The id, who’s only objective is to gain pleasure could be compared to the alien species. The id is very instinctive, and knows no good, no evil and has no sense of morality. The crew see them as only having one goal, to wipe out humanity. However in my opinion it was humans who went to them not the other way round. The aliens are only trying to protect their children. In this sense I feel that they are more humane than the company who have no emotion towards the aliens or the crew. The company’s only interest is money, which in today’s society equals pleasure. Therefore the company must be id also. This doesn’t sit well though. With the crew being the ego, torn between the id and super ego, we need an extreme right and an extreme wrong. The fact that the aliens are hideous creatures means that they are automatically typecast as the baddies (id) and the company, who has all of this obvious technology, is seen as the super ego. With in the super ego there are 2 aspects, the conscience and the ego ideal. In this case the c

From a psychoanalytical perspective the most telling and successful scene in the film is the infamous one where Ripley get a porn magazine stuffed down her throat. This is not only offensive because she is being attacked but the fact that it is a phallic symbol. This represents that fact that we live in a patriotic society and have male views forced upon us constantly. It also indicates that women in society feel repressed. However it is not only women who get offended by this scene, the male audience may take offence to seeing a white professional male psychically abusing a woman, therefore to detach them from the subject, we soon find out that the perpetrator is in fact an android. This dehumanises the subject and keeps the dominant audience happy.

In my opinion the aliens are not pure evil. It was the company who sent them and the crew who found them. The crew had a chance to get away but they let an infected crew member back on to the ship and therefore you could say that they brought it upon them selves.

We can also read in to the religious motifs throughout the film to help analyse it. Throughout Alien there are plenty to choose from. The cleanliness of the mother ship and their obvious technology is typical of the boigeorsie, they also show other traits, capitalism and greed being the main ones. Where as the Alien ship is representative of working class squalor and the proletariats. Raw open sexuality is also seen all over the aliens ship; even the entrances look like virgina’s. There is also the issue that the women have equal rights. The queen can be seen as having all the power and indicating a much more democratic race. However she could also be seen as a glorified baby machine, this parallels feminist’s views of today’s society. The mother ship typical of the boigeorsie tries to disguise sex in to other forms, like in the oral rape scene.

This could be due to the fact that the aliens are so sophisticated yet fearful they are seen as negative messiahs. Theorist Ruppersburg defines this as, ‘an irresistible force not intent on goodness to the human race but on it’s destruction’.

In the opening sequence we see the crew waking up out of their pods and it is almost like they are being born. Freud states that we all have fantasies

Some topics in this essay:
Ryan Lynch, , Throughout Alien, Theorist Ruppersburg, According Freud, Altrustic Surrender, super ego, mother ship, ego super ego, ego super, today’s society, religious motifs, common sense, ego ideal, typical boigeorsie, psychoanalytical perspective, alien ship,