Discussion Post #3 (due Fri, 3/3)

"The Room" -- In this short story, told by a semi-omniscient third-person narrator, the room is very clearly symbolic (though it's also largely the very literal setting for a good part of the plot). Given the amount of symbolism in the story, we'll do a symbolic, psychoanalytic reading of the text. Answer at least one of the following questions, and reply to at least one other person.

1. How and where do you see the id/ego/superego at work in Katherine's choices? This may be more complicated than it would first appear to be (keep in mind that she does not impulsively dive into an affair but rather very deliberately chooses to do so, and calmly). Consider especially whether the ego part of the protagonist's psyche renders certain acts or responses as morally correct in reaction to her husband's choices (even though they may not be according to the superego).

2. Has Katherine attempted to repress aspects of the nine-years-ago, life-changing event? At what point, and how? At what point, and how, does repressed material return? (You'd want to use the lectures more than Bressler to answer this one).

3. Katherine comes to two realizations; interpret them using either the tripartite model of the id/ego/superego, an archetypal plot, or the return of the repressed.

 The first is described here:

“The room was finished with. This afternoon, she had felt that, even if it had not been said” (702). 

The second: 

 “It wouldn’t be a shock, nor even a surprise. He expected no more of her than what she’d given him, and she would choose her moment to say that she must go. He would understand; she would not have to tell him. The best that love could do was not enough, and he would know that also” (702). 

***Feel free to address any other aspects of the story regardless of which question you address. You can reply to anyone; it doesn't have to be someone who's answered the same question you did.