Female Identity Through Self-actualization in Toni Morrison’s Love

Abstract

This paper explores the formation of female identity through self-actualization in Toni Morrison’s Love, focusing on the psychological, social, and cultural entrapment of female characters under the patriarchal dominance of Bill Cosey. Using Freudian psychoanalysis—particularly the Oedipal complex and the dynamics of the id, ego, and superego—and Nancy Chodorow’s feminist theory, the study analyzes how women such as Heed, Christine, and Junior were deprived of parental figures, which drove them into emotional dependency on Cosey as a patriarchal symbol. Their initial bond, rooted in solidarity and shared trauma, was fractured by power, status, and sexual politics. The novel critiques how patriarchy commodified women and disrupted female unity. Ultimately, the study reveals that although these women attempt to assert their identities, they remain psychologically entrapped until an act of symbolic revenge restores agency. The analysis highlights the enduring conflict between female solidarity and patriarchal control in the construction of identity.