Analysis a Character Analysis

2. Analysis a Character Analysis

Mr. Earl Brooks is the main character of the film. His appearances mostly appear in every scene of the film. He is also the protagonist character. His big trouble is coming from “Marshall”, the visualization of his id. From his physical appearance, everybody can easily notice that Brooks comes from a high social status in the society. Brooks is a businessman, a leader of a big box factory. Everybody in business world has known his great reputation in business. Man : I could go on and on about what a great guy earl is, how he cuts his toe nails, how he gives freely of his time and money, but let’s get Earl up here to speak for himself. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a businessman, a philanthropist, a great friend and the Evanston Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year… Mr. Earl Brooks. Mr. Brooks 2007, scene: 2 What was the man said indicated that Brooks is really a successful businessman because of the award as “Man of the Year” in great business license, Portland Chamber. Brooks seems perfect because of both his success and his philanthropy. His success was also confessed by his daughter, Jane. Jane : You didn’t go to college, Dad, and you’re successful. Mr. Brooks 2007, scene: 21 […] Jane : No, dad, you’re a very wealthy man, you can afford to keep me. Mr. Brooks 2007, scene: 24 Meanwhile, Mr. Brooks is also having bad behavior. Mr. Brooks is depicted as a man who can control his emotion well, he is also a temperament man. He can not accept the thing that contradict to his own idea and can disturb him. He even says to Mr. Smith, the photographer who captured Mr. Brooks when he conducted the first murder, that he enjoyed killing. Mr. Smith : So, what do we do now? What’s the plan for evening? Mr. Brooks : We drive around until we see someone we think we might enjoy killing. Mr. Smith : Really? That’s it? I thought you might already have someone in mind. Mr. Brooks 2007, scene: 46 Mr. Brooks is easily to decide of killing someone. It really contradicts with his other characteristic as a person with a high tendency of loving each other. b Mr. Brooks’ Structure of Personality Mr. Brooks is identified as the major character because of his highest intensity of involvement in each event that happened in the film. In the age of 40’s years old, Mr. Brooks seems that he has a perfect life. He has a harmonious family with a beloved wife and the only daughter Jane. He also has a big box factory and becoming a successful businessman, but nobody knows, even his own family, that Mr. Brooks actually has a serious problem in his personality. According to Sigmund Freud, human personality consists of three main structures. They are id, ego and superego. These structures have their own functions which relate each other, and their function has a great role in producing human behavior. In this part of analysis, the writer would like to analyze the work mechanism of those three structures in Mr. Brooks’ personality. One night, after Mr. Brooks receiving the award as “Man of the Year”, he and his wife, Emma were having a chat in their car. Among the chat, a man leans out from behind Mr. Brooks’ head in the back seat. He is “Marshall”, the visualization of Mr. Brooks’ id. Emma can neither see nor hear “Marshall”, because he exists only in Mr. Brooks’ mind. At the very beginning of the film, there was a sentence written “The hunger has returned to Mr. Brooks’ brain, it never really left”. The sentence explained that actually Mr. Brooks has becoming a killer since a long time ago, and at that night, when “Marshall” appeared in his brain, his killer instinct returned. In “Marshall” first appearance in the film, it is clearly depicted that Mr. Brooks is inconvenient with his existence. It can be seen from Mr. Brooks’ face which looked panic. At that time, his id, “Marshall”, talked to him. “Marshall” : Come on Earl, give yourself a break, you know you want to do this. Mr. Brooks : No. “Marshall” : You’re the fucking ‘man of the year’, you deserve it. It’s not like it’s not set up. You already know how to by-pass the alarm, you know how to pick the locks. Tonight’s the perfect night. Mr. Brooks : over his shoulder No, Marshall, I said ‘no’ “Marshall” : I heard you, Earl, but you don’t mean ‘no’. Mr. Brooks 2007, scene: 4 According to the dialogue above, “Marshall” as the visualization of Mr. Brooks’ id, encouraged Mr. Brooks to do murder. “Marshall” tried to remind Mr. Brooks that he was a professional killer which has known the step how to kill, and killing can give a self break to Mr. Brooks. The id, works based on the pleasure principle. In Mr. Brooks’ personality, killing has become something fun and can give pleasure for him. Therefore, his id encouraged him to do murder. At that time, Mr. Brooks answered ‘No’ to the force of his id. The superego in his personality, which can judge whether an action is right or wrong, produced the word ‘no’ as the way to reject the id’s negative encouragement. Several times Mr. Brooks were fighting so hard to his id encouragement to do murder, but his id were also still working to encourage Mr. Brooks. “Marshall” : from the back seat They have their dance class tonight. What if we go by and just look at them. There’s no harm in just having a look. Mr. Brooks : No means ‘no’, Marshall. “Marshall” : Please… pretty please. Mr. Brooks : to Emma the food tonight was very good, but I wasn’t crazy about the dessert. Would you like to stop somewhere and get something sweet? Mr. Brooks 2007, scene: 5 “Marshall” the id, tried to flatter Mr. Brooks to just have a look at the dance class and found someone who might be interest to be killed. When his id still force him, he turn his attention to his wife and made a conversation with her then finally they came back home. In this ‘conflict’ between his id which encouraged him to do murder and his superego which refused it, the ego, the executive of the personality decided not to do the murder and let the id lost of his mind.

K. Conclusion