Abstract:The purpose of this paper is to give a psychological analysis to the leading character’s image in An American Tragedy from the perspective of the theory of Freud’s tripartite structure of psyche. The thesis can be divided into four chapters. The first chapter demonstrated the author and the writing background of the novel. The second chapter mainly introduced Freud's psychoanalytic theory: Id, Ego and Superego. The third chapter illustrated the development of the story, with focus on the psychoanalysis of the Clyde in this novel, to explain the development process of Clyde’s Id, Ego and Superego, and revealed the features of his personalities. The fourth part was a conclusion of the whole paper, giving a brief summary of the thesis and the main character’s personality structure.

Key words: Theodore Dreiser; An American Tragedy; Clyde; personality structure

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Theory of Freudian Personality Structure-4

3 Personality Structure of Clyde-8

3.1 Clyde’s Id-8

3.2 Clyde’s Ego-12

3.3 Clyde's Superego-16

4 Conclusion-20

References-21