73 RAINBOW Vol. 8 (1) (2019) Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/rainbow Anxiety and Defense Mechanism as A Means of Constructing Psychological Thriller in Hawkins’ The Girl On The Train Rohaeni, Fatma Hetami, Bamabang Purwanto English Department, Languages and Arts Faculty, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia Article Info ________________ Article History: Received 28 December 2018 Approved 25 July 2019 Published 29 July 2019 ________________ Keywords: Psychological thriller, Freudian psychoanalysis, Anxiety, Defense Mechanism. ____________________ Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ The topic of this study is Anxiety and Defense Mechanism as A Means of Constructing Psychological Thriller in Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train. The objectives of this study are to describe how anxiety and defense mechanism are described in Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train and to explain how anxiety and defense mechanism construct psychological thriller as represented in Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train. The object of the study is a novel entitled The Girl on the Train written by Paula Hawkins. This study is descriptive qualitative study by applying Freudian psychoanalytic theory. The data of the study were collected by reading, identifying, interpreting, and inventorying citations from the novel. Further, the data were analyzed based on Freudian psychoanalytic theory by describing anxiety and defense mechanism described in the novel. The data were also analysed by explaining how anxiety and defense mechanism construct psychological thriller. The results show there are three kinds of anxiety and six kinds of defense mechanism. Moreover, the results prove that those anxieties and defense mechanisms become a means of constructing psychological thriller since they make the characters suffer from psychological problem and become unreliable narrator, create plot twist, and make the novel become thrilling. © 2019 Universitas Negeri Semarang  Corresponding Author E-mail: rohaeni2207@gmail.com ISSN : 22526323 Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Vol. 8 (1) (2019) 74 INTRODUCTION Psychological thriller consists of two genres of literature, psychological and thriller. Thriller literature is designed for one purpose—to make the pulse pound, the heart palpitates, and the fear glands secrete (Glover, 2003: 135). Meanwhile, psychological literature is a term to explain literature which is for the most part concerned with the spiritual, emotional, and mental of the characters (Minderop, 2011: 53). From the definitions above, it can be concluded that psychological literature is a literature which makes the readers thrill through its story which focuses on the characters’ psychology. One of the famous psychological thriller novels in 21st-century is The Girl on the Train a novel written by Paula Hawkins’ in 2015. Therefore, the novel is analyzed in this research. The main characters of the novel encounter problems which indirectly linked to each other and their problems lead them to suffer from psychological problems. As people in the real world, when they encounter problems or unpleasant situations, they will find some ways to avoid them. Therefore, they need to have some mechanisms for self-adjustment in order to live happily in the society. Anxiety will occur when an individual experiences an unconscious conflict or unpleasant situations. It relates to id, ego, and superego. When anxiety occurs, an individual automatically uses a defense mechanism to defend themselves against that anxiety. The same way is attempted by the main characters in The Girl on the Train. The anxiety they experience is related to the conflicts that happen in their marriage relationship. The conflicts occur in a marriage are considered as a common issue so it is impossible if there is no conflict in a marriage. Hence, this research is very important and interesting because this research describes how those conflicts and unpleasant feelings cause the anxiety of the main characters and how they defend themselves against those conflicts and unpleasant feelings. In other words, the main characters who encounter anxiety and their attempts to avoid those definite threats by applying defense mechanism are important to be analyzed. However, the main point of the discussion is the way anxiety and defense mechanism experienced by the characters become a means of constructing psychological thriller. Therefore, in order to answer those problems, the researcher intends to give a contribution to the modern research by analyzing The Girl on the Train novel.. METHODS Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train is the object of the study. It is approached by Freudian psychoanalytic theory. Since the data were in the form of words, phrases, sentences, and utterances, the descriptive qualitative research design was conducted. There were two types of data were gathered in the research, they were primary and secondary data. The primary data were taken from the novel and the secondary date were obtained from another source. In order to collect the primary and the secondary data, library research was conducted by reading and learning some theoretical books, journals, essays, and articles which relate to the research. The data of the study were collected by reading, identifying, interpreting, and inventorying citations from the novel. The data that had been gathered were put on the observation sheets. Further, the data were analyzed based on Freudian psychoanalytic theory by describing anxiety and defense mechanism described in the novel. The data were also analysed by explaining how anxiety and defense mechanism become a means of constructing psychological thriller. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Anxiety and Defense Mechanism Described in Hawkins’ The Girl On The Train This subchapter discusses anxiety and defense mechanism based on Freudian psychoanalysis that involving between Rachel, Megan, Anna, Tom, and Scott. They have their own psychological problems which have been influenced indirectly by anxiety. Hence, to protect themselves suffer from the anxiety, they Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Vol. 8 (1) (2019) 75 apply defense mechanism. How the way the defense mechanism works and in which way the process constructs psychological thriller is explained in this discussion. Anxiety There are three kinds of anxiety which appear in the novel. Those are reality anxiety, neurotic anxiety, and moral anxiety. Reality Anxiety There are four characters who get suffer from reality anxiety, they are Rachel, Megan, Anna, and Scott. The first character who experiences reality anxiety is Rachel. Rachel’s first reality anxiety happens when she cannot get pregnant. In this case, Rachel’s id wants to get pregnant (63). In order to satisfy her desire, her id encourages her ego to do a thing which can achieve her desire. Therefore, Rachel and her husband begin to try several programs to get pregnant (95). However she still cannot get pregnant. Rachel’s id of having a child cannot be satisfied. That reality causes she suffers from reality anxiety. Rachel’s second reality anxiety occurs when her husband decides to leave her. Rachel’s id wants her husband to calm her down when she is in difficulties. She wants her husband to take care of her when she is in depression. However, the reality talks in contradiction. When Rachel sank on depression and was extremely difficult to live with, her husband gave up on her and sought solace elsewhere. She was divorced. The second character who suffers from reality anxiety is Megan. Megan’s first reality anxiety is connected to her brother’s death. Megan id’s desire which wants to have a journey around the world with Ben cannot be satisfied because of the appearance of a reality that is Ben’s death. Megan’s second reality anxiety is related to Tom. It happens when Megan has felt comfortable and enjoyed with Tom but he begins to leave her (357). This fact is in contradiction with her id which wants to be with Tom, so it makes her id suffers then the reality anxiety comes up. Further, Megan’s third reality anxiety is about her fear towards Scott. It occurs because Scott always checks up on her by reading her email. It upsets Megan so that Megan does not want to write a diary just like Kamal suggests her to do. She cannot trust her husband not to read it. She is afraid if she writes a diary, Scott will read it and know her past. If it happens, Scott will get mad at her and it is possibly he will mistreat her. In addition, she has a reason to be afraid of Scott. It proves when Scott opened her laptop and he knew about Mac. At that time, they had a fight and Megan got a bruise. The third character who suffers from reality anxiety is Anna. The citation on page (245-246) presents the objects of her anxiety. The first thing she is afraid of is the trains. She is been afraid of the faceless bodies which are as if staring out her from the windows. The second thing she is afraid of is Rachel. She thinks that she is always watched and harassed by Rachel. The third reality anxiety which attacks Anna is related to Tom’s affair with Megan. When Rachel tells Anna that Megan gets pregnant, reality anxiety comes to her (344). It happens because she is deeply disappointed with Tom who has cheated her by having an affair with Megan. He even has made Megan pregnant. This reality has wrecked her desirability to have a perfect life with Tom. The fourth character who suffers from reality anxiety is Scott. There is only one reality anxiety that Scott experiences. It occurs when Scott knows the fact that Megan gets pregnant with another man. But the police have not known yet who that man is (303-304). The reality anxiety suffers him through this fact because his id which wants to have a happy family with Megan has been crushed by the reality that is Megan has cheated on him. Neurotic Anxiety There are four characters who get suffer from neurotic anxiety, they are Rachel, Megan, Tom, and Scott. The first character who gets neurotic anxiety is Rachel. Her anxiety is related to her drinking. She is anxious about what she has done when she is drunk and gets blackout. Rachel’s neurotic anxiety comes up when Detective Riley says there is a possibility that Rachel is one who Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Vol. 8 (1) (2019) 76 attacked Megan (104). Rachel is afraid if what said by Detective Riley is true. If it has been proved, she will be the suspect and get a punishment. The second character who gets neurotic anxiety is Megan. Megan’s first neurotic anxiety is about her lies to Scott. She has lied to Scott about everything. Megan’s id urges her not to share her secrets with Scott because she is afraid of him if she opens all of her past. In this case, her ego has satisfied the urge of her id. Megan’s second neurotic is her unpleasant memories of the past which are related to her child. Megan has ever had a child but she has killed her own child since the child is not wanted by her. That fact leads the neurotic anxiety suffers her. The citation on page (209) indicates how neurotic anxiety works. If she does not feel anxious after she kills her baby, she will freely open it up to others including her husband. But she does not, she keeps it from her husband as a secret. The neurotic anxiety also comes up when she faces things which is related to the child. It occurs in the event when Scott talks about the child (61). Hearing that, she becomes anxious since she remembers about her sin of killing her baby that she never told Scott. She tries to avoid the topic of child and prefer to end the conversation. The third character who gets neurotic anxiety is Tom. Tom’s first neurotic anxiety is the event when Anna tells Tom that Rachel still hangs around their house (2093-294). Tom is afraid because Rachel still hangs around his and Scott’s house. He worries if Rachel can remember what she saw on that Saturday night. If she can remember everything, he is in a danger. She can tell Anna, Scott, and the police that she saw Tom and Megan on that night. It can be a strong evidence to blame Tom as a suspect. This makes Tom anxious. He is feared of his ego which has fulfilled his id’s demand in killing Megan. Tom’s second neurotic anxiety is the event when Rachel says that she saw him on that Saturday night (362). When Rachel tells him about that, the neurotic anxiety attacks Tom. He suffers from what his ego has done towards Megan. Further, that neurotic anxiety continues to suffer him when finally Anna knows about the affair, about Megan’s death, and about everything he has hidden from her. The fourth character who gets neurotic anxiety is Scott. Scott’s neurotic anxiety happens when Scott has been told by Kamal and Tara about Megan, about her unhappiness to live with Scott (228). Scott does want to lose Megan. Therefore, when he knows that everything happens towards Megan is caused by him, he feels guilty. That guilty feeling makes him suffer from neurotic anxiety. Moral Anxiety There are two characters who gets suffer from moral anxiety, they are Rachel and Megan. The first character who experiences moral anxiety is Rachel. There are three moral anxieties Rachel deals with. The first is her guilty feeling towards her ex-husband and his family because she harasses them all the time (16). That thing must not be done because Tom has already had a new life with his new family. Harassing a man who has already had a wife is a thing which is in contradiction with moral value exists in society. Actually, Rachel has realized about that; hence, if she harasses Tom she will feel guilty. Regarding the human psyche and the issue, Rachel’s id is Rachel’s desire which wants to gather with Tom since she still loves him. She urges her ego to reveal the id by harassing Tom and his family. Then, the reality which plays a role as Rachel’s superego is the moral value of the society which states that harassing a man who has already had a wife is prohibited. Accordingly, if she satisfies her desire she must feel guilty, but if her desire is not been satisfied, she will get suffered. The second is her embarrassed feeling caused by her drinking habit. In fact, she has realized that drinking a lot of alcohol and getting drunk all the time and in every place are things which are not proper to be done. She also has realized that no one likes being around a drunk like her. Those facts make her anxious. It happens because her id fights against her superego. Her id which wants to gain happiness and forget her unpleasant feelings by drinking alcohol must fight against her superego which urges her to stop her drinking habit because it can alienate her from society. Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Vol. 8 (1) (2019) 77 However, her id is stronger than her superego in persuading her ego. She keeps drinking a lot of alcohol. As a result, she becomes lonely since no one who wants to be near a drunk woman like her (99). The third is her guilty feeling since she has slept with Scott. Rachel feels guilt since she has slept with Scott in the room Megan shared with him (268). She knows that it is wrong and should not be done. A woman who sleeps with other woman’s husband is a thing which breaks the social norm and she has done that thing. The second character who experiences moral anxiety is Megan. A thing which makes her getting moral anxiety is her affair with Tom. In this case, Megan’s superego is aware of her id which has urged her doing a thing which is unacceptable. She will feel satisfied if she is being wanted by a man. It happens when she gets closed with Tom. Actually, she is aware that she and Tom cannot do that. However, the influence of her id is stronger than her moral awareness so that she prefers to satisfy her id by keeping her affair with Tom. But, even though her moral awareness cannot prevent her from doing a prohibited thing, it can make her anxious and get moral anxiety. Defense Mechanism There are six kinds of defense mechanism which are applied by those five characters who gets suffer from anxiety. Those defense mechanism are denial of relality, displacement, projection, rationalization, repression, and suppression. Denial of Reality There are two characters who apply denial of reality, they are Rachel and Scott. The first character who applies denial of reality is Rachel. Rachel’s denial of reality is about Rachel’s denial which is applied by saying a lie to the doctor about the bump on her head. She argues that she hits it when she is getting into a car (64-65). She makes up that story to protect herself from neurotic anxiety she has after that Saturday night accident. She worries if there is a connection between the bump and what she has done. Therefore, to reduce the neurotic anxiety, she defends herself by applying denial of reality. The second character who applies denial of reality is Scott. It occurs when he convinces himself that Megan will come home (183). Scott wants Megan to come home. He hopes that she is still alive. However, the reality breaks his hope because Megan is still missing and it makes him suffer from reality anxiety. Therefore, in order to reduce that anxiety, he denies the reality. He says that he still has a hope. He believes that Megan will come home. This defense mechanism has a function to comfort him from reality anxiety attack. Displacement There are four characters who apply displacement, they are Rachel, Megan, Anna, and Scott. The first character who uses displacement is Rachel. Rachel’s first displacement object is her house with Tom. She wants to get close to Tom even though she is no longer his wife. However, it is impossible since Tom has already had a new life with Anna. As a result, her ego cannot satisfy her id’s demand caused by that reality. In order to reduce the anxiety she experiences, she displaces Tom by intensively looking Tom’s home every day through the train. Although if she looks that home it can hurt her and bring her into the pain when she is left by Tom, she cannot help herself not to look at it (7-8). Rachel’s second displacement object is Jason and Jess. Her id states that she wants to have a perfect relationship with Tom, but her ego cannot fulfill it since Tom has divorced her. It makes her getting reality anxiety so that to reduce that anxiety, she tries to look for another way to satisfy her id. She decides to put her id in another object. She says that Jason and Jess are what she and Tom used to be. They are what she lost and they are everything she wants to be. The second character who uses displacement is Megan. The objects which become Megan’s displacement are Tom and Kamal. Megan needs something to suppress her unpleasant feelings which can make her panic attack comes up. She needs someone who can fill Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Vol. 8 (1) (2019) 78 her days, someone who can give her affection and cares. She wants her husband, Scott, to do that. However, Scott never has a time for her. He is always busy with his works. Hence, she needs someone who can displace her husband’s roles. And he is Tom. Then, the affair is begun (357). It also happens to Kamal. She prefers to tell her unpleasant feelings with her psychiatrist, Kamal. She finds a pleasure whenever she has a session with him. As a psychiatrist, Kamal can calm her down when the anxiety attacks her during the session. It is different from Scott who cannot calm her down when her anxiety comes. The third character who uses displacement is Anna. Anna tries to revenge Tom by snooping him through his laptop (299). When Anna realizes that she has been cheated by Tom, she tries to gather more evidence by snooping on him to prove if he has cheated on her. She revenges Tom’s lie with a lie too but in another way, cracking his laptop’s password and snooping on him. She cannot directly ask him if he has cheated on her and hidden everything from her so that her desire to know about his cheating which cannot be satisfied by her ego is displaced by her desire to snoop on him. The fourth character who uses displacement is Scott. The object which becomes Scott’s displacement is Rachel. Scott realizes if Rachel lies to him, hence, he gets mad and mistreats her (307-308). His mistreatment toward Rachel actually is his way to express her anger towards Megan who has cheated on him. He cannot express this towards Megan because she is still missing. Therefore, his desire to express his anger towards Megan is displaced by his mistreatment toward Rachel. Projection There are two characters who apply projection, they are Rachel and Tom. The first character who applies projection is Rachel. Rachel denies that her depression is inconvenient for Anna and Tom. She believes that she is blameless and Anna is the one who must take the responsibility for everything that happens towards them (42). Rachel believes that she becomes a depressed woman caused by them. Further, the reason why she projects Anna is because she is afraid that she will be punished for what she has done toward them. The second character who applies projection is Tom. Tom’s first projection is done towards Rachel. Tom always blames Rachel for everything that happens towards them. He states that he has given her everything but she has wasted that opportunity by doing stupid things. Hence, Tom gives up on her and decides to leave her. He declares that Rachel cannot blame him for that (374-375). Tom also blames her for what she has done towards Megan. Tom declares that he kills Megan is caused by Rachel (377). Tom’s second projection is done towards Anna. The way Tom projects Anna is just the same the way he projects Rachel. Tom says that Anna is so tired all the time. She is not interested anymore. She cannot provide what he needs. Everything she thinks only about the baby (364-365). She is no longer available to him. That fact is the reason why he starts to find out another woman who is available to him. She is Megan. By projecting Anna, actually, he tries to protect himself from Anna’s judgment for his affair. Tom’s third projection is done towards Scott. He attempts to reduce his moral anxiety by projecting his fault towards Scott. He convinces Rachel not to hang around Scott’s home because he is afraid if Rachel still gets in touch with Scott he will be in trouble. If Rachel can recover her blackout memory on that night, she will reveal everything she saw that night to the police. It means that Tom will be blamed as a suspect who has killed Megan. Therefore, he tries to keep Rachel away from Scott and asks her not to get involved in Megan’s case. Rationalization There are five characters who apply rationalization, they are Rachel, Megan, Anna, Tom, and Scott. The first character who uses rationalization is Rachel. Rachel’s first rationalization is related to Kamal. After she knows more about who Kamal is, Rachel makes her rationalization. It can be seen in (179) that Rachel tries to make a reason which is rational, Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Vol. 8 (1) (2019) 79 convinced and accepted. She makes a reason that what she has done by telling the police that Kamal has an affair with Megan and he is probably in connection with Megan’s disappearance is the best choice. It is actually her way to reduce neurotic anxiety. Rachel’s second rationalization is about what she has done— harassing her ex-husband. When Rachel never stops to call Tom and harass his family, she convinces herself that what she has done is a normal thing. She consciously knows that what she has done is an unacceptable thing, but her id which wants to be satisfied forces her ego and successfully defeats her superego which has tried to help her ego solves the conflict. It is clarified in (16-17), Rachel says that harassing her ex- husband is not that bad. The second character who uses rationalization is Megan (355-356). Megan wants to reduce her fear of Scott after she is mistreated by him. Hence, she tries to think rationally even though she gets mad at Scott. She tries to think rationally that Scott has a reason to be angry with her after he knows that she has cheated on him. The third character who uses rationalization is Anna. Anna’s first rationalization happens when she finds a phone in Tom’s bag. After finds the phone, Anna thinks that Tom has involved in an affair using that phone. The thought about the affair makes her anxious since her desire to live happily with Tom will be destroyed if the affair really exists. Therefore, she makes several reasons reveal that the phone is not a phone of a man involved in an affair. She also convinces herself that the phone is not his (327-328). Anna’s second rationalization occurs when she knows about Tom’s affair and the fact that he kills Megan. She makes her rationalization by rejecting to know the truth, the whole truth about Tom. She even convinces Rachel and also herself that Tom could not do an affair and kill Megan. The fourth character who uses rationalization is Tom. Tom’s neurotic anxiety attacks him when Anna and Rachel have realized that he is the person who kills Megan. Therefore, his rationalization is used by making several reasons why he kills Megan. He reveals that he does not mean for this. He just wants Megan to stop screaming, swearing, saying all sorts of shit at him (378-379). By doing rationalization defense mechanism, he hopes that Anna and Rachel do not blame him for this. The fifth character who uses rationalization is Scott. His rationalization is applied when he knows about Megan’s affair. In (147-148) it can be known that Scott experiences reality anxiety because his id which does not want to lose Megan, his sexual object, is suffered by the reality that she is missing. Therefore, in order to reduce his anxiety, Scott applies a defense mechanism called rationalization by convincing himself that if Megan is with that man, she must be all right so she does not need to be worried. Repression There are two characters who apply repression, they are Megan and Anna. The first character who applies repression is Megan. Megan is so emotional when Kamal asks whether she is afraid with Scott. She protects Scott by saying that she does not afraid of him at all because he is her husband (73). It is unconsciously done by her because she wants to keep her marriage with Scott even though she has already been tired living with an overprotective and controlled husband. Here, her protectiveness towards Scott is her way to repress her reality anxiety towards him. The second character who applies repression is Anna. Her first repression happens when she cried (288). Anna does want to live in the home she and Tom live in now. Her id says that she wants to leave that home. But, her ego cannot satisfy her id. She cannot refuse what Tom asks her to do. As a result, in order to control her desire, she throws away her desire from her consciousness. She tries to blend with her unpleasant feeling. Then, her second repression occurs when Anna represses the fact that Tom always lies to her (341). She does not believe and denies the facts about Tom that said by Rachel. It is done by her in order to protect her ego from the reality that threatens her id’s demand. Anna does not want to hurt her ego by believing that Tom lies about everything to her. However, in Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Vol. 8 (1) (2019) 80 fact, she unconsciously does agree with Rachel. She believes that Tom lies about everything to her. Suppression There are two characters who apply suppression, they are Rachel and Megan. The first character who uses suppression is Rachel. It happens when she suppresses her blackout memories. Actually, Rachel wants to recover her blackout memories through hypnotherapy. But, she is afraid if the hypnotherapy succeeds, she will know the stupid and awful things she has done and talked (126- 127). She is afraid of getting a punishment. Therefore, to control her undesirable feeling, she suppresses it into her unconsciousness by ignoring her blackout memories and not trying to recover it. She also applies suppression defense mechanism by not asking people around her about what she actually has done when she is drunk (322-323). The second character who uses suppression is Megan. There are three suppressions Megan uses in order to reduce her anxieties. First suppression happens when she suppresses her unpleasant feelings by doing activities for example taking photographs (57-58). By making her busy with activities, she believes the unpleasant feelings can be delivered to her unconsciousness so that she can avoid them for a while. Second suppression occurs when she suppresses her unpleasant feelings by not telling her unpleasant feelings to others including her husband. It is her attempt to bring the unpleasant feelings into her unconsciousness in order to protect herself from anxiety. Third suppression occurs when she runs away from her home after her brother dies. It is one of her decisions in order to suppress her reality anxiety about losing her brother. It is her effort to avoid everything which reminds her of an accident which kills Ben. Anxiety and Defense Mechanism as A Means of Constructing Psychological Thriller In this subchapter, the researcher explains anxiety and defense mechanism in Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train through its intrinsic elements whether they fulfill the requirements of psychological thriller genre or not. Anxiety and Defense Mechanism in Character and Characterization In this session, the researcher puts three main characters of the novel named Rachel Watson, Megan Hipwell, and Anna Watson and takes two supporting characters, called Tom Watson and Scott Hipwell. The reason why the researcher takes those characters is that they are characters who suffer from anxiety and apply defense mechanism. Furthermore, the anxiety they suffer leading them to have psychological problem and vice versa. The first character who experiences anxiety and defense mechanism is Rachel. Anxiety and defense mechanism she experiences can be seen through psychological problems she suffers from. Rachel is a character who gets depressed. Her depression begins when Rachel wanted to get pregnant but it did not happen (255). It becomes worse when she is left by her husband (236). These facts cause reality anxiety. Along with that reality anxiety, she sinks into depression further and further, then she starts to drink alcohol. However, her addiction to drinking causes her to suffer from alcoholism and blackout (13). When the blackout comes, she always doing an awful thing which comes from her unconscious and it creates neurotic anxiety. Therefore, she applies a defense mechanism called suppression to reduce the neurotic anxiety caused by the blackout. Actually, a thing which causes she did an awful thing, for example, harassing her ex-husband, when she was drunk does not really come from her unconscious. But it comes from her desire which wants to revenge on her husband for leaving her. The second character is Megan. Anxiety and defense mechanism she experiences can be seen through psychological problems she suffers from. The panic attack she experienced is a product of her unpleasant feeling of being left by her brother who died due to motorcycle accident. It causes her getting reality anxiety because she has lost her loved object. To reduce her anxiety about losing her brother, she applies a defense Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Vol. 8 (1) (2019) 81 mechanism called suppression. She uses that suppression by running off from her home and her parents. The next psychological problem she experiences is sleepless night. Her sleepless night is a result of her unpleasant feelings of the death of her baby and events that happened after that. She had killed the baby and had been left alone at a house by the father of the baby. That creates neurotic anxiety which still being felt by Megan. Her neurotic anxiety has bothered her so much; hence, she applies defense mechanism by doing activities in order to forget it. It calls suppression. The third character who experiences anxiety and defense mechanism is Anna. Anxiety and defense mechanism she experiences can be seen through psychological problem she suffers from. She suffers from paranoia. In general, the source of her paranoia is her anxiety of Rachel. She is afraid Rachel can do something bad to her family and ruin their happiness. In order to reduce her paranoia, she wants to move from the house, but her husband does not fulfill her demand. Therefore, in order to get the balance of her psyche, she represses her thought to move to the house by repressing it into her unconscious. It is called repression defense mechanism. Further, the fourth character who experiences anxiety and defense mechanism is Tom. Anxiety and defense mechanism he experiences can be seen through psychological problem he suffers from. It is narcissism. Tom is used to looking for a solace elsewhere to satisfy his desires which cannot be fulfilled by his wife. It is proved when he uses displacement by displacing his desires towards another woman. Then, rationalization occurs when he kills Megan. He does not want to be blamed for his own actions. Hence, to reduce his neurotic anxiety he makes a rational reason why he kills her. Further, his projection is used when he projects Rachel and Anna for the affair he is involved with. All of defense mechanism applied by him prove that Tom is completely a narcissist. The fifth character who experiences anxiety and defense mechanism is Scott. Anxiety and defense mechanism he experiences can be seen through psychological problem he suffers from. He is an overprotective husband who always controls his wife. His overprotectiveness have led his wife to the depression. The reason why he becomes an overprotective husband is because he is anxious he will lose Megan, his sexual object. This is the way reality anxiety attacks him. In addition, he also gets depressed when he knows that what happens with his wife is caused by him. He feels guilty knowing that Megan is unhappy and afraid to live with him. In this case, neurotic anxiety suffers him. In order to reduce his anxieties, Scott applies denial of reality by convincing himself that his sexual object, Megan, does not disappear. She will come home. All in all, it can be implied that characterization of the characters in the novel with all of anxieties and defense mechanisms they experience has proved that they are representative of psychological thriller character. Anxiety and Defense Mechanism in Plot This analysis discusses both conflict and climax of the story which lead to a psychological thriller. The beginning of the central conflict of the novel is the disappearance of Megan. Due to her disappearance, both internal and external conflict among the characters occur and create the anxiety. The first conflict which represents the psychological thriller is Rachel’s internal conflict which is in connection with the disappearance of Megan. Rachel does not want to recover her blackout memory through hypnotherapy (126- 127). She just ignores it. It happens because she cannot bear the reality if she knows about the truth when she got blackout. The truth when she was blackout gives her neurotic anxiety because her ego when she was drunk always doing what her id wants which can endanger others so she is afraid she will get punishment for the action she did when she was drunk. Therefore, in order to keep her ego from the fear of getting punishment due to its action, she applied a defense mechanism called suppression. She supresses her neurotic anxiety by ignoring and not recovering her blackout memories. By applying suppression, she tries to store her fear into her unconscious. In this case, Rachel’s internal conflict occurs. On one hand, she is afraid if she is the one who causes Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Vol. 8 (1) (2019) 82 Megan’s missing. On the other hand, she believes that she is not that one because she does not feel it. She does not feel she has attacked Megan. This conflict becomes an evidence of the psychological thriller reflected on plot because the conflict makes the readers guessing whether at that night Rachel attacked Megan or not. The second conflict which represents the psychological thriller is the external conflict between Rachel, Anna, and Tom. Besides becomes the external conflict, it also becomes the central climax of the plot. It begins when Tom confesses that he is the man who has an affair with Megan and the one who has caused she dies (378-379). The citation reflects a rationalization defense mechanism applied by Tom. To cover his fault in front of Rachel and Anna, Tom makes rational reason why he decides to kill Megan. It indicates how his ego tries to reduce the neurotic anxiety by justifying his action. By applying rationalization, he convinces himself and others that killing Megan is acceptable to be done. In addition, he also applies another kind of defense mechanism called projection. He blames Rachel for the fault he has done. He says that Rachel is the reason why he kills Megan. The climax is more intense when they got into a fight. It becomes the evidence of psychological thriller because there are several characters in the novel being accused in killing Megan and Tom is not one of them. But, in the end he confesses that he has killed Megan. It makes a plot twist. Further, their fight makes the readers strained and thrilling so that they cannot stop to read the novel. The third conflict which represents the psychological thriller is the external conflict between Rachel and Anna (395). Anna wants to take revenge on Tom for cheating on her. Hence, she decides to kill Tom. The way she kills Tom presents her revenge on him. By doing this revenge, she attempted to reduce her reality anxiety. In this case, her reality anxiety occurs due to Tom’s betrayal. Her id wants to have perfect relationship and live happily with him but he destroys it by cheating on her. Further, the reason why Rachel’s attempt to take revenge on Tom creates external conflict between her and Anna because Rachel thinks that Anna wants to help Tom instead of killing him. In addition, the conflict becomes the evidence of psychological thriller reflected on the plot because the readers also agree with Rachel if at that time Anna was trying to stop the bleeding instead of helping her to kill him. But after know the fact, they realize what had been done by Anna is a contradiction of their thought before. It is usually called a twist, one of the literary devices contained in the psychological thriller which makes the readers puzzling. Further, to make the explanation easier to understand, Freytag’s pyramid which is divided the plot into five parts, explains which parts of the plot contains anxiety and defense mechanism experienced by the characters which have function as a means of constructing psychological thriller.. Here is the Freytag’s pyramid as the following: Note: : : Marking where anxiety and defense mechanism occur. Anxiety and Defense Mechanism in Setting There are two kinds of setting, including the setting of the time and the setting of the place. For the setting of the time, it reveals the Saturday night. Then, for the setting of the place, they are an underpass, forest, and train. Saturday night is a night that plays the biggest role in the plot of the novel. Why it becomes the setting of the since that night records everything that happens to the characters and it leads the characters, in this case, Rachel, to suffer from neurotic anxiety. Further, Rachel’s neurotic anxiety and Saturday night have contribution in constructing psychological thriller since they create dark, mysterious, and scary tone. Those tones are in accordance with the tone of psychological thriller genre. Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Vol. 8 (1) (2019) 83 Going to the setting of the place. The first place which becomes the psychological thriller in setting of place is underpass. The underpass is a place where Rachel gets bruises which leads her to get neurotic anxiety (323). She gets the anxiety because she is afraid of his actions happened there. She is afraid if her ego had done something that can give her punishment. The underpass becomes a place which has a relation with Rachel’s neurotic anxiety because at that time a mysterious thing which makes she feels anxious about what she has done happened. At underpass in Saturday night, she met Megan and Tom. Then, something happened between them. In addition, the underpass becomes a place which reflects anxiety which leads to psychological thriller story because it represents a quiet and dark place. The things that happen at underpass will be questionable and scary. Further, there a lot of crimes occur at the place which is dark and no people around there. It also happens to the story. Rachel is physically abused by Tom and gets neurotic anxiety at underpass. Therefore, it can be concluded that the underpass deals with the thriller story which is commonly related to criminal case. The second place is wooded place. It shows the place of an event on Saturday night when Megan was missing. Something anxious happened between Megan and Tom at wooded place. One of Megan’s intentions to meet Tom at that night was asking him to take responsibility of her pregnancy. But Tom rejected her and her baby. It made her ego suffered from reality anxiety because her id which wanted Tom to pay for his pregnancy was dismissed by the reality that Tom did not want to pay for it (372-373). The wooded place is proper to be connected to the anxiety and thriller story because the atmosphere of the place makes someone gets goosebumps. The third is train. The citation (6) explains the relation between the train and Rachel’s defense mechanism, displacement. Train is related to Rachel’s displacement because in the train Rachel finds the objects of her displacement. Her id states that she wants to have a perfect relationship with Tom, but her ego cannot fulfill it since Tom has divorced her. It makes her get reality anxiety so to reduce that anxiety, she tries to look for another way to satisfy her id. She decides to put her id in another object. They are Jason and Jess. Moreover, the train is also related to psychological thriller since the train represent a thing that is related to psychology due to its function as public transportation which is common to everyone so makes the readers get involved into the story. Anxiety and Defense Mechanism in Point of View One of the characteristics of a psychological thriller is having an unreliable narrator. The novel has fulfilled that requirement because the narrators including Rachel, Megan, and Anna are unreliable narrators. Things which make them become unreliable narrator are anxiety and defense mechanism they experience. The first unreliable narrator is Rachel Watson. Through the citation in the page (304- 305) it can be seen that Rachel had lied to Scott. Rachel wants to save her ego from neurotic anxiety related to Megan’s case. She feels that she is connected with Megan’s disappearance and this fact causes her get neurotic anxiety. Therefore, she lies to Scott in order to obtain rational reasons which can reduce her neurotic anxiety. She tries to convince Scott and also herself that there is someone who has an affair with Megan and considered to be connected with Megan’s disappearance. What she does called rationalization. By this defense mechanism, she convinced her ego that she did not make Megan disappear. The second unreliable narrator is Megan Hipwell. The citation on page (351) tells that Megan is going to tell the truth to Scott by admitting her lies. It is done by her in order to reduce her neurotic anxiety she gets because her ego had fulfilled her id’s demand to lie and hide all her secrets from Scott. She wanted to release her guilty feeling towards Scott. The third unreliable narrator is Anna Watson. Anna wants to protect Rachel and herself from the police. Therefore, she says that why Rachel killed Tom was because she had to do self-defense since Tom wanted to kill her with the corkscrew. In fact, Tom was attacked by Rachel with the corkscrew (390). Anna lies to the police indicates that she wants to cover the neurotic anxiety she got after Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Vol. 8 (1) (2019) 84 killing Tom. She was afraid if she told the truth, she and Rachel would be jailed so she decided to lie to the police. In conclusion, the three narrators of the novel are completely unreliable narrators. Anxiety and Defense Mechanism in Tone Hawkins had created several tones which are constructed by anxiety and defense mechanism. Those are creepy, mysterious, and strained tone. Those tones can create one who read the novel becomes thrilling, twisted, and guessing. The first tone which is depicted in the discussion is creepy. The event on (201) happens when Megan was found. It becomes so creepy because the citation describes how terrible Megan is when her body was found by the police in the woods. Rachel does not want to know something worse about Megan because it can recall her neurotic anxiety she got at the night she got bruises. Therefore, when she knows the fact that Megan is discovered died in bad condition, she feels anxious. The second tone is mysterious tone. Through the citation in the page (49) it can be known that Rachel is being shocked by the thing that happened to her. A night before, she was drunk and got blackout so she did not remember why and how she got the bruises. She even did not know whom she met at that night. Hence, the readers who read this also will be curious and begin to guess what happened at that night and who was in connection with. What happened to her at that time made her anxious. She was afraid if the bruises she got on that night was related to the criminal case she was involved in. Because she could do something awful when she was drunk and got blackout. It happens because when she was drunk, she could not hide her secret desires. Then, the third tone is strained tone. Strained tone occurs when Megan confessed her affair with another man to Scott (354-355). Scott does not want to lose his sexual object, Megan. Therefore, he feels anxious when Megan confesses her affair with another man. He expresses his anxiety by mistreating Megan. As being known before, Megan is Scott’s sexual object. If there is a thing which threats his sexual object, his ego will feel anxious. Then, the reality anxiety begins to suffer him and it happens in this case. Therefore, through the explanation, it can be implied that the way Scott expresses his reality anxiety creates a strained tone. CONCLUSION According to the analysis of the research findings as discussed in the previous chapter, it can be inferred as follow: First conclusion is about the anxiety and defense mechanism described in Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train. It was found that anxiety and defense mechanism in Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train are described through the characters of the novel. They are Rachel Watson, Megan Hipwell, Anna Watson, Tom Watson, and Scott Hipwell. Those five characters suffer from anxiety caused by the conflicts they face. The anxiety they face are reality, neurotic, and moral anxiety. To reduce the anxieties they experience, they apply defense mechanism. There are six defense mechanisms described in the novel through those characters. They are denial of reality, displacement, projection, rationalization, repression, and suppression. Second conclusion is related to the anxiety and defense mechanism as a means of constructing psychological thriller. The anxiety and defense mechanism which appear in the novel have a contribution in constructing Hawkins’ novel The Girl on the Train called as a psychological thriller novel. That can be implied because the characteristics of a psychological thriller novel are; (1) having a plot which concerns with character’s psychology, (2) having a plot twist which cannot be guessed, (3) having a tone and setting which makes the hearts palpitate, and (4) having an unreliable narrator. In accordance with those, the explanation about anxiety and defense mechanism in intrinsic elements of Hawkins’ has fulfilled the requirement. REFERENCES Bahador, R and E. Zohdi. (2015). Alice Munro’s “Runaway” in the Mirror of Sigmund Freud. Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Vol. 8 (1) (2019) 85 International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature. 4/2. 169-176. Bao, Z and J. Zhao. (2015). A Freudian Psychoanalysis of Hulga in “Good Country People”. Journal of English Language and Literature Studies. 5/3. 88-93. Freud, S. (2014). A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis. (G. Stanley Hall, Trans). University of Adelaide, South Australia: eBooks@Adelaide. (Original work published 1920). Available at: https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/f/freud/sigm und/general-introduction-to- psychoanalysis/index.html Freytag, G. (1896). An Exposition of Dramatic Composition and Art. Second Edition. Translated by: Elias J. MacEwan. Chicago: S.C. Griggs & Company. Gholipour, M and M. Sanahmadi. (2013). Psychoanalytic Attitude to The Great Gatsby. International Journal of Humanities and Management Sciences. 1/1. 51-53. Glover, David. “The Thriller.” The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction. Ed. Martin Priestman. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. 135–53. Print. Hawkins, P. (2015). The Girl on the Train. New York: River head Books. Isaoğlu, H. (2015). Freudian Psychoanalytic Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. The Journal of Academic Social Science Studies. 32/3. Page 499-511. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.9761/JASSS2713. Mecholsky, K. The Psychological Thriller: An Overview. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/17484925/The_P sychological_Thriller_An_Overview. [accessed 27/10/17] Minderop, A. 2011. Psikologi Sastra: Karya Sastra, Metode, Teori, dan Contoh Kasus. Jakarta: Yayasan Pustaka Obor. Sarijaloo, S.T. and S. Kiaei. (2016). A Freudian Reading of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature. 5/2. 30-39. https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/f/freud/sigmund/general-introduction-to-psychoanalysis/index.html https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/f/freud/sigmund/general-introduction-to-psychoanalysis/index.html https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/f/freud/sigmund/general-introduction-to-psychoanalysis/index.html http://dx.doi.org/10.9761/JASSS2713 https://www.academia.edu/17484925/The_Psychological_Thriller_An_Overview https://www.academia.edu/17484925/The_Psychological_Thriller_An_Overview