Post Graguate

Islamic University in Lebanon

"The Prisoner of Chillon"," Ozymandias": The Author's Personality and the Creativeness of the Work

Outline

I. Psychoanalytical Literary Criticism

II. A Hint on the Poets' Life:

1. Byron: Satirist and Tormented

2. Shelly: revolutionary and Visionary

III. The Concepts of the Poems:

1. "…Chillon": Despair and Hope

2. "Ozymandias": the Vanity of Tyrants

IV. The Literary Work through the Author

The relation between the literary work and the author's personality has been an axiom at least for psychoanalytical critics for the fact that the literary work is the production of the author and then it would undoubtedly refers to his characteristics including all factors that contributed in casting his personality. Then, the aim of psychological school is for a better understanding to the literary work. Psychological criticism is of two schools: the Freudian and the Jungian. The first, the Freudian, focuses on the factor of sex as the origin of all human behaviors. Freud states that psyche is divided into three distinct but interactive parts: ego, super-ego, and Id (unconscious). The ego for Freud is that part of human personality that treats with the external world reshaping and modifying the urges propelled from the Id to fit the standards of the mores and regularities. Super-ego is the controlling agency that prevents libidinal urges from being appeared when necessary. The Id is the unconscious with the libidinal urges need to be satisfied. The second, the Jungian, is based on four notions: the distinction between introvert and extrovert character-type, rejection of Freud's etiology of neurosis, stressing the importance of the collective unconscious on the character. The relevant point concerning literature is that Freud states that all literature is neurosis and the author tries to vent his repression through his works, while for Jung, the author is...