Manoppo, Catherine Kezia (2025) The Ego-Defence Mechanisms in The Main Character of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” and “Berenice” (2021). Undergraduate thesis, Faculty of Humanity.

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Abstract

In this thesis, the writer focuses on identifying the ego defence mechanisms faced
by the main character in the short story The Black Cat and Berenice written by
Edgar Allan Poe. Using Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, this research aims
to identify how the main character's internal conflicts influence his behavior and
how the main character copes ego defence mechanisms. The writer employs the
psychological approach to analyze the topic and the library research and descriptive
qualitative approach to collect the data. The findings reveal that the main character
experiences conflicts and ego defence mechanisms, such as rationalization,
repression, projection, displacement, denial and isolation, which ultimately worsen
the main character condition. The result of the analysis shows that the main
character struggles with intense psychological turmoil, and the main character
inability to manage anxiety healthily drives the main character toward irrational and
self-destructive actions.
Keywords: psychoanalytical conflict, ego defense mechanism, rationalization,
repression, projection, main character

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