Topic: Psychoanalytic study of Lucky Jim.

Submitted by: Group 4,

Department of English Language and Literature,

Islamic International University, Islamabad

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Contents

Introduction………………………………. 3 Objective………………………………..... 3 Literature Review…………………………3 Summary of the novel……………………. 5 Application of psychoanalytic theory…… 6

1. Psychology of Jim…………………… 62. Psychology of other Characters……. 83. Significance of colors………………...84. Defenses…………………………….... 85. Core issues…………………………....116. Id, Ego and Super Ego……………....13

Findings…………………………………....14 Conclusion………………………………....14 References…………………………………15

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Psychoanalysis:

Psychoanalytic Criticism is a form of literary criticism which uses some of the techniques of Psychoanalysis in the interpretation of literature. Psychoanalysis is a form of mental therapy which aims to cure mental disorders by investigating the interaction of Conscious and unconscious elements in the mind.

Objective of the Project:

The objective of this project is to apply Psychoanalytic theory on the novel, Lucky Jim. The psychology of the Characters will be determined in this project. We will observe that how the unconscious of a person shows up and intrudes with the conscious, when psychological problems occur. Different defense mechanisms and core issues present in the characters will also be analyzed.

Literature Review:

Psychoanalytic principal were established by Sigmund Freud (856-1939), whose theory of psyche often is referred to today as classical psychoanalysis. The goal of psychoanalysis is to help us resolve our psychological problems, often called disorders or dysfunctions. Thus the focus is on patterns of behavior that are destructive in some way. The concept central to all psychoanalytical thinking is the existence of unconscious .The notion that human beings are motivated, driven, by desires, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware is unconscious.

The unconscious is the store house of those painful experiences and emotions, those wounds, fears, guilty desires and unresolved conflicts that we do not want to know about, because we feel we will be overwhelmed by them. The unconscious comes into being when we are very young through the repression; the expunging from consciousness, of these unhappy psychological events. However, repression does not eliminate our painful experiences and emotions. Rather it gives them force by making them the organizers of our current experience.

The conscious mind includes everything that we are aware of. This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally. A part of this includes our memory, which is not always part of consciousness but can be retrieved easily at any time and brought into our awareness. Freud called this ordinary memory the preconscious.

Defenses are the processes by which the content of our unconscious are kept in the unconscious, in other words they are the processes by which we keep the repressed in order to avoid knowing what we feel we can’t handle knowing. Defenses include:

Selective memory: modifying our memories so that we don’t feel overwhelmed by them or forgetting painful events entirely.

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Denial: believing that the problem does not exist or the unpleasant incident never happened.

Avoidance: staying away from people or situations that are reliable to make us anxious by stirring up some unconscious i.e., repressed experience or emotions.

Displacement: taking it out on someone or something less threatening than the person who caused our fear, hurt frustration our anger.

Projection: ascribing our fear, problem, or guilty desire to someone else and then condemning him or her for it, in order to deny that we have it ourselves.

Regression: the temporary return to a former psychological state, which is not just imagined but relived. Regression can involve a return either to painful or a pleasant experience. It is a defense because it carries our thoughts away from some present difficulty.

Repression: forgetting or ignoring of unresolved conflicts, unadmitted desires or traumatic past events, so that they are forced out of conscious awareness into the realm of unconscious.

Sometimes our defenses momentarily breakdown, and this is when we experience anxiety. Anxiety can be an important experience because it can reveal our core issues. Some examples of the more core issues are:

1. Fear of abandonment: The unshakable believe that our friends and loved ones are going to desert us physically this is physical abandonment or they don’t really care about us, this is emotional abandonment.

2. Fear of betrayal: The nagging feeling that our friends and loved ones can’t be trusted, for example, can’t be trusted not to lie to us not to laugh at us behind our backs, or in the case of romantic partners, not to cheat on us by dating others.

3. Low self esteem: The belief that we are less worthy than other people and therefore we don’t deserve attention love or any other of life’s rewards. Indeed, we often believe that we deserve to be punished by life in some way.

4. Insecure or unstable sense of self: The inability to sustain a feeling of personal identity, to sustain a sense of knowing ourselves. The core issue makes us very vulnerable to the influence of other people, and we may find ourselves continually changing the way we look or behave we become involved with different individuals or groups.

Psychoanalysis, as a form of therapy, is controlled working in and with anxiety. Its goal is not to strengthen us to social adaptation but to break down our defenses in order to effect basic changes in the structures of our personality and the ways we act.

Freud divided mind in to three types: id. ego and super ego. The id is devoted solely to the gratification of prohibited desires of all kinds- desire for power, for sex for amusement for food, without an eye to consequences. In other words, the id consists largely of those desires regulated or forbidden by social convention. The word superego often implies feeling guilty when we should not, feeling guilty only because we are socially programmed. The superego is in direct opposition to the id, the psychological

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reservoir of our instincts, and our libido, or sexual energy. Thus the superego- or cultural taboos -determines which desires the id will contain .the ego, or the conscious self that experiences the external world through the senses, plays referee between the id and superego. The ego, the superego and the id are the three levels of personality roughly corresponding to the consciousness, the conscience and the unconsciousness.

Summary of the Lucky Jim:

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis depicts the story of a young boy, Jim Dixon, who is 24-year-old and a junior professor of History at one of England's redbrick universities. Nearing the end of a one-year contract, he worries whether he will be kept on, as his unconventional, irreverent approach to teaching history periodically brings him into conflict with his departmental head, Professor Welch. To Jim's surprise, Welch invites him to attend a weekend party at his house. He also asks Jim, in the absence of any other available candidate, to give a prestigious memorial lecture - but insists that the text must be a version of his own manuscript on the subject of 'Merrie England'. On arrival at Welch's home, Jim is shown to a tiny room. He is forced to join in the communal singing of a complicated madrigal and to sit through a lengthy musical recital. He also meets Welch's son Bertrand, a pretentious novelist, and his girlfriend, Christine. Jim escapes from the party and gets very tipsy at the local pub. Returning to the house much later, he is forced to break in, finding himself in the bedroom of Margaret, a colleague, who has designs on him. When she realizes that he is only there by accident, she throws him out. He falls asleep with a lighted cigarette and by morning has burnt holes in his sheet and blankets. Inventing a story about his parents visiting, he flees the house.

Back at the university, Jim helps with the arrangements for the installation of the new chancellor, Sir Hector Gore-Urquhart, who is head of a publishing firm and Christine's uncle. Meanwhile, Jim and Christine are becoming attracted to one another, and leave the ball together. Jim takes Christine home and she invites him inside. They kiss and, recognizing their mutual feelings, agree to meet for coffee the next day. Bertrand visits Jim in his room and they fight, leaving Jim with a black eye. Joining together the torn pages of lecture notes, he takes pills to boost his confidence. These later react disastrously with some alcohol given him from a hip flask by the sympathetic Sir Hector. Jim is clearly drunk when he goes on the stage; he loses his way and breaks the lecture. Eventually he departs from his notes completely, ridicules everything that he has been saying, and then collapses. Next day, Jim feels he has no choice but to resign from his position. On his way to Welch's house to replace the burnt bedclothes, he is phoned by Sir Hector, who asks to see him at his London office later that week. Jim arrives at Welch's house with a new confidence and demands to speak to Christine. When he is told that Christine has already left for the station, Jim hurries towards the station and finally he meets Christine.

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Psychoanalytic study of Lucky Jim:

Psychoanalytic criticism could be applied to the novel Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. This novel gives a deep insight into the psychology of human mind. The main character’s mind, Jim’s mind, is worth to be analyzed from the point of view of Psychoanalysis. He is an assistant lecturer in the Department of History at a provincial college in Britain. Further more the psychology of Margaret, Bertrand, Mr. Welch, Christine, Mrs. Welch and others are also worth noting. The conscious as well as the conscious of the characters of the novels is also explored here. The division of the human psyche in to three types: id, ego and superego is also discussed in this novel. From the theory of Psychoanalysis we will also observe the various types of defense mechanisms and a number of core issues that result in anxiety.

The psychology of Jim tells a lot about his personality. The thinking pattern of Jim is quite vivid in the novel. Jim has got a complex and puzzled thinking. He is all the time thinking about his financial condition. Dixon also vents his frustration with others through faces he makes to himself in private, some of which have actual titles. His thinking reveals his unconscious. Jim is not a rich man. In his unconscious, he has a desire for money, which is made apparent when he complains again and again about his luck and also at the instances where it is mentioned that how he is always short of money. In this way Jim’s unconscious constantly intrudes with his conscious. Financial crisis always depressed him, as the narrator says, “it was true that he had only three pounds left in his tin box to last until pay-day, which was nine days off.” Jim had started saving money but that is also on some purpose as the writer says, “in the bank he had twenty eight pounds, but this was a fund he’d started against the chance of being sacked.” Jim is always in fear that the principal may ask him anytime to leave the job. Moreover the performance of Jim was not satisfactory. That was also a reason that why Jim remains worried all the time. To release these tensions and to get a relief Jim used to smoke and drink a lot, “he’d spent money more than he could afford and drunk more than he ought, and yet he felt nothing but satisfaction and peace.” Margaret also reminds him that he should spend much money, “Much better for your pocket not to have them.” This shows that in the unconscious he is greatly disturbed by his economic condition. However, smoking gives him a momentary relief from the agonizing thoughts.

The mental disturbance of Jim can also be viewed from the perspective of the unfulfilled sexual desires, as stated by Freud. Jim wanted to fulfill his sexual desires, when he went to the house of Mr. Welch at the arrival of Mr. Welch’s son. Margaret firstly became intimate with Jim. Jim took liberties with her, but she didn’t protest. When Jim advanced further more than Margaret became angry and he turned him out of her room. The sexual desire of Jim is evident from the following lines, “whatever his motives…his wish to bring their relation to a crisis, his wish to avoid further salvo of intimate questions and avowals, and his worry about his job all came into it- the effects were unequivocal.” The wish of Jim is made further clear when the narrator throws light on the wishes of Jim, “why shouldn’t he go on? It seemed he’d be able to, though he could not tell how far. Did he want to? Yes.” When Jim met disappointment then he became too much disturbed. Thus, as Freud says, the lack of gratification of

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sexual needs causes a conflict and disturbance in the mind of Jim. The conflict remains in the mind of Jim that weather he was fair in acting in this way to Margaret or not. This conflict remains unresolved in the unconscious of Jim. Moreover he his sexual desire also remains unfulfilled which agitates his mind. Jim also has a desire to marry some girl. This is apparent when we notice that Jim is greatly attracted towards the beauty of Christine. It may be interpreted in a way that he is having a desire to marry someone. This idea is further strengthened when Jim goes to Christine with frantic fervor. Afterwards Christine broke up with Bertrand and by the end of the novel we observe that Christine is accompanying Jim instead of Bertrand.

The psychoanalysis of Jim also reveals that he is so much caring and loving. He took great care of Margaret when she was in the hospital. Later on we also observe that Jim accompanies her most of the times. Because of the good nature of Jim, their friendship grows stronger and intimate. Margaret praises Jim by saying that, “he’d been drawn into the Margaret business by a combination of virtues…politeness, friendly interest, ordinary concern, a good natured willingness to be imposed upon, a desire for unequivocal friendship.” Margaret glorifies Jim when Jim starts blaming himself for the hysterics of Margaret. She said, “You did all a man could do, and more than most would, believe me. You have got nothing to reproach yourself with.” However his sympathetic nature towards Margaret causes him great damage because Margaret befooled him.

The psychoanalysis of Jim further reveals that Jim always looks at the negative aspects of people. Dixon thought that Welch doesn’t want to keep him as a lecturer so he was pointing out the flaws in Welch and making rude comments about him. “He wants to test my reactions to culture, see whether I’m a fit person to teach in the university.” Dixon also points out the flaws in Christine by commenting on her face, which was devoid of makeup. He also comments on her clothing and body and shows his dislike for her by considering such women as her as the property of men. He also doesn’t like Bertrand and referred to his voice by saying, “the baying quality of his voice.” So, Jim is one of those people who notice a black spot before realizing the whiteness of the whole page. Jim also criticizes the work of Bertrand, as a painter. Jim himself comments on his critical thinking by saying that, “for a moment he felt like devoting the next ten years to working his way to a position as art critic on purpose to view Bertrand’s work unfavorably,”

Dixon has the psyche of making fun of people. He made great fun of Christine when he called Julius as her Uncle. “Dixon wanted to laugh at this. It always amused him to hear girls (men never did it) refer to ‘Uncle’, ‘Daddy’ and so on, as if there were only one uncle or daddy in the world, or as if this particular uncle or daddy were uncle and daddy of all those present.” In short, we observe that Jim has a complex personality.

The psychology of Margaret shows that she is a lady who is craving for love and attention. She also tries to attempt suicide after her breakup with Catchpole, “Margaret had tried to kill herself with sleeping-pills,” The suicide attempt of Margaret shows

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that she is tired and frustrated from life and she sees escape as the only form of escape from the miseries and agonies of life. However after her recovery, she seems to be getting

on well with Dixon. Christine’s psychology shows that she is a compromising lady. Christine's sense of humor and genuineness show through. Her unremorseful attitude toward eating, as well as her unmusical laugh, make Christine seem less artificial than Margaret. When Christine finally opens up to Dixon, we learn that she is unhappy with Bertrand, but has been unhappy in all her relationships with men. Mr. Welch is seen as an authoritative person who wanted every one to follow him. Mrs. Welch on the other hand is also domineering.

Some of the colors are constantly repeated in the text which is of significant importance. Colors like blue, purple and green are known as cool colors. These colors are often described as calm, but can also call to mind feelings of sadness or indifference. Green color is the one that is most often found in the text. For instance Margaret was wearing “green Paisley frock”. At another place she was wearing her Blue dressing gown. Yet at another instance the narrator calls the hands of Margaret as being purple. All these colors throw light on the sadness, perplexity and muddled state of mind of Margaret thereby highlighting the miseries of her life. Bertrand and Christine on the other hand are seen in yellow color. Yellow color is associated with paleness and diseased. Both of them are morally diseased and they don’t have upright characters.

A number of defense mechanisms can be seen as working in the characters that keep the unconscious in the unconscious:

Selective memory is seen in Jim when he tries to modify his memory and avoids thinking about the painful incidents. A number of instances of selective memory are seen in the novel. Some of them are:

Selective memory is also seen when Margaret told Jim the story of her life that how Catchpole ditched her and betrayed her. At the end she said that she had modified her memory and now she no more felt any kind of emotional attachment to Catchpole. Margaret said that, “I don’t care about him anymore; I don’t feel anything at all about him, one way or the other. So much so I feel now it was rather silly to have tried at all.”

The incident when Margaret turned him out of her room also brought great pain with it to Jim. He was irritated by the memory therefore he tried not to think about that incident, “Dixon heeled over sideways and came to rest with his hot face on the pillow. This, of course, would give him time to collect his thoughts, and that of course, was just what he didn’t want to do with his thoughts: the longer he could keep them apart from one another, especially the one’s about Margaret, the better .”

Jim was waiting for Christine outside the ball room. He had asked Christine to come out of the ball room at the appointed room but ten minutes had past and Christine

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had not yet appeared. This makes him painful to think about it as the narrator says, “He tried not to think about it.”

When Jim ended up his relationship with Margaret and told her that she should not expect any more emotional intimacy from him. At this Margaret burst into tears and had fits. Afterwards Atkinson came and gave her Whiskey after which her condition got better. Jim started blaming himself for the whole incident. He thought that he was responsible for worsening the condition of Margaret. Later on this incident proved itself to be very painful for Jim and all the happiness with which he was looking forward to the meeting with Christine. This bad memory is pointed out by the narrator when he said, “He refused directly to think about Margaret’s fit of hysterics. Soon enough, he knew, it would take its place with those three or four memories which could make him actually twist about in his chair, or bed with remorse, fear or embarrassment.”

Denial was also seen in the novel when Margaret refused to accept the problem regarding Catchpole ever existed. She thought that she was silly if she thought that the problem of break up with Catchpole was serious and important. She not only denied the importance of the problem of Catchpole issue but also denied the importance of Catchpole in his life. She said, “He might never have existed – as far as we’re concerned.”

Avoidance was also seen at a number of instances where the character tried to remain out of touch with persons or conditions that were liable of making him anxious by arousing the painful events and memories. Whenever the character faces a problem then he avoids the situations that might aggravate his pain. Some of the instances of avoidance are:

Dixon was a lecturer in the University yet he had scarce knowledge about his own subject area. Dixon hated one of his students, Michie, because he was more knowledgeable than Dixon himself. When Michie posed various questions to Dixon then he was unable to answer them. He tried to put him off by giving him absurd replies. So one of the mottos of Dixon was to keep himself at arm’s length from Michie, as when Michie asked him questions that he was unable to give a satisfactory reply then this wounded him and it stirred the unconscious of Dixon that he was less knowledgeable than Michie. The narrator said in commentary of one of the questions posed by Michie that, “this question illustrated exactly why Dixon felt he had to keep Michie out of his subject. Michie knew a lot, or seemed to, which was as bad.”Dixon usually avoided Michie but whenever he met Michie then he answered courteously rather than showing hatred. Dixon had made up his mind that, “Michie then, must be kept out, but with smiles and regrets instead of the blows and kicks which were his due.”

Avoidance was also witnessed when Dixon come to know that Mrs. Welch had known what he had done to the bedroom sheets and the blanket. Dixon called at Mr. Welch’s home. He was afraid that what would happen if Mrs. Welch attended the phone. It was necessary for him to call there to convey a message by Catharine. He was thinking about the prospects if Mrs. Welch attended the phone. “Mrs. Welch would be better, in

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that her message would be comprehensible, but worse in that she might have found out about the sheet, or even the table.” The same happened what Dixon was thinking. Mrs. Welch attended the phone call and she instantly recognized Dixon’s voice and asked, “Before I get my husband, I’d just like you to tell me, if you don’t mind, what you did to the sheets and blankets on your bed...” Mr. Dixon instantly changed his voice and was thus able to camouflage the reality. Later on he avoided Mrs. Welch as it pricked his conscience that he did a wrong thing by burning the bed sheet and the blanket.

Avoidance was also seen when Mr. Dixon had a quarrel with Bertrand at the dinner party. So, to avoid Bertrand, who reminded him of the painful quarrel and the harsh exchange of words, Dixon left the party room and went to a pub. All the people at the party knew that he had gone to the pub. As Christine was asked by that how did Welch reacted when he had gone from the party. To this Christine replied, “What, to finding out you’d gone to the pub?”

Displacement was also seen in the novel when Jim got too much irritated and angry on the slow driving and absurd talk of Mr. Welch. To take out his anger he pressed himself hard against the seat of the car “Before Dixon could do more than close his eyes he was pressed firmly back against the seat.” Moreover when he got too much angry he started smoking as we observe that on the party he smoked and drank a lot to relieve himself. In this way he gave vent to his anger.

Bertrand also takes out his anger on Jim. When he was unable to keep Christine to himself then he started fighting with Jim. He always threatened Jim and asked him to leave Christine. Bertrand threatened him that, “just this. The last time I saw you, I told you to stay away from Christine.” When Jim didn’t act upon the bidding of Bertrand then Bertrand became hostile towards Jim and said, “I’ll break your horrible neck for you and get you dismissed from your job as well. Understand?” Jim also took out his anger on him and said, “If you feel you must threaten someone, go and threaten her”.

Projection was also seen when Margaret ascribes all her worries and miseries to catchpole and said that her life was ruined because of him. Margaret always blamed Catchpole for bringing upon her the miseries as Catchpole said that “I was perpetually being accused of hurting her, ignoring her, trying to humiliate her in front of other women…” Margaret did the same to Dixon also. This shows that Margaret blamed others for all her worries.

Regression was often noticed in the novel in which the characters returned to their previous condition either good or bad. A few instances of regression are:

After the instance when Dixon tried to take liberties with Margaret. Dixon asked Margaret to go with her at lunch but Margaret’s previous fury returned and she angrily asked Dixon, for some reason, these queries provoked a partial return to her earlier

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manner, “free”? Who do you imagine would have asked me out to lunch? Here Margaret was weeping and Dixon asked her to go with him but she became furious when she remembered the incident of the party night.

Dixon also experienced regression; he went out for tea with Christine. There he recalled the incident of his fight with Bertrand. His condition worsened as unconscious was stirred up and he hatred for Bertrand because active. This is evident when the author says, “Dixon experienced a return of ill feelings he’d had some minutes before. Then he found his thoughts being blindly swept by panic.”

Repression was also seen in the novel when Jim tried to forget the incident when Bertrand kissed Carol. Jim was constantly irritated by the unfaithfulness of Carol so he wanted to forget this or ignore this incident, “what he’d seen had disturbed him in some way he couldn’t tie down… Dixon wished he hadn’t found that gap in the curtains, then thrust the matter from his mind.”

Sometimes the defense mechanism breakdown and this result in anxiety. Anxiety results in a number of core issues:

Fear of abandonment was seen in Bertrand. He feared that Christine would leave her, that’s the way he always came to Jim and scolded him that , “this business between Christine and myself is serious business, unquestionable. We’ve known each other for some considerable period of time. And we’re not in it just for a spot of the old slap and tickle, do you follow” He threatened Jim that he would lose his job at the university. “You’d better start looking for another job at. I mean that.” All this was happening because Bertrand feared that Christine would leave her.

Fear of abandonment was also seen in Margaret. She started weeping to gain the attention of Dixon. Margaret feared that Dixon would leave her in favor of Christine; Margaret complained to him that, “why had he deserted her at the ball. Like that? Or rather, since she and he and everyone else knew why, what did he think he was up to? Or rather, again, how could he do this to her?”

Fear of emotional abandonment was also seen in the novel as Margaret said that no body cared for her only Dixon was the person who cared for her, he only liked and praised Dixon as she said, “you are so sweet to and I am getting too much fond of you”. The emotional abandonment becomes more vivid when Margaret said, “you are the only one that’s nice to me and then I treat you like that”.

Fear of betrayal was the one that was most often found in the novel. Fear of betrayal is found in the Christine. She was telling Dixon about Bertrand that he does not tell anything especially regarding his affair with Mrs. Carol, “but he won’t tell me what’s happening. He’ll pretend there isn’t anything, and he’ll ask me if I really think he’d get up to anything behind my back, and I’ll have to say No, otherwise …”

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Fear of betrayal was also found in Jim, as he accused Margaret that at the party she was not attentive to him rather she was talking all the time to Gore Urquhart, “you were all over that Gore-itch bag character, had not got time to say a single word to me, had you?” Margaret clarified that she was not at all betraying him and said, “I talk to a man just for a few minutes, that’s all it was… and now you start accusing me of marking up to you”. In other words Margaret was proving that she was faithful to him.

Mrs. Carol also nurtured fear of betrayal, that’s why she didn’t tell about her affair to anyone but only Jim as she told, “I’m sick and tired of being pushed around. I don’t mind telling you this because I know you. I do know you, don’t I? Infact, I’ve got to tell someone, so I pick you.” She thought that if she would tell anyone else than he would tell the Goldsmith. She told Jim because she trusted him.

Fear of low esteem was also seen in the characters; especially Jim, who wanted everybody to apologize him which showed that he felt inferior so to assert his identity. He wished that everybody should seek his pardon. At the party, a few harsh remarks passed on between Bertrand and Dixon. Dixon was distressed, he wanted Bertrand to make an apology to him, “Dixon didn’t like him doing that, the only action he required from Bertrand was an apology, humbly offered for his personal appearance”.

Low self-esteem was also seen in Dixon because he was not rich. He often thought that, “why hadn’t he himself had parents whose money, so far exceeded their sense has to install their son in London?” Bertrand also made him feel inferior by referring to the fact that how rich he was. Jim felt disappointed and dejected, and replied to Bertrand that, “you seem to have been luckier, in the rich people you’ve come into contact, with than I have, that’s all.”

Christine later on also became a victim of low self-esteem. Bertrand moved about with Mrs. Carol and didn’t give importance to Christine, which hurt her so much that she left him and set out on the journey to London. She told Dixon that “she hated him for taking her for granted. I didn’t mind what he’d done before he started going about with me, but it was wrong of him to try to keep us both on a string, Carol and me.”

Low self-esteem was also found in Margaret. She felt inferior when catchpole deserted her and also when Dixon said to her that, “what I want to say is, you must stop depending on me emotionally like this.” The inferiority complex is evident when Margaret felt sure that Dixon hated her, “Do you hate me, James?” In contrast, we find that the superiority complex is deeply embedded in Bertrand, Welch, and Mrs. Welch.

Insecure or unstable sense of self was also found in Jim. He didn’t have a single set opinion or view point. Sometimes he thought that he should have Margaret while at other times he thought that he should have Christine. He was simultaneously attracted to both girls. On the one hand, Dixon said to Margaret that, “you know, I’m fond of you, Margaret.” While on the other hand, he said to Christine that, “Thanks for a lovely evening, Christine.” These statements show that he didn’t want to lose any of the girls.

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At other times he was disgusted by both the girls as the narrator said, “Avoiding thinking about Margaret and for some reason not wanting to think about Christine, he found his thought turning towards his lecture.”

Freud divided the human mind into three parts, id, ego and super-ego. Id refers to the pleasure principle. It is common in all of the major characters of the novel. Jim also became entrapped in his desires, when he came to Margaret. He advanced towards Margaret, Margaret also welcomed him. “He kissed her again, harder; he felt his head spinned, faster. After a minute or two there seemed no reason why he shouldn’t put his hands under the lapel of her dressing gown.” He further advanced but Margaret became angry and said to him, “Go on, out you go, James.”

The excessive drinking habit of Jim also comes under the pleasure principle. After coming back from the party he drank so much that he became a drunk. “The bottle had been about three quarters full when he started, and was about three quarters empty when he stopped.” Here Jim was satisfying the worldly desires, without thinking rationally that what he was doing.

Bertrand also followed the pleasure principle. He was not sincere with any of his girls. Last year he came with Miss Loosmore and this time he came with Christine. Bertrand was just having fun with the girls without any intention of marrying them, “He was going to marry the Loosmore then, and now where he is with a new piece.” He threatened Jim to stay away from Christine but he himself was not sincere to her, as he said, “I don’t want to get married yet awhile, but its distinctly on the cards that I might marry Christine in a couple of years or so.” This shows that Bertrand was following the way of his desires, the pleasure principle.

Mrs. Carol was also following her desires so id was predominant in her. She too was not faithful to her husband and had an affair with Bertrand. Her loose nature was evident from the fact that she told to Jim that, “I suppose you’ve guessed I have been sleeping with our friend, the painter, haven’t you?”

In Margaret too, id was predominant. Jim came to her room and she put on lipstick for him, “when he came back she was still sitting on the bed, but had evidently put on some lipstick for him. This pleased him...” her action showed that she was interested in Jim. Jim also drew the conclusion that she was interested to establish a relationship with her, “she certainly seemed to want it.” Afterwards she became angry and turned him out of his room when she comes to know that he came to her room by mistake rather than intentionally.

The life of Christine was also dominated by id. She had an abstemious nature because of which we say that her life was led by id. Her overeating habit was noticed by Jim when he sat on the table with her, at breakfast, “he noted with a mild surprise that how much and how quickly she was eating. The remains of a large pool of sauce were to be seen on her plate beside a diminishing mound of fried egg, bacon and tomatoes.”

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Ego was also seen in Jim when he was rationalizing that whether his advancement towards Margaret was right or not, “was it fair to her? Was it fair to him? ...No. it wouldn’t be fair to her, confronting her with something that could hardly fail to disturb and upset her in the short run” This showed that his ego was alive but it was suppressed by the id of Jim.

His super ego was also alive as he felt so much guilty on his attitude towards Margaret and he thought that he would not meet her onwards because of his guilt.

Findings:

By the end of our project we have come across the following findings:

1. We have deeply analyzed the personality and psychology of Jim. And have come to the conclusion that his financial crisis was the main thing that was determining his psychology as he was all the time thinking about his economy.

2. The unconscious and conscious of Jim were also explored. The unconscious revealed that he had a desire for wealth and his desire often came into his consciousness in the form of his disapproval of his present economic situation.

3. The effect of various colors on the psychology and personality of characters was also found out.

4. Different types of defense mechanisms and core issues were also analyzed. Defense mechanisms serve a great deal to analyze and determine the unconscious mind of a person. Core issues showed the anxieties prevalent in the characters.

5. Id, ego and super ego were also found in the different characters. Jim was the person whose character was an amalgam of id, ego and super ego. In most of the other characters id was found.

Conclusion:

In a nutshell we observe that the novel was a fine text for the application of Psychoanalytic theory as most of the aspects of theory were found out in the novel. The application helped us to analyze the workings of minds and the problems faced by the characters.

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References

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. Critical Theory Today by Lois Tyson. Beginning Theory by Peter Barry. www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/465385/synopsis.html www.sparknotes.com/lit/luckyjim/canalysis.html

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