THEMES OF HEART OF DARKNESS

“Heart of Darkness” abounds in several themes. It has the theme of self-restraint, of the
working of the subconscious mind, of the exploration, of barbarism and primitivism and the
theme of imperialism. Conrad's handling of white imperialism was influenced by his own visit
to Congo and his rendering of Marlow’s conscious and sub-conscious thoughts was also based
upon his own reactions to what he himself witnessed in Congo.

The keynote of the theme of imperialism is struck at the very outset of Marlow’s narration of
the ancient Roman conquest of Britain. Their conquest was “robbery with violence” and
murder on a large scale. Marlow says that conquest can be excused only if the conquerors
perform some constructive work in the conquered country. The white man certainly has a duty
to whom he subdues and if he fails in this duty, his government of the backward countries
cannot be justified.

Power corrupts man and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The white man had failed to perform his functions in Congo. Instead of civilizing the savages,
they became exploiters. The Belgian trading companies sent their agents into the Congo for
trading purposes. The chief commodity which these Belgians found was ivory, useless for the
natives, while the white men collected ivory and sent it to Europe. Ivory dominates the thoughts
of the manger, of the brick-maker, of the several white agents whom Marlow gives the name
of “faithless pilgrims”. Ivory not only dominates the thoughts of Mr. Kurtz but has become
his obsession. He collects more ivory than all the other agents taken together. Ivory symbolizes
the white man’s greed and their commercial mentality. The greater the ivory collected by an
agent, the greater is his achievement and the higher is the promotion which he can expect.
Nowhere do we find any service being rendered by these white men in Congo.

The sights seen by Marlow in Congo are very gloomy, depicting the misery of the natives, and
the futility of the white man’s seemingly useful work. He sees a lot of naked black people
moving about like ants.

A lot of people, mostly black and naked, moved about like ants.
He sees half a dozen men chained to one another and each wearing an iron collar on his neck.
These men are criminals who have violated the laws and are being punished. Marlow feels
deeply upset at this sight.

I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron
collar on his neck,
and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them,
rhythmically clinking.

He sees black figures crouching under the trees, leaning against the trunks, and clinging to the
earth, dying slowly.

'They were dying slowly – it was very clear.' They were not enemies, they were not
criminals, they were nothing
earthly now - nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in
the greenish gloom.

Here Marlow feels as if he has entered into the gloomy circle of some inferno. It is obvious
that the white man’s indifference and his unconcern are responsible for this state of affairs.

Few other sights also indicate the hypocrisy of the white men wasting time and effort. Marlow
sees that a rock is being blasted though it does not stand in the way of the railway line being
laid. He sees some pieces of decaying machinery, a large heap of rusty rails and a boiler lying
unused in the grass. Marlow had seen a warship firing its guns into the forest aimlessly. He
found a touch of insanity in it. This waste of effort and the unused machinery offer a sharp
contrast to the starving natives.

The futility of the white man’s actions becomes more evident when we meet certain employers
of the trading Company. The manager of the Central Station could inspire neither respect not
love nor fear but only uneasiness. Marlow found nothing within this man. His mind is full of
fear lest he should be superseded by Mr. Kurtz. The brick-maker is equally satirical and critical.
The brick maker is described as a “papier-mâché Mephistopheles” for his cunning. He makes
no bricks but acts as a spy for the manager. The men, loitering around the Central Station, are
idlers. They only gossip, speak ill of one another and hatch intrigues. Conrad conveys his strong
disapproval and disapprobation of these white men most effectively.

The cannibal crew of Marlow’s steamer is most efficient, hard working and strong who deserve
encouragement but the way in which they are treated is disgusting. Without this crew the
steamer could not have gone ahead and yet the white bosses do not bother whether or not these
men are properly fed. The cannibal crew themselves are exercising self-restraint and are not
attacking the white men to eat their flesh. Thus the white men are totally unconcerned about
the welfare on whose labour and toil they depend.

Mr. Kurtz, who held that the white man should confer huge benefits upon the backward people,
has done nothing for the uplift of the natives. Rather, he has himself become a savage in their
company.

Where there is no check on a man, the worst of him may come out.

He failed to exercise any self-restraint, and begun to satisfy his various lusts without any limit.
Even in his prime of life he had written down the following words conveying an opposite
message:

“Exterminate all the brutes.”

“Heart of Darkness” conveys to us the deceit, robberies, arson, murder, slave-trading, and
cruelty in the Congo. There is an incident of fire, and there is the long trek during which the
natives have to carry a heavy load on their heads. The chief accountant can afford to dress
perfectly when the natives around are disease-stricken and starving. In this novel, indeed, the
brutal futility of the Belgian imperialist rule is memorably captured in image after image.

Conrad not only exposes the futility and the failing of the Belgian imperialism over the Congo
but also reminds us of British imperialism in various countries of his time. Today white
imperialism has crumbled and most of the counties have become independent. Conrad's
accusation of imperialist rule in Congo had a valuable message for both the exploiters and the
exploited.
In the business of exploration, both exploiter and exploited are corrupted.

THEME OF COLONIALISM

The pretence of colonialism is another vital theme of Conrad's novel. The description of the
scene provides sufficient facts that the natives and their land and resources are unnecessarily
exploited by the so-called agents of civilization. The people who work for the Company state
that whatever they do is a trade, and their way of treating to the natives are work of compassion.
But actually, what they do is colonize and their inhuman and harsh treatment is suppression to
the non-whites of the inner land. Kurtz does not hide the truth from Marlow and says that he
does not tame and civilize the natives, but suppresses them and he forcefully takes ivory from
them. He even expresses his hatred in the phrase “Exterminate all the brutes”. It is not his
benevolent service to the backward people, but his domination. The natives are treated and
addressed merely as an object. The helmsman of the steamer is a part of the machine and the
African mistress of Kurtz is a piece of statuary. This is an extreme type of dehumanization of
the non-whites. The mission of the whites to civilize and educate the non-whites are like sugar
coated pills which is outwardly sweet but inwardly too bitter to digest.

Marlow's story in Heart of Darkness takes place in the Belgian Congo, the most notorious
European colony in Africa because of the Belgian colonizers' immense greed and brutal
treatment of the native people. In its depiction of the monstrous wastefulness and casual cruelty
of the colonial agents toward the African natives, Heart of Darkness reveals the utter hypocrisy
of the entire colonial effort. In Europe, colonization of Africa was justified on the grounds that
not only would it bring wealth to Europe, it would also civilize and educate the "savage"
African natives. Heart of Darkness shows that in practice the European colonizers used the
high ideals of colonization as a cover to allow them to viciously rip whatever wealth they could
from Africa.

Unlike most novels that focus on the evils of colonialism, Heart of Darkness pays more
attention to the damage that colonization does to the souls of white colonizers than it does to
the physical death and devastation unleashed on the black natives. Though this focus on the
white colonizers makes the novella somewhat unbalanced, it does allow Heart of Darkness to
extend its criticism of colonialism all the way back to its corrupt source, the "civilization" of
Europe.
'And this also,' said Marlow suddenly, 'has been one of the dark places of the earth.

In a few days the Eldorado Expedition went into the patient wilderness, that closed upon it
as the sea closes over a diver. Long afterwards the news came that all the donkeys were dead.
I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals. They, no doubt, like the rest of us,
found what they deserved. I did not inquire

THEME OF EVIL

Conrad's Heart of Darkness says that everybody has within oneself vulnerability, fragility,
weakness and strong fear of being deviated from the essential norms and values. All of us
possess within ourselves basic evils. In our day to day normal life this basic hidden evil doesn't
emerge strongly and overwhelmingly. But when we enter into that zone, which fires our evils,
these evils become insurmountable and unconquerable. These evils become so threatening that
they can claim our lives. For example, greed and lust for power and prosperity is invisibly
hidden in the innermost part of our life. At the normal state of our life we are not aware of how
life threatening they are. But the moment we enter into the atmosphere of temptation we
succumb to the temptation of evils if we have no substance to prevent.

Evil has a tangible reality in “Heart of Darkness” and it dominates the novel manifesting itself
in several ways. At the very outset Marlow refers to the ancient Roman conquest of Britain
who used only brute force. They grabbed what they could get. It was just “robbery with
violence, aggravated murder on a great scale”. Marlow then says that the conquest of any
territory by any nation means the taking that territory away from those who have a different
complexion or slightly flatter noses than the conquerors. This talk by Marlow pertains to the
evil of conquest, and to the brutality and the slaughter which any military conquest necessitates.

There is a hint of evil in Marlow’s reference to the city of Brussels as a “whited sepulcher”.
The phrase “whited sepulcher” means a place which is outwardly pleasant and righteous but
which is inwardly corrupt and evil. The evil character of this city is emphasized when Marlow
points out that the Belgian conquerors were running an over-sea empire in the Congo and
making no end of coin by trade. Then there is a hint of evil in Marlow’s description of the two
women knitting black wool.

In the outer room the two women knitted black wool, feverishly.
These knitting-women remind us of the mythological Fates constantly busy in spinning the
yarn of human destiny. They seemed to him to be guarding the door of darkness and knitting
black wool as of to make a shroud. When Marlow is about to set out on his voyage, he feels
that, instead of going to the centre of a continent, he is going to the centre of the earth. Such a
remark also hints at the evil which exists in this universe.

Marlow’s descriptions of the natural scenery which he witnesses in the course of his voyage
have a strong suggestion of evil in them. Indeed, the wilderness and the thick forest seem to be
the abode of evil. Marlow sees a huge jungle, so dark-green as to be almost black. The sun is
fierce and the land seems to glisten and drop with steam. He speaks of the empty stream, the
great silence, and the impenetrable forest in which the air is warm, thick, heavy and sluggish.
There is no joy in the brilliance of the sunshine here.

And the river was there – fascinating – deadly – like a snake.

Marlow’s steamer penetrates deeper and deeper into the “heart of darkness” and the very
earth seems unearthly. Marlow’s narration heightens our sense of evil which is lurking in the
forest behind the millions and millions of trees.

The other sights also suggest the existence of evil. At one point, Marlow sees a warship
anchored off the coast and firing its guns without having any target in view. The firing seems
to be absolutely aimless and futile. He sees several trading posts where “the merry dance of
death and trade” goes on “in a still and earthy atmosphere” resembling that of an over-
heated tomb. He sees a lot of people, mostly black and naked.

A lot of people, mostly black and naked, moved about like ants.

At one place, a rock is being blasted with gunpowder even though this it does not stand in the
way of the railway line which is to be laid. Then he sees the horrible sight of a chain-gang.
Men in this chain-gang are criminals who have been sentenced to hard labour.

I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron
collar on his neck,
and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them,
rhythmically clinking.

Marlow remarks that he had previously seen the devil of violence, the devil of greed, and the
devil of hot desire. He was seeing the “devil of rapacious and pitiless folly”.

The white men, whom Marlow encounters in Congo, by no means provide any relief to
Marlow. These men, cowardly civilized, are actually degenerate fellows. There is no goodness
in them at all. The manager of the Central Station is a wicked fellow who can inspire neither
fear, nor love, nor respect but only uneasiness. Marlow says that there was “nothing
within” this man. The white agents are seen loitering about idly, talking maliciously and
scheming against one another. The brick-maker is the manager’s spy who keeps a watch upon
the other white men at the Central Station. Marlow describes this man as a “papier-mâché
Mephistopheles” meaning that his man is a veritable devil, but a follow kind of devil. The
white men, who have come to civilize the natives, are only exploiters having no regard for the
welfare of the savages.

Evil is the keynote of the latter portion of the novel in which Marlow records his impressions
of Mr. Kurtz. He has been told that Mr. Kurtz is a “remarkable man” who is expected to rise
at a very high position because he has been collecting more ivory than all the other agents taken
together. Ivory had become a passion and an obsession with Mr. Kurtz which shows the man’s
extreme greed. He has begun to identify himself with the native savages. He presides over their
midnight dances which always end with “unspeakable rites”. This means that he has begun
to take pleasure in the shedding of the blood of human beings, in sexual orgies, in sexual
perversions and in similar other practices. In short, Mr. Kurtz has become evil incarnate. Even
when Mr. Kurtz is being taken to Europe for medical treatment, he slips away from the ship
into the jungle. When Mr. Kurtz is dying, he utters the words:

“The horror! The horror!”

The portrayal of Mr. Kurtz is perhaps even more important in this novel for this portrayal of a
civilized man is meant to convey Conrad's own ideas about evil. Conrad believes that there is
much evil in the savages. He does not believe in the existence of the “noble savage”. The
barbarian customs of the savages are certainly horrifying to him. Because of his prolonged stay
with the savages Mr. Kurtz become a devil. Conrad says that the western man should beware
of falling a prey to the barbarism of the savages whom he conquers. Conrad depicts the savages
in a favourable light too, but it is fully alive to the obnoxious customs of the savages and warns
the western white men against the menace of those customs. Conrad's other message is that the
white man should civilize the savages instead of exploiting them to fulfil his own greed.

THEME OF EVIL IN LORD OF THE FLIES

Civilization vs. Savagery

The overarching theme of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between the human impulse towards
savagery and the rules of civilization which are designed to contain and minimize it.
Throughout the novel, the conflict is dramatized by the clash between Ralph and Jack, who
respectively represent civilization and savagery. The differing ideologies are expressed by each
boy's distinct attitudes towards authority. While Ralph uses his authority to establish rules,
protect the good of the group, and enforce the moral and ethical codes of the English society
the boys were raised in, Jack is interested in gaining power over the other boys to gratify his
most primal impulses. When Jack assumes leadership of his own tribe, he demands the
complete subservience of the other boys, who not only serve him but worship him as an idol.
Jack's hunger for power suggests that savagery does not resemble anarchy so much as a
totalitarian system of exploitation and illicit power.
Golding's emphasis on the negative consequences of savagery can be read as a clear
endorsement of civilization. In the early chapters of the novel, he suggests that one of the
important functions of civilized society is to provide an outlet for the savage impulses that
reside inside each individual. Jack's initial desire to kill pigs to demonstrate his bravery, for
example, is channelled into the hunt, which provides needed food for the entire group. As long
as he lives within the rules of civilization, Jack is not a threat to the other boys; his impulses
are being re-directed into a productive task. Rather, it is when Jack refuses to recognize the
validity of society and rejects Ralph's authority that the dangerous aspects of his character truly
emerge. Golding suggests that while savagery is perhaps an inescapable fact of human
existence, civilization can mitigate its full expression.

The rift between civilization and savagery is also communicated through the novel's major
symbols: the conch shell, which is associated with Ralph, and The Lord of the Flies, which is
associated with Jack. The conch shell is a powerful marker of democratic order on the island,
confirming both Ralph's leadership-determined by election-and the power of assembly among
the boys. Yet, as the conflict between Ralph and Jack deepens, the conch shell loses symbolic
importance. Jack declares that the conch is meaningless as a symbol of authority and order, and
its decline in importance signals the decline of civilization on the island. At the same time, The
Lord of the Flies, which is an offering to the mythical "beast" on the island, is increasingly
invested with significance as a symbol of the dominance of savagery on the island, and of Jack's
authority over the other boys. The Lord of the Flies represents the unification of the boys under
Jack's rule as motivated by fear of "outsiders": the beast and those who refuse to accept Jack's
authority. The destruction of the conch shell at the scene of Piggy's murder signifies the
complete eradication of civilization on the island, while Ralph's demolition of The Lord of the
Flies-he intends to use the stick as a spear-signals his own descent into savagery and violence.
By the final scene, savagery has completely displaced civilization as the prevailing system on
the island.

The Nature of Evil

Is evil innate within the human spirit, or is it an influence from an external source? What role
do societal rules and institutions play in the existence of human evil? Does the capacity for evil
vary from person to person, or does it depend on the circumstances each individual face? These
questions are at the heart of Lord of the Flies which through detailed depictions of the boys'
different responses to their situation, presents a complex articulation of humanity's potential
for evil.
It is important to note that Golding's novel rejects supernatural or religious accounts of the
origin of human evil. While the boys fear the "beast" as an embodiment of evil similar to the
Christian concept of Satan, the novel emphasizes that this interpretation is not only mistaken
but also, ironically, the motivation for the boys' increasingly cruel and violent behaviour. It is
their irrational fear of the beast that informs the boys' paranoia and leads to the fatal schism
between Jack and Ralph and their respective followers, and this is what prevents them from
recognizing and addressing their responsibility for their own impulses. Rather, as The Lord of
the Flies communicates to Simon in the forest glade, the "beast" is an internal force, present in
every individual, and is thus incapable of being truly defeated. That the most ethical characters
on the island-Simon and Ralph-each come to recognize his own capacity for evil indicates the
novel's emphasis on evil's universality among humans.
Even so, the novel is not entirely pessimistic about the human capacity for good. While evil
impulses may lurk in every human psyche, the intensity of these impulses-and the ability to
control them-appear to vary from individual to individual. Through the different characters, the
novel presents a continuum of evil, ranging from Jack and Roger, who are eager to engage in
violence and cruelty, to Ralph and Simon, who struggle to contain their brutal instincts. We
may note that the characters who struggle most successfully against their evil instincts do so
by appealing to ethical or social codes of behaviour. For example, Ralph and Piggy demand
the return of Piggy's glasses because it is the "right thing to do." Golding suggests that while
evil may be present in us all, it can be successfully suppressed by the social norms that are
imposed on our behaviour from without or by the moral norms we decide are inherently "good,"
which we can internalize within our wills.
The ambiguous and deeply ironic conclusion of Lord of the Flies, however, calls into question
society's role in shaping human evil. The naval officer, who repeats Jack's rhetoric of
nationalism and militarism, is engaged in a bloody war that is responsible for the boys' aircraft
crash on the island and that is mirrored by the civil war among the survivors. In this sense,
much of the evil on the island is a result not of the boys' distance from society, but of their
internalization of the norms and ideals of that society-norms and ideals that justify and even
thrive on war. Are the boys corrupted by the internal pressures of an essentially violent human
nature, or have they been corrupted by the environment of war they were raised in? Lord of the
Flies offers no clear solution to this question, provoking readers to contemplate the complex
relationships among society, morality, and human nature.

THEME OF EVIL IN A PASSAGE TO INDIA

The theme of evil and its outcome is central to both the novels. This research highlights a point
of similarity between the treatments of this theme by the authors. It emphasizes that the external
setting of the stories, from the moment ‘evil’ emerges and shapes the further life of the
characters who encounter it, is superfluous and used only as a device. It is the internal life of
the characters represented in both the novels through which ‘evil’ is subliminally reflected.
Hence, E.M. Forster, and William Golding seem to focus on the consciousness of the
characters rather than representing them as the victim of surroundings.
It is said that evil is present in the caves. ‘Evil’ is absence of good. In the caves ‘darkness’ is
the symbolic representation of the absence of the light of hope and union. There is an air of
disappointment in the caves. As the bridge party was unable to bridge the gulf between the
English and the Indians, an effort made by Dr. Aziz to entertain two English ladies, goes in
vain (Wright 223). Both the ladies visit the caves while having different thoughts and suffer.
Adela suffers psychologically and considers as if she is raped while Mrs. Moore suffers both
psychologically and physically and dies later on. ‘Evil’ in the form of breakage of human
relations appears in the caves.

The Marabar Caves are the focal point where it is impossible to identify good from evil. The
merger of both in the Caves represents the mystery of life, where things are not black or white,
but an overlapping of black and white, of good and evil. The ambition of human agency to
keep things in order becomes nothing more than a representative phenomenon of this
overlapping. The human agency and its disappointments, fears, hopes, quest for personal values
and universal love, are served with an ultimate failure in attaining any meanings and
significance rather they are taken back to a prehistoric kind of chaos where they are evermore
undetermined, and always in flux. The characters in the novel encounter the universal
confusion in all its nakedness for the first time in Marabar Caves. The outcome is hazardous as
the superfluously ordered and meaningful day-to-day world of causal existence is reduced to a
contingent one. The boum-oum of the caves serves like big bang and makes human agency
realize that it is merely the production of an accident and its life is surrounded and encircled
by an overwhelming nothingness. Beyond the boum-oum, life has no meaning rather it does
not exist. All the characters in the novel who experience this presence of nothingness in the
scheme of things are seen in a struggle to revaluate their standing and viewpoints. They
interpret and mark this experience in their actions and behaviour to others. The new Mrs. Moore
is indifferent; the new Adela is hostile to love, to human contact; the new Aziz is agitative and
uncompromising; the new Fielding is amazed and disappointed.

The transformation of the characters enables the reader to focus more closely on the presence
and location of evil in the scheme of the novel. However, the location of evil in the novel is
undetermined. It is in neither the Caves, nor an integral part of Chandrapur landscape. Evil
emerges as an opportunity to various characters to act in a certain way. Where Forster is
interested in how individual behaves with each other, he is also raising moral and political
issues, related to their overall behaviour and association. That is why the geographical presence
of evil (landscape or the Caves) serves as a device only; an instrument through which the true
selves of each of the characters is revealed. The sin is geographical as long as it serves the
purpose of a background setting of the scene of human actions. It is given a separate entity to
bring human agency in deep contrast to it – so that the affinity, inclination, and a proneness to
it may become manifested in each of the human agent. However, the argument become
otherwise confusing, if evil presented in the novel through the images of landscape and Caves,
is understood in terms of location or place of evil only. In other words, on the one hand evil is
not geographical as it does not belong to a landscape, but it is geographical on the other as far
as it belongs to the landscape of mind. The geographical landscape of evil, therefore, is human
mind: “Nothing is inside them; they were sealed up before the creation of pestilence or
treasure; if mankind grew curious and excavated, nothing, nothing would be added to the
sum of good or evil.”1
1
E.M. Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin Modern Classics, Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd,
1976 (p 125). Hereafter cited in the main text by title or page numbers.
The commentary upon the description shows that the Marabar Caves are only the part of
landscape i.e. just like any other caves. It is made clear that nothing is present in these caves
(Parry 143). It is a place to visit and whosoever comes to see the caves brings his or her own
experiences, feelings and emotions and so many things on mind (Edwards 61); “because
Marabar caves can hear no sound but its own” (152).

If a flame lives in the polished wall, it is because a match has been struck. If the wall contains
galaxies, it is because there is a human eye to see. The ‘bouming’ voice of the caves is merely
an echo. These caves are ‘perfect’, then, only on their negation: only when humanity, with its
variety and confusion intrudes, do they become anything. Thus, if different people come away
from the caves with different feelings, it is because of what the people carry with them, rather
than because of the caves. (Edwards 61).

Everything can have its own reflection in the caves. ‘Echo’ is one of the most important things
present in the caves. “Boum” is the sound as far as human alphabet can express it, or “bou-
oum” or “ou-boum”(145) – utterly dull. Hope, politeness, the blowing of a nose, the squeak of
a boat, all produce “boum”. Echoes generate echoes, and the caves are stuffed with a snake
composed of small snakes, which writhe independently (Traversi 397).

Amidst this chaotic universe of negation and contradiction represented by echo, Forster places
the often-idolized human emotion i.e. love. Love is supposed to be binding and all-
encompassing as a universal agent. It is supposed to harmonize and develop a bond of intimacy
among people. But in the face of the powerful negation, it also stands no chance as does the
religion. Love cannot be the ultimate saviour as according to Forster it is conditioned by the
social and civil conventions. As the conventions cannot stand against the universal ‘No’ so
does love which rely on these for its working. If the idea of God is represented through love
for humanity as in Mrs. Moore, the failure of love is denoted by the breaking up of human
relationships. Death of Mrs. Moore is the death of an all benevolent, kind, and merciful God.
The breaking up of human relations is the failure of love to address all humanity. Forster seems
to suggest that the mindscapes are governed by a larger force i.e. negation; which is the source
of all values and cause of all the frustrations: “‘Nothing ‘ is a word of power in this text. The
theme of nothing is carried for a long time lexically, emerging only intermittently and later
into action or character of landscape” (Jay 61).

The human agency must come to term with this ultimate negation if it wishes to find any
meaning. That is where perhaps his infatuation with the Hindu religion and his mystical
portrayal of Professor Godbole become more manifested than anywhere else in the novel.

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

The Psychoanalytic Theory is the personality theory, which is based on the notion that an
individual gets motivated more by unseen forces that are controlled by the conscious and the
rational thought. Psychoanalysis as a system or school of Psychology was the brainchild of
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), a Viennese physician. It claims for itself the unique position of
‘delving deep, beneath and beyond into the real roots and springs of human action’ and of
‘unravelling’ for us the natural history of mental growth and thus placing within our ken, the
means for its conscious direction and control. He divided personality into three psychic
apparatus that interact to govern human behaviour: the Id, the Ego and the Superego.

The Id: According to Freud, the id (Latin for “it”) is the most primitive part of the personality-
and the only component that is present from birth- from which the ego and the super-ego later
develops. The id is the unorganised part of the personality structure that contains a human’s
basic, instinctual drives. It is the source of our bodily needs, desires, and impulses, particularly
our sexual and aggressive drives. The id contains the libido (sexual desire), which is the
primary source of institutional force that is unresponsive to the demands of reality. It consists
of such ambitions, desires, tendencies and aptitude as are guided by the pleasure principle. It
is inborn and its main function is the discharge of psychic energy which when pent up produces
tension through the personality system.
The Ego: Children soon learn that their impulses cannot always be gratified immediately.
Hunger will not be alleviated until someone provides food. Certain impulses- playing with
one’s genitals or hitting someone- may be punished. A new part of personality, the ego (Latin
“I”) develops as the young child learns to consider the demands of reality. The ego acts
according the reality principle, i.e. it seeks to please the id’s drive in realistic ways that will
benefit in the long term rather than bring grief. The reality principle that operates the ego is a
regulating mechanism that enables the individual to delay gratifying immediate needs and
function effectively. An example would be to resist the urge to grab other people’s belongings,
but instead to purchase those items. The ego is the organised part of the personality structure
that includes defensive, perpetual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions. Originally,
Freud used the word ego to mean a sense of self, but later revised it to mean a set of psychic
functions such as judgement, tolerance, reality testing, control, planning, defence, synthesis of
information, intellectual functioning, and memory. The ego is in constant contact with time,
space and physical reality. “It is critical of the id and resistive of its impulses.” (Brown, 1934)

The Super-ego: The third part of the personality is the super-ego (German: Uber-Ich; “Over I”
or “I above), which judges whether actions are right or wrong. It is the agency which
internalizes the parental influences and ideals of society through early childhood experiences.
It is the individual’s conscience, as well as his/her image or the morally ideal person (called
the ego ideal). It represents the ideal rather than the real and strives for perfection. It works in
accordance with the moral standards authorised by the agents of society. The super-ego works
in contradiction to id. The super-ego strives to act in a socially appropriate manner, whereas
the id just wants instant self-gratification. The super-ego controls our sense of right and wrong
and guilt. It helps us fit into society getting us to act in socially acceptable ways.

The three components of personality are often in conflict: The ego postpones the gratification
that the id wants immediately, and the super-ego battles with both the id and the ego because
behaviour often falls short of the moral code it represents. In the well-integrated personality,
the ego remains in firm but flexible control; the reality principle governs. In terms of his earlier
iceberg model (Figure 1), Freud proposed that all of the id and most of the ego and super-ego
are submerged in the unconscious and that small parts of the ego and super-ego are in either
the conscious or the preconscious.