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Before we enter into a discussion of any particular work, a preliminary account of the nature of the psychoanalysis of literary works in general may be attempted. Every literary work, and indeed every scientific work, is, in some part, an expression of its author's personality. The personal influence is of least importance, perhaps, in purely descriptive accounts of actual historic events; but even from these it is never altogether absent. Selection and discussion of material, both expressions of the author's personality, always occur. The subject matter is presented, not as a mere series of uncriticized verbatim extracts from historical records, but as a connected narrative, from which redundancies have been, as far as possible, eliminated, while suggestions are freely offered regarding the course of events where the historical record is incomplete. The personality of the author is, indeed, expressed in the production of the work; he would not trouble to prepare and publish it if he were not interested in the subject, and his interest in the subject is a personal characteristic.
The novelist or dramatist goes further; he not only records events, but creates them. Actual events and characters may be introduced into his work, but their value rests, not on their historical accuracy, but on the opportunity of self-expression they afford the author. A work of art is therefore to be regarded as primarily a creation of the author to express his personality. In part it is capable of interpretation on the conscious level, but in addition there is a