{"id":201,"date":"2016-04-10T20:14:24","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T00:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/theater-1504-spring-2016\/?p=201"},"modified":"2016-04-10T20:15:08","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T00:15:08","slug":"woyzeck-and-the-subconscious-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/theater-1504-spring-2016\/urban-education\/woyzeck-and-the-subconscious-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Woyzeck and the Subconscious Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Georg B\u00fcchner\u2019s play Woyzeck<\/em> is a multidimensional piece of work that is based off of Johann Christian Woyzeck, an insane man who murders the mother of his child. Although very confusing at times, the play carries tropes that touch upon meaning of morality throughout its entirety. After carefully reading B\u00fcchner\u2019s play, although crafted prior to Sigmund Freud\u2019s introduction to the subconscious mind, B\u00fcchner\u2019s Woyzeck <\/em>projects Freud\u2019s ideas of the ego, id, and superego through different characters, actions, and motifs. More specifically, the play, on a larger scale, is a metaphor for Woyzeck\u2019s subconscious mind and the inner conflict between the id and the superego known as the ego (Class Notes 2\/9).<\/p>\n

Woyzeck himself is representative of the id within the subconscious mind. The id, which is described as the internal desire that is often repressed by societal pressures and norms, is portrayed through Woyzeck in several ways. First, Woyzeck\u2019s child with Marie serves a symbol of this\u2014because Woyzeck and Marie are not married, yet have a child together, the presences of the child itself serves as symbol to conformity of desire and lust through their premarital rendezvous. In addition to Woyzeck\u2019s child with Marie, another action of Woyzeck\u2019s that conveys the subconscious component id, perhaps more obviously, is when he stabs and murders Marie. His hatred and anger after he learns of Marie\u2019s infidelity drives him to kill her. This is representative of the subconscious id and Woyzeck acting in result of his desire.<\/p>\n

In contrast, other external forces serve as the juxtaposing subconscious component, the superego, for Woyzeck. An obvious of example of this is the Doctor. The Doctor serves as societal pressure that the superego generates to filter the id and its consequential decisions. An example of this is when Woyzeck pees on the wall. In response the Doctor vocalizes the absurdity of the situation and reprimands Woyzeck for his decision: \u201cyou pissed on the street, you pissed on the wall like a dog\u201d (B\u00fcchner 4.8). It is important here to note that the Doctor equates Woyzeck\u2019s actions to that of an animal. His questioning of Woyzeck\u2019s humanity serves as an attempt to oppress the desires Woyzeck might have later to repeat the action.<\/p>\n

The conjunction of Woyzeck\u2019s decision to act implicitly and explicitly on his desires, the expression of the id, and the consequences his faces from Doctor and others, the superego, represent the internal struggle of the subconscious mind known as the ego. The entire play serves as a metaphor this.<\/p>\n

Questions:<\/p>\n

-What can we learn from a play like Woyzeck? <\/em>What was B\u00fcchner\u2019s message? Does he have one?<\/p>\n

-How does Woyzeck <\/em>serve as commentary on society? How does this relate to social media now?<\/p>\n

-It is interesting to me that after Woyzeck\u2019s immoral behavior he is still labeled as a protagonist. Why do you think this is?<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

–Woyzeck <\/em><\/p>\n

–<\/em>Class Notes February 9th<\/sup>, 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Georg B\u00fcchner\u2019s play Woyzeck is a multidimensional piece of work that is based off of Johann Christian Woyzeck, an insane man who murders the mother of his child. Although very confusing at times, the play carries tropes that touch upon meaning of morality throughout its entirety. After carefully reading B\u00fcchner\u2019s play, although crafted prior to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-urban-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/theater-1504-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/theater-1504-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/theater-1504-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/theater-1504-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/theater-1504-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/theater-1504-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/theater-1504-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/theater-1504-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/theater-1504-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}