Sigmund Freud thought that in human life adolescence is a stage which is fraught, with an internal struggle. Freud in his different essays, such as The Ego and The Id and Three Essays On Theory Of Sexuality has dealt with this question. And this particular view of Freud has been used by many authors and people from the creative world, in their work of art. André Gide in his novel Strait Is The Gate deals with this same view and after many years, in India and especially in Bengal this view has again been represented in a little different way through the Bengali film Phoring1.

From the age of 12 years or more, Freud argues that the human subject enters the adolescent stage. According to him, this is the final stage where a young man or a woman develops certain sexual energy which is very new to him/her. During this time the adolescent seeks pleasure from touch, filled with the influx of excitement2. Interestingly, Jerome, the protagonist of the novel Strait Is The Gate had his first sexual experience at the age of 12. It was an experience that changed Jerome’s life forever and it was such an experience that, Jerome remembered for a long time. While reading this particular incident one may think that it is such an experience to which Jerome was repulsive and he also shows in his writing a certain amount of anger also, towards his aunt Lucile Bucoline.

Lucile Bucoline, I wish I no longer bore you malice; I wish I could forget for a moment how much harm you did... at any rate, I will try to speak of you without anger.

But there are certain phrases in this novel which also show that the experience that Jerome had an experience that was not altogether deprived of joy or pleasure. In fact, there are some lines in the novel which show that the boy Jerome was actually seeking pleasure from that particular moment and thus he wrote:

.... she drew my face down to hers, passed her bare arm around my neck, put her hand into my shirt, asked me laughingly if I was ticklish—went on—farther...

The fact that Jerome allowed his aunt to proceed ‘farther’ with her action and the use of the word ‘ticklish’ shows that Jerome was actually seeking pleasure from that particular moment but then he ran out of the room out of fear and disgust and rubbed those parts of his body with tap water, where his aunt had touched him. This could be seen as the internal struggle that an adolescent mind has, and the mind of an adolescent boy has this kind of internal struggle because of the Ego that is present in him.

According to Freud, all babies are dominated initially by the unconscious or the Id. This Id is not realistic but rather it is very instinctual and at the same time it is also very selfish. So, babies attempt very hard to get whatever they desire without thinking that is it right or wrong to have it or not. But slowly the baby, through various failed attempts gets to know that it is not possible for him (or her) to get whatever is being desired. Thus, they move towards those desires which are real; which are not very difficult to achieve, and this realistic desire of the baby according to Freud is the Ego. And the Super Ego, are those values and rules, which are being accepted by the society and the parents of the baby and so that the baby not only internalizes it but at the same time he (or she) also represents it too. According to Freud during the latency period of development of a child, that is between the, ages of 6 to 11 years, the child is being introduced to those norms which are being laid upon by society. The Ego develops certain feelings such as the feeling of shame, the feeling of pity, as well as shame and disgust4. Also in a society, adults view pre-genital sexuality or sexual pleasure as something perverse so, there is also a regression from the child’s part. So, the education and the regression in an individual create a conflict in an individual.

This complex structure of Freud has been represented in the Bengali film Phoring in a very unique way. In this film, the protagonist or the 12-year-old boy ‘Phoring’ has a desire not only for the young teacher in his school but also has a desire towards the female body. He had a repressed, yet expressive kind of sexual desire. Thus he has very erotic dreams of a young lady, with naked legs, he is actually commenting on his result and saying how badly he had performed in his examination. But in this dream, the significant thing to note is that the boy sits at a distance at distance and watches the young lady, but never goes near her, and there is always a distance between these two figures. This shows what the Id desires and what the Ego, knowing the reality, restricts itself from desiring it. But the most important and interesting part of this film is the presence of two voices, one the voice of the Almighty God and the other is the voice of the assistant of this Almighty figure. Interestingly here, in this film, God has a male voice and the assistant has a female e voice which could very well represent the world of the parents. The rules of the parents and society, that all babies follow after a certain point of time, and which Freud regarded as the Super Ego. Here the boy continuously confesses to these two voices, and mainly to God, for his action which shows that somehow he is having a sense of guilt in him for having this sexual urge towards a particular sex. And that is why he is confessing to the higher order or to that Super Ego, to those rules which stand in contrast with the Id. Though one can also see this in a different way; and that is, according to Freud the Ego actually represents reason and common sense’ whereas the Id represents ‘passion’. That is why the boy has an erotic dream of a young girl, with barren legs, giving out his result. On the other hand, maybe that is the reason why Jerome allowed his aunt to “went on farther” with his action. But the ego or reason somehow channelizes the thoughts of these two adolescent boys in a different direction. It tells them that having such a passion is not accepted in the society where they live.

Freud is also of the opinion that adolescence is a stage where the individual moves away from family, especially from parents to try to find a meaning and also to develop sexual instinct. In Strait Is The Gate the readers find Jerome venturing alone in the town, with the thought of taking Alissa by surprise.

I immediately went down again to the town, where I was very rarely free to go by myself ... I loitered on the quays for an hour or so, and then suddenly I was seized with the desire to go back and take Alissa by surprise,

Jerome is like the boy in “Araby” who bore the thought of Alissa as carefully, as a priest would bear the chalice among the throngs of enemies. Jerome’s first sexual encounter with his aunt also occurs in the lonely room of his aunt, when Jerome is all alone. The boy in Phoring had no one with him. He was all alone when he was with his teacher, the young lady. The boy cherishes the moment.

Interestingly both Jerome and Foring desire an object, but what creates problems for both of them is, that they make the mistake of thinking that the object too desires them. Thus Foring things that his young lady teacher loves him and Jerome thinks that Alissa too loves him, the way he loves Alissa. Thus he says:

My whole life was decided by that moment; even to this day, I cannot recall it without a pang of anguish. Doubtless, I understood very imperfectly the cause of Alissa's wretchedness, but I felt intensely that it was far too strong for her little quivering soul, for her fragile body, shaken with sobs.

Everything here is being taught by Jerome. We rarely come to know about Alissa’s feelings; it is always what Jerome thought about Alissa. Like Freud, these two adolescent boys are left asking, “What do women want?”

Jerome, Phoring, and even the boy in Araby do not know what actually a woman desires, and thus the boy in Araby cannot bring anything for Mangan’s sister because he does not know what actually she wants. She had only said to him that she wanted ‘something’ from the market. In the same way, Jerome could not come close to Alissa, and whenever they had a chance to come close to each other Alissa would push him away and Phoring would never get a chance to get close to his young lady teacher, he would be answered back that it is something that he does not have in his ‘syllabus’.

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Notes:

• A Bengali film directed by Indranil Roychowdhury, and was released on 3rd September, 2013.
• This could be found in “Deviation In Respect Of The Sexual Aim”, which is there in the Three Essays On The Theory Of Sexuality. It is there under the segment “Touching And Looking”.
• In the essay The Ego and The Super Ego (Ego-Ideal) Freud has said, “The Super-Ego represents the character of the father.
• In the foot note to “Anatomical Expression” in the essay Three Essays On The Theory Of Sexuality by Sigmund Freud, it can be found. Here Freud has said “Disgust seems to be one of the forces which have led to a restriction of the sexual aim”.
• It is found in “Femininity”, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (Pub; 1933, translated by James Stachey, New York Norton edition; 1964; p.135). Its reference can be found in Kate Millet’s Sexual Politics in Chapter 4, “The Counterrevolution” in p. 178.