In the whole story, Sophia mostly convert her anxiety into neurotic behaviors. Sophia clearly shows all the symptoms of some type neurosis. Her four neurosis
are traumatic neurosis, neurotic depression, anxiety attack, and hysteria.
1. Traumatic Neurosis
Neurosis is a way for a person to express or transform anxiety. There are many types of neuroses. One of them is the traumatic neurosis. This neurosis
comes with a symptom as a barrier to cover the anxiety related to a trauma experience of a person. Stone describes traumatic neurosis as:
The strong emotion toward the trauma experience develops the anxious feeling. This anxiety, then is covered with neurosis that has distinct symptoms.
The characteristic of the traumatic neurosis is tics. The tics is shown frequently by a neurotic person.
On the previous analysis, Sophia experiences anxiety while seeing the execution in Paris. However, she does not have any one beside her to express her
anxious feeling. At that time, Sophia thinks that no one comfort her and carry her away. She then just hides her face and listens to the execution process.
Sophia has distinc behavior that is presented as the symptom of her neurosis which is a tics. She has a habit of pushing her lips inside her mouth. This habit
occured after her marriage with Gerald. To be specific, she had it right after becoming a witness of traumatic sighting in the town of Aux, where an execution
event was held. The quotation below describes Sophia ‟s condition and habit in her
twenty-four.
Her frame was firmly set, her waist thicker, neither slim nor stout. The lips were rather hard, and she had a habit of tightening her mouth, on the same
provocation as sends a snail into its shell p.341.
This neurotic behavior can be traced by seeing her experience she had suffered before. The execution exposed in front of her is an extreme situation that
human faces death. The death is surely one thing that makes people affraid. The execution that exposes the death can be categorized in torture and physical assault.
That case brings great anxiety for Sophia. She cannot express her anxiety because there is no one beside her. She even decides to face the worst in silence. She does
not scream or run away. Sophia just shrinks down to the floor and witness the execution. Her anxiety that is not expressed than builds difficulties in the form of
traumatic neurosis. Tics occur frequently following her long term trauma. Sophia‟s tic can be
seen in her following life right after she watched the execution. Her tics is an impact of her repressed anxiety in the whole event. She should just scream or
murmur to express her anxiety. Therefore, her silent just builds the tics habit. A person must be shocked to see a horrible event. But Sophia is too calm to face the
execution though her conscience tells her to not see it. She shrank down to the floor in terror and loathing, and hid her face, and
shuddered. Shriek after shriek, from various windows, rang on her ears in a fusillade; and then the mad yell of the penned crowd, which, like herself, had
not seen but had heard, extinguished all other noises. Justice was done p.335.
2. Neurotic Depression
