Proving Troy's Innocence Using Psychoanalysis

The play Fences can be analyzed in many different ways using multiple lenses. However, today I'll take a deeper look into the play, specifically the characters, using a psychoanalytic lens. In the play Fences, by August Wilson, Troy's approach to his familial relationships and the problems that arise within them, are influenced by his childhood trauma and past experiences. To prove that it is the childhood trauma and past experiences that affect his relationships, the play must be analyzed through a psychoanalytic lens. However, to understand this lens, some background on psychoanalysis is necessary. 

Info on Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis was founded by Sigmund Freud in the early twentieth century, and it was used to treat people's emotional problems by understanding conscious and unconscious aspects in the mind. The conscious mind represents what people knowingly do whereas the unconscious represents what people do without knowing. In addition, the unconscious mind includes actions and thoughts that are due to an underlying motive. The theory behind psychoanalysis attempts to answer two very important questions: “what makes people do what they do and how do people get to be the way that they are?” (Chertoff). Freud believed that a person's childhood experiences influence their actions later in life and their “ability to cope with the world” (Chertoff). He also believed that repressed memories and feelings can affect people later in life. This is when the unconscious mind plays a role and individuals have underlying motives or influences to do things or act in a certain way. 

To simplify the concepts, I’ll give a few examples. Let’s say you have a terrible fear of spiders, if you are psychoanalyzed, it may be discovered that your fear stems from a time in your childhood when you were bitten by a spider. You may not remember being bitten because the memory has been repressed, but your unconscious mind is aware of the spider bite. Therefore, you have a fear of spiders. A repressed memory influencing a person's thoughts and actions is not the only factor that affects behavior. Hidden motives can also have a significant impact. For example, some individuals who don’t have a father figure at home replace that hole in their life with boyfriends. When a relationship ends, they immediately search for another person to enter into a relationship with because they are trying to fill the gap for a male figure in their life. This is not due to repressed memories, but merely a part of their childhood that influenced their decisions later in life.

Troy’s Childhood

Now that Psychoanalysis is better understood, we can begin to analyze Fences using the psychoanalytic lens. This is accomplished by applying the aspects of the psychoanalytic theories to the play. The first step is to take the lens and see what aspects of the play fit, and that is the characters: specifically Troy. When applying the psychoanalytic lens to Troy's life, we ask ourselves, what causes the problems in his relationships? The answer to the question can be found by analyzing the background information provided by the author. Throughout the play, the author, August Wilson, provides a significant amount of background information about Troy, this includes his childhood along with his early adulthood. When analyzing Troy’s actions, within his relationships later in his life, one discovers that those actions were influenced by the events of his childhood and early adult life. 

Troy was deserted at a young age by his mother. She walked out on him and his ten siblings, leaving them to be raised by their father. His father did not provide much, barely even giving him and his siblings enough food. Troy was primarily left to raise himself during his daily life throughout childhood. That lifestyle continued until he was at least fourteen. Fourteen was significant because one major event that involved Troy’s father changed the direction of his life. Troy was “getting cozy with a gal” when his father found him and tried to “have the gal for himself” (Wilson I.iv.1613). At that point, Troy had enough and left to live on his own. He turned to robbery to survive. This fateful decision resulted with him getting shot and thrown in jail for fifteen years. 

Later in life, Troy tried to make it professionally in baseball. However, he was unable to primarily due to two reasons. First, he was African American in a time when segregation was prevalent. Secondly, after fifteen years in prison, he was now too old to play. These experiences have an influence on his life which can be seen by analyzing the play using the psychoanalytic lens. The lens provides a new understanding of characters by showing that behavior is caused by hidden and unconscious motives (Literary Theory). By using this lens, it will be made clear that Troy's childhood and past experiences are to blame for the problems that arise in his relationships with his wife, Rose, and his son, Cory. 

Troy's Relationship With His Wife 

The first relationship I will analyze is that of Troy and Rose. After eighteen years of marriage, their relationship is unstable due to Troy’s actions. Troy cheats on Rose with another woman, and doesn’t take her feelings into account. This becomes clear when Troy confesses to Rose that he cheated on her. He tells her, “I’ve been standing in the same place for eighteen years” (Wilson I.i.1621). This statement implies that Troy has been standing on his own without the support and companionship of his wife. He doesn’t take into account that Rose has been standing with him. 

Troy has never experienced or came to understand what a functional marital relationship looks like. His mother walked out on his father which resulted in Troy never learning that marriage is a partnership, and two people are in it together. Also, because Troy was raised by a father who only provided his children with the bare necessities, he never learned how to care for someone— besides providing necessities—and show empathy for their feelings. Troy's inability to take into account his wife’s feelings directly relates to what lacked in his childhood. Troy is also unsatisfied in his marriage which leads him to cheat on Rose. 

Studies show that difficult childhoods have adverse effects on an individual's marital outcomes. The studies identify that dysfunction during childhood can lead to divorce, separation, and marital dissatisfaction later in life (Whisman). Troy's first marriage didn’t work out and concluded in divorce. His second marriage, to Rose, resulted in Troy becoming unsatisfied and sleeping with another woman. As a child, Troy never saw firsthand what a normal relationship between a man and woman should look like. His mother wasn’t around, and when he was fourteen his dad tried to sleep with his girlfriend. Troy had no one to show him how to treat a woman properly. For these reasons, Troy struggled to maintain his own relationships in a positive manner. 

Troy's Relationship With His Son

The father-son relationship between Troy and Cory is also negatively affected because of the trauma in Troy's past. To start, Troy has an alcohol problem. This is apparent multiple times throughout the play and is the leading cause when Troy and Cory reach a breaking point in their relationship. One afternoon, Cory comes home to find Troy on the front steps. Cory says, “you sitting on the steps drunk”(Wilson II.iv.1627). This leads up to Troy and Cory getting into a huge argument which results in Troy kicking Cory out of the house. When Troy is inebriated, he doesn’t act rationally and his arguments with Cory escalate almost to violence. In the play, it says “Troy ultimately is the stronger and takes the bat from Cory and stands over him ready to swing”(Wilson II.v.1629). As you can see, Troy being an alcoholic causes issues in his and Cory's relationship. However, alcoholism can be linked to traumatic childhoods. Heather Forkey, MD, states that “adverse childhood experiences increase the chance of substance abuse, and violence...which affects parenting in a negative way” (Forkey). This means that the likely cause of Troy's alcoholism is due to the rough childhood he endured, and his arguments with his son are indirectly related to his childhood. 

Another issue that arises in their relationship is how Troy will not let Cory play football. Troy says the reason is because “the white man ain’t gonna let him get nowhere with that football” (Wilson I.i.1593). Troy thinks that because his son is black, he won’t make it professionally and be able to make a living. As mentioned earlier, Troy has experience with not making it professionally because he never made it in baseball. He believes this was because he is black. Although this may be true because there were not many African Americans in sports and there was more segregation, this is not the case for Cory. Times have changed since Troy tried to go professional in baseball which Rose tries to tell him when she says, “times have changed a lot since then. They got lots of colored boys playing ball now” (Wilson I.i.1594). Troy went to jail for fifteen years and when he was let out, he couldn’t cope with how much society changed, and therefore stayed in denial. Troy not accepting the progression of society really impacts his relationship with Cory because Troy thinks he’s protecting Cory by not allowing him to play baseball.

Troy is also jealous of Cory having the chance to make it professionally in a sport. Cory has a chance that Troy never had and his underlying jealousy of Cory’s opportunity is affecting the decision to let him play. When looking at this problem in Troy and Cory’s relationship through a psychoanalytic lens, three things become clear. First, Troy's time in jail has affected his ability to cope with the world changing. As a result, he stops Cory from playing football because he thinks Cory won’t make it. Second, Troy's jealousy is a hidden motive that he is unaware of. The third and final reason is that problems arise because Troy stops Cory from playing baseball all because of his past experiences. 

Final Words

The childhood and past events experienced by the character, Troy, in Fences, impacted his familial relationships and were the cause of the problems that arose between his wife, son and himself. When analyzing the issues Troy has with Rose and Cory using the psychoanalytic lens, it can be clearly seen that Troy’s dysfunction upbringing and problematic experiences are to blame. He treated Rose badly and cheated on her because of the lack of a normal male and female relationship in his childhood. Additionally, he damaged his relationship with his son because he couldn’t cope with how times had changed and because his hidden motive of jealousy stopped his son from obtaining something he was never able to. 

Works Cited 

 

Chertoff, Judith M. "Psychoanalysis." Psychology & Behavioral Health, edited by Paul Moglia, Salem, 2015. Salem Online, https://online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?bookId=723&articleName=PBH_0496&searchText=psychoanalysis&searchOperators=any&category=Health. Accessed 7 Jan. 2021.  

 

Forkey, Heather, MD, FAAP, et al. Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Lifelong Consequences of Trauma. Edited by Denise Dowd, MD, MPH, FAAP, American Academy of Pediatrics, 2014, www.aap.org/en-us/Documents/ttb_aces_consequences.pdf. Accessed 7 Jan. 2021.  

 

Whisman, Mark A. "Childhood Trauma and Marital Outcomes in Adulthood." Journal of the International Association for Relationship Research, vol. 13, no. 4, Dec. 2006, pp. 375-86, doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.2006.00124.x. Accessed 7 Jan. 2021.