rong superego. His cruel and violent behavior reflected the repression that his ego was causing in an attempt to control his raw urges. Only Heathcliff's id and ego are easily apparent in Wuthering Heights, but his use of defense mechanisms shows that he also had to have a very strong superego trying to persuade him not to act on his id. Heathcliff's superego could not accept the desires of his id, and admitting the urges would have caused him anxiety. Therefore, his ego kept the urges out of his conscious mind, and hid it in his untouchable unconscious, where it was acted on only by way of defense mechanisms. Freud would have believed that Heathcliff repressed his desires in an attempt to be accepted in society ("Ethics").Sigmund Freud believed that people act on animal instincts in terms of sexuality (Spenser). Heathcliff's sexual instincts seem to strongly resemble those of an animal. Bronte even goes so far as to call him a "wild dog". Dogs come into the story numerous times, and in every instance, they are wild and vicious. They seem to create a comparison to Heathcliff in the way that both the dogs and Heathcliff go after what they want without a thought of who they are hurting in the process. Heathcliff's feelings for Catherine are so raw and instinctual that they could be considered animal-like. Freud developed many different psychological theories that can relate to the story of Wuthering Heights by interpreting the dreams of Lockwood, as well as explaining some behavior of the characters. Heathcliff's behavior, for example, makes more sense when described by defense mechanisms and the three parts of the mind than it does when it is looked at without Freudian theories. Had Sigmund Freud had the chance to sit Heathcliff down on his couch, he would have been able to explain much of Heathciff's behavior in ways that Emily Bronte could never have imagined. ...
