Character Analysis: Personality Theories

 

INTRODUCTION

The character that I have chosen is from the book and television series “GAME OF THRONES” one and only ARYA STARK from the house stark written by GeorgeR.R.Martin and casted directors David Benoiff and D.B Wesis, Game of thrones taken from the book “song of ice and fire” illustrates the political war between 7 noble houses for the most majestic seat of westros “the Iron throne”

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

Arya Stark born of house Stark of Winterfell situated in the northern regions of the WESTROS. Arya was born as the 3rd child after Rob Stark Sansa stark to Lord Eddard and Lady Stark. Being the only one in the family that behaves odd for a girl of a royal household she was always different from others and proved to be too , her personality traits were intelligent, bravery, stubborn, and possess an independent trait that makes her complete the task she sets her mind to. In the series she is trained to take her lesson in parlor manner and etiquette to become a future Lady just like any other noble women but Arya’s wishes lies elsewhere wanting to jump, run, and learn to swordfight she would rather train as knight than be a damsel in distress. She doesn’t involve in family matters but deeply cares for them and any danger occurred to them will see the wrath of hers. 

Her main interest is sword fight by which her father secretly hired the best sword fighter Syrio , with whom she pleasurably enjoys her classes. Due to the war among the seven kingdoms Arya’s Father is falsely accused of treason and beheaded from then on the stark members were separated by fate and Arya had her own disguised as a boy she travelled far an wide was sold and was stuck with a knight Sandor Clegane , after long struggles she escaped into the land of Bravos and was kept safe but with a price she was trained to be a assassinator under the God of death , after becoming a master at her profession she sets sail back to Winterfell stronger than ever and joins with her siblings and sets a path for herself for as her house saying goes “winter is coming”

DETERMINENTS OF PERSONALITY: ARYASTARK

INTECTUAL DETERMIANT:

Intelligence here can be defined as the understanding of the society norms and rules. In this case this determinant suits the character really well as she was predominantly known for her intelligence she did understand the norms of the society and the political war her family was dragged into. Due to her clear understanding she was able to save and sustain herself without her family in odd situations

SOCIAL DETERMIANT:

In this aspect how a social setting affects the personality development of the character and the main focus will be the level of conformity and group influence in the social setting

The character is from a noble household and heir to the throne the setting around would have been strict because they are taught to do needlework, parlor manners etc. there is conformity or compliance among the members of the household and group influence is largely seen because the society forces them to learn these etiquettes. Since the character is a princess she has some standards to satisfy, she shows zero tolerance towards them as her adventurous nature allows her to be someone else.

FAMILY DETERMIANT:

In this aspect , the first social setting a child experiences is a family Freud says that the development of personality occurs up to 5-6 yrs. Also the relationship with the parents also influence the personality to be positive or negative. In this case Arya was brought up in free manner with not much of strict regulation other than her lessons in etiquette , moreover she was free to pursue sword fighting she was brought up in a more positive household where her family encouraged family bonding and the aspect affection and belonging toward their one true family the STARKS. She was surrounded with family members who personality traits were bold, strong, loyal and nurturing contributing to these same qualities in Arya which also boosts her confidence and willpower

THEORY: PSYCHO-ANALYTIC

This theory comprises of the structure of personality of a person’s conscious, subconscious and unconscious. This theory was proposed by Sigmund Freud who believed that that a person’s desire which was innately present can contribute to their behavior at their surroundings or environment .Freud separated personality into 3 types

• CONSCIOUS 
• PRECONSCIOUS
• UNCONSCIOUS

 

 Freud has linked these stages to an iceberg meaning that the conscious is the tip of the iceberg where we notice our actions and behavior to certain point the preconscious and unconscious are the deeper part of the iceberg where our deepest desires are found with a stronger impulse or connection. Some event from the preconscious can be brought back to conscious but the unconscious is a matter of mystery of human behavior

The id is the primary process of an individual which acts as a reservoir for the instincts and acc. To Freud works on the pleasure principle where the desire are to immediately satisfied or instant gratification

Character analysis: once Arya ad found out that her family has involved into brutal murder for political power over the throne her instant thought would be to protect her family at all cost or to take revenge on the people responsible for her family’s death but that wouldn’t have been possible immediately for she wasn’t in a position to save herself nor did adequate info. About her enemies though her initial desire would be to kill them

EGO- SECONDARY PROCESS

The Ego here performs as the secondary thought which has a more mature perspective to deal rationally with the external problem. The ego can be rationally termed as ego master as it tries to satisfy the ID needs in a more socially and mature way.it also follows the reality principle by reasoning out the difference with pleasure principle.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS: Here the characters ego takes a mature or reasonable decisions as to first ensuring her survival and to learn more skills in order to avenge her enemies

SUPER EGO- UNCONSCIOUS

The moral aspect in the personality acc. to Freud was the super ego where the good and bad behavior taught in the initial stages serve as a moral conscious. The super ego does not satisfy the ID but completely tries to eradicate these desire no matter the consequence this is known as ego ideal the ego tries to play the role of satisfying both ends it undergoes pressure by these opposing forces when its severely restraint development of anxiety arises .

ANXIETY: THREAT TO EGO

Freud had explained about 3 types of anxiety reality, neurotic, moral anxiety. Reality anxiety is caused by tangible dangers in the real world for ex the fear of accidents or darkness which caused by outer stimuli phobias can be also seen in this stage. neurotic anxiety has its basis in childhood where they would have been punished for expressing ID desires thus the anxiety occurs when the need should be satisfied because they are afraid of the consequences. Moral anxiety is the tension occurring between id-superego

CHARACTER ANALYSIS:

 Arya stark is a bold character she survived through grits-wits acc. to her character there is no anxiety displayed but if further analyzed due to her external circumstances of being caught and to survive she could have experienced reality anxiety. When she was being trained at the assassins place she did experience reality anxiety for she was afraid of being an outcast and the consequences she had face with her peers and the master she was briefly scared for her survival

DEFENSE MECHANISMS OF EGO

Anxiety is an impending dander causing situation that is avoided but its mainly caused by by the struggle of the ego by id-superego. This struggle is inevitable because of social pressure caused at each stage of development. The ego in order to defend itself acquire defense methods whose main intention is

TYPES OF MECHANISMS

Repression – A unconscious denial of some traumatic event that cause anxiety. It’s an involuntary action from the conscious mind for the comfort of the person, it occurs to people or situations that cause discomfort for the person.

CHARACTER- Arya was more of realistic person and accepted things just the way they were raw and unseasoned, even though she experienced worse matter she learnt her lesson from it

Denial – denial of an existing external threat or traumatic event

CHARACTER – There was no denial of the traumatic events Arya had to face but she turned her weakness to her strength

Reaction formation- involves expressing an opposite id impulse to that of the person

CHARACTER: Arya did not posses an varied opinion from her id impulses to kill her enemies but it can be viewed as her not being subtle or submissive but rather taking matters into her own hands

CONCLUSION:

In the end Freud has come to a conclusion after his analysis found that defense mechanism are made unconsciously when there arises a threat by the id – superego but when the defense we held are broken we feel disappointed and dismayed until we find new defenses this process is psychoanalysis but likely Arya hasn’t gone through psychoanalysis as deep we as discussed . so thus the anatomy of personality does play a role in behavior

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