Psychoanalysis of American Beauty

The Psychoanalytical Theory of American Beauty

The popular 1999 film American Beauty illustrates an example of the theories of the human psyche, the Oedipus Complex, dream condensation, and fetishism from the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. One scene in particular will be used to analyze these psychoanalytical theories in this analysis. The scene shows a beautiful young woman, Angela Hayes, as the object of Lester’s affection. Lester is a married man who fantasizes about Angela during a cheerleading performance in which he imagines her dancing exotically exclusively for him, portraying the objectification of women for the male audience due to the patriarchal American culture.
Sigmund Freud’s theory of the human psyche is one of the most prevalent theories pertinent in this scene. The camera quickly focuses on Angela Hayes and Lester’s fascination with her unquestionable beauty. Soon, Lester enters into a dream-like fantasy, where she begins to dance erotically for Lester, leaving him with his mouth agape and in a trance-like state. This scene exemplifies Freud’s theory of the human psyche which is composed of two parts, the conscious and the unconscious, in which “the conscious is the part which relates to the external world, while the unconscious is the site of instinctual drives and repressed wishes” (Storey 71). As Freud argues, the human psyche is composed of the id, the inner desires of drives such as sex and aggression, which is categorized as being part of the unconscious. The id typically is such an overpowering desire that it is usually satisfied by a person, regardless of any negative cultural meaning the id might convey. In this scene, Lester’s id, or inner desire, is to sexually engage with Angela, as demonstrated through his fantasy of seeing her exotically dance in front of him. However, the id is countered by what Freud describes as the ego, finding the balance between sexual drives and reality. The ego is meant to mitigate the intense desires of the id, but, as Freud explains, “we never give anything up; we only exchange one thing for another” (Storey 72). This is possible through what Freud calls “fetishism” wherein “the fetish is a substitute for the woman’s penis that the little boy once believed in … and does not want to give up” (Leitch 842).
According to Freud, fetishism is a way for men to displace the shock of the lack of a penis for a woman (Leitch 842). For Lester, this shock was displaced by creating a fetishism for Angela that was so strong, in which her beauty entranced him so much and provided so much visual pleasure, that the fear of castration was virtually eliminated. The fetish and visual pleasure of the woman’s body is how Freud believes a man relieves and protects himself from the threat of castration (Leitch 843). This fear of castration is formulated through what Freud coined as the Oedipus complex, a stage of life in which a boy fears his father since he represents castration anxiety and is a threat towards the boys admiration and desires of his mother. Freud believes that “our dreams convince us that this is so” and therefore, we can conclude that this scene in which Lester dreams of Angela’s exoticness for him is a manifestation of Lester’s Oedipus complex.
The scene in American Beauty can be recognized as a dream or fantasy, through various compositional film techniques. Perhaps the most obvious technique is the way in which the scene starts to run in slow motion once Angela is left to dance alone in Lester’s dream. This slow motion film technique illustrates one of Freud’s dream theories, dream condensation, in which he argues that “dreams are brief, meager, and laconic in comparison with the range and wealth of the dream-thoughts” (Leitch 819). In other words, the slowing down of Lester’s dream imitates the natural time lapse of dreams in which they are “brief” and slow moving, yet can construe many meanings and associations. In the case of this scene, Angela’s sexuality and feminism symbolizes Lester’s reluctance to resolve his own Oedipus Complex. The red rose petals that envelop the visual frame symbolize “female genitals [as they] share the characteristic of enclosing a hollow space” (Storey 75). Female genitals construe an image of femininity and sexuality, and thus one can conclude that the dream Lester has provides the meaning of sexually objectifying Angela as a female sexual desire.


Works Cited
Leitch, Vincent B, ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York:
W.W. Norton and Company, 2010.
Storey, John. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction. 4th ed. Athens:
University of Georgia Press, 2006.

Structuralism - Analysis #2

Part 1: Short Story

As soon as the new immigrants saw the historic landmark, they could not believe their eyes. The American flag was waving on top of the majestic White House, almost like a hand waving hello. It was even greater and more poignant than they had imagined it to be – the grass was green, the house larger than they imagined, and the whole moment engulfed all their emotions. Coming from Jordan, from a country left in shambles and poverty from war, the White House symbolized more to them than just a governmental institution. To this new family, the White House gave them a meaning of hope, of freedom, and of a life that they could begin living that didn’t resemble the life they fought so eagerly to leave behind.

Part 2: Semiotic Analysis

In conducting a semiotic analysis of the photograph of the White House, it is important to understand Ferdinand De Saussure’s notion of semiotics. The structuralist analyist argues that “ ‘language is a system of signs that express ideas’ and that these signs are in fact arbitrary” (Leitch 854). In looking at the photograph of the White House, we see visual signifiers or images that when combined with the signified, or the meaning of these images, form what Saussure describes as signs (Leitch 852). For example, the visual image of the American flag on top of the White House is the signifier, and what this signifies, or gives meaning to, is the notion of freedom. This meaning of freedom is derived mostly from what Saussure describes as convention, or our collective behavior or attitude towards a sign (Leitch 854). To many Americans, the American flag is a symbol, a sign of freedom and liberty. Additionally, when combined with the signifier or image of the White House, the American flag is further presented as a very American symbol of liberty.

However, as Saussure argues, the relationship between the sign and signifier is arbitrary (Leitch 854). That is, the photograph of the White House with the American flag waving on top of it might have a completely different meaning to an American than it would to a foreigner who has no idea of what the American flag or White House is. The idea of the American flag and the White House is not inherently linked to the meaning of freedom; it is arbitrarily connected, or unmotivated in that the signifier is not naturally connected to the signified (Leitch 834). In other words, the meaning in signs is created within the system that it encompasses. Within the American system, the White House connotes freedom; however, to another system such as the French system, the White House might not have any connotation or have a completely different meaning in and of itself. This is a very important stipulation that Saussure has emphasized; that meaning is arbitrary and not necessarily universal.

Leitch, Vincent B, ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York:
W.W. Norton and Company. 201

Classical Literary Theory Analysis

Analysis #1

The famous scene of Dorothy (Judy Garland) singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz depicts an example of Plato's allegory of the cave from the Republic. The allegory of the cave states that people, whom he calls prisoners, are ostensibly chained down in a cave their entire lives and can only see the figures and shadows that are seen on the wall in front of them. These shadows for the chained prisoners, Plato states, "would constitute the only reality people in this situation would recognize" (Leitch 61). That is, the shadows are the only truth and reality the prisoners know of, although Plato argues that the shadows are but only representations of the truth, thus not a true reality.

The scene of Dorothy singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" represents Dorothy as the prisoner in Plato's allegory of the cave whom has been "set free from their bonds and cured of their inanity". As Plato states, he believes that one of the prisoners will eventually break free from the chains and find “truth” from going outside the cave and into the sun. As Dorothy sings, "Somewhere over the rainbow / Way up high, /There's a land that I heard of /Once in a lullaby", she creates an imagery which allows the viewer to see that Dorothy sees a place beyond her home town of Kansas wherein she believes there is a place that is richer, and truer, to her own imaginings of life and reality (Fleming The Wizard of Oz). Dorothy seems to have an understanding that her hometown of Kansas is just a “cave” in which she is “forced to spend [her] life without moving [her] head", and that only through exiting this cave will she find a place “where troubles melt like lemon drops / away above the chimney tops” (Fleming The Wizard of Oz).

Furthermore, throughout the whole song, Dorothy is looking up, into the sky and the sun. This relates to Plato's allegory of the cave in that Plato believes that once a prisoner has been set free out of the cave, and is able to look at the sun, that only then does the prisoner see that the sun "is the source of the seasons and the yearly cycle … and that in a sense everything which he and his peers used to see is its responsibility". Dorothy represents the person who has been able to see beyond the wall in front of her, beyond the shadows and representations of the truth that has been placed in front of her and see the “sun” as the truth that guides her. The sun represents the truth of the world, and since Dorothy is able to look up, beyond her own horizon of Kansas, and up into a bright shining sun, Dorothy is what Plato would call an enlightened prisoner, set free from her own misrepresentations of life and able to see the truth that she sees beyond her in Kansas.

Works Cited

Fleming, Victor, dir. The Wizard of Oz. 1939. 11 July 2010 <>

/watch?v=y8QWdJh4VxY&feature=related>.

Leitc, Vincent B, ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2^nd ed. New York:

W.W. Norton and Company. 2010.