Extended Essays 2021

of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories. Modern Christianity typically aims to suppress the id and all that goes with it. In the New Testament, we find these sentences ascribed to Jesus: “You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28-29). This unequivocal and hardline proclamation is representative of a philosophy that suffers no grey areas; suggesting that the uncertain forces of the id should never be allowed to emerge, to the point where even ‘thought’ is said to be a sin. However, Dumas and Lynch permit their respective protagonists to manipulate the rules of Christianity to support and justify their violent acts, thus stepping around the restrictions of the id. This can also be credited to the law of retaliation, or Lex Talionis (Latin for "law of retaliation"), the principle of retributive justice expressed in the phrase "an eye for an eye," (Hebrew: עין תחת עין ) from Exodus 21:23–27which suggests that one who has hurt another should be penalized to a similar degree. In effect, although the role of the id could be said to be discouraged in conventional religion, both Dumas and Lynch, turn this concept on its head by describing violence as being supported by conventional religion, in this case, the Judeo-Christian version of religion. Having defined religion and the id, it is clear that Dumas’ and Lynch’s use of religious tropes in their novels, The Count of Monte Cristo , and The Lies of Locke Lamora , also serve to suppress readers’ guilt when encountering acts of - often unacceptable - violence by the two protagonists. This permits and legitimizes the reader’s experience of and pleasure in these acts of violence. Dumas and Lynch strive to position their protagonists, (Dantès and Lamora) where they transcend regular beings, alleviating potential guilt that a reader may be confronted with when these characters commit violent acts. In representing the protagonists to be God-like, both

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