Psychoanalysis on HC Andersen

30 Pages·2015·2.12 MB·English

by  Aditya Hartono Wijaya

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