Count Fosco in every sense is a villain and master manipulator. He habitually controls everyone and everything conceivable in his environment. In Freud\u2019s terms Fosco is himself under a compulsion to repeat. Marian\u2019s primary impression of him upon their first meeting is of \u201ca man who could tame anything\u201d (Collins, 217). Fosco certainly seems to have that mission, given that he has already \u201ctransformed her [Madame Fosco] into a civil, silent, unobtrusive woman\u201d (Collins, 216) and has trained mice, a cockatoo, and canaries all to do his absolute bidding. Essentially, Fosco engages in mesmerism to control and manipulate those around him. Even Sir Percival is forced to succumb to Fosco\u2019s will, calming when Fosco tells him too and adhering to a schedule based on Fosco\u2019s \u201cabsolute will and pleasure\u201d (Collins, 314).<\/p>\n
Freud theorizes that the repetition of a certain action or habit is the result of repression and states that \u201cthe repetition is a transference of the forgotten past\u2026onto all the other aspects of the current situation\u201d (Freud, 151). Using this idea, we can theorize about Fosco\u2019s character and his past. Freud believes that this form of compulsive action is the result of repressing and forgetting a memory and situation until the person \u201creproduces it not as a memory but as an action; he repeats<\/em> it\u201d (Freud 150). We can then ask why Fosco repeatedly seeks to control those around him and what fear or past he represses.<\/p>\n There is certainly an intense desire or need for control as Count Fosco will go out of his way to control anyone in his environment. His interaction with Percival\u2019s dog indicates that need as he actively seeks out that interaction to bully the dog into submission. He declares that the dog is an \u201cinfernal coward\u201d and that the dog won\u2019t hurt him as \u201cI\u2019m not afraid of you\u201d (Collins, 221). In the end, the dog fears Fosco. While fear is not necessarily Fosco\u2019s primary mode of control, he certainly uses it, and seems to enjoy using it more than his other tactics of mesmerism. When Marian is the victim of his intimidation tactics, she notes that \u201cThere was something horrible \u2013 something fierce and devilish in the outburst of his delight at his own singing and playing, and in the triumph with which he watched its effect upon me\u201d (Collins, 314). Fosco is then, perhaps much like the bloodhound he bullies: a coward who represses his own constant fear, seeking instead to transfer it to others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Count Fosco in every sense is a villain and master manipulator. He habitually controls everyone and everything conceivable in his environment. In Freud\u2019s terms Fosco is himself under a compulsion to repeat. Marian\u2019s primary impression of him upon their first meeting is of \u201ca man who could tame anything\u201d (Collins, 217). Fosco certainly seems to … Continue reading The Transference of Fear<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135983],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}