Communications and Media

The Plot Once upon a time, a Princess went into a forest and played with her golden ball, throwing it into the air and catching it until it went too high and rolled right into the water in the well. Since the well was too deep, she was in misery since she could not get her ball back and offered an enchanted frog her pearls, precious stones and clothes if her golden ball could be retrieved from the bottom of the well. But the frog would only help her for a promise that he be allowed to sit next to the princess, eat from her plate, sleep in her bed, and love and cherish the frog. She agreed without being true to her word and left the frog when she got back her golden ball, forgetting her promise altogether. But the frog chased her to her home, claiming her promise, which the Princess father, the King, ordered her to fulfill, and she reluctantly complied. The frog sat next to her, ate from her plate, but the Princess was horrified of sleeping next to the disgusting, ugly, cold frog however, the King got angry and commanded her to keep her promise. But climbing up her bed she banged the frog onto the wall thinking it will make him leave her in peace finally. But the frog came down to bed a young prince, and they fell asleep together with pleasure (Referencing c. 2008).

A reading of this fairy tale follows using the Freuds psychoanalytic theory as its guiding principles. The fairy tale is dissected as if it was a fantasy or the authors dream, as literary works are considered the brainchild of the person that creates it. In psychoanalytic reading, the written work, in this case a fairy tale, is analyzed as if it was the creator or writers dream, using the mechanisms of dream analysis or its interpretation. Before doing that, the relationship of each part of the story to the whole picture is established, first of all, by an analysis of each of the characters in the tale and their relationship or relevance to the other characters as well as the theme of the tale. The following cast of characters is analyzed based on their manifest and latent roles in the tale. Manifest roles or relevance refer to the traits or events as told in the story while the latent roles refer to the hidden roles or relationships of the cast or event to the story as a whole. Latent roles, relationships or events refer to those which are represented only by symbolisms or animate objects that gain a different or magical significance in the tale.

The Cast of Characters
The Princess, who is portrayed as someone who turns her back on a promise, is torn between keeping her word and bearing the unpleasant feelings that come with it or simply forgetting about it. The story started with her going into the forest to play with her ball  catching and tossing it high into the air. When it fell into the deep well, she was so desperate that she promised the frog all her possessions and doing everything the frog wished her to in exchange for retrieving her toy. But she did not want to keep her word as she considered the frog ugly, disgusting and cold and no sooner than when she retrieved the ball did she forget all the promises she gave to the frog and headed home with her treasured toy.
The symbolic significance of the ball, what would otherwise have been an ordinary thing, gained extraordinary treatment in this story because of the golden element attached to the object, bearing a possible significance to the creator of the tale. From tossing it high into the air and then catching it, then the misery that befall the Princess when it fell to the bottom of the well  which she could not see for it was very deep. And her struggle to get it back, promising all her possessions and anything at all, even doing what she knew she would be disgusted with  an intense semblance of importance for something that children consider as an ordinary plaything. A ball is universally considered as a source of pleasure or a toy for children, even grown ups who engage in innocent or healthy, clean fun. Its falling to the dark bottom of a deep well alludes to its owners loss of innocence.

Psychoanalytically, this persona is the superego experiencing intrapsychic conflicts for a rising sexuality which she refuses to acknowledge therefore the creator of the story makes another persona that would possess the qualities worthy of the Princess descriptions ugly, disgusting, cold whom she did not even want to either touch or look at.

The frog  Prince, sitting in a very deep well in the forest where the Princess went out to play, represents what to the Princess constitutes as being ugly, cold, disgusting. With the frogs bodily shape showing hip emphasis (often associated with infantile sexuality) and large, rounded trunks suggestive of passiveness, infantile or regressive sexuality as well as unsatisfied drives and motives (Hibbard 265).

The writers displace onto the frog all the qualities which the Princess persona cannot take nor accept as her own because sexuality as an instinctual drive is something which her persona (superego) considers unacceptable.  Therefore the figure of the frog is chosen because its shape often depicts conflicts about driving toward unsatisfied drives and motives or mediating between reality and intrapsychic conflicts.

Manifestly, the frog in the tale is one who follows the Princess for fulfillment of her promises that of the frog being allowed to sit next to her in her chair, eat from her plate, and sleep with her in her bed. All these acts are symbolic representations indicative of the demands of the id to be satisfied, even if it means chasing the Princess to her home.

The Princess forgetting all about her promise, was a manifest of the superegos attempt at blocking all thoughts alluding to being intimate with the frog (the tales symbol for unsatisfied sexual drives). But the frog, being the id, would not budge and the defense mechanism of blocking proved to be insufficient to drive the ids desires away. Thus the dream  work transforms the latent sexual issue into a manifest one that could find its way into the creators consciousness without blocking. So the transformation to acceptable scenes sitting next to the Princess, eating from her plate, and sleeping with her in her bed  all of these are approximations to the real sexual intimacies which would otherwise have been unacceptable to readers from a sexually inhibitive society.

The King, or the Princess father in the story, represented one strong figure of authority, depicted by the role he played in the dream. He is the one who orders the Princess to keep her promises to the frog. And when she did not want to go further and allow the frog to go to bed with her, he angrily commanded the Princess to concede. When these acts were complied by the Princess, however, the King disappears in the story.

Contrary to common sense knowledge, the fathers role here is one that allows his child to acknowledge her sexuality and let it come through as part of the person she is if only to become whole. As opposed to the common picture of a parent who discourages sexuality in their children by inculcating it in them as a disgusting topic or matter, this forms the wish fulfillment of the one who built this fantasy.

Because in the dreamers waking life, if an unconscious childhood wish or infantile sexuality has long been repressed in fear of punishment from the external environment, then it is not readily accessible to the conscious realm (Sadock  Sadock 192). So here the dreamer or the fantasizing person wishes that the figure of authority, the King, would reverse what would have been an oppositional force to achieving impulse gratification (sexual in nature) of the dreamer or creator of the story. Thus, to alter a socially objectionable aim to a socially acceptable one, the writer of this story reverses the figure of authoritys standpoint towards sexuality, ergo conflict is minimized, and the persona of the frog Prince  the id  becomes satisfied.

Heinrich, is the frog Princes faithful servant who put iron bands around his heart to prevent it from falling apart in sorrow over the Princes enchantment. His only part was shown towards closing of the tale. He was depicted as someone whose heart was threatening to break in sorrow for his masters enchantment. Enchantment here meant being trapped and transformed into what was considered in the story as adisgusting being. Thus to prevent his heart from bursting, he affixed three iron bands there. Manifestly, Heinrich set out to get his Prince whose curse or enchantment was now broken. And when the Prince, one with the Princess now, was on their carriage, gradually the iron bands cracked apart, freeing his encaged heart.

Symbolically, this is a representation of being liberated because an unconscious sexual drive that the superego refuses to acknowledge by repressing it deep into the unconscious has finally found its way to the conscious by the acknowledgment of the Princess seeing that of her in the frog  turned  Prince.
In this seeming dream analysis  or psychoanalytic reading  of the Frog King, as in every dream, there is a manifest issue and a latent issue. In this book, the manifest issue is the Princess frustration at keeping her golden ball at all costs and the frog Princes efforts for breaking the curse or enchantment that traps him to the deep well. The latent issue here is about human sexuality, represented only by various symbolisms, allusions or approximations to the real thing.

The writers, Brothers Grimm, created four major manifest personas in the story, all pointing to one latent personality that has fragmented due to an internal conflict that of the King, surprisingly the authority figure playing the ego, the Princess who plays the superego, one persona split into two as played by Heinrich, the Princess alter, whose aching heart over the Princes enchantment caused him to place three iron bands around his heart to keep it from bursting with sorrow and finally, the id  the frog Prince, whose enchantment has propelled him to seek relief by chasing the Princess and asserting that she keep her promise.

These personas are an off  shoot from the whole person that has fragmented due to an issue on sexuality that threatens to overwhelm the personality (Sadock  Sadock 193). One part of the person, portrayed by the frog Prince, being the id is fixated by sexual concerns which the superego (the Princess) and therefore the whole personality consider ugly, cold, and disgusting. Therefore that part of the person is inhibited, thus the symbolism of the encaged heart of Heinrich, the servant of the frog Prince whose heart was bound by three iron bands to keep it from bursting with sorrow (Referencing c. 2008). But the King, the alter of the Prince, as the figure of authority here, commands attention to the unconscious sexuality of the personas (as one whole person), to recognize and acknowledge it.

There is an element of surprise in this fairy tale in that contrary to common psychoanalytical set  up where the authority figure is often the one who plays the superego in the story or the one whose influence causes the subject it affects to possess a strong superego, in this one there is the view of the dream being a wish fulfillment of the person that dreams it. The sexuality of the theme in this is subdued by the role of the Princess in the story, being the superego while as a wish fulfillment, the King or authority figure who in reality should be the one blocking sexuality, is the one who enforces the authors sexual fantasies.

The context of the story This fairy tale was written at a time when Germany was going through major social reforms. After the failure of Frances Napoleonic Wars, Germany was starting to develop nationalistic views and tried to push for radical changes. In England, however, this was the Georgian Era, otherwise also known as the dawning of the Victorian Era. The latter is known for its downright conventional society, where all behaviors are inhibited and the issue of sex was considered taboo. In fact, Freuds theories of personality which has for its basis, primarily the sexual development of the individual as the primary formative issue of a child was initially shunned by English society. It was during this time that sexuality was suppressed and anyone who discusses the matter would be ostracized. This led to Freuds observations of his patients that sexual inhibitions create intrapsychic conflicts that bring psychological discomfort to the individual. Giving in to sexual impulses therefore was considered socially unacceptable, and sex does not go around as an appropriate topic in any social circle. Sexual drives and impulses therefore must be blocked, inhibited or repressed for an individual to socially cope with the high demand for propriety.

In other versions of the story, it starts with the Princes enchantment and turning into a frog. This version however, starts with the Princess going to the forest and playing with her ball there. The symbolism of the forest being a place where a person is out of social scrutiny and the golden ball, a thing of universal appeal to a child being an object of play  an associate of freedom, treasured by a whole person  thus, its special treatment from an ordinary toy  to a golden ball  a childs innocent source of delight.

The ego tries to negotiate with the id by sublimation  using a socially acceptable avenue to take the place of a socially unacceptable impulse trading sexual drives for innocent play, symbolized by the golden ball else the egos freedom is threatened if it brings into the conscious those sexual drives. Thus, in an attempt to push sexual drives or impulses out of the conscious realm and the personality becomes overwhelmed (the coping mechanisms are insufficient), it splits into four the enchanted frog which represents the ugly, disgusting, and slimy id that holds those sexual drives, the King that demands that it be satiated, the Princess whose superego pushes away those drives into the deepest, dark recesses of the well of the unconscious by repression, and Heinrich, whose heart is bound by iron, disenchanted by the ids enchantment (Prince turned into a frog).

But the frog Prince, owing to mans innate tendency towards eliminating intrapsychic conflicts, referred to by Freud as the sexual  life instincts, cannot be pushed out of the conscious for long without building anxiety so the id struggles to assert and reveal itself to the conscious. It must sit beside the Princess, eat from the Princess plate and sleep with her in her bed. In other words, it demands that it be acknowledge as an essential part of the person to achieve wholeness  to eliminate the fragmentation. This drive is symbolized in the frogs chasing the Princess and demanding fulfillment of her promise, via the frog or ids alter, the Kings command. 

The whole person (latent) regresses to the anal phase as manifested in the Princess immature defense mechanism of reaction formation, where she views the demands of the id (the frog going to bed with her, and the ids alter, the King, angrily commanding her to satisfy the id) as shameful and disgusting. The development of the Kings persona in the tale is the unconscious attempt to endow the action of giving in to the sexual impulse with the social acceptability that is perceived by the dreamer as lacking, by commanding (coming from the tales figure of authority) that the id be fulfilled.

At this, the persona of the Princess relents but reluctantly, so the id and superego this time go to bed together. The bedroom takes the place of the deep well as the symbolization of the minds recesses. This time the bedroom becomes the abode of blocked, inhibited and repressed impulses, promising acceptance into the minds consciousness. So to break down the discomfort at once, the persona of the Princess  the superego  bangs her id the frog into the wall, symbolizing the counterphobic (Blackman 98) defense of doing exactly what the conscious is scared of.

Thus accepted by the conscious as the handsome young Prince, the id then becomes one distinct part of the personality  esteemed by the Princess, with the superego now liberated at last as symbolized by Heinrichs band of iron around his heart cracking apart in liberation, and finally the sexual conflict disappears (Sadock  Sadock 194).