© Journal of Language and Literature, ISSN: 2078-0303, May, 2010 8 THE TRIUMPH OF ID OVER EGO AND SUPEREGO IN TO HIS COY MISTRESS Hammad Mushtaq Department of English, Foundation University Islamabad (PAKISTAN) E-mail: hamaadhashmi@gmail.com ABSTRACT The researcher has carried out textual analysis of Andrew Marvell’s poem `To His Coy Mistress’ from the view point of psychoanalytical criticism in order to assert that in the fight of id, ego, and superego, in the lover’s psyche, id becomes triumphant. For this, the researcher has used close-text analysis technique. Psychoanalytical criticism is based on the assumption that literary works are like dreams of the authors or of the characters created by the authors in these works. In the present article, the researcher has focused on the main character of the poem, i.e. a passionate lover. The researcher has developed the argument that the poem is a battle ground of three aspects of the lover’s personality i.e. Id, Ego, and Superego. Though, Ego and Superego appear to be functional in the first two parts of the poem, they subside and sink into nothingness in the final part of the poem. Id, on the other hand remains somewhat dormant in the first two parts but it forcefully makes its way towards the surface and becomes dominant in the final part of the poem. `To His Coy Mistress’, thus, can be read as a battle ground of Id, Ego, and Superego, where the final victory is snatched by Id. Key words: Psychoanalysis, Andrew Marvell’s poem ‘To His Coy Mistress’, Ego and Superego, Id 1. INTRODUCTION Psychoanalytic criticism analyses a piece of literature considering it a dream of the writer or the unconscious of the writer. Analysis of a literary piece of work on the bases of Sigmund Freud's concepts of id, ego, superego, libido, complexes, unconscious desires and sexual repression is an interesting way of literary analysis. Understanding of the unconscious of the writer or the characters presented by a writer in a literary work is vital in psychoanalytical criticism. Study of the unconscious mind is mainly based on the theories of psychologists Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. “Unconscious” says Harland (1999), “constitutes the reject bin...for images and impulses now excluded by consciousness…the energy in the unconscious continues to seek to manifest itself, with an urge to self expression” (130-31). Study of the unconscious mind of either the author or the central character in a literary piece is usually the focal point in any psychoanalytical criticism. In the present study the researcher has tried to uncover the unconscious of a character, created by Marvell in his poem To His Coy Mistress. The lover’s psyche is revealed in three stages which are in fact the three parts of the poem. The focus of the study is the relationship and working of id, ego and the superego in the lover’s psyche. 2. PSYCHOANALYTICAL STUDY OF ‘TO HIS COY MISTRESS’ a) Literary Critics on Psychoanalytical Criticism Freud, as stated by Bertens (159) and Barry (102), believes that the unconscious manifests itself implicitly in figurative language and expresses the hidden desires, of an author or a character, through images, symbols, metaphors, and allusions etc. Bertens further states that “the unconscious can for instance hide a repressed desire behind an image that would seem to be harmless….” (159). He believes that the real interest of psychoanalytical criticism “is in the hidden agenda of the language that the text employs” (160). Norman Holland, as quoted by Ray (63- 64), in his first work of theory The Dynamics of Literary Response explains the process of the transformation of unconscious thoughts into literary text: “All stories—and all literature—have this basic way of meaning: they transform the unconscious fantasy discoverable through psychoanalysis into the conscious meanings discoverable by conventional interpretations.” Barry (2002), however, believes that there is always a “judgemental” element involved in discovering the unconscious meanings of literary texts and “in consequence psychoanalytic interpretations of literature are often controversial” (102). Harland (1999), while discussing the ways of psychoanalytical criticism, asserts that the unconscious is an abode of meaning and it wishes to express these hidden meanings through conscious: “unconscious is a kind of thinking, it works with meaning; in so far as it seeks to express itself, it strives to make those meanings emerge through the socially dominant level of consciously controlled meaning.” (131). Literary characters are discussed and their personalities are analysed as if they are real human beings and that is why any theory applicable to human beings can be applied to the literary characters. These characters are can also be analysed in