Beowulf's Personality Structure
Abstract: Beowulf's personality structure has rich humanistic connotation. His childhood experience has a profound influence on the formation of his psychological structure. In his body, the superego and the id constantly collide and conflict. Beowulf achieved the perfection of the hero with his own death. Until the end of his life, he finally found the harmony of his personality structure as a hero.
Keywords: Beowulf's personality structure superego and id
Beowulf is the first national epic in medieval Europe, and it is also the first work of English literature. Its main content is about the Gothic Prince Beowulf leading twelve warriors to the kingdom of Denmark, getting rid of the demon Geqiudai and his mother, winning peace for Denmark, and returning to their homeland after receiving honors and rewards. Later, Beowulf became the king of Goth. Unexpectedly, fifty years later, a fire dragon disturbed the peace of the kingdom. Although Beowulf is in his twilight years, he is still ambitious, fighting the dragon alone and finally dying heroically. Epic interweaves myths and legends with historical events, reflecting the heroism and living conditions of Germans in the late clan society. Beowulf, the hero, embodies the heroic ideals of people in this period. There is no denying that Beowulf is described as a deified hero in his poems, but this deified hero is very different from Homer's heroes. He has a more complicated personality and rich personality structure, and has a more humane connotation. If we only regard him as a mortal, we will find that there are many places worth pondering in this man. By analyzing his psychological structure, we may be able to uncover the so-called hero The Secret Behind.
First, Beowulf's childhood experience has a profound influence on his psychological structure.
Beowulf's childhood experience was unfortunate. His parents died young and were adopted by his grandfather at the age of seven. He witnessed a bloody disaster at his grandfather's house. About his parents' deeds, there are two references in the poem, both through the memories of Rosega, the Danish king "the guardian of Hilde's son". When Beowulf first came to Denmark, Rosega said after hearing the news:
"Turns out to be Beowulf! I have known him since I was a child.
His late father's name was Archer the Sword Slave.
Married the daughter of Lao Wang, Rezel. "(lines 372~374)
When Rosega hosted a banquet for Beowulf, he mentioned his father again and said in a favorable tone:
"In those days, when your father started fighting,
Kill the Wolf clan He Suola (lines 458~459).
Then he talked about how he took in his father and helped him resolve his hostility.
From these memories, we can know that Beowulf's father, Archer, was originally a man with high martial arts and extraordinary courage, and he only caused great hatred because of "killing He Suola of the Wolf clan". The people were afraid of the war revenge of the Wolf clan and refused to let him stay in the tribe. In desperation, Archie had to travel across the sea to Denmark and went to Rosega. With Rosega's help, the two met and became good friends. Although the poem doesn't mention what happened later, it can be inferred that Beowulf's father actually drifted all his life, died young and died in a foreign land. His mother died soon after. Such an unfortunate family tragedy happened to a minor child. For Beowulf, its influence is bound to be lifelong. It is hard to find him talking about his parents in the whole poem. It was only in the memories before the Dragon Slayer that he finally mentioned it slightly. At this point, he is already an old man. Although Beowulf avoided talking about his father and mother all his life, he had a strong desire for his parents' love. Especially after Rotherham admitted that Beowulf was his adopted son, Beowulf said to him:
"If I saved you this time.
I gave my life, and you are still my father.
There is still a father's responsibility. "(Line 1477~ 1479)
The emphasis here is the word "responsibility". Although Beowulf's responsibility is only to ask Rosega to protect his comrades-in-arms, and give Rosega his property to his uncle. But the connection between "responsibility" and "father" is the subconscious expression that he has hidden in his heart for many years. And the last last words, but also revealed the protagonist's eternal bitterness and grief, making people cry:
"Fate has destroyed all my relatives,
Brave aristocrats, ruthless judgments.
Now, I'm going with them "(lines 28 14~28 16).
When Beowulf was seven years old, he was adopted by his grandfather and lived with his uncle Sheila. Her parents' love is minimal. So when he said, "All my happiness depends on you. I have no other relatives except you, Sheila. " When this is the most humane sentence, Beowulf is no longer the mighty warrior, but an orphan with tears in his eyes.
In addition, the tragedy between my great uncle and my second uncle once again cast an indelible shadow on Beowulf's mind.
"Unexpectedly, my uncle's negligence, let him spread a shouldn't spread the bed.
..... relatives fell to the ground, brothers benefited, and their blood was defiled.
This is an irreparable debt, my heart.
The most unbearable sin. Nevertheless,
The prince still gave up his life in vain and could not get revenge. "(lines 2435~2443)
This disaster changed grandpa's family from now on:
The cold wind replaced the smile: the knight fell asleep,
Hero loess, no more harp songs,
The palace feast was the most exciting thing of that year. "(lines 2457~24559)
I loved his grandfather the most and died of excessive pain:
"Finally, he was overwhelmed by gloomy sadness.
Aside from the joy of the world, I chose the light of God. "(lines 2468~2469)
For Beowulf, this is undoubtedly the aggravation of his already unfortunate fate. Since then, the seeds of love and hate have grown wildly in his heart, and gratitude and revenge, war and peace have become the main themes of his life. Several major events in his life revolved around this theme.
Two other factors that affect the formation of Beowulf's psychological structure can not be ignored, namely, being discriminated against since childhood and losing the competition with Breka. In line 2 184 of the poem, the poet inserted a passage about Beowulf's experience: "In his youth, he was looked down upon by people, and the sons of the Goths regarded him as a useless coward; At the honey feast, the leader of the Feng family neither gave him fame nor gold. They think he is really lazy and a bully to the prince. " As you can imagine, Beowulf's unfair treatment in Fengzu was related to his father to some extent. Because of the particularity of the encounter, this kind of discrimination not only did not hurt Beowulf's young heart, but also tempered his will, urged him to work hard and wait for the opportunity to gain wealth and honor by his own strength-to be a real hero in the eyes of Feng people. However, it goes without saying that no one can completely avoid the negative effects of discrimination. Beowulf is no exception. From his words and deeds, we can see some defects in his character: sensitivity, conceit, egoism and almost excessive desire for wealth and honor. For example, when Onvos challenged him to show his scars, he immediately "scoffed" and slammed back:
"Listen, my friend Vingus,
Once you drink, you can't stop talking about Breka.
This is his adventure! Honestly,
Who can match my water and endurance,
I am struggling in the fierce waves! "(lines 530~534)
In the competition with Breka to "taste the despair on the ocean", Beowulf is indeed a de facto loser. In that era of hero worship, victory often means honor, while failure means shame. Although Beowulf's defeat in the game is due to objective reasons, no one will understand the fugitive's son. Even Rosega didn't have much confidence in Beowulf at first. Therefore, Beowulf consciously or unconsciously confirmed his real existence to others and even himself, trying to avoid the sense of failure and gain a psychological self-satisfaction. This is also the best explanation for Willaf's confusion, why Beowulf insisted on killing the dragon himself, knowing that he could not defeat the dragon by himself.
Second, the contradiction in Beowulf: the conflict between superego and id.
In the poet's works, the reason why Beowulf became the ideal hero in the hearts of ancient Germans is based on the following points: (1) extraordinary force and the true nature of being brave and good at fighting; (2) persistent pursuit of wealth and honor; (3) being amiable and approachable to the people; (4) A high sense of responsibility and collectivism. The poet's praise is always inseparable from Beowulf's "strong physique, outstanding strength and extraordinary courage", which reflects the mentality of early human beings to conquer nature. Poets are not so much praise and worship of heroes as affirmation and appreciation of human beings themselves. In this sense, Beowulf is superego. As an individual free man, Beowulf must have a deeper desire and instinct, which forced him to act according to the "happy principle". In fact, what is suppressed behind the hero is the pursuit of self-satisfaction and the impulse to destroy. In this sense, Beowulf is the ID.
Beowulf has a strong sense of revenge. For example, when Ge Qiudai's mother avenged her son and raided the deer hall, Rosega was worried. Beowulf calmly said, "It is better to avenge than to mourn!" Moreover, he encouraged Rosega to go with him to "follow the trail of Mother Ge" and let Lao Wang "jump up and thank God for hearing such brave words". Beowulf's revenge is resolute, even cruel. He used to show off his martial arts like this:
"I returned triumphantly from the battlefield, covered in the blood of the enemy;
I tied five at a time and killed one nest.
Giant; The stormy waves in the dark
I cut a sea monster (asking for trouble,
They are my enemies! )
A narrow escape, revenge for the wind family. "(lines 4 19~424)
Later, he insisted on "killing dragons", which was obviously dominated by this consciousness. In Beowulf's eyes, the means of revenge is to conquer and kill by force. In ancient times when the labor force was low and technology was underdeveloped, people had to rely on physical strength if they wanted to defeat the enemy and get the necessities of life. Obtaining wealth by force is their only choice. Therefore, the essence of Beowulf's revenge and killing consciousness is the death instinct to destroy and destroy powerful people in nature (such as animals, monsters and unknowable fears) when human strength is still very weak, and it is also the survival instinct of early human beings to affirm their own strength. At this point, the most typical embodiment is that Beowulf is fighting alone.
The treasure guarded by the dragon is cursed. The informant said this:
"This treasure, secretly gold.
It will only bring bad news to the host. ...
So, Beowulf doesn't understand.
When he challenged the tomb guards to a desperate duel,
How did the farewell moment come about-
A hidden treasure house, an extinct royal family
The curse of planting: until the end of the trial
Anyone has invaded the hell of that place.
Will be locked by sin, tied to the strange circle of monsters,
Prison in hell ... "(lines 3059~3073)
Although the informant pointed out that the curse "Beowulf didn't understand it", it didn't mean that he didn't know it, but he probably wanted to emphasize that Beowulf didn't expect the serious consequences of breaking the curse. The direct reason why Beowulf wanted to kill the fire dragon was that a slave stole the small wine glass guarded by the fire dragon. When the fire dragon noticed it, he flew into a rage and launched a crazy revenge on the Gothic kingdom, which caused the Gothic kingdom to "fall into the sea of fire". But the root cause is treasure. This can be seen from his last words:
"For this treasure, ...
I won it for my people, ...
For this treasure, I handed over the last one.
One winter. "(lines 2794~2800)
For the treasure, he "must challenge the serpent", even if he had a premonition of death:
"He was very sad,
Have a premonition of death. Fate's judgment is at hand,
Looking for the treasure house of old people's souls.
Life is about to bid farewell to the body;
Soon, meat and flexible stool are not in the same place. "(lines 24 18~2424)
In order to obtain the necessities of human existence-wealth, Beowulf, as the representative of the strong, is duty-bound to challenge the strong of nature-animals and unknowable fears-fire dragons and curses. Only destruction and destruction can achieve human self-satisfaction. This is due to the instinct of human death and survival, not just because Beowulf maintains personal honor. Beowulf's last look at the "trophy" he bought with his life was obviously for this satisfaction.
From another thing, we can see how the ID is embodied in Beowulf. Beowulf followed his master Sheila from Fries. Hera was unfortunately killed in the battle and was "destroyed by a sword on the land of Fries", while Beowulf did not die with his master like Teutonic traditional retinue, but rushed out of the encirclement with his own divine power and extraordinary water quality and fled to the Gothic kingdom alone with "captured armor". When describing this incident, the poet called it "the lonely survivor swam back to the motherland". Nobody asked about it, and nobody blamed him. I have to mention that before this incident, Beowulf's status as a "hero" has long been recognized. "Lao Wang" Heyila died, and the "hero" returned safely-it seems that a cruel competition law can be glimpsed: it is self-evident and natural that "hero" replaces "Lao Wang" in the hearts of Wu Fu and even the people. Lao Wang's wife, Queen Huide, even presented Beowulf with "gold and throne, collar and throne". Beowulf chose to escape, which means that he realized that the "opportunity" to reach the peak of his life has finally come. Here lurks Beowulf's repressed desire when he was a child.
Superego Beowulf and ID Beowulf are very contradictory. On the one hand, he wants to be a "hero" and represent the norms of social morality; On the other hand, pent-up desires and instincts roll like underground magma and may gush out at any time. His iron palm, which is "as strong as 30 people in his fingers", is always eager for the soaking and tempering of blood.
So how does Beowulf adjust its own profound contradictions? First of all, acknowledge God and give justice to your actions. For example, he declared that "those who are taken away by death must obey God's judgment", called Ge Yaodai "God's stubborn enemy" and "God's rebellion", and attributed his victory to God's blessing: "Let the wise God, the sacred referee, who should win, should call his mind!" (lines 686-387). Second, rebel against fate and give your behavior rationality. I believe that "life in a hurry is just a struggle" and "providence plays tricks on people", even when "the judgment of fate is at hand", I still have no hesitation. Third, sincerely repent and seek self-comfort. The fire dragon brought disaster to the Goths. At this time, "the wise leader thinks that he has offended the Almighty God, the eternal God, and has broken the ancient rules", and for the first time in his life, "dark thoughts are surging in his chest". Fourth, choose death and become a "perfect" hero. Beowulf's death is the intensification of the contradiction between superego and id, and the victory of superego over id. When the threat of fire dragon appeared, it became a choice for Beowulf to fight or not to fight. If you fight, death may be inevitable; If you don't fight, you will surrender to the fire dragon, and you will become the Danish king Rosega who is at a loss in front of Ge Yu's generation. A "hero" will not be a "hero". So he "must challenge the serpent", and he must choose death-Beowulf achieved the perfection of the hero with his own death. Until the end of his life, he finally found the harmony of his personality structure as a hero.
References:
[1] translated by Feng Xiang, Beowulf, Beijing Sanlian Bookstore, June 1992, 1 Edition.
[2] Jin' Zhao Xia'
[3] Wang Jihui, "Re-discussion on Beowulf", "Foreign Literature Studies",No. 1 2003.
[4] Wang Xianpei and Hu Ya Democracy, Principles of Literary Criticism, Central China Normal University Press.
Author: Yao
Address: Chinese Department, School of Literature, Wuhan Huazhong Normal University
E-mail: yaojiucai@ 126.com