Analysis of Play
When you tell us that fundamental antimony of the person is to be taken over by faith, who is the one who takes to this faith? Who is the one who experiences this faith? Behind faith, experience, conflict, and conceptualization there must be a live man who does all this.
(de Martino, 1963)
Introduction
Health and sickness are bio-psychosocial and become unity in human life. Physical and social background can influence mental health. This paper will portray Psychology of Renevsky in the Cherry Orchard. In the play, the main character gets mental distortion because of her background.
Renevsky is the protagonist and central focus in Chekhov’s play. She used to living the luxurious life. Since she is careless with her money, she must sell the orchard, to which she is very attached. She has fought to save the cherry orchard; but she fails miserably due to her inability to change. This situation causes bad condition psychologically, active in emotional but low in secondary function (Heymans, in Patty, Woerjo, Noorsyam, Ardhana & Saleh, 1982:163).
The concept of mental hygiene
Kaplan and Sadock state that any significant deviation from an ideal state of positive mental health (Kaplan & Sadock, in Muljana & Latipun, 1999:38). According Maslow and Mittlemen in Muljana and Latipun (1999, pp.31) mental health manifestation is adequate self-knowledge and understand what the purpose is; have knowledge about ambition and desire naturally; and have realistic point of view toward lacks and properties. Mental health includes an absence of dysfunction in psychological, emotional, behavioral and social spheres (Kazdin, in Muljana & Latipun, 1999, pp.25). The same opinion comes from Vaillant. He point to mental health as the presence of successful adjustment or the absence of psychopathology.
Kunkel classified human into two typologies where, all of human behavior (especially their character) dominated by two contrary principles that are ichhaftigkeit and sachlichkeit. Ichhaftigkeit is a devotion of human to the egoism. Sachlichkeit is a social devotion and self-adaptation toward environment. Both principle are basic reason all of individual attitude. Nothing principle conduct one behavior purely but both of them fuse become one character. The influence can be different among one person and another.
Basic ichhaftigkeit have characteristic neurotic. They are always doubtful in taking the way and have big consideration. Their orientation is self-egoism. They do not want to sacrifice their “price” of self-egoism. Obviously, this type is afraid to face reality. The fact, they fight to face the reality for the sake of their self-egoism. Such dilemma brings someone lost in neurotic condition. Actually, people who have truly ichhaftigkeit type is insane man, in the psychology call mental illness or disorder. (Kunkel, in Patty et al., 1982)
A little bit different with Kunkel, Freud said that physicist structure of human is integrity of three stratums. The first stratum is das Es or the id. This part is an unconscious part and directly influences human behavior. Id is natural behavior subsystem (congenital) or called primitive behavior subsystem.
The second part of physicist stratum is das Ich or the ‘I’. Das Ich places in the middle of das Es and das Uber Ich. The ‘I’ or ego is a control of organism attitude, instinctive and moral consideration. It has reality principles. Nevertheless, not all people have strong ego. Weak ego will arouse mental conflict; causes over anxiety. Freud divides anxiety on neurotic anxiety, reality anxiety and moral anxiety. The interaction between id, ego and superego are shown by this figure below.
Neurotic anxiety is an individual apprehension caused inability to repress their primitive desire. Reality anxiety occurred because of their fright of facing reality. Moral anxiety avoids people of doing a fault. People are afraid of social value punishment. To escape from the guilty, they develop ego defense mechanism. Kind of ego defense mechanism can be repress, projection and refusal. The symptoms can increase become syndrome. (Muljana & Latipun, 1999). In this matter, neurotic personality is alienated personality, the trapped organism in the ambitions. Their attitude and behavior is not their own; while they live under illusions, controlled by separated power inside themselves. They are stranger for themselves. They lost understanding toward ‘self’ ¾ the self of selves, the pure ego. (Fromm, in Rosyadi, 2000:8-9).
The top position of physicist stratum is das Uber Ich or Superego. Superego occurred due to interaction among social environment and developed from customs and social values. Superego consist morality to control unconsciousness of id. Superego placed on the consciousness surface. From psychoanalyst theory, Freud observes that mental distortion emerge because of the physicist conflicts between id (das Es) and superego (das Uber Ich). (Poduska, 2000:78).
Phase Anxiety
The shadow of the glory of Cherry Orchard always haunts Renevsky. Renevsky or Lyubov Andreyevna as the aristocrat character cannot accept her default. As ‘id’, she gets mental anguish because of her fate. She married with a drunken man who had nothing except debts. After her husband death, she decided to live with another man in Paris. Her brother calls her behavior immoral. ‘Id’ symptom emphasize on biological factor in the form of energy of love. In this case, she is in the neurotic anxiety phase.
Her love to her ancestors sign her strong id, where she cannot accept the new way and refuses to think about a foreigner living in her childhood home. She is grieved that the orchard is to be sold at auction. The room in Act 1 is called a nursery, although it has held no baby for years, and this misnomer introduces a nostalgic atmosphere into Ranevsky's house. She lives in imaginary; she lives in phase reality anxiety. She continues to believe that some miracle will save their orchard.
Desire to serve the egoism (ichhaftigkeit) reflects in her aristocratic pretending with giving her last gold coin to a beggar (Act 2) when she cannot afford to feed her servants and renting Jewish orchestra for a ball even though she does not have money to pay the musicians. Most importantly, she refuses to accept Lopakhin's ideas about saving the family estate. She is too proud and aristocratic so she cannot imagine changing the cherry orchard or having foreigners on her property. Her tears are for the loss of her childhood home and for the passing of the old aristocratic society of Russia to the middle class.
And when that loss comes, she returns to Paris to take care of her lover who is very ill because she has no choice (Act 4). She backs to her lover in Paris who is offers a bit of security she need. She will achieve sachlichkeit if her reason to back to her man is love and humanity toward the ill man. (“Cherry Orchard, 2000, http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkey/pmcherry01-07.asp).
Das Ich emerges when the play reaches climax. Renevsky has an enormous anxiety. Holden project Renevsky as a deeply paradoxical woman. She is one step away from being what we would call a control freak, yet she still ultimately loses control (Holden, 2002, http://www.kino.com/cherryorchard/). At the day of auction, her heart is very quivers. She tries to forget it with hiring a ball of orchestra, while she dances with tear.
Being Id
Actually she can pass das Es and stay on das Ich or the ‘I’ if she can stand suffering. She ought to change her arrogance and repress her desire, substitute reality anxiety into moral anxiety. Positive aspect of internal organism will develop when they face, pass, and overcome the anxiety (May, in Gordon, 1995:102). Unfortunately, she cannot pass morality anxiety phase. She stops in reality anxiety. Zen advises to reverse the direction science is pursuing if we are really to get aquainted with the Self. It is said that the proper study of mankind is Man, it is mankind and not animal kind that can ever be conscious of Self (de Marino, in Koesbyanto & Yuwono, 1997, pp.44).
Symptom nomadic occurred when Renevsky tries to escape from all of her problem. First, happen to her when she feels desperate of her drunken husband and must pay his debts. Her despair realized by falling in love with another man. After the death of his husband, she is involved with her lover in Paris. She also escapes from her sadness of the death of her young son. It reveals that she, “wholeheartedly”, backs to das Es.
She leaves villa Mentone because of debts and she stay in Paris, while his man leaves her with another woman. Love for another which included no love of self would not be human; in fact, it is psychologically impossible (Ignace Lepp). Then she tries to get away from her lover in Paris and return home to her estate but backs to him in the end when she has no place else to go.
Finally, she decides to ‘stay’ on the id phase. She loses her beloved childhood home, the cherry orchard ¾ the symbol of her glorious ancestors. She has a great sense of loss when she knows that a former slave at the orchard, Lopakhin, is now wealthy enough to purchase the estate, has bought it. Her dream to get back her glory and her childhood memories are unsuccessful. In the Act 2, she asks Lopakhin to marry her adopted daughter, Varya; while in the end of the play, Lopakhin leaves Varya without asking to marry him. He concerns to his business. In the third act, she also asks Pyotr Sergeyevich to marry her second daughter, Anya. The fact in the final act, Anya does not love him. Her wish to marry off her daughters does not achieved. Her dream has been aborted.
Conclusion
Ego is the most important object from Self, because it consist body, name, social status, knowledge and prestige. Revolt to the ego (das Ich) keeps us stay under id. We cannot avoid anxiety, escape or deny it; we just cover it.
The integration of the parts of physicist structure determines human behavior. Are they obey to the certain physicist and abort another physicist which causes conflicts, or they integrated both. The meaning is we support the man to realize about the behavior and aware to the consequences of every action.
Bibliography
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_______, Cherry Orchard by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, 2000, from
_______, Classic Note on The Cherry Orchard, from
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