Part 1: Character Analysis
Clark Kent, more commonly known as Superman, is a DC comic book hero loved and idolized by many children as well as adults. When his planet Krypton was about to be shattered into pieces, his parents sent him to Earth in order to save his life. He was raised by a humble couple in a town called Smallville, who not only raised him as their own child but also taught him how to be the best version of humankind. Clark Kent being a non-earthling, lives a dual personality. Where Clark, his human version, is more introverted, clumsy, and exhibits subtle mannerisms, Superman, on the other hand, is bold, self-disciplined, and possesses inhumane powers such as lightning-fast speed, and flying ability, laser and x-ray eyes, and superhuman strength. He works in a newspaper firm called The Daily Planet as a reporter so that he can have access to any emergencies as soon as possible. He is a beacon of hope for the people of Metropolis, saving them from one disaster at a time. Despite being the most powerful being on Earth, he is the most submissive and obliging superhero the planet has seen. However, his personality is flawed too like any other human being, as he has been raised by humankind and has adapted to this environment.
The Theoretical perspective of personality (Bandura’s theory)
Albert Bandura has proposed a psychological theory lodging a school of thought that human beings grow by observing and imitating other humans around them. A person observes the behaviours and attitudes of other people and stores that picturesque knowledge in his mind so that he can transform it into actions when required (Bandura, 2018). In context to my chosen comic character Clark Kent aka Superman, the personality and behaviours of humans are evolvable and changeable depending on the environments they live in. Despite being a Kryptonian (a non-earthling or an alien) and the most powerful creature on Earth, Clark Kent has proven to be an idolizing human being only because he was surrounded by such human company. His character reeks of modesty, humbleness, and truthfulness because he was raised by humans with such qualities. Henceforth, if we look at the down-to-earth personality of Superman we would realize that his unconscious mind picked up all these personality traits from humans around him and transformed him into the idealistic alien-cum human being that he is.
Clark deeply observed how humans lived, ate, acted, and behaved; therefore, he evolved his personality accordingly. While living in a small town, where his parents and people around him cultivated crops, appreciated family bonds and promoted love, he never felt disdainful of his god-like powers and abilities. He was conscious of the fact that how people around him did normal jobs and lived a normal life and how frightened they would be if they knew that an alien lived among them. This is the reason that he chose to live a dual personality life among humans. He, therefore, transformed his lifestyle according to a casual human being, grabbing a coffee every morning, heading to the office, and sitting between humans as though he was one of them.
The Theoretical perspective of personality (Freud’s theory)
According to Freud’s psychoanalytical theory, the human mind is the evolution of three basic mental structures: id, ego, and superego. It is the most primitive of the evolutionary process and drives the unconscious mind of humans. While the superego serves as the moral compass for homo sapiens, the ego maintains the balance between both of them (Rudnytsky, 2018). In the case of our character of choice, Clark Kent also known as Superman, his personality depicts more of a superego side of his conscious. Everything that he does is weighed on a scale weighing machine, one side of which has an id and the other contains the superego, and every time superego wins, weighing more than his id. His decision to utilize his superhuman abilities to fight for the human race and become a vigilante depicts the super egoistic side of his nature.
Moreover, in the movie adaptation of the comic issue Justice League: The Doomsday (2017), when the rebirth of Superman occurs, the writers brilliantly portray the conflict of id and superego of Superman and how the regain of his conscious level saves the League members from an unprecedented death. His unconscious mind (id) was determined to kill the League members as they were the reasons he was killed in the first place. But later on, Louis acts as his ego when she makes him realize that they are his friends and what happened was purely unintended. Anyhow, the character of Superman is shown to exercise the super egoistic side of his personality as he fights every bad person on the planet and plays his role in depleting the villains of the society as much as he can.
