psychoanalysis and allusion to adam and eve’s myth through existing archetypes in stray dog, 1942, sadegh hedayat

This paper intends to study hedayat’s stray dog through the lenses of psychoanalysis. as a short story writer, he was amongst the first literary men who became interested in psychoanalysis, the shadow of which is to be noticed in most of his works including stray dog. the figure of the dog, its main character, has been a very controversial topic amongst critics. in this paper the dog is taken as an actual human being representing hedayat himself; the evidence for which is revealed in some parts of the story’s text. considered as an actual human being, the fate of the dog resembles the three freudian zones_id, ego and superego. following his id, results in his going through many problems and dying alone due to the fact that he was not accepted by others anymore; leaving his owner and the family is when ego is at work and superego shows itself during the time he lives with his owner. the entire analysis in this paper induces the concept of alienation, again through the character of this dog, from which hedayat himself suffered during his life according to the letters and all works remained from him. i have provided you with the indications of how this dog, as a human being, has lost himself in his id’s world, how he is struggling to build his ego through his actions and how he fails owing to his desire for a feminine figure who deceived him as eve does in creation myth and finally he feels abandoned from his owner like when adam felt abandoned from god due to the original sin. and also his alienation and the constant foreshadowing of his death during the whole tale by interpreting archetypes already defined by jung. therefore, the story best represents the creation myth which has been fully analyzed in this paper.