ID, EGO, AND SUPEREGO IN TWO MAIN CHARACTER OF DRAMA SERIES:

LUCIFER SEASON 1

A Research Proposal

By:

Muhamad Alief Rahman

1175030162

I. Research Background

Humans are individuals who often question their existence along with the

development of the world. In this case, humans begin to lose sight of human relations and

individual personal values who tend to blame themselves for not ignoring their abilities

and potential. Therefore, many people are found who feel helpless, unable or even unable

to survive in the face of a problem that is bestowed on existing life. In addition, humans

must also realize that every human being basically has a desire to communicate with one

another.

According to A. Teeuw (2015: 19), literature shows privileges, therefore literature is a

special thing to study. As creatures created to think, humans always make innovations in

developing literature and the literary work itself. Also develop the ideas that are in their

mind for the work they create. Literary is one of the views of human life, not just an

aesthetic art that is able to present elements of life in a pure way. Through literary works,

the author has a mission to shape the personality patterns of each character and run a

storyline that is not monotonous in just one event.

 The part of the literary work that is currently the subject of this research is drama. As

literary works are divided into prose, poetry, and drama. Drama is one of the many literary

works created by the writer for various purposes. Drama according to William (1995: 159)

in Kusumah (2020) describes that drama is divided into two senses, the first is a text that is

played, and the second is the performance of a work, its production. Apart from being a

literary work, drama is also a literary genre in a work. Therefore, Silva argues that in

Kusumah (2020) drama gives birth to new works that are more oriented towards dialogue

with popular culture and media works, namely in the form of movies (cinema) and TV

series (television or internet).

Movies and TV series have similarities in their function as forms of literary works,

which both show that movies and TV series are involved in the field of narrative and

acting. In this study, the researcher focuses on TV series, where most TV series focus on

the drama genre, therefore TV series are often called Drama series or TV Drama. TV

Drama or Drama series is a show that runs in a series; it usually has a conclusion at the

end of an episode then moves on to the next episodes. Episodes may be self-contained or

storylines could be retched out over a number of drama series is usually related to real life

situations through the use of; themes, settings, issues and narrative. Drama series is

sometimes being exaggerated because the longer screen time that shown in the drama

series is to entertained, informed, and to have affairs dramatized the audience in a longer

time which is in drama series can vary in the length of episodes from half an hour to two

hours per episode.

With the above understanding, the TV series which is the object of study in this study

is entitled Lucifer. Researchers took the object because each episode was written and

directed by different people. Apart from that, Lucifer TV series contains interesting main

characters to discuss. The first main character is Lucifer Morningstar who has interesting
characteristics to discuss. He has narcissistic characteristics and is a character adaptation

of the comics created for Vertigo DC Comics and developed by Tom Kapinos into a TV

series that has several episodes. The Lucifer series had 13 episodes in the initial season

and the first episode aired on January 25, 2016 on Fox. Lucifer TV series have six season,

first three season on Fox and the last three season produced by Netflix. Lucifer was

originally a DC comic book character created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith, and Mike

Dringenberg in the comic book series The Sandman and has his own spin-off series

produced by Vertigo DC Comics.

Before Lucifer first aired, the One Million Moms website started a petition to cancel

the series, believing it was wrong and potentially harmful to glorify the concept of the

Devil. Nevertheless, Fox Network moved ahead with the series, likely predicting that the

character of Lucifer would become popular with viewers. As this shows, television

networks and film companies today appear to have little concern for religious ideas and

values, caring more about the popularity and viewership they expect to earn.

This study aims to understand the psychological elements of fictional characters in

literary works as presented by Minderop in his book entitled Psikologi Sastra: Psikologi

Sastra: Karya Sastra, Metode, Teori, dan Contoh Kasus. Minderop stated “bahwa ada

tiga cara untuk memahami hubungan antara psikologi dan sastra, yaitu: 1) memahami

unsur psikologis pengarang sebagai penulis, 2) memahami unsur psikologis tokoh fiksi

dalam karya sastra, 3) memahami unsur psikologis pembaca.” (Minderop, 2016: 54). The

personality of the main character, Lucifer Morningstar, who is narcissistic follow a failed

uprising against his Father, he was condemned to oversee the torturing of doomed souls

for eons. Humans call Lucifer the Devil or Satan, and he is blamed for mankind's

transgressions. After growing tired of ruling the Underworld and desiring a change of

scenery. and the second main character, Chloe Decker, as a homicide detective who often
 solves cases with Lucifer, is interesting to discuss using a psychoanalytic approach

because according to this researcher it is quite important to discuss the personality of a

fictional character using a psychoanalytic approach.

The reason the researcher chose the Lucifer TV series as the object of study is that the

Lucifer TV series was nominated for several awards as best fantasy series in 2017 in

Dragon awards and Saturn awards in 2017 and several other awards in 2016, 2017, 2018,

and 2021. Apart from included in several nominations, the Lucifer TV series was also

chosen for the reason how the devil figure has a personality similar to humans, he can feel

an identity crisis within himself. Because in Islam, the devil is an arrogant figure because

he was created by God from fire and despises humans. However, in this series, it is told

that the devil also has shortcomings and mental problems experienced by most humans.

Meanwhile, the other main character named Chloe Decker is an influential figure in the

problems experienced by Lucifer and she is the deuteragonist in series Lucifer. The

researcher hopes that this research can describe what the two characters experience in this

series and how these two characters will interact to find out how to analyse literary works

with a psychological approach to analyze the structure contained in the psyche of fictional

characters in the Lucifer series, namely the id, ego and super ego.

II. Research Problems

This research will focus on the id, the ego, and the superego on main characters that

shows in the drama series Lucifer. Because the characteristics between the two main

characters in this drama series are contradictory. Here are the problems formulated,

namely:

1. How are characteristic of two main characters described in the Drama series Lucifer?
 2. How are Id, Ego, and Superego represented by two main characters in the Drama

series Lucifer?

III. Research Purposes

In this research, analysis of the id, ego, and superego in Drama series Lucifer have

several purposes, namely:

1. To find out the characteristic of two main characters in the Drama series Lucifer.

2. To find out Id, Ego, and Superego represented by two main characters in the Drama

series Lucifer.

IV. Research Significance

This research was conducted to obtain a benefit. It is hoped that this research can

provide benefits both theoretically and practically. Theoretically, this research expected to

give contribution of academic and literature fields about literary works with psychology

approach Sigmund Freud’s theory Psychoanalysis about personalities which refer to

Albertine Minderop’s book Psikologi Sastra. Practically, this research is expected to be

able to contribute to the academic field of literature. Because only a few researchers have

conducted research on this matter and with this research, it is hoped that it can help other

researchers in further research to find out how to analyse literary works with a

psychological approach to the analysis of the id, ego, and super ego which are still

unfamiliar for non-psychology students especially literature students who are looking for

characters just by how they are, like he is kind, smart, caring and others but there is no

further explanation about how characters can have such thoughts, why they can do that,

and what influenced them to do something like that.

V. Previous Study

One of the studies about Lucifer TV series is “Society's Changing Values: A Cultural

Perspective on the Sexualizing of Male Villains and Antiheroes in Film and Television” by

Amanda Jobes from Elizabethtown College. This study has been chosen because Lucifer is

the object that the researcher analyze in this study. In the study that Amanda Jobes

examined, Amanda Jobes examined several villains and antiheroes whose values aff ect

society but from a sexualizing perspective. Certainly, this study is very helpful for

researchers in researching the characteristics of Lucifer in this research.

Next is the study of the dynamics of Victor Frankenstein's id, ego, and superego

entitled “The Dynamic of Id, Ego, and Superego of Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's

Frankenstein” by Antonius Danisworo from Sanata Dharma University. In this study,

Antonius explained that Victor Frankenstein has a personality dynamic between the id,

ego, and superego. This research was conducted using character theory, characterization

by MH Abrams and psychoanalysis theory by Sigmund Freud. The contribution of this

ungraduated thesis is giving an example for the analysis of the characters used the concept

id, ego, and superego. The differences between these previous studies and this research

have a different object.

Another thesis in this research is a thesis titled “The personality structure and defense

mechanism of the main characters in the house at the end of the street film” by Eris Widya

Astuti from State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. This previous study is

related with the different behaviour that the characters show in the movie in a few scenes,

about the id, ego and superego. This is related to the main topics of the research about

personality theory by Sigmund Freud. The contributions of this study are also giving an

example to analyze the topics with the same theory of Sigmund Freud but has a different

object and main topics.

 Last, a thesis about psychoanalysis on TV series or Drama series study entitled “Id,

Ego and Superego in The Main Characters of The Drama Series: Thirteen Reason Why

Season 1” by Intan Rahmadani Kusumah from State Islamic University of Sunan Gunung

Djati Bandung. This study gives some examples for this method used is descriptive

qualitative. This research focus to describe analyzing object TV series with theory of

Sigmund Freud using id, ego, and superego for the analyzing the object. This is related to

the main topics of the research about personality theory by Sigmund Freud. The result of

this research is found the Id, Ego, and Superego in the characters through the act,

narration, and dialogue from the drama series and script of Thirteen Reasons Why Season

1.

VI. Conceptual Framework

This research expected to give contribution of academic and literature fields about

literary works with psychology approach Sigmund Freud’s theory Psychoanalysis about

personalities which refer to Albertine Minderop’s book Psikologi Sastra. This study uses

drama series Lucifer first season as an object to be analyzed through the theory of

psychoanalysis by Minderop which developed from theory of Sigmund Freud's

psychoanalysis. This research will focus to described characteristic of two main characters

in drama series Lucifer.

After understanding the characteristics of the two characters in general, the researcher

will explain the object of this study to analyze this drama series Lucifer are represented the

id, the ego, and the superego experienced by two main characters in this drama series. The

process of analyzing id, ego, superego gives rise to emotion classification by two main

characters.
VII. Methodlogy Research

a. Research Design

In this study, the researcher uses a qualitative descriptive method that refers to content

analysis with theory of psychoanalysis by Albertine Minderop. According to Arikunto

(2013: 22) research methods are very important because the success or failure of research

and the low quality of research results are largely determined by the accuracy of

researchers in choosing research methods. Qualitative methods are the form of words and

not numbers. The events described in Lucifer TV series were analyzed using descriptive

methods by collecting data and describing the process that occurred. Besides the

qualitative descriptive methods, the researcher also used Psychology of Literature

approach to analyze the object of the research in psychology approach in literature but

focused on the literature research. Which is in the Psychology of Literature the researcher

focused on analyzing the main characters in the drama series with showing or telling a

method in the literature to see in the psychological of the character itself with the visuals

that shown or in the script of this drama serial.

b. Sample of Data

The data of this research use the act, dialogue, script, and narration from the

characters that shown the characteristic of id, ego, and superego on Lucifer TV series.

1) Data 1
 Picture 001. (00:00:42)

Picture 002. (00:00:58)

He’s that Lucifer. The son of God. The one who rebelled, plotted against his

father and plummeted from grace. The one who was banished from Paradise and

forced to serve as the Lord of Hell for all eternity.

But right now, Lucifer’s getting pulled over for speeding. A motorcycle cop.

Lucifer adjusts his mirror to see OFFICER DIGGS approaching the car, he yells

over the MUSIC.

OFFICER DIGGS: CAN YOU TURN DOWN THE MUSIC, SIR?!

Lucifer TURNS DOWN THE VOLUME.

LUCIFER: You know what they say, Officer...If it’s getting too loud, you’re gettin’

too old.

OFFICER DIGGS: Do you know why I pulled you over?

LUCIFER: Obviously you felt the need to exercise your limited power and punish

me for ignoring the speed limit. It’s okay. I understand. (smiles) I like to punish

people too.

In the beginning of first episode, Lucifer is getting full over for speeding and a

motorcycle cop approaching his car. Lucifer's behavior that exceeds the maximum

limit in driving is Lucifer's desire, and can be categorized as an id. However,

 when Lucifer realized there was a police motorbike approaching him, he

immediately pulled the car over (see picture 002) and it was a form of Lucifer's

ego. When he knew that the police were approaching him, he immediately pulled

the car over. Lucifer's ego was not because he realized that the police were

approaching him and then he stopped, he stopped because he felt he had broken

the law.

Apart from that, the id on this scene is Lucifer who is listening to loud music

on the open street. When the police wanted to speak to Lucifer, they were ordered

to turn the music down. The command to turn the music down is one of superego

obtained as one of the samples from the TV series Lucifer.

2) Data 2

Picture 003 (00:01:22)

Picture 004 (00:01:28)

 Picture 005 (00:01:31)

Picture 006 (00:01:38)

LUCIFER (CONT’D): It’s okay, Officer. People like to tell me things. Those

deep, dark, naughty little desires that’re really on their minds. It's a gift. Must be

something about this face.

OFFICER DIGGS: (all biz now) License and registration.

LUCIFER: Coming right up...

Lucifer fishes a hundred out of his wallet, proffers it...

OFFICER DIGGS: Are you trying to bribe me, sir?

LUCIFER: Yes, of course. Why, is that not enough? Here, take more, it’s only

money.

OFFICER DIGGS: It’s against the law, sir.

LUCIFER: You people are funny about your laws. You break the law sometimes,

don’t you?

The officer nods. It’s almost involuntary.

 Text marked in bold is an example of personality structure. The id in question

there is Lucifer who is trying to bribe the police officer with his money. At first

the police officer asked for a license and registration from Lucifer, but instead

Lucifer wanted to give him money under the pretext of bribing the police officer.

The id that Lucifer experienced there was Lucifer's desire to bribe the police

officer with his money, his ego failed because Lucifer knew it was against the law

but he still wanted to bribe the police officer. Supereego played because of what

the police officer said that it was against the law to bribe.

c. Data and Source of Data

The main data source in this study is the TV series produced by Tom Kapinos entitled

Lucifer which is equipped with supporting theories of psychoanalysis about personalities

by Sigmund Freud which refer to Albertine Minderop’s book Psikologi Sastra. According

to Cresswell, qualitative research is research to explore and understand the meaning that a

number of individuals or group of people to be derived from social or humanitarian

problems (Kusumastuti and Khoiron, 2019: 2). The collection of qualitative research data

is the researcher’s interpretation of the phenomena described by the research object. The

nature of data in this type of research is in the form of condition records in the form of

statements, situation descriptions, documentation of process explanations, event

transcription, explanations of the result of identifying, or supporting documents for the

data presented (Umaya and Harjito, 2017: 43).

As a qualitative method, the researcher trying to explicate, describe, and analyze the

personality structure of two main characters using supporting theories and finds the

answer of the research problems through the data analysis and relates it to theory. The

researcher using two data resources: the primary source of the data is TV series Lucifer
 season 1 and the secondary data are taken from other sources that support the data such as

articles, journals, dialogues, and the scene of TV series Lucifer season 1.

d. Technique of Collecting Data

Techniques of Collecting Data that the researcher does are closely related to technique

of collecting primary data. In the technique of Collecting Data the researcher focused on

psychoanalysis method that contain narrative and cinematic elements and carries a few

methods, namely; Searching the script of the movie and download all episode drama series

of Lucifer season 1 then watch the object, the drama series “Lucifer season 1” and find out

the Id, Ego and Superego then writing down the dialogue of the scene and make a

screenshot for support the research that related to classification of emotion and structure of

personality, arrange it in one folder of the research.

e. Technique of Analyzing Data

After collecting data, the researcher does analyze the data from Identifying the drama

series with making a screen shoot of the scene and categorize it into the Id, Ego, and

Superego then finding the script that related to the scenes, describing the scene and writing

the interpretation of the id, ego and superego in the characters that shown in the drama

series using Psychoanalysis theory about personality (id, ego and superego) then the last

make a conclusion from the overall discussion of the research.

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