트라우마의 관점에서 본 프리엘의 『제게 답을 주세요, 제발!』 읽기

Abstract

This paper examines Friel's Give Me Your Answer, Do! from the standpoint of trauma. In the play, Tom, a writer, has been traumatized since his daughter Bridget was committed to a mental institution ten years ago. Tom's response to the pain of Bridget's confinement and his inability to express the depth of his suffering is manifested in the act of writing hardcore pornographies. In this sense, Tom's pornographies are a form of self-expression, both as a physical writing of his pain and anger at the trauma he is suffering and as a creative act to preserve his life. Not only are Tom's self-destructive behaviors driven by the life drive, but his efforts to survive are constantly counteracted by the death drive. These aspects testify to the continuous struggle, compromise, and symbiosis between the dominant death drive and the opposing self-preservation and life drive of the traumatized individual. This study interprets David's role as a therapist treating traumatized patients in psychotherapy work and analyzes his hasty final assessment as premature termination of trauma treatment. However, since trauma cannot be cured once and for all, the treatment can be postponed indefinitely, and recovery is explored as an endless process.