Psychological Criticism of Saeed Mehran’s Character in Al-Las va Al-Klab according to Alfred Adler’s Theory

Psychological criticism is one of the new approaches in literary criticism that has searched vast fields in literature in order to unfold writer’s mentality and psychological attitudes for the reader. Story characters have psychologically close relations with story’s theme and cause different reactions including fear, despair, joy, anger, and other emotional feelings. This type of criticism aims for discovering psychological issues through literary texts and interpreting relations between story characters and writer’s mental attitudes. Psychology can help a lot in recognizing story images and indexes. Literature as a branch of art represents different aspects of human behavior, therefore, it has always been used as one of the important instruments for psychology insofar as many of prominent contemporary psychologists have based their psychological theories on literary works. For example, Alfred Adler have presented his theory about inferiority complex under the influence of Shakespeare works and writers influenced by him like Stendhal and Dostoyevsky.

Inferiority complex is a level after inferiority feelings. And it appears in those individuals that inferiority feelings have left a negative influence on their character. When inferiority feeling is not followed by success it intensifies failure and discouragement and causes the formation of inferiority complex. In such a case the person is constantly seeking superiority over others to compensate for his defects but since he can never resolve his defects he suffers frustration, excuse, aggression, and withdrawal. Physical deficiencies, parents’ strictness and being compared to others, psychological weaknesses and social defects are considered as the main elements for inferiority complex formation. Adler recognizes society to be influential in individuals’ character formation and considers it aside from heredity. From his point of view inferiority complex is caused when the individual cannot compensate his common humiliations and therefore, he feels helplessness. After this level the individual, looks for a way to compensate his inferiority complex. This is the same mechanism by which the individual amends his inferiority feeling. Compensation is visible in every vital side of the individual including physical, psychological, and social aspects.

Among the characters of this novel Saeed Mehran is the most negative mentioned character. In this article the psychological root of this issue is assumed to be due to his inferiority complex. The similarity of individuals’ features having inferiority complex like arrogance, jealousy, hate, ambition, vengeance, behavioral conflict, and narcissism with Saeed Mehran’s psychological attitudes that can be seen during the course of the novel can prove the assumption of this article. The present article by a descriptive-analytic approach deals with a psychological study of Saeed Mehran’s character inNaguib Mahfouz’s novel Al-Las va Al-Klab according to Adler’s inferiority complex theory.

This article is about to study the protagonist of Al-Las va Al-Klabnovel according to Adler’s inferiority complex theory and answer the following questions:

- According to Adler’s theory which one of the inferiority complex parameters in Saeed Mehran’s character could be retrieved?

- What are the elements of inferiority complex formation in the character of “Saeed Mehran”?

-Which mechanisms Saeed Mehran has used for compensation after suffering inferiority complex?

Considering the parameters presented by Adler about inferiority complex it can be concluded that story’s hero i.e., Saeed Mehran, is an individual suffering from inferiority complex as a result of inferiority feelings and lack of success for compensating them. The most important parameters of inferiority complex in Saeed Mehran’s character include; feelings of hate, vengeance, narcissism, anger, jealousy, behavioral conflict, pessimism, social solitude, poverty and misery, losing parents in childhood years, failure at entering university, defeat of beliefs and feeling of deception by his mentor and intellectual guide, prison experience, his wife’s cheating and her marriage to his student, and getting rejected by his family, friends, and society; each of them separately are among the elements causing inferiority feelings in Saeed Mehran. In order to compensate his inferiority feeling Saeed Mehran turns to mechanisms such as daydreaming, humiliation, and vengeance that all of them finally met with total failure and defeat and resulted in his death. The most important parameters of inferiority complex in Saeed Mehran’s character include; feelings of hate, vengeance, narcissism, anger, jealousy, behavioral conflict, pessimism, social solitude, poverty and misery, losing parents in childhood years, failure at entering university, defeat of beliefs and feeling of deception by his mentor and intellectual guide, prison experience, his wife’s cheating and her marriage to his student, and getting rejected by his family, friends, and society; each of them separately are among the elements causing inferiority feelings in Saeed Mehran. In order to compensate his inferiority feeling Saeed Mehran turns to mechanisms such as daydreaming, humiliation, and vengeance that all of them finally met with total failure and defeat and resulted in his death.