Allison's Blog

Allison Kuehl 

December 8, 2009      

ENGL 3150   

Dr. De Vries

Theory Essay: Revision

Freud and Lord of the Flies

      Sigmund Freud had a fascinating view on the reason for human actions and how a person’s personality is formed. Freud’s psychoanalysis on one’s personality is a structure that is divided into three unique elements: the Id, Superego, and Ego. The Id is the most primitive part of a person’s personality; it represents the instinctual desires for instant satisfaction. The Superego is the opposite of the Id and is an ultra-conservative rule follower; it represents the rules and morals taught to the person by society. The Ego is the healthy balance and mediates between the Id and the Superego. It decides which actions are appropriate at the correct time given the environmental and social circumstances. Each of the elements that create a personality are embedded into separate characters of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. In the novel the audience watches a group of boys on the deserted island without any authority and the dominant Freudian aspects of their personalities appear. The idea that different characters represent the elements of Freud’s theory helps to better understand the novel and also to show that there must be an equal and healthy balance of each part in order to keep a person or society in order.

      In the novel the character that represents the Id is Jack; he is the most savage and power hungry. It is evident that Jack represents the Id when he goes off to hunt and as a result the fire goes out. Jack’s immediate need to hunt for the pig and overwhelming craving to kill took control over his logic. Jack desires the position of being in control of the boys, just as he was the head of the choir boys in school.

“But his desire for many controls did not of course extend to controls he disliked, to those over himself. Then he rejected the rules and claimed the right to decide for himself. To Ralph’s plea that he had been chosen chief, Jack replied: ‘Why should choosing make any difference? Just giving orders that don’t make any sense—-…Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong—we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat—!’” (Spitz 27).

Even though he wants to be a leader, his primal instincts take control of him and Jack becomes more of a savage hunter. Only towards the middle of the novel does Jack gain some power over the boys and this authority is the outcome of his manipulation of putting fear about the “beast” into the boys. Unlike the other character’s Jack embraces his barbaric side and begins to live with his own set of rules in the wilderness by hunting wild pigs and becoming an animal himself. In one of the earlier hunts it is shown that Jack uses his animalistic instincts and “for a minute became less a hunter than a furtive being, ape-like among the tangle of trees” (Golding 54). During the novel the audience finds that Jack has lost all sense of what is right and wrong and his barbaric instincts control him, to him their situation becomes nothing more than a game. 

      While the id part of human nature is out of control, the character who remains almost too sane and the Superego of the group is Piggy. He wants the boys to have rules, which they all must abide by. Piggy as the Superego is evident from the beginning of the novel when the boys are gathered and he is holding the conch, a symbol of organization on the island, he says “You let me speak,” (Golding 46). This could be similar to raising a hand in a classroom, or being in possession of a talking stick and this shows that Piggy is following rules that he has been taught from society. Not only Piggy follows the rules he has been taught but believes that there should be rules for the boys on the island. “I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things” (Golding 47). He makes the statement that they are not “savages” and must “do the right things” which is a direct reflection of what he has been told and the way the society has told him to behave.

        Piggy represents the Superego because he also symbolizes order; this is shown by the fact that at the beginning of the novel he is the only character trying to identify all of the names of his fellow castaways and organize them. His strive for structure and order within the group eventually causes many of the boys to turn on him and ends with his death. With Piggy’s death the audience is shown that there must a balance between Freud’s personality elements or else a person or society will cause chaos and insanity.

       The character who is the stability of between Jack and Piggy is Ralph; he represents the ego and is a balance of the savagery and civilized nature. He is the protagonist of the novel and the natural leader, because of his presence and first attempt at gaining some sort of control over the group.

“He was not an intellectual, but he ‘could recognize thought in another.’ He could gain understanding from Piggy and had ‘the directness of genuine leadership,’ as he demonstrated when he consoled and (temporarily) won over the opposition candidate by naming him second-in-command, by putting him in charge of the hunters.” (Spitz 26).

This shows that Ralph truly is a balance and the Ego with the novel Ralph takes a step back from the situation and does what is best for the boys at all costs, he can also take advice from others, for example Piggy, in order to gain a better understanding of how to rule over the boys. Ralph is in fact the voice of reason on the island and be becomes the democracy for the boys, what he says has power. When he tells the boys that there is no one else on the island he also says, “’We want to be rescued; and of course we shall be rescued.’ Voices babbled. The simple statement, unbacked by any proof but the weight of Ralph’s new authority, brought light and happiness” (Golding 40). Ralph shows that he is the Ego because he is sane and remains composed in the situation that he is in. He tries to keep the boys calm and balanced as well where they can survive and be rescued.

       As the responsible one of the group Ralph begins planning ways for the boys to be rescued and also ways for them to survive on the island. In the beginning of the novel he does not understand why the boys want to hunt and act in bloodlust, but throughout the novel he begins to understand yet Ralph remains constantly determined not to let savagery overcome him. Instead of giving into his primal instincts he tries to maintain a civil society with the boys but his power becomes weaker when many of the boys begin to follow Jack and become uncivilized.

            Although all three aspects of Freud’s theory are represented within the novel they are not all given an equal part which creates chaos and dysfunction for the boys. Jack’s presence of the Id is overwhelming and soon controls the majority of the boys on the island. With the boys acting on their first and primal instinct they revert to barbaric ways and end up murdering two children, one of which is Piggy, the Superego. It is shown to the audience, as well as the characters that there must be a healthy balance of all three elements in order to hold a person or society together. The end of the novel serves as an “act of recognition” (Oldsey and Weintraub 99) of this idea, simply an understood outcome. There must be a balance and the fact that the Piggy, the Superego is killed goes to show that the Jack the Id had more control and overpowered its opposite. An off balance of either of these elements can cause self destruction and chaos, which is shown to the audience throughout the novel. Ralph, the Ego, also learns that a balance is necessary in the end of the novel as he copes with the loss of his friend and the reentrance into society when the boys are rescued.   

            Throughout the novel Golding develops characters that are relatable to Freud’s theory on human personalities. The audience can recognize that each element, the Id, Superego, and Ego, can be directly connected to one of the characters. When the audience discovers what each character stands for they can understand an explanation for the character’s actions. Also, along with this acknowledgment the audience can take away a valuable lesson about the elements of personality and the cause for maintaining a healthy balance. With these ideas in mind the novel becomes easier to comprehend, also a better understanding will be reached for both the novel and theory.

Works Cited

Atkinson, et al. Introduction to Psychology, Ninth Edition. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1987.

Golding, William. The Lord of the Flies. Perigree Books, 1954.

Oldsey, Bern, and Stanley Weintraub. “Lord of the Flies: Beezlebub Revisited.” College English, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Nov., 1963): pp. 90-99. JSTOR. CSU Stanislaus Library. 20 November 2009 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/373397>.

Spitz, David. “Power and Authority: An Interpretation of Golding’s “Lord of the Flies.” The  Antioch Review, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 1970): 21-33. JSTOR. CSU Stanislaus Library. 16 November 2009 < http://www.jstor.org/stable/4637248>.

Kardas, Edward P. “Ego, Id, Super-Ego.” General Psychology. 2009. Southern Arkansas University–Magnolia. 20 November 2009 < http://peace.saumag.edu/faculty/Kardas/Courses/GPWeiten/C12Personality/EgoIDSuper.html>.

Allison Kuehl 

December 8, 2009      

ENGL 3150   

Dr. De Vries

Theory Essay: Revision

Freud and Lord of the Flies

     Sigmund Freud had a fascinating view on the reason for human actions and how a person’s personality is formed. Freud’s psychoanalysis on one’s personality is a structure that is divided into three unique elements: the Id, Superego, and Ego. The Id is the most primitive part of a person’s personality; it represents the instinctual desires for instant satisfaction. The Superego is the opposite of the Id and is an ultra-conservative rule follower; it represents the rules and morals taught to the person by society. The Ego is the healthy balance and mediates between the Id and the Superego. It decides which actions are appropriate at the correct time given the environmental and social circumstances. Each of the elements that create a personality are embedded into separate characters of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. In the novel the audience watches a group of boys on the deserted island without any authority and the dominant Freudian aspects of their personalities appear. The idea that different characters represent the elements of Freud’s theory helps to better understand the novel and also to show that there must be an equal and healthy balance of each part in order to keep a person or society in order.

     In the novel the character that represents the Id is Jack; he is the most savage and power hungry. It is evident that Jack represents the Id when he goes off to hunt and as a result the fire goes out. Jack’s immediate need to hunt for the pig and overwhelming craving to kill took control over his logic. Jack desires the position of being in control of the boys, just as he was the head of the choir boys in school.

“But his desire for many controls did not of course extend to controls he disliked, to those over himself. Then he rejected the rules and claimed the right to decide for himself. To Ralph’s plea that he had been chosen chief, Jack replied: ‘Why should choosing make any difference? Just giving orders that don’t make any sense—-…Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong—we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat—!’” (Spitz 27).

Even though he wants to be a leader, his primal instincts take control of him and Jack becomes more of a savage hunter. Only towards the middle of the novel does Jack gain some power over the boys and this authority is the outcome of his manipulation of putting fear about the “beast” into the boys. Unlike the other character’s Jack embraces his barbaric side and begins to live with his own set of rules in the wilderness by hunting wild pigs and becoming an animal himself. In one of the earlier hunts it is shown that Jack uses his animalistic instincts and “for a minute became less a hunter than a furtive being, ape-like among the tangle of trees” (Golding 54). During the novel the audience finds that Jack has lost all sense of what is right and wrong and his barbaric instincts control him, to him their situation becomes nothing more than a game. 

       While the id part of human nature is out of control, the character who remains almost too sane and the Superego of the group is Piggy. He wants the boys to have rules, which they all must abide by. Piggy as the Superego is evident from the beginning of the novel when the boys are gathered and he is holding the conch, a symbol of organization on the island, he says “You let me speak,” (Golding 46). This could be similar to raising a hand in a classroom, or being in possession of a talking stick and this shows that Piggy is following rules that he has been taught from society. Not only Piggy follows the rules he has been taught but believes that there should be rules for the boys on the island. “I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things” (Golding 47). He makes the statement that they are not “savages” and must “do the right things” which is a direct reflection of what he has been told and the way the society has told him to behave.

        Piggy represents the Superego because he also symbolizes order; this is shown by the fact that at the beginning of the novel he is the only character trying to identify all of the names of his fellow castaways and organize them. His strive for structure and order within the group eventually causes many of the boys to turn on him and ends with his death. With Piggy’s death the audience is shown that there must a balance between Freud’s personality elements or else a person or society will cause chaos and insanity.

        The character who is the stability of between Jack and Piggy is Ralph; he represents the ego and is a balance of the savagery and civilized nature. He is the protagonist of the novel and the natural leader, because of his presence and first attempt at gaining some sort of control over the group.

“He was not an intellectual, but he ‘could recognize thought in another.’ He could gain understanding from Piggy and had ‘the directness of genuine leadership,’ as he demonstrated when he consoled and (temporarily) won over the opposition candidate by naming him second-in-command, by putting him in charge of the hunters.” (Spitz 26).

This shows that Ralph truly is a balance and the Ego with the novel Ralph takes a step back from the situation and does what is best for the boys at all costs, he can also take advice from others, for example Piggy, in order to gain a better understanding of how to rule over the boys. Ralph is in fact the voice of reason on the island and be becomes the democracy for the boys, what he says has power. When he tells the boys that there is no one else on the island he also says, “’We want to be rescued; and of course we shall be rescued.’ Voices babbled. The simple statement, unbacked by any proof but the weight of Ralph’s new authority, brought light and happiness” (Golding 40). Ralph shows that he is the Ego because he is sane and remains composed in the situation that he is in. He tries to keep the boys calm and balanced as well where they can survive and be rescued.

           As the responsible one of the group Ralph begins planning ways for the boys to be rescued and also ways for them to survive on the island. In the beginning of the novel he does not understand why the boys want to hunt and act in bloodlust, but throughout the novel he begins to understand yet Ralph remains constantly determined not to let savagery overcome him. Instead of giving into his primal instincts he tries to maintain a civil society with the boys but his power becomes weaker when many of the boys begin to follow Jack and become uncivilized.

            Although all three aspects of Freud’s theory are represented within the novel they are not all given an equal part which creates chaos and dysfunction for the boys. Jack’s presence of the Id is overwhelming and soon controls the majority of the boys on the island. With the boys acting on their first and primal instinct they revert to barbaric ways and end up murdering two children, one of which is Piggy, the Superego. It is shown to the audience, as well as the characters that there must be a healthy balance of all three elements in order to hold a person or society together. The end of the novel serves as an “act of recognition” (Oldsey and Weintraub 99) of this idea, simply an understood outcome.  

            Throughout the novel Golding develops characters that are relatable to Freud’s theory on human personalities. The audience can recognize that each element, the Id, Superego, and Ego, can be directly connected to one of the characters. With this idea in mind the novel becomes easier to comprehend, also a better understanding will be reached for both the novel and theory.

Works Cited

Atkinson, et al. Introduction to Psychology, Ninth Edition. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1987.

Golding, William. The Lord of the Flies. Perigree Books, 1954.

Oldsey, Bern, and Stanley Weintraub. “Lord of the Flies: Beezlebub Revisited.” College English, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Nov., 1963): pp. 90-99. JSTOR. CSU Stanislaus Library. 20 November 2009 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/373397>.

Spitz, David. “Power and Authority: An Interpretation of Golding’s “Lord of the Flies.” The  Antioch Review, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 1970): 21-33. JSTOR. CSU Stanislaus Library. 16 November 2009 < http://www.jstor.org/stable/4637248>.

Kardas, Edward P. “Ego, Id, Super-Ego.” General Psychology. 2009. Southern Arkansas University–Magnolia. 20 November 2009 < http://peace.saumag.edu/faculty/Kardas/Courses/GPWeiten/C12Personality/EgoIDSuper.html>.

The essay that I am choosing to revise is the theory essay because I feel that I can do more with it. For the theory essay I feel that I need to make my argument stronger and add more quotes for the novel as well as maybe some more sources. I gave my best effort on the essay but I feel that it would benefit from more work going into it and become a stronger paper. I think that I could go deeper into the subject because I feel I only touched the surface.

After taking this course I have found that there are many forms of literature that I did not even consider before. Learning about different types of literature in media gave me a whole new perspective as to what literature actually is. Before I had always had a traditional view about it and just assumed literature as hard copy books, but there is so much more literature online and with new types of media combined in order to enhance a reader’s view of a piece of literature. It is interesting to find that you can consider many types of media literature and you can anaylze and study many different forms in the same ways.

Thinking of the future and literary theory I do not think that I will go to much farther in dept with it. I do find the theories to be interesting and I imagine you could spend your whole career on the topic but I plan on becoming a high school teacher. I feel like maybe I should take a few more literary theory classes to get a stronger grasp on the theories and maybe how to teach it.

Allison Kuehl 

December 1, 2009      

ENGL 3150   

Dr. De Vries

Theory Essay

Freud and Lord of the Flies

Sigmund Freud had a fascinating view on the reason for human actions and how a person’s personality is formed. Freud’s psychoanalysis on one’s personality is a structure that is divided into three unique elements: the Id, Superego, and Ego. The Id is the most primitive part of a person’s personality; it represents the instinctual desires for instant satisfaction. The Superego is the opposite of the Id and is an ultra-conservative rule follower; it represents the rules and morals taught to the person by society. The Ego is the healthy balance and mediates between the Id and the Superego. It decides which actions are appropriate at the correct time given the environmental and social circumstances. Each of these elements can be found in separate characters of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. Each of the aspects that create a personality is embedded into one character from the novel. In the novel the audience watches a group of boys on the deserted island without any authority and the dominant Freudian aspects of their personalities appear. The idea that different characters represent the elements of Freud’s theory helps to better understand the novel and also to show that there must be an equal and healthy balance of each part in order to keep a person or society in order.

In the novel the character that represents the Id is Jack; he is the most savage and power hungry. It is evident that Jack represents the Id when he goes off to hunt and as a result the fire goes out. Jack’s immediate need to hunt for the pig and overwhelming craving to kill took control over his logic. Jack desires the position of being in control of the boys, just as he was the head of the choir boys in school.

“But his desire for many controls did not of course extend to controls he disliked, to those over himself. Then he rejected the rules and claimed the right to decide for himself. To Ralph’s plea that he had been chosen chief, Jack replied: ‘Why should choosing make any difference? Just giving orders that don’t make any sense—-…Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong—we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat—!’” (Spitz 27).

Even though he wants to be a leader, his primal instincts take control of him and Jack becomes more of a savage hunter. Only towards the middle of the novel does Jack gain some power over the boys and this authority is the outcome of his manipulation of putting fear about the “beast” into the boys. Unlike the other character’s Jack embraces his barbaric side and begins to live with his own set of rules in the wilderness by hunting wild pigs and becoming an animal himself; to him their situation is nothing more than a game.

While the id part of human nature is out of control, the character who remains almost too sane and the Superego of the group is Piggy. He wants the boys to have rules, which they all must abide by. Piggy as the Superego is evident from the beginning of the novel when the boys are gathered and he is holding the conch, a symbol of organization on the island, he says “You let me speak,” (Golding 42). This could be similar to raising a hand in a classroom, or being in possession of a talking stick and this shows that Piggy is following rules that he has been taught from society. He also symbolizes order for the fact that at the beginning of the novel he is the only character trying to identify all of the names of his fellow castaways and organize them. His strive for structure and order within the group eventually causes many of the boys to turn on him and ends with his death. With Piggy’s death the audience is shown that there must a balance between Freud’s personality elements or else a person or society will cause chaos and insanity.

The character who is the stability of between Jack and Piggy is Ralph; he represents the ego and is a balance of the savagery and civilized nature. He is the protagonist of the novel and the natural leader, because of his presence and first attempt at gaining some sort of control over the group.

“He was not an intellectual, but he ‘could recognize thought in another.’ He could gain understanding from Piggy and had ‘the directness of genuine leadership,’ as he demonstrated when he consoled and (temporarily) won over the opposition candidate by naming him second-in-command, by putting him in charge of the hunters.” (Spitz 26).

This shows that Ralph truly is a balance and the Ego with the novel. Ralph takes a step back from the situation and does what is best for the boys at all costs, he can also take advice from others, for example Piggy, in order to gain a better understanding of how to rule over the boys. As the responsible one of the group Ralph begins planning ways for the boys to be rescued and also ways for them to survive on the island. In the beginning of the novel he does not understand why the boys want to hunt and act in bloodlust, but throughout the novel he begins to understand yet Ralph remains constantly determined not to let savagery overcome him. Instead of giving into his primal instincts he tries to maintain a civil society with the boys but his power becomes weaker when many of the boys begin to follow Jack and become uncivilized.

            Although all three aspects of Freud’s theory are represented within the novel they are not all given an equal part which creates chaos and dysfunction for the boys. Jack’s presence of the Id is overwhelming and soon controls the majority of the boys on the island. With the boys acting on their first and primal instinct they revert to barbaric ways and end up murdering two children, one of which is Piggy, the Superego. It is shown to the audience, as well as the characters that there must be a healthy balance of all three elements in order to hold a person or society together. The end of the novel serves as an “act of recognition” (Oldsey and Weintraub 99) of this idea, simply an understood outcome.   

            Throughout the novel Golding develops characters that are relatable to Freud’s theory on human personalities. The audience can recognize that each element, the Id, Superego, and Ego, can be directly connected to one of the characters. With this idea in mind the novel becomes easier to comprehend, also a better understanding will be reached for both the novel and theory.

Works Cited

Atkinson, et al. Introduction to Psychology, Ninth Edition. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1987.

Golding, William. The Lord of the Flies. Perigree Books, 1954.

Oldsey, Bern, and Stanley Weintraub. “Lord of the Flies: Beezlebub Revisited.” College English, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Nov., 1963): pp. 90-99. JSTOR. CSU Stanislaus Library. 20 November 2009 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/373397>.

Spitz, David. “Power and Authority: An Interpretation of Golding’s “Lord of the Flies.” The  Antioch Review, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 1970): 21-33. JSTOR. CSU Stanislaus Library. 16 November 2009 < http://www.jstor.org/stable/4637248>.

Kardas, Edward P. “Ego, Id, Super-Ego.” General Psychology. 2009. Southern Arkansas University–Magnolia. 20 November 2009 < http://peace.saumag.edu/faculty/Kardas/Courses/GPWeiten/C12Personality/EgoIDSuper.html>.

Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis on human nature is that a person’s mind is divided into three elements: an id, ego, and superego. The id is the extreme wild, no rules, and savage side. The ego is the healthy balance between the id and superego. The third element is the superego which is the extreme rule follower and ultra-conservative. In the novel The Lord of the Flies William Golding creates characters that represents each element.

The character that represents the id in the novel is Jack. When the boys have had a plane crash and are stranded on a deserted island Jack is the one who becomes the most savage and power hungry. Unlike the other character’s Jack embraces his barbaric side and begins to live with his own set of rules in the wilderness by hunting wild pigs and becoming an animal himself.

While the id part of human nature is out of control, the character who remains almost too sane and the superego of the group is Piggy. He wants the boys to have rules, which they all must abide by. His strive for structure and order within the group eventually causes many of the boys to turn on him and ends with his death.

The character who remains in the middle of both Jack and Piggy is Ralph who represents the ego and is a balance of the savagery and civilized nature. He is the protagonist of the novel and the natural leader. As the responsible one of the group Ralph begins planning ways for the boys to be rescued and also ways for them to survive on the island. Instead of giving into his savage instincts he tries to maintain a civil society with the boys but his power becomes weaker when many of the boys begin to follow Jack and become uncivilized.

**obviously this is an incomplete draft of the essay but it shows the basic idea which I will be talking about. I still want to add more description and quotes from my research and the novel.

For the remix I decided to use Twitter as a way to show that the way society views a figure and the label that they give them can often effect the way in which we view them. I have created two accounts to showcase the character Billy also known as Dr. Horrible to show that a person is easily seen as only a hero or a villain when the whole story is not told. I used quotes from the movie as well as just descriptions of what was going on to show how the character could be viewed in two different ways and is not entirely good or evil.

I had wanted to add movie clips to the essay but had found that I was unable to obtain clips from “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” and did not have the knowledge to create a video. However, I liked the idea of using a social networking site in order to tell a story or show who the character’s are. With many superhero and villain stories audiences go into the movie assuming that their will be a the hero a “good guy” and then the “bad guy,” but in this movie we see that each of the character’s are mixed and their roles are reversed. Creating the Twitter accounts I show the supposed villain in both a positive and negative way, in order to show how media and society can shape how people are seen.

http://twitter.com/billybuddy09

https://twitter.com/drhorrible09

Allison Kuehl 

Dr.  De Vries

ENGL 3150

Media Essay

“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog” gave an interesting twist to a superhero and villain story. The movie focused on the villain rather than the hero which is not commonly seen in the media. Many audiences want to hear about how the hero arrives and saves the day from the disaster that the villain is trying to create. The story has a fun twist that creates a role reversal between the hero and villain. Both characters are mixed and neither are honestly good or bad which leaves it open for the audience to decide who to agree with. This movie showed that lines are often blurred with labels that society and the media give figures in the public eye, and that these labels are not always true.

In the movie Dr. Horrible, or Billy is the villain who the audience begins to sympathize with and wonder whether he truly is the “bad guy” in the story. The character just wants to get ahead in his evil career, and also get up the nerve to speak to the girl, Penny, who he has fallen in love with at the laundry mat. Through the story the audience watches as Dr. Horrible attempts to make his mark in the evil world, as he posts his blogs and sings his way around the city we see that he is not really the evil man he claims to be. He does not want to get ahead by killing people, but by being smart and creative in an evil way. 

Dr. Horrible has an interesting take on being the evil, unlike other evil characters Dr. Horrible creates a character that the audience can identify with and have empathy for. Even though he may have elaborate plans for taking over, there always seem to be major glitches he must overcome before achieving his goal of becoming a member in the Evil League of Evil. During the beginning of his first blog the audience learns about Dr. Horrible when he responds to a negative piece of fan mail when he says, “Look I’m just trying to change the world ok. I don’t have time for a grudge match with every poser in a parka.” This is a comedic line but also speaks about Dr. Horrible’s character; he is not into just physically fighting with everyone but wants to actually create a change. This side of Dr. Horrible also shows when Penny approaches him in the alley with her petition for the homeless shelter. He tells her that he cares about the homeless but they are a “symptom” of the problem and that we need to change who is in charge. It is obvious here that Dr. Horrible does care about humanity, but the way he going about it may not be the best way because evil does not usually triumph good in society. It seems that he wants to help change the world and the audience will most likely agree but he seems to be playing for the wrong team. Dr. Horrible has many positive qualities about him yet he is a “villain” and being labeled as that in society negates all of the decent qualities he has.

Since Dr. Horrible is the villain he is always stopped by the hero, Captain Hammer, his arch-nemesis. This character is extremely arrogant and not the typical hero an audience is used to. This self-absorbed hero could very easily be seen as a villain. Captain Hammer’s motives seem to be centered around him and what he is going to achieve from it. Although Captain Hammer does good deeds and continues to stop Dr. Horrible, he is not exactly the ideal super hero. 

When the audience first meets Capitan Hammer he arrives on the scene with “hair blowing” and singing about saving the day. He seems more concerned with himself and how he is perceived than actually saving someone. When he pushes Penny out of the way from a runaway van and the van comes to a stop right in front of him Capitan Hammer takes all of the credit and praise, but the audience knows that it was Dr. Horrible who actually stopped the van. Hammer goes on to blame Dr. Horrible for the incident and grabs him by the throat choking him and banging his head on the van. This may be an act of violence but what Penny sees is that he saved her life. These first actions shape the way the audience views Capitan Hammer and puts the supposed hero into a negative light, even though within the movie he is viewed as the positive character.

In society when a person is shown or known as a decent person in the media or any other public arena many people tend to let that guide their assumptions toward them and usually overlook the negative they do. The same goes for a person who is seen as bad or evil, like Dr. Horrible, even though he did save the lives of Capitan Hammer and Penny by stopping the van he is overlooked because society knows him as a bad guy. He even sings to Penny “Did you notice that he threw you in the garbage? I stopped the van; the remote control was in my hand.” People will not believe that he saved them because he is a villain and he is supposed to create the problem, not solve it. Whereas when Hammer accepts the credit for it people do not question it, they just accept it because he is supposed to save the day and be the hero of the story.

As the story continues the audience learns more about these two unique characters. Capitan Hammer’s cocky attitude continues and he has convinced the mayor to sign over a building to the Caring Hands group for a new homeless shelter. He tells Penny and Dr. Horrible that “Apparently the only signature he needed was my fist, but with a pen in it that I was signing.” Even though this is a very positive thing for the community the motives are nothing but selfish. The reason Capitan Hammer wants to help the homeless is because this is exactly what Penny was trying to achieve and he wants to impress her where she will fall in love with him. It seems as though he does care about Penny but just wants to make himself look good to her and everyone else. The community may view him as a good guy but Dr. Horrible cannot stand him or the way he has swept Penny off her feet. The way Hammer addresses Dr. Horrible when talking about Penny is unnecessary and sends him over the edge. When Capitan Hammer says “I’m gonna give Penny the night of her life just because you want her and I get what you want,” Dr. Horrible is sent over the edge and at this point decides to create a death ray to use in order to achieve his goal of becoming a member of the Evil League of Evil.

During Capitan Hammer’s speech at the ceremony for the opening of the new homeless shelter and the revealing of his own statue the audience sees that he is more about himself and his own accomplishments than caring about the homeless issue. He begins with bragging about having a “serious long-term girlfriend” which is Penny and then goes on to compare the homeless to a dog begging. Although this is an unacceptable remark and truly shows that Capitan Hammer is not showing any heroic qualities the citizens are still in awe of him and view him as the hero that they have built him up to be.

When Dr. Horrible arrives at the end to take over and use his death ray in order to earn a spot in the Evil League of Evil he is unable to use it on Capitan Hammer. Even though Dr. Horrible is the “bad guy” in the movie it is evident that he does care about others and society. When his freeze ray fails, Capitan Hammer is able to steal the death ray away from Dr. Horrible. Unlike Dr. Horrible, Capitan Hammer has no problem using the death ray on his opponent but similar to all of Dr. Horrible’s other inventions it has a glitch and does not kill the person it was aimed at. Instead its pieces fly through the room and then the audience sees that Penny has been hit. While Hammer runs out of the room crying, Dr. Horrible runs over to help her. Instead of worrying for her life she simply states “It’s ok, Capitan Hammer will save us.” At this point the audience truly realizes that the label society has given Capitan Hammer is not the heroic character he is viewed as. Unfortunately Penny is unable to be saved and the blame is on Dr. Horrible even though Hammer was the one who fired the weapon. Since Dr. Horrible is considered the villain he becomes the one who is responsible for the death of Penny, even though it was not his doing. This event also puts him in a tough place because he loses his love but since he is blamed for a murder Dr. Horrible can officially join the Evil League of Evil and will now be known as the “Worst Villain Ever.” Even though he is in this position the audience feels sorry for him and can also see the mixed emotions on his face. His sadness and actions towards the end really proves that he is not the “bad guy” which he is perceived to be.  

Throughout the movie the audience is shown characteristics in both Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer that raises questions as to who is actually the character we want to succeed. Dr. Horrible may be considered the villain but the way he is portrayed on screen gives him a different and more complex image. The audience turns to root for Dr. Horrible’s success, even though we know he is the villain, it’s too hard not to care about the character. This also goes for Captain Hammer and the way he is portrayed turns the audience away from him. Through this story we see that the media has a strong influence on the way people in the public are viewed. Sometimes the idea portrayed is more accurate than others but the audience needs to look into the actual character before deciding whether they are truly good or bad.

For my theory essay, I plan to work with Lord of the Flies by William Golding using the theory psychoanalytic criticism to explore the characters and find which one’s represent the id, ego, and super ego. I will look into the theory of psychoanalytic criticism, as well as at other scholars essay that also address this idea and see how they have responded to this text. The information that I research I will be able to use as backgroud information for my paper and I will make sure that what I say will relate back to what other secondary sources have said.

I’m not sure how I will be able to incorporate other types of media into my essay. My essay is about Dr. Horrible so I suppose I could add video clips into the essay in order to communicate my ideas and also help support them. I think that being able to see and hear what I am talking about will have more of an impact on my audience, instead of just simply reading it. In order to get the point that I am trying to achieve it may be useful to use a video clip but I would have to be careful in how I use it and make sure that it is relevant to the piece.

As a college student I write quite a few papers each semester, the tools which I use the most for research is the internet and the library’s website in order to find articles and supporting evidence about my subject. Books are also very helpful when you are researching a topic either books online or an actual hardcopy of one. As for writing the actual paper I use Microsoft Word to type all of my ideas on and then find a way to organize them into a logical paper. One of my favorite tools to use on Microsoft Word is spell check and the thesaurus option. Another tool that I use frequently is dictionary.com, in order to make sure I am using a word correctly or look at how to spell it or to look for synonyms for a word.