As this term paper is mainly about the psychoanalysis, it is necessary to ask, how much Beckett knew about this explicit field of psychology. The concept of psychoanalysis, first established in the early 20th century, may for sure had particular influence on Beckett’s thoughts and plays as not only Footfalls contains ideas in it. Beckett himself attended a psychotherapist, after his father’s death in 1933. “He remained in therapy for two years with Wilfred R. Bion […] whose later writing on psychoanalytical theory are considered among the most eminent and original in the field.” The reason for his collapse may be found in his relationship to his mother whose “savage loving made him what he was”. Connor adds, that Beckett’s may have experienced the lost of his father “as a confirmation of the loss of his second father, Joyce, who had broken angrily with him after Beckett’s abortive affair with Lucia” , James Joyce’s daughter. The notes he made about psychoanalytical theories, when he was in therapy, had been discovered after his death, so it is very likely that he used some of them for his later plays.
Table of contents
1. An introduction to Beckett’s psychoanalytical knowledge
2. Psychoanalytical elements in Beckett’s Footfalls
2.1 An example of hysteria
2.1.1 May’s pacing as a result of a suppressed trauma
2.1.2 The longing for a proof of existence as a search for identity
2.2 May and the aspects of her ‘egos’
2.2.1 The mother-daughter relationship in detail
2.2.2 May, the id and her super ego
2.3 The search for salvation in the depth of a soul
2.3.1 A Freudian dream interpretation of ‘I heard you deep in my sleep’
2.3.2 ‘Walking up and down his poor arm’ and ‘Lacrosse’ as allusion to human suffering
3. Examples of how Beckett’s form and style intensifies a psychoanalytical approach
4. Conclusion
5. Bibliography
- Quote paper
- Alexander Häuser (Author), 2011, Towards a psychoanalytical interpretation of "Footfalls" (Samuel Beckett), Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/190015
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