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Regarding Henry Essay

Decent Essays

During the movie, Regarding Henry, Henry goes through a traumatic accident that alters his personality. Before the accident, Henry was very mean to everyone, including his own wife and daughter. After the accident, Henry forgot everything about normal human behavior. He could not move his arms, nor could he speak. Because of this, Henry had to learn how to accomplish tasks in the same manner as he once was able to. This goes to prove that Henry’s natural state is his id, and throughout the movie, it becomes clear that his superego is learned. Once Henry begins to learn how he used to act, he reverts back to his child-like id. In the first opening scenes of the movie, the audience learns that Henry is a crooked lawyer working for a crooked …show more content…

Henry reacts more with his child-like id and becomes very playful. There is a scene in which his daughter spills her orange juice and looks to her father expecting him to reprimand her. Instead of getting angry, Henry says that he sometimes spills his orange juice and knocks his own cup over. Another example is his table. In the beginning of the movie, Henry is complaining about a table that was ordered and how ugly it is. When he comes home from rehab, Henry says that he loves the table. Henry displays his id all the time until he learns how to use his superego. Even though the superego is more unconscious, it needs to be learned, how to tap into it. When Henry was first taken home, he was mainly concerned with himself and learning how to read, write, and get around. Once he figured that out, he started to learn about the superego. His lawyers told him about the hidden evidence in the case and he began to piece together who the old Henry was. Similarly, Henry learned about his affair with Linda at the law firm, and he really had a sense of who he was and who he was going to be moving into the future. Henry even went back to fix his old case. When the law firm would not let him, he quit his job and decided to pursue something he

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