Two Levels of Mental Life
Tita can be characterized through her speech and also her reactions towards the agreement of Mama Elena of Pedro and Rosaura’s wedding. The second
characteristic is she is caring. It can be characterized through her conversation of others and her speech. The third characteristics is she is patient. It can be
characterized through her speech and her reaction. The fourth characteristic is she is faithful to Pedro. It can be characterized through direct comment and her
reactions that she still loves Pedro. The five characteristics, which is she is creative, can be characterized through direct comment.
Besides those five characteristics of Tita, the character of Tita can also be characterized through her past life
that Tita De La Garza’s life story is told by her great-niece, who is the narrator of the story, and also through conversations of
others that Tita always crying when she chopped onions. In addition, the third rules which are not related to the rule of marriage, especially the first rules, when she
becomes the cook of her family throughout her childhood, shows that the character of Tita can be characterized through character as seen by another that when Tita
becomes a cook of her family, it can show that the sixth sense of Tita was developed about everything concerning food, and also through her mannerism that her habit
activity always work in the kitchen. Meanwhile, the character of Tita can also be characterized through her
react ions against her mother’s rules, which are: first, she stands up to her mother
to say that she feels sick of obeying her mother. Second, she shows her hatred to her mother by refusing to stay with her mother again and also hopes her mother
died. Third, she breaks her mother’s rule by making a plan to get married to Dr. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
John Brown. Fourth, she declares to her mother that she wants to be free from Mama Elena.
The psychoanalytic approach is always related to the two levels of mental life. The theory of the two levels of mental life is used as the additional data in order to
see the interaction of unconscious and conscious mind of Tita. The unconscious mind of Tita
is her mother’s rules, which are her mother’s rule of marriage and the third rules which are not related to the rule of marriage. Therefore, the unconscious
mind of Tita impulses out of consciousness through her four reactions in order to break her mother
’s rules. The theory of repression is used to answer the second research questions.
According to Freud in Barry 2002:96, the idea of repression is linked with the ‘forgetting’ or ignoring of unresolved conflicts, unadmitted desires, or traumatic
past events, so that they are forced out of conscious awareness and into the realm of the unconscious. In the novel Like Water for Chocolate, Mama Elena is ignoring
Tita’s unadmitted desire to get married to her beloved man, Pedro Muzquiz by giving a rule of marriage. In addition, Mama Elena also gives the other rules that
are not related to the rule of marriage, which come into the unconscious mind of Tita.
In addition, according to Freudian Repression Definition Overview, repression refers to subconsciously keep anxious thoughts and impulses out of
consciousness. In the novel, when Tita heard that Pedro and his family were move to San Antonio, it made her feels anxiety that she cannot take care of her nephew