The Main character's anxiety about death in Philip Roth's everyman

Whardani, Lilan (2008) The Main character's anxiety about death in Philip Roth's everyman. Bachelor thesis, Petra Christian University.

Abstract

This thesis discusses one of the newest novels of Philip Roth, Everyman. From Everyman, I will discuss about the main character's anxiety about death. Based on this main topic, there are three things to discuss about the main character's anxiety about death. Those are the causes of the main character's anxiety about death, the effects of the anxiety about death in the main character's life and the main character's ways in dealing with his anxiety about death. Moreover, I use psychological approach with the theory of psychoanalysis in analyzing this novel: theory of anxiety, theory of defense mechanism and concept of obsession. After analyzing the novel by using those theories, I find that the main character gets anxiety about death because he has negative concept about death and has a negative perspective on aging. Then, I find that there are three effects of this anxiety about death in the main character's life. Those effects are being obsessed by death, regretting over his past life and being an atheist. Also in my findings, I conclude that the main character in Everyman deals with his anxiety about death through repression, sublimation and rationalization.

Actions (login required)