Psychoanalysis Reading of Mavis’ Character in Morrison’s Paradise

Abstract

This paper will examine Toni Morrison’s novel Paradise. It will study one of the protagonists in this novel to demonstrate her psychological suffering namely hysteria. The study of this character will help to clarify how these psychoanalytic concept work to explain Morrison’s obsessions with the psychological complications of her society. Moreover, the analysis of this character from a psychoanalytic perception will reveal the implicit meanings of the novel and gives us anew critical perceptions about the development of hysteria throughout psychic illness. Therefore, the psychoanalysis will rely on Freud’s perspective, for being the father of psychoanalysis and the establisher of hysteria as it is known today. The study is going to examines one of the novels’ heroins, Mavis, who experiences difficult psychological troubles during her life. According to Freud, family and the repressed memories are the main breeder of hysteria, which makes females mute, have no voice and no right to speak, as it is clear in the characters of Toni Morrison’s paradise, particularly Mavis.