METZENGERSTEIN

A PSYCHOANALYTICAL APPROACH

Abstract

This study analyzes the short story “Metzengerstein” (1832), by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, through the lens of psychoanalysis, aiming to observe aspects of the tripartite structure of the psyche, as pointed out by Sigmund Freud, within the plot of the narrative. Edgar Allan Poe's writing has been widely discussed as a precursor of psychoanalytic ideas in literature, which can be seen in studies such as The Imp From the Underground: Manifestations of the Unconscious in Edgar Allan Poe and Fyodor Dostoevsky (Oliveira, 2020) and Edgar Allan Poe: Amateur Psychologist (Zimmerman, 2018), both presenting several connections between Poe's fictional works and psychoanalysis. In this paper, the short story “Metzengerstein” is analyzed in light of Freud's theories, specifically regarding the connections between the Id, the Ego and the Superego, as exposed in The Ego and the Id (2011), as well as in relation to the life and death drives and their connections with the tripartite structure, as pointed out in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (2020). Based on the analysis, we demonstrate how the story's plot, specifically the relationship between its characters, suggests metaphorical representations of psychic phenomena that, later, Freud would explore in the study of the relations among the [...].