etc. are of crucial significance. Since it deals with the psychological aspect of the characters, its prime emphasis is on the explication of the individual characters and their formation of identity or subjectivity in a restrictive society. In other words, love is treated psychoanalytically in the novel, for it delineates how the protagonist, Pierre Glendinning, and other major characters like Isabel, Lucy, Mrs. Glendinning etc. are guided by the psychology of incongruity, so, they suffer from neurosis. The literary characters, furthermore, are interpreted as the sublimation of unconscious desires. In this sense, psychoanalysis bilaterally deals with the schema of human psychology and its expression via the literary writings. To accomplish this idea, it excavates the layers of human mind: conscious, subconscious and unconscious; and id, ego and superego.