大智若愚的圣贤_从弗洛伊德的心理分析理论看辛格的_傻瓜吉姆佩尔_英文_

（School of Foreign Languages and Cultures,Ningxia University,Yinchuan 750021,China ）［Abstract ］The story Gimpel the Fool is about the theme of morals'returning and the conflict between benevolenceand evil,and Singer successfully portrays a wise fool without any special desires.This paper tries to interpret the short story in the light of Freud's psychoanalytical theory and the theories of unconsciousness and personality struture,and then the author puts forward the view that Gimpel is actually a great saint instead of a fool.［Key words ］Gimpel;fool;Freud;Psychoanalysis;saint［中图分类号］I106.4［文献标识码］A ［文章编号］1672-8610（2009）02-0042-04○YangChunquanA Great Saint Appearing Slow Witted［作者简介］杨春泉，男，宁夏大学外国语学院讲师，硕士，研究方向：翻译理论与实践。

———An Analysis of Singer ’s Gimpel the Fool from Freud ’s PsychoanalysisGimpel the Fool is a short story written by Isaac BashevisSinger,a contemporary American Jewish writer who won the Nobel Prize in1978.Isaac Bashevis Singer was born in Poland in 1904,and he was “the son of a rabbi,and grew up in the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw in a family where money was scarce,but intellectual stimuli plentiful.”(Singer,page 78)Gimpel the Fool is a story about a simple man named Gimpel who is easy to take in.He is considered by many to be a fool be －cause he is a pretty gullible man and constantly falling for all kinds of tricks laid out by almost everyone around him.He is an orphan,later turned over to a baker,and also has a bad time there.When he decides to go off to another town,every －one gets busy match-making and finally Gimpel is persuaded to marry Elka who is not virgin pure and has a “little brother ”.Elka treats Gimpel very rudely.What ’s more,the woman is disloyal to her husband Gimpel all through her life.She gives birth to a boy only 17weeks after the wedding.Gimpel doubts if the child is his,but eventually manages to believe that some babies are born premature.Gimpel also catches Elka having an affair with someone else,but later persuades himself into thinking he has made a mistake and done her an unjustice.When Elka is dying,she tells Gimpel the truth that none of the six children are actually his,and she deceives him all those years.One night after Elka ’s death Gimpel has a dream,and then he plans to deceive the whole town in his turn by baking bread with urine mixed in it.Also,Elka ap －pears in Gimpel ’s another dream,and thus he decides to give up his evil plan and buries the bread.He then divides all his money among his children and leaves Frampol to live a wan －dering life.After many years he understands that there are re －ally no lies and whatever doesn ’t really happen is dreamed at night.The story ends with Gimpel dying and going to a place where even Gimpel cannot be deceived.To find the mental journey of the characters in Gimpel The Fool I decides to ana －lyze the plot and characters from Freud ’s psychoanalysis.Sigmund Freud is a famous Austrian psychoanalyst who has first used the term “psychoanalysis ”and developed the systematic theories of psychoanalysis.At first,Freud developes the techniques of "Psychoanalysis"for the treatment of psycho －logical and emotional disorders,but later the techniques are also used in many other fields of social science.Thus the the －ories of psychoanalysis have bocome the techniques that can be used to understand human beings ’motives,personalities and mental processes.Psychological criticism is a diverse cat －egory which adopts Sigmund Freud ’s psychoanalytical theories to examine literary works.Freud believes a human being ’s mental process includes three levels ---the unconscious,the preconscious and the conscious.Freud came to see personality as having three aspects,which work together to produce all the complex behaviours:the Id,the Ego and the Superego.All 3components need to be well -balanced in order to have good amount of psychological energy available and to have reasonable mental health.How －ever,the Ego has a difficult time dealing with the competing demands of the Superego and the Id.According to the psy －choanalytic view,this psychological conflict is an intrinsic and pervasive part of human experience.The conflict between the Id and Superego,negotiated by the Ego,is one of the funda －mental psychological battles all people face.The way in which a person characteristically resolves the instant gratification vs.longer-term reward dilemma in many ways comes to reflect on their"character".(/personality/L8-4Struc－tureMindIdEgoSuperego.html)Then let’s have a better understanding of the concepts of Id,Ego and Super-Ego:THE ID（“It”）：The Id functions in the irrational and emotional part of the mind.At birth a baby’s mind is all Id-want want want.The Id is the primitive mind.It contains all the basic needs and feelings.It is the source for libido(psy－chic energy).And it has only one rule-->the“pleasure prin－ciple”:“I want it and I want it all now”.In transactional analysis,Id equates to"Child".THE EGO:(“I”):The Ego functions with the rational part of the mind.The Ego develops out of growing awareness that you can’t always get what you want.The Ego relates to the real world and operates via the “reality principle”.The Ego realises the need for compromise and negotiates between the Id and the Superego.The Ego's job is to get the Id's pleasures but to be reasonable and bear the long-term consequences in mind.The Ego denies both in－stant gratification and pious delaying of gratification.The term ego-strength is the term used to refer to how well the ego copes with these conflicting forces.To undertake its work of planning,thinking and controlling the Id,the Ego uses some of the Id's libidinal energy.In transactional analysis,Ego equates to"Adult".THE SUPEREGO(“Over-I”):The Su－perego is the last part of the mind to develop.It might be called the moral part of the mind.The Superego becomes an embodiment of parental and societal values.It stores and en－forces rules.It constantly strives for perfection,even though this perfection ideal may be quite far from reality or possibility. Its power to enforce rules comes from its ability to create anxi－ety.The Superego has two subsystems:Ego Ideal and Con－science.The Ego Ideal provides rules for good behaviour,and standards of excellence towards which the Ego must strive. The Ego ideal is basically what the child’s parents approve of or value.The Conscience is the rules about what constitutes bad behaviour，and it is basically all those things that the child feels mum or dad will disapprove of or punish.(http:// /personality/L8-4StructureMindIdEgoSuperego. html)The Id refers to the unconscious part of the mind and consisits of natural instincts,urges and drives that are re－pressed.The Id acts on the“pleasure principle”.The Ego is partly conscious and contains the capacities to calculate,rea－son,and plan.The Ego is influenced by the external world and tries to regulate and control the natural instincts provided by the Id,acting on“reality principle”.The Superego is the con－scious part or moral part and,in the light of social rules and moral standards,acting on“perfection principle”.In normal condition,these three parts are well cocodinated and well bal－anced.However,the Id always has to be repressed and the Superego constantly strives for perfection,so a good balance is very hard to keep among them and the Ego often negotiates be－tween the Id and the Superego.According to程爱民(2001), Freud believes that people with a sound personality or reason－able mental health are hard to find.In the story Gimpel the Fool,Gimpel is seen as a fool by many townspeople around him and often falls for their old or new tricks.At the very beginning of the story,Gimpel intro－duces himself with the following words:“I am Gimpel the fool.I don’t think myself a fool.On the contrary.”This just shows the three levels of the psychological activity:the consciousness, the preconsciousness,and the unconsciousness.For the un－consciousness,he thinks he is on the contrary and not a fool; for the consciousness,he admits that he is Gimpel the fool be－cause he wants to get on well with the others.The name of fool is given by his townfellows even while he is still in school, and he has other similar names like“imbecile”,“donkey”,“flax-head”,“dope”,“glump”,and“ninny”.They tells Gim－pel that the rabbis’s wife has been brought to childbed and Gimpel skips school,but it turns out to be a lie.This example of“foolishness”shows nothing but a great deal of honesty and kindness on Gimpel’s part because he acts on“perfection principle”and lets them meet their“pleasure principle”.“And instead of the raisins they give when a woman‘s lying in,they stuffed my hand full of goat turds.”(Singer,page79) As Gimpel says,he is not a weak person and can strike some－one very hard.He instinctively desires to slap those who play tricks on him,but he“let it pass”and thus keep the desire still in the unconscious part.As a result,the preconsciousness doesn’t let the desire of slapping someone pass into the con－scious part of the mind,and therefore the Ego negotiates suc－cessfully between the Id and the Superego,resulting in realiz－ing the“perfection principle”.Gimpel concludes that he is “really not a slugger by nature”and he decides to“let it pass”.Everyone of the townspeople plays tricks on him,but Gimpel allows them to take advantage of him.Gimpel thinks there are two reasons for donging so:first,“everything is possi－ble,as it is written in the Wisdom of the Fathers”(Singer, page79);second,he hopes that will do his townfellows some good.Unconsciously,Gimpel wants to say they are telling lies, but people will get angry if he dares to say so.“To tell the truth,I knew very well that nothing of the sort had happened”(Singer,page80),but“what did I stand to lose by looking?”(Singer,page80)Gimpel thinks there doesn’t seem to be any harm in their deceiving him.He just tries to be tolerant enough to avoid doing any harm to his townfellows.As to all the tricks played on him,Gimpel’s preconsciousness keeps on examining his unconsciousness and manages to prevent some inadequate desires from coming into the conscious part of the mind;in other words,the Ego,in the light of the“reality prin－ciple”,negotiates successfully between the Id and the Su－perego and eventually realizes the Superego’s“perfection principle”.Gimpel believes that it is“better to be a fool all your days than for one hour to be evil”,“for he who causes his neighbor to feel shame loses Paradise himself”(Singer, page80).Therefore the readers will find that Gimple is in fact wiser than anyone else in the town although he appears to be a fool.Later,Gimpel decides to go off to another town,but ev－eryone gets busy persuading him into marrying Elka.The con－flict between the Id and the Superego is always there and be－comes prominent in difficult situation.Gimpel’s Superego is competing with his Id when Elka is in fact no chaste maiden, but the townspeople tells him she is virgin pure and all try to deceive Gimpel into marrying her.At first,Gimpel opposes their plan because of the“pleasure principle”and expresses his strong disapproval by saying“I’ll never marry that whore”. However,when he sees they have made up their minds to make him their butt and he cannot escape them,he has to act on the“reality principle”and pays a visit to Elka only to find she has a fierce tongue and behaves very rudely.When Elka is declared to be a widow and divorced,Gimpel feels it is a black moment for him but he doesn’t run away from the wed－ding ceremony.It is true for all human beings that the ego is just partly conscious,but the difference is Gimpel’s ego can well control the instinctive needs provided by his Id and toler－ate such an awful woman.After he completely realizes that he has been cheated,he says,“Take it another way though,what did I stand to loose?”These are not words of a fool,but they are words of a very tolerant and wise character.It just makes the readers think his mental process is very clear and sound. Although Gimpel faces tricks everyday,this one has a lifelong effect on the rest of his life.After marriage,Elka continues to cheat on Gimpel.He wants to sleep with Elka from his sexual instinct,but she re－fuses with an excuse of monthly bleeding.He has to believe her and his ego acts on“reality principle”.What’s more,on－ly seventeen weeks after the wedding,Elka gives birth to a boy.Everyone laughs at him,and Gimpel knows she has borne a bastard and Elka is using him.When the whole House of Prayer rings with laughter,Gimpel’s face is flaming. In normal condition,he will get very angry from his instinctive reaction,but the reality is that he has nothing to do but be re－sponsible for the circumcision honors and rituals.Gimpel’s Ego has carried on a successful negotiation between his Id and Superego.After the circumcision,Gimpel keeps silent and El－ka asks why.It seems that Gimpel is silent,but actually the Id and the Superego are in great conflict and the Ego is trying to negotiate.The Ego is considering the real world and oper－ating via the“reality principle”.He expresses his doubt straitfowardly,but soon he is persuaded into thinking the boy is premature.Elka is his wife and the boy is born,so he can－not escape from responsibility.That is to say the“reality prin－ciple”gets the upper hand over the“pleasure principle”. Anyhow,he loves the child madly and works like an ox to pay for the expenses.He even loves Elka all the harder.He says,“I adored her every word.She gave me bloody wounds though.”“I would take out scraps of meat,a chunk of pud－ding,a chicken leg or head,a piece of tripe,whatever I could nip quickly.She ate and became fat and handsome.”(Singer, page82)Although he strives to realize the“perfection princi－ple”by making concessions and loving her all the harder,Elka still treats him poorly.“I had to sleep away from home all during the week,at the bakery.On Friday nights when I gothome she always made an excuse of some sort.Either she had heartburn,or a stitch in the side,or hiccups,or headaches. You know what women’s excuses are.I had a bitter time of it.”(Singer,page83)The bitter time is also the time in which Gimpel’s Id and Supergo compete with each other and the Ego negotiates between them to keep a good balance between the three parts of personality.Yet again the readers find that Gim－ple’s Ego beats his Id and he goes on acting on the“perfec－tion priciple”.He thinks that“another man in my place would have taken French leave and disappeared”(Singer,page 83),but Gimpel is the type that bears it and says nothing. From all these examples,the readers will see Gimpel’s Ego successfully controls his Id and then the Superego’s“perfec－tion principle”is realized.The Superego is the most civilized part of personality and equals kind-heartedness and self-poss－esion.In the end,Gimpel says such philosophical words---“Shoulders are from the God,and burdens too.”(Singer,page 84)Gimpel realizes that human beings come to the world only to have their feel of suffering.Therefore,human beings need to find some spiritual support to gain a good mood and an in－ner calmness.It is just for this point that Gimpel firmly be－lieves in Jewish religion.No matter how hard a fool tries,he cannot produce such good and philosophical words.Let’s have an analysis of another example of his“foolish－ness”to see that he is equalled by no one in kindness.One night Gimpel has nothing to do but go home,but he happens to catch Elka having an affair at home.As he says,“another in my place would have made an uproar,and enough noise to rouse the whole town,but he thought occurred to me that I might wake the child.A little thing like that---why frighten a little swallow like that,I thought.”(Singer,page84)This is a good description of Gimpel’s mental process in which the Ego once again manages to repress the instinctive reaction pro－vided by the Id.Once again the readers find that Gimpel real－izes the Superego’s“perfection principle”and also how kind-hearted he is.“According to Freud,all instincts can be traced back to the existence of the Eros and the Destructive Instincts (or death instinct).Within Eros is the contrast between the in－stincts of self-preservation and preservation of the species.Its goal is to bind the gap between"ego-love"and"object-love".The second instinct,the destructive instinct,tries to de－stroy the connections made by Eros.”(http://www.bibliomania. com/1/7/68/2024/frameset.html)Thus the destuctive instinct of the Id drives him to tell the rabbi of the whole thing to get some advice for self-preservation,and the rabbi says“you must divorce her at once”.“The verdict he gave was that I musn’t even cross her threshold---never again,as long as I live.”Not long after,a longing takes him,for Elka and for the children.He then believes that no one can live without errors and even thinks that“probably that lad who was with her led her on and gave her presents and what not,and women are of－ten long on hair and short on sense,and so he got around her.”(Singer,page84)Once again the Superego beats the Id and Gimpel thinks if that is so,he is doing her an injustice. To make a long story short,he lived the rest of his life believ－ing that Elka ’s bastard son was her brother,and that her sec －ond son was his son,and her daughter,born not too long after,was his child also.The people of the town are happy to enjoy every minute of his life,laughing and giggling at every lie he believes to be true.Then let ’s come to the climax of the story,and that is when Gimpel ’s wife is dying and afterwards.On Elka ’s deathbed,she confesses that none of the six children are actu －ally Gimpel ’s and asks him to forgive her.As the Chinesesaying goes,“人之将死，其言也善”which means dying men speak true.Almost althrough Elka ’s life she is leading an im －moral life which is the result of the imbalance between her Id,Ego and Superego.Elka ’s Ego Ideal doesn ’t provide rules for good behaviour and standards of excellence towards which the Ego must strive for,and she always let the libido (sexual in －stinct)drive her to act.The deathbed confession indicates that Elka ’s Id,Ego and Superego eventually get well co-ordinated.Afterwards Gimpel has a dream in which the Spirit of Evil tells him to deceive the world in his turn.Also,the Spirit of Evil tells him that there is no world to come and there is no God either.As a result,Gimpel decides to deceive the whole town by baking bread with urine mixed in it.Gimpel ’s Id,Ego and Superego are now in imbalance,and the destructive instinct provided by the Id gets the upper hand.The Ego cannot well negotiate between the Id and the Superego for the moment.Gimpel ’s morals get lost ter,Elka in her shroud ap －pears in Gimpel ’s another dream.She says in Gimpel ’s dream,“You fool!Because I was false,is everything false,too?I never deceived anyone but myself.I ’m paying for it all,Gimpel.They spare you nothing here.”(Singer,page 87)From these words,the readers find Elka ’s Ego has eventually controlled her Id and begins to act on “perfection principle ”.It seems that Elka has restored her morals and belief in Jewish riligion although it is after a long mental journey and she is dead.Then Gimpel also realizes that a false step now and hewill lose Eternal Life.At last,he buries the bread and re －stores his morals.He then divides all of his money among his children and leaves Frampol for his wandering.After manyyears he concludes like this ———“Whatever doesn ’t really hap －pen is dreamed at night.It happens to one if it doesn ’t hap －pen to another,tomorrow if not today,or a century hence if not next year.”(Singer,page 88)From the above discussion,the readers will surely con －clude that Gimpel is not a fool but a great saint because the three components of his personality,the Id,the Ego and the Superego,are well balanced and most time his Superego con －stantly strives for perfection ideal.Although Gimpel has lost his morals and acted against his belief for a short time,he manages to beat the evil spirit and restore his belief and morals in the end.As the story describes,the whole town de －ceives Gimple and sees him as a fool which will destroy a man ’s proper pride,but because of his personality,morals ,and habits,Gimpel is able to cope with this difficult life and eventually proves himself to be a great saint.Also,the readers can feel Singer tries to advocate a policy of punishing evildoers and encouraging people to do good.———————————————【References 】[1]程爱民.20世纪英美文学论稿[M].上海外语教育出版社，2001.[2]李维屏.英美文学研究论丛(第五辑)[M].上海外语教育出版社，2006.[3]邵锦娣，白劲鹏.文学导论[M].上海外语教育出版社，2001.[4]“Gimpel the Fool:Intruduction.”Short Stories for Students.Ed.Marie Rose Mapierkowski.Vol. 2.Detroit:Gale,.January 2006.21October 2008.</gimpel-fool/introduction>[5]Stucture of Mind:Freud ’s Id,Ego,&Superego.28July 2004.</personality/L8-4StructureMindIdEgoSu －perego.html>大智若愚的圣贤（宁夏大学外国语学院，宁夏银川750021）［摘要］小说《傻瓜吉姆佩尔》讲述了一个关于道德回归以及仁慈和邪恶斗争的故事，作者幸格成功地塑造了一个清心寡欲的智慧型愚者。