Phyco Analytic Criticism for " The Wizard of Oz"

Psycho Analytic Criticism Found In the Wizard of Oz

In Freud’s analysis of the self, he explains that there are three alternating and governing

psyches. The Id controls ones immediate wants, needs and urges, the Superego follows rules,

reason and is the moral and the Ego acts as the mediator between the two. In the film “The

Wizard of Oz”, all three mindsets are represented by different characters. As the twister

approaches Dorothy’s home town of Kansas City, she has gotten to the house too late to make it

into the cellar with her aunt and uncle; the only place to go is into her house and try and hide

from the storm about to hit. As the storm arrives, the violent winds descend upon her, sending

her to the world of Oz. Dorothy remembers the events of the day: the terrible trouble Toto has

gotten into as well as the unfairness of life. She dreams of a magical world, one that is perfect and

fair, somewhere “over the rainbow”. Since this is in itself quite impossible, her brain, when

knocked from the winds of the storm, creates an alternate world in which the mindsets of the Id,

Ego, and Superego are set loose to create a story that externally demonstrates the internal

process of how the Freudian mindsets balance themselves.

Both in and out of the world of Oz, Dorothy exerts a strong sense of Id as she deals with

situations that she encounters. She knows what she wants, wants it done as soon as possible,

and will do anything she can to get it. As the movie starts, Dorothy has just gotten herself and

her dog into a terrible position. Her neighbour will be coming over at any moment to pick up

Toto and take him away. As she thinks of this, she only has one thought concerning its solution:

all she wants is somewhere where there will be no troubles and where “the dreams that you

dare to dream really do come true.” This desire represents her sense of Id shining through.

Before her mind begins to rid itself from the tension built up from the suppression of the id by

the ego and super ego, Dorothy even tries running away, leaving with a complete stranger in

order to escape. At this point the Id is in control and has pushed back the two other mindsets.

As she enters the World of Oz, Dorothy’s character does not change. Although she has

changed wants, and needs, she still goes after her one and only want to get home. When she had

tried running away from home, the wizard that she had met along the way had mentioned to her

that he could see her aunt sick and upset that she had left. Immediately upon hearing this she

wants to be home to help her family. This want gets transferred over to the world of Oz and

follows her through until the end of the movie. The famous quote “there’s no place like home” is

quite significant to the distinction of her id; it has stayed strong throughout her entire trip until it

has finally been realized.

Oz is a world made-up by Dorothy’s mind as a way to relieve the tension building up by

her suppressed Id in the real world. As such, the different parts of the mind have emerged

“disguised” as characters she meets in Oz on her journey back home. Her superego is

represented as three friends she meets as she follows the path of the yellow brick road: the Lion,

the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man. The superego is the part of the mind that follows the rules, and

is the part of the mind that causes one to be timid and shy, almost the opposite of the Id, and

represents all morals of the mind. As the three new friends travel on their journey to the great

wizard, each one exerts a certain characteristic of this mind set, all having their own insecurities.

The scarecrow is the first character that Dorothy meets on her adventure. She meets

him in a corn field where she finds that he is very sad and disappointed in himself because he is

only made of straw. His one wish is to have a brain so that he could be able to think thoughts like

others around him. This shows a great prominence in the superego of the scarecrow; his self-

consciousness due to his “lack” of a brain prevents him from respecting himself. This is a quality

of the Superego.

The Tin man is the next to be met on their long journey. He is also missing a very

important element that controls emotion. The Tin man decides to go along for the trip because

he wishes to gain a heart. When he is first introduced, he does not have much self respect, and

his lack of a heart makes him feel as if he is not able to connect with people properly.

The Lion, the third and final friend they pick up travelling along the yellow brick road,

has a Superego that is the most prominent of all three of Dorothy’s new friends. As Dorothy, the

Tin man and the Scarecrow cross through a deep dark forest, they meet up with the Lion as he

jumps out from behind bushes and tries to scare them. His lack of courage reverses the effect,

and instead he manages to scare himself. His lack of courage sends is dismaying as he is too shy

to approach others for fear that he will be rejected and ridiculed because of his handicap. All

three friends display timid behaviour, shyness and want to follow all rules on their way to the

Emerald city. These missing links demonstrate their evident superego. It is possible to see how

Dorothy’s mind has used them as a way to represent the Superego as her mind tries to counter

her strong Id.

As the journey comes to an end, the travelers reach their destination of the Emerald

City. Having gone through the long and testing journey, they have finally made it to the Wizard

of Oz, and think that all their wishes will be granted as they enter to see him. This is where the

Ego in Dorothy’s mind is expressed. The ego is the part of the mind that is the reasoning or

balance, telling the Id that it can get what it wants, but it must wait until it is right, or moral.

Having a wish granted by the wizard is not quite as easy as expected. The Wizard

demonstrates many of the characteristics of the ego, especially when they arrive and first meet

him. Unlike what they all thought, the wizard refuses to grant their wishes as soon as they

arrive, but instead tells them that he will only grant their wishes if they can return with the

Witch’s broom, proving that they have killed her. This is exactly what the Ego does in the brain:

it tells the Id that it must wait to get what it wants, but in turn it reassures that it will eventually

get it. The Wizard tell the travelers that they must first go and retrieve the Wicked Witch’s

broom before he will answer their wishes, displaying a perfect parallel to the Freudian mind set.

Finally, the Wizard of Oz uses intimidation to try and scare Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the

Tin Man, and the Lion away by pretending he is a large floating head. This creates fear in the

traveling four. This form of intimidation causes a delay in asking for what they want as they

must first muster up the courage to ask him. This delay is a small form of ego which Dorothy’s

mind has created in her “dream” to show how the three mindsets are reacting to control one

another, with the ego acting as the moderator.

The mind works in many ways. In the film “The Wizard of Oz” the representation of the

separate Freudian mindsets are able to lead Dorothy in the right direction. They lead her in a

way in which she is able to see how all the mindsets work together to teach her a lesson of

friendship, understanding, and the way of life; a lesson that remains with her after her return

from the other side of the rainbow.

silly silly

sorry sir when i posted my essay it would not let me do indents nor double spaces or tabs, so i was able to double space it but i will hand in a hard copy on monday with " proper form" .

English essay

Every day as the people of our world expand the technology, and find new and easier ways

to assist one’s self in everyday tasks or daily life, it affects the future of our race. We see these

advantages in technology as aids and a good thing, but do we realize that having too much help,

in the end teaches you nothing? As technology advances throughout time, all the extra help will

cause laziness and in turn this will cause a domino effect. Therefore having a loss of will power

and determination will cause creativity and wonder to diminish. We can see this slowly start to

happen in today’s society, but the new forms of humans, Eloi and Morlocks in novel “The Time

Machine” by H.G. Wells are examples of extreme cases of what this could all lead to. In the

future all is given to them, it is not necessarily an aid to human kind, but brings a disadvantage

onto the human race. Having everything done for them and making life too easy creates no will

power and creativity ceases to continue, making the Elois lazy, eventually reversing the effects

of evaluation, and returning our old ancestors characteristics and instincts to the

Morlocks.

As the technology advances as time moves on, by the year 802701 having everything

given to you as an Eloi, or upperworlder has become natural and expected. They do not worry

about how their clothes get made, about buying or selling items or where their food comes from.

These humans have had their lifestyle and personalities altered into non-caring, lazy, and short

attention spanned race.

As the Time Traveler arrives to the future, the Eloi (upper world

humans) rush him into a large dining room for a feast. As they feast upon fruit, The Time

Traveler must learn the language of the people in order to communicate with these new people.

As he attempts to understand and learn this new language, he realizes that the Eloi’s attention

span shortens very quickly, and he can only learn in short spans of time before they all get bored

and switch their attention to something different:" At first my efforts met with a stare of

surprise or inextinguishable laughter, but presently a fair-haired little creature seemed to grasp

my intention and repeated a name. They had to chatter and explain the business at great length

to each other, and my first attempts to make the exquisite little sounds of their language caused

an immense amount of amusement. However, I felt like a schoolmaster amidst children, and

persisted, and presently I had a score of noun substantives at least at my command; and then I

got to demonstrative pronouns and even the verb "to eat." But it was slow work, and the little

people soon tired and wanted to get away from my interrogations, so I determined, rather of

necessity, to let them give their lessons in little doses when they felt inclined. And very little

doses I found they were before long, for I never met people more indolent or more easily

fatigued.” (Wells, 35)


These people are only able to concentrate on certain things for short spans of time, because of

the lack of need, wonder, discovery and imagination is gone. This has happened in cause of the

technology of the time doing everything for them, because there is no need for any of these

reactions, the Eloi do not bother to use them.This behaviour continues to show as the story

develops, these humans have no worries of finding a mate to create offspring and reproduce,

everything is perfectly controlled and in turn lose the emotion of affection, and attachment

towards anyone else. "It happened that as I was watching some of the little people bathing in a

shallow, one of them was seized with a cramp, and began drifting downstream. The main current

ran rather swiftly, but not too strongly for even a moderate swimmer. It will give you an idea,

therefore, of the strange deficiency in these creatures, when I tell you that none made the

slightest attempt to rescue the weakly crying little thing which was drowning before their

eyes.”(Wells, 56)


As the world is perfectly controlled, leaving no need to find someone, for a life mate, nor have

anyone to be raised by, leaves no reason for the maternal instinct to develop. If this does not

develop, one cannot become emotionally attached to anything, this is the reason for the little

Weena to be left on her own to fend for herself.

If a life is already planned out and is in a perfectly controlled environment, would there be a

point in making life more difficult than it has to be, by forming complicated languages when it

will not be used to its fullest? The Eloi use a language made of very simple terms and phrases

making it very easy to catch onto once they have given you enough time to be taught it. This

lack of communication in the upper world, does not differ very much from the one of the

underworld with the Morlocks behaviour. The Eloi are not the only ones to have lost their

personal skills, the Morlocks have also changes over the years, by being separated from the

outside world, and there is no need for as much interaction. As the time traveler starts to learn

the upperlanders language, he realizes that it is very simple, not containing structured

sentences, being very easy, much like a caveman might speak.


Over the years as less is needed, the language of the humans has become simpler, consisting of

short sentences and simple grammar, The time traveler discovers this as he spends more time

in the future:"I made what progress I could in the language, and, in addition, I pushed my

explorations here and there. Either I missed some subtle point, or their language was

excessively simple-almost exclusively composed of concrete substantives and verbs. There

seemed to be a few, if any, abstract terms, or little use of figurative language. Their sentences

were usually simple and two words, and I failed to convey or understand any but the simplest

proportions." (Wells, 51)


A complicated language is now of no use to these people, having everything at the tips of their

hands ready for them to use, only simple requests are needed.

As the Morlocks have lived in complete darkness for hundreds of years, they have become a

very aggressive species, not used to other contact form the above world, nor anything else; they

have lost all modern human social skills."I stood in the dark, a hand touched mine, lank fingers

came feeling over my face, and I was sensible of a peculiar unpleasant odour. I fancied I heard

the breathing of a crowd of those dreadful little beings about me. I felt the box of matches in my

hand being gently disengaged, and the other hands behind me plucking at my clothing. The

sense of these unseen creatures examining me was indescribably unpleasant." (Wells, 63)


These actions demonstrate how the complete darkness has affected this species. As they are not

able to see much they must use their other scenes to get a feel of their surroundings. As because

of this, they have lost the perception of personal space, and consideration for others around

them, very similar to the Eloi from above.



All these new ways of living, has turned back the time on the species behaviour. Being forced

underground, the new found innocence of the upper world, and the incredible advance in

technology has been a great factor upon this. Now the human race has inherited many or the

characteristics as ancestors from when the world started, as well as many animals such like the

dinosaurs.

The Morlocks have been the ones to serve the Eloi over the years, their technically inclined

skills have brought them underground to take care of the sewage, electricity, ventilation etc.

After being stuck underground for so many years, their lack of social skills have renewed their

fun of killing animals for fun, as men started to do as time first begun. "The upper world people

might once have been the favoured aristocracy, and the Morlocks their mechanical servants; but

that had long since passed away. The two species that had resulted from the evolution of man

were sliding down towards, or had already arrived at, an altogether new relationship. The Eloi,

like the Carolingian kings, had decayed to a mere beautiful futility. They still possessed the earth

on the sufferance, since the Morlocks, subterranean for innumerable generations, had come at

last to find the day lit surface intolerable. And the Morlocks made their garments, I inferred, and

maintained them in their habitual needs, perhaps through the survival of an old habit of service.

They did as a standing horse paws with his foot, or as a man enjoys killing animals in sport,

because ancient and departed necessities had impressed it on the organism."(Wells, 77)


The Morlocks have been imbedded with the idea that having to make everything for the Eloi

with return for nothing is a normal part of life, but with being forced into the ground at all times

to do so, they must find a way to eat. Over the years this has lead to the feasting of their same

race. The Eloi end up paying for the work they get done for them.


The Morlocks characteristics continue to resemble the ones of our ancestors further back

in time, as there is a lack of food underground increases; these people have resorted to eating

their own species as a way to survive. This resembles many of the tribes around our modern

world that have practiced cannibalism; eating their own species as tradition or way of life.


"The place, by the by, was very stuffy and oppressive, and the faint halatus of freshly-shed

blood was in the air. Some way down the central vista was a little table of white metal, laid with

what seemed a meal. The Morlocks at any rate were carnivorous!" (Wells, 72)


The Eloi pay the price for having everything given to them, as a way to pay, the Morlocks will

take them for meat. Eating to stay alive, and as a way to repay them for forcing them

underground all these years. This way of live has made the Morlocks resort to how animals from

the past have eaten their own kind. A perfect example of this would be the dinosaurs, although

they were all dinosaurs, there were many species of them, and they would feed upon each other.



With the great change in technology, and its effect on the evolution of the human kind, as a result

has caused a great change in the behaviour and mind set of humans. As all the technology has

developed over the many years, it has been able to assist and do things for the humans in many

ways. After years and years of everything being done for them, they have lost their will power to

do things on their own, their language has become simpler, in a form much shorter and easier to

speak in the lack of need to have an intricate conversation. The accessibility to this vast amount

of technology, in a perfectly controlled environment causes the brain to be used less, which as

evolution continued, the humans adapted to their lifestyle, turning back their minds to have

many characteristics of our earths ancestors.


Wells, H.G.. The Time Machine. 2002. New York: Scholastic inc., 1895.
(Burgess Introduction)

Essay outline!

So here is the main idea of what i am going to be writing for my isu outline, i have a feeling some of my quotes are going to change though. :D

"The Time Machine" ISU Essay Outline
Thesis: As technology advances throughout time, it is not necessarily an aid to the human kind, but brings a disadvantage onto the human race. Having everything done for us and making life too easy creates no will power and creativity like the world of today, making the human race lazy, eventually reversing the effects of evaluation, returning our old ancestors characteristics.

Reason: As the technology advances, having everything given to the humans, turns their lifestyle and personality into non-caring, lazy, and short attention spanned race.

Example: As the Time Traveler arrives to the future, the Eloi ( upper world humans) rush him into a large dining room for a feast. As they feast upon fruit, The Time Traveler must learn the language of the people. As he starts to learn, the Eloi’s attention span shortens, and he can only learn in short spans of time.
" At first my efforts met with a stare of surprise or inextinguishable laughter, but presently a fair-haired little creature seemed to grasp my intention an repeated a name. They had to chatter and explain the business at great length to each other, and my first attempts to make the exquisite little sounds of their language caused an immense amount of amusement. However, I felt like a schoolmaster amidst children, and persisted, and presently I had a score of noun substantives at least at my command; and then I got to demonstrative pronouns, and even the verb " to eat." But it was slow work, and the little people soon tired and wanted to get away from my interrogations, so I determined, rather of necessity, to let them give their lessons in little doses when they felt inclined. And very little doses I found they were before long, for I never met people more indolent or more easily fatigued."

Example: Weena (an Eloi from the future) while bathing in a creek starts to drown, none of the others try and help her or pay any attention to her cries of help. The style of life that they have learnt to follow does not concern others, and have no attachment to others.
"It happened that as I was watching some of the little people bathing in a shallow, one of them was seized with a cramp, and began drifting downstream. The main current ran rather swiftly, but not too strongly for even a moderate swimmer. It will give you an idea, therefore, of the strange deficiency in these creatures, when I tell you that none made the slightest attempt to rescue the weakly crying little thing which was drowning before their eyes. When I realized this, I hurriedly slipped off my clothes, and wading in at a point lower down, I caught the mite and drew her safe to land.’

Reason: If everything is given to you and done already, is there a point in learning a more difficult language, or have to interact with as many people. Because everything is already done for them, they do not find the need for personal skills.

Example: As the time traveler starts to learn the upper landers language, he realizes that it is ver simple, not containing structured sentences, being very easy, much like a caveman might speak.
"I made what progress I could in the language, and, in addition, I pushed my explorations here and there. Either I missed some subtle point, or their language was excessively simple-almost exclusively composed of concrete substantives and verbs. There seemed to be a few, if any, abstract terms, or little use of figurative language. Their sentences were usually simple and two words, and I failed to convey or understand any but the simplest proportions."

Example: As the Morlocks have lived in complete darkness for hundreds of years, they have become a very aggressive species, not used to other contact, form the above world, nor anything else, they have lost all original human social skills.
"I stood in the dark, a hand touched mine, lank fingers came feeling over my face, and I was sensible of a peculiar unpleasant odour. I fancied I heard the breathing of a crowd of those dreadful little beings about me. I felt the box of matches in my hand being gently disengaged, and the other hands behind me plucking at my clothing. The sense of these unseen creatures examining me was indescribably unpleasant."

Reason : All these new ways of living, being forced underground, the new found innocence of the upper world, has turned back the time on the species behavior. Now the human race has inherited many or the characteristics as ancestors from when the world started, as well as animals such like the dinosaurs.

Example: The Morlocks ( from underground) have become servants for the eloi, making them everything, only because of their lack of socialization they have renewed their fun of killing animals for fun just like men used to.
"The upper world people might once have been the favored aristocracy, and the morlocks their mechanical servants; but that had long since passed away. The two species that had resulted from the evolution of man were sliding down towards, or had already arrived at, an altogether new relationship. The Eloi, like the Carlovingian kings, had decayed to a mere beautiful futility. They still possessed the earth on the sufferance, since the Morlocks, subterranean for innumerable generations, had come at last to find the daylit surface intolerable. And the Morlocks made their garments, I inferred, and maintained them in their habitual needs, perhaps through the survival of an old habit of service. They did as a standing horse paws with his foot, or as a man enjoys killing animals in sport, because ancient and departed necessities had impressed it on the organism."

Reason: The Morlocks eat their own species like dinosaurs ate different dinosaurs, these Morlocks eat a different type of human.
"The place, by the by, was very stuffy and oppressive, and the faint halatus of freshly-shed blood was in the air. Some way down the central vista was a little table of white metal, laid with what seemed a meal. The morlocks at any rate were carnivorous!"

Essay #1 Thesis

After finally finishing the time machine ( not that it was a very long book) i found many similarities between the people of the future. For my essay i will use a cpmparisson of the people of the future, and how it relates to the people of today. How the future of technolog can in turn bring us back, reverse the effects of evolution, and back to how human life began. ..... so thats kinda what i had in mind, hopefull it works out!