A Psychological Analysis of

Madigan Maloney In A Novel

Following The Mystery Man
by Mary Downing Hahn
Eva Rismaya
29 002 122
English Education Department
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education
Sarjanawiyata Tamansiswa University

Background

In our life, we always feel many different feelings and conditions. We

usually pour our feelings into poetries, short stories, traditional poetries,
novel, prose fiction and plays. All names is called literature (Abrams,
2009: 177).

In the world of literature the novel is not something very strange. Because
many people start to write novels and also analyzes the literature. It is
very interesting for people who like the literature.

All feelings that we feel in the soul changing conditions. James, in

Psychology(1980) called that Psychology is the science of life, both its
phenomena and their conditions.

In this seminar, the researcher will analyze about psychological conditions

of Madigan Maloney in Following The Mystery Man by Mary Downing Hahn.

About The Novel

Following

The Mystery Man is a novel authorized by

Mary Downing Hahn. She was born on December 9 1937
and an American writer of young adult novels and
former school librarian. She was known for many books
such as in one of all is Following The Mystery Man. It
published in 1988, where it tells about a girl who was
motherless fantasized about the father she had never
met. Its very suspenseful. A great novel for a person
who likes mystery.

Theoretical Review
LITERATURE

Literature come from the Latin (litteraturae); means writing (Abrams, 2009: 177).

Literature is pieces of writing that are valued as works of art, especially novels, plays and poems
(in contrast to technical books and newspapers, magazines, etc).

Literature was arranged by men who are not from English. They are Robert Burns (Scotland),
Joseph Conrad (Poland), and Thomas Pynchon (America).

There are some popular literature based on period:

a. Old English Literature (658-1100) or called Anglo-Saxon Literature

Beowulf, epic poem

b. Middle English Literature (1100-1500)

poetries by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400).
One of all his works that best known is The Canterbury Tales.
c. Elizabethan Age (1558-1603) or called The Golden Age
the best epic poem and
fantastical allegory to celebrate the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I by Edmund
Spenser is The Faerie Queene (1590-1596)

Cont.
d. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Histories

(Henry IV in two parts, Henry V, Portia, Ophilia, Rosaline)

Tragedies

(Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, and Anthony and
Cleopatra)

Comedies

(A Comedy of Errors, Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, As You Like It)

Tragicomedies

(Cymbeline, The Winters Tale, and The Tempest)

e. The Puritan Age (1608-1674), group of people wanted Protestant back originally.
John Milton

LAllegro (1631), II Penseroso (1634), Comus (a mosque, 1638), Paradise Lost (1671), Lycidas;
Paradise Regained (1671), and Samson Agonistes (1671)

f. Restorian Age (1660-1700)

John Dryden

MacFlecknoe (1682) (satiric), The Conquest of Granada (drama)

Aphra Behn

Oroonoko (1688) (novel)

g. Eighteenth Century
John Dryden

Absalom and Achitopel (Satire)

Jonathan Swift

Guliver Travels (satiric novel)

Cont.
h. Nineteenth Century
The Age of Romanticism: William Word Sworth (The Danfodils-Poem), Samuel Taylor Colleridge (The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner-Poem), Charles Lamb (Elia-Essay), and Jane
Austen (Pride and Prejudice-Novel).
The Victorian Age: Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist-Novel), William Make Peace (Henry Esmond and
The Virginians-Novel), Gorge Eliot (Adam Bede-Novel), Charlotte Bronte (Jane
Eyre-Novel), Robert Louis Stevenson (Kinapped-Novel), Thomas Babington
Macaulay (History of England), Thomas Carlyle (On Heroes and Hero WorshipBook), Afred Tennyson (The Princess), Robert Browning (Men and Women), Lewis
Caroll (Alices Adventures in Wonderland-Book).
i. Twentieth Century
Arnold Bennet (These Twain-Novel), Herbert George Wells (The Time Machine-Novel), H. Lawrence
(Sons and Lovers-Novel), Joyce Cary (The Horses Mouth-Novel), William Galding (Lord of the FirstNovel), Anthony Burrgess (A Clockwork Drange-Book), John Galsworthy (Justice-Play), George Bernard
Shaw (Man and Superman-Play, Caesar and Cleopatra-Play, My Fair Lady-Play), Oscar Wilde (The
Importance of Being Ernest-Play).

NOVEL

Novel derives from the Italian (Novella) has meaning for new,
news, or short story of something new. Abrams (2009: 226)
stated that Novel is applied to a great variety of writing as
fiction written prose.

Types of Novels:
a. Mysteries

e. Horrors

b. Science fiction

f. Romance

c. Fantasy

g. Historical

d. Horrors

THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOANALYTIC

Psychoanalysis
CRITICISM
Id

Psychological criticism is an expression,

in an indirect and fictional form, is structured
by individual author (Abrams, 2009: 289).

Sigmund Freud (1856-939), a father of

psychoanalysis changed the terminology
of Psychological criticism be Psychoanalytic

Ego

Reservoir of libido

Regulating agency to curb the Largely unconscious

Id

Functions to fulfil the

primordial life principle

Protects the individual and

society

Moral censoring agent

Our basic drives (S)

Rational, reasoning, logical

Conscience, self image,

pride

Pleasure principle

Partially conscious

Moral restrictions or
repression of Id

No rational order /
organization / will

Aware of reality

Blocks off or represses those

drives which society regards
as unacceptable.. operates
on rewards and punishments

Impulse to obtain
gratification of instinctual
needs no regard for social
conventions asocial

An overactive super ego

creates unconscious guilt
(complex)

No values good / evil

amorphous / amoral

Source of aggression desires

Lawless, self - destructive

Pre-Freudians called it the

devil in man

criticism in 1920. According to him,

the human personality was structured into
three functional aspects: Id, Ego, and Super ego.

Super ego

Discussion

After we look the differences of psychoanalysis characteristic, we can analyze some actions of Madigan
Maloney as a mayor character in the novel Following The Mystery Man by Mary downing Hahn that
suitable the theories above.
No

Actions
Madigan hoped her grandmother wanted to
accept Clint to rent the empty room. She tried
to introduce him to her grandmother and told
Clints aim come there.
Madigan admired Clint, the cool man. She
imagined having a father whos very cool and
great like Clint.
She really wanted to know who Clint was,
where he came from, his job, where his family,
and all about himself. She acted as if she was a
detective future who investigated all
information about him.
Madigan really hoped Clints her father who
always waited by her.

Id

Psychoanalysis
Ego
Superego

8
9
10
11
12

Madigan felt that Clint is his father. From his

attitude, his black hair just like she has, and
he though Clint bit like her.
Madigan reminded about the weapons that
were stored by Clint in his room. She was very
scared because she had never seen such
weapons before. Is Clint a robber?
Madigan couldnt accept that fact. She didnt
believe that Clint is Chan's father, not his father
just as she had expected previously.
Madigan was very disappointed about Clints
explanation that hes not her father and never
knew Madigans mother.
Madigan did not want to see Clints face again.
She hated Clint.
Madigan did not expect it, someone who she
thought her father was a crook.
Madigan was very sorry because she ever
thought that Clints her father.
Madigan had given up about her father left and
she thought that her father loved him even
though he was not with her.

Conclusion

From analysis above, the researcher can conclude that Madigan has complete of id, ego, and super
ego. But the majority that she has is ego. She always wanted that Clints her father, she admired,
imagined and hoped that hes really her father. From her desire, she always looking for about him and
finally, Clints not her father. She was disappointed, angry, and hated him because he was a crook.

References

Abrams, M.H., and Harpham Geoffrey.G. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 9th ed. USA: Wadsworth
Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

Flat and Round Characters. Encyclopedia of Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica

2015. Web 16 May 2015.

Hahn, Mary Downing. Following The Mystery Man. Florida: Demco Media, 1988. Print.

Klassen, Charles. Psychological Approaches of Literature. Nebo Literature. Web 15 April 2015.

Siska. English Literature. Wordpress. 30 October 2013. Web. 21 April 2015.

Victor, William. Types of Novels. Creative Writing Now. Creative Writing Online, 2015. Web 2
May 2015.

Wikipedia. Literature. The Free Encyclopedia. 2 May 2015. Web. 4 May 2015.

Incorporation,