"Tomas desired but feared [women]. Needing to create a compromise between fear and desire, he devised what he called 'erotic friendship'" (Part 1, Chapter 5).
Tomas seems to understand the nature of his own libido (mental desires), but the object of his libido is also an object of fear for him. Does this mean he fears the libido itself? That is to say, is he afraid of women or is he afraid of his desire for women?
That is a very good question Alice. My question kind of pertains to it:
p.5 "What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?" p.7 "Did he want her to come or did he not?" p.8 "Was it better to be with Tereza or to remain alone?" Tomas asks himself many questions such as these that are clearly asking about opposing ideas. Is this Tomas's inner id arguing with his superego over these questions? --Relates to Alice's question about whether or not Tomas fears the libido.
passage: p.10 "He himself was surprised. He had acted against his principles." - id taking over?
In class we said that Tereza's dream about the swimming pool and nude marching indicates that she wants something unattainable. We said that she was motivated by her sexual desire, but from this reading it seems she is driven instead by a desire for uniqueness but also by a secret desire for uniformity. (vertigo)
My question (semi-unrelated): what do the three dreams on p. 58 (ch 16) signify? If all dreams are wish fulfillment, what wishes does she fulfill through "cats going berserk," "execution," and "life after death [...] humilitaion."
This relates to Ellery's first statement: "The women were pleased at having thrown off the ballast of the soul--that laughable conceit, that illusion of uniqueness--to become one like the next. Tereza sang with them, but did not rejoice" (57). The vertigo comes in when "in times of weakness, she was ready to heed to the call and return to her mother" (60).
It seems that both Tereza's mother and Tomas deprive her of the chance for her to be unique--they reinforce the idea that she/her body is the same as everyone else's. Do her dreams when she is with Tomas suggest that she shouldn't stay with him because he can't let her be "something higher"? Is Tomas really any different from/better than her mother?
I got a different impression of Tereza's mother. Subconsciously, it seems as if Tereza's mother has lost her prude nature; since she is now "old and ugly," Tereza's mother needs to do more in order to get attention (43). Therefore, she needs to behave rudely in order to get noticed and get attention: "Tereza's mother blew her nose noisily, talked to people in public about her sex life, and enjoyed demonstrating her false teeth" (46). Needless to say, Tereza's mother's ID seems to be overpowering the SUPEREGO of societal expectations.
I think that this is what the reader is intended to think, this idea of attention causing carelessness in both body and soul. Yet if that is true, then why does this event occur: "her mother immediately took advantage of their presence to tell how Tereza had tried to protect her mother's modesty. She laughed, and all the women laughed with her...All the women laughed again" (45)? Why do all of these women have the same reaction? Is Tereza's mother really typical of society; does everyone indeed have this "collective unconscious" understanding of the world except for Tereza? If so, what does this say about society?
5 comments:
"Tomas desired but feared [women]. Needing to create a compromise between fear and desire, he devised what he called 'erotic friendship'" (Part 1, Chapter 5).
Tomas seems to understand the nature of his own libido (mental desires), but the object of his libido is also an object of fear for him. Does this mean he fears the libido itself? That is to say, is he afraid of women or is he afraid of his desire for women?
That is a very good question Alice. My question kind of pertains to it:
p.5 "What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?"
p.7 "Did he want her to come or did he not?"
p.8 "Was it better to be with Tereza or to remain alone?"
Tomas asks himself many questions such as these that are clearly asking about opposing ideas. Is this Tomas's inner id arguing with his superego over these questions? --Relates to Alice's question about whether or not Tomas fears the libido.
passage: p.10 "He himself was surprised. He had acted against his principles." - id taking over?
In class we said that Tereza's dream about the swimming pool and nude marching indicates that she wants something unattainable. We said that she was motivated by her sexual desire, but from this reading it seems she is driven instead by a desire for uniqueness but also by a secret desire for uniformity. (vertigo)
My question (semi-unrelated): what do the three dreams on p. 58 (ch 16) signify?
If all dreams are wish fulfillment, what wishes does she fulfill through "cats going berserk," "execution," and "life after death [...] humilitaion."
This relates to Ellery's first statement: "The women were pleased at having thrown off the ballast of the soul--that laughable conceit, that illusion of uniqueness--to become one like the next. Tereza sang with them, but did not rejoice" (57). The vertigo comes in when "in times of weakness, she was ready to heed to the call and return to her mother" (60).
It seems that both Tereza's mother and Tomas deprive her of the chance for her to be unique--they reinforce the idea that she/her body is the same as everyone else's. Do her dreams when she is with Tomas suggest that she shouldn't stay with him because he can't let her be "something higher"? Is Tomas really any different from/better than her mother?
I got a different impression of Tereza's mother. Subconsciously, it seems as if Tereza's mother has lost her prude nature; since she is now "old and ugly," Tereza's mother needs to do more in order to get attention (43). Therefore, she needs to behave rudely in order to get noticed and get attention: "Tereza's mother blew her nose noisily, talked to people in public about her sex life, and enjoyed demonstrating her false teeth" (46). Needless to say, Tereza's mother's ID seems to be overpowering the SUPEREGO of societal expectations.
I think that this is what the reader is intended to think, this idea of attention causing carelessness in both body and soul. Yet if that is true, then why does this event occur: "her mother immediately took advantage of their presence to tell how Tereza had tried to protect her mother's modesty. She laughed, and all the women laughed with her...All the women laughed again" (45)? Why do all of these women have the same reaction? Is Tereza's mother really typical of society; does everyone indeed have this "collective unconscious" understanding of the world except for Tereza? If so, what does this say about society?
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