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Iron Man Character Analysis

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Iron Man is a Marvel character that appears in Iron Man (2008), Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), and Captain America: Civil War (2016). The actual character, Tony Stark goes through one of the most interesting, and genuine character arcs in film history. He starts out as the “Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist”, turned superhero via a technologically advanced suit, eventually becoming a victim of post traumatic stress disorder. Psychoanalytic criticism is a lens that scholars use to traverse deeper into the meaning of a text, and also “Adopts the methods of "reading" employed by Freud and later theorists to interpret texts. It argues that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of the …show more content…

Using this technology, he changes in his mind what really happened on that day, his mother even saying about his father “He does miss you when you’re gone. And frankly you’re going to miss us. Because this is the last time we’re all going to be together. You know what’s about to happen. Say something. If you don’t you’ll regret it” (13:59-14:16). Stark goes on to explain to students at MIT that BARF is “An extremely costly method of hijacking the hippocampus to clear traumatic memories. It doesn’t change the fact that they never made it to the airport, or all the things I did to avoid processing my grief” (14:52-15:12). Stark experiences his first traumatic event, when he is 21 and uses coping methods that are undoubtedly unhealthy. Dr. Andrea Letamendi, a Clinical Psychologist, scientist, and convention speaker explains a traumatic event is, “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) defines a “traumatic event” as one that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury or threat to the physical integrity of oneself or others” (Letamendi). Stark says that he did a lot of things to avoid processing grief. Stark, however, seems very emotionally stable, albeit maybe a little narcissistic in Iron Man. Stark was initially designed as a stable man who has everything he could possibly want. Over time Stark progressively becomes less and less mentally stable, until he reaches the tipping point, and develops PTSD.

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