Extended Essays 2021

Introduction: Defining and Introducing Religion and the Id

Religion can be perceived differently based on individual interpretations. Some may embrace it intensely, whereas others may not regard it at all. Due to this, psychologists have created two subsidiary forms of religion – propriate and peripheral. Propriate religion is a “dynamic pattern of partially unique cognitive-affective-conative factors perceived by the individual as being especially appropriate in the solving of important life questions” (Orlo Strunk, 1960). Peripheral religion, on the other hand, is the opposite and states that an individual perceives a pattern of partial unique cognitive-affective-conative factors to be relatively inappropriate in solving life problems (Orlo Strunk, 1960). The Count of Monte Cristo and The Lies of Locke Lamora are both set during periods where religion is seen as an essential and symbolic part of the characters’ daily life, and as a result, the characters can be described as “religious” (Dumas, 83), suggesting that they partake in propriate religion. Ironically, these characters are positioned to be “violent” (Lynch, 24), with their actions being justified through religious tropes, defined as “a word or expression used in a figurative sense or a common or overused theme or device” (Merriam- Webster, n.d.). The research question to emerge from this is: " To what extent do Dumas in The Count of Monte Cristo and Lynch in The Lies of Locke Lamora use Judeo-Christian tropes to establish their protagonists as God-like, thus justifying their vengeful and violent actions to the reader?"

The experience of feeling pleasure in violent acts can be accredited to the role of the id, which according to Freudian psychology, is the most “primitive and instinctual” (McLeod, 2019) part

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