The following comments are related to the numbers shown at the sides of the image.
1 The background to the image is of a dark forest or wood signifying a 'forbidden' place that is populated by mythical figures and unstated dangers. A place that once entered changes our lives forever. In Freudian terms the forest can be seen as our repressed thoughts and desires.
2 A female figure in a state of undress with disheveled hair suggestive of a sexual encounter. Her pose and facial expression is the outward manifestation of her inner thoughts that are centred around a feeling of deep regret and horror about what has just happened. However her stance does not suggest that she was an unwilling participant in whatever has happened but that she has come to realise that it was an act that is seen as 'bad' by the culture in which she lives.
3 Bedding laid on the forest floor reinforces the message that there has been some activity between the two figures probably of a sexual nature that is also suggested in the state of the female's dress.
4 Appears to be a box of sweets or chocolate indicative of 'bribery' or maintenance of the initial facade of innocent play.
5 Male figure, in appearance older than the female, in a posture of despair. In Freudian terms this is the 'father' figure who has been the object of the daughter's desire to have a baby by her father.
What is not clear from the image is whether what we are looking at is the record of an actual event or a dream of one or the other characters. Whatever the image is it can be interpreted in Freudian terms as the outcome of an incestuous act that is, according to Freud, a universal taboo.
One aspect of interest in the image is the difference in the reactions of the two individuals. The male is in a state of deep despair whilst that of the female is one of considerable anxiety but she is not burdened by the heavy weight of guilt displayed by the man. Freud argues that whilst women suffer from penis-envy this is replaced by the desire to bear her father a child. He further argues that because the female does not suffer from the fear of castration her 'super-ego' (our conscience) is under-developed compared to that of the male who benefits from the need to repress his fear of castration. The under-development means that she is less moral than her male counterpart. As can be imagined such a view was and is highly controversial.
In the second part of this exercise we are asked to consider whether castration anxiety helps to explain the images featuring a dominatrix or simply a large woman and a small man. We are asked to consider the images using Freud's theories to see if they, in part at least, explain what is signified by the elements of the image. Freud's views on domination or sado-masochism changed over his professional life and it is difficult to unravel the contradictions in his various theories. He put forward the theory in 1905 that if, early in life, children witness sexual intercourse between adults they will view the act as "a sort of ill-treatment or act of subjugsation: they view it, that is, in a sadistic sense." To offer an explanation for masochism Freud proposed that it was a way of controlling a desire to sexually dominate others. he also argued that desire for a submissive role in sexual activity can occur on its own when a man wants to assume the passive female role with domination activity signifying being "castrated or copulated with, or giving birth." In 1920 he proposed that sadism derived from the "death instinct". However the theory fails to offer an explanation why in some it leads to sadism whilst in others it results in masochism.
"Because of its opacity and apparent remoteness from clinical practice (Freud himself acknowledged the "speculative" nature of its origins), the death drive became perhaps the most controversial aspect of Freud's theoretical corpus. A number of analytic theorists continued to explore its implications following Freud's death, especially Melanie Klein, in whose work the death drive figures prominently. (see http://science.jrank.org/pages/10903/Psychoanalysis-Dual-Instinct-Theory-Death-Drive.html). Given the breadth of Freud's explanations it is difficult to pinpoint one that offers an explanation of the "dominatrix or simply a large woman and a small man".
1 The speech contained within the bubble reinforces the image of the man as being the submissive partner in the relationship who seeks the advice of his wife on the possibility of help from a doctor with his lack of sexual desire.
2 This speech bubble also reinforces the relationship by stressing the domination of the woman who humiliates the man by her response that his sex urge is beyond help.
3 Here is the typical large woman of the seaside postcards who by her very size is placed as the dominant figure in the image.
4 The usual small man whose relative size signifies his inability both sexually and generally to dominate his wife and occupy the traditional place of man as the provider in a marriage.
My own view is that the use of different size relationship between women and men in postcard drawings (it can be seen in the reverse where there is a very muscular man and a petite female) is the artists way of turning the cultural relationship of men/women at this time on its head. Men were seen as the stronger and the more powerful of the two and their role was seen as being the protector and provider for the female. Only by exaggerating a difference would the possibility of such behaviour as depicted in the postcard drawing be acceptable.
There are however Freudian elements in the 'conversation' with the man clearly anxious about his sexual performance and the humiliating response from the wife. It could be argued that he has been 'castrated' from an early time in the marriage and his anxieties from childhood caused by threats of removal of his genitals if he did not stop being a 'dirty little boy' would be re-awakened leading to an increasing loss of libido.
I felt that there may be more mileage in exploring erotic postcards where the intention is obvious.
I have not annotated the image as the purpose is obvious. A similar exaggeration of size of the female is present as in the seaside postcard particularly in the buttocks. There can be very little doubt about the dominant person nor the very submissive nature of the male. Given the position and the most likely outcome, the death of the man the temptation is to go for Freud's view that such behaviour was related to the 'death wish'. However Freud had doubts about the relevance of this so it may be safer to assume that here the desire is generated by the need to adopt the totally submissive role where his continued existence relies solely upon the actions of the female - all choices for him have gone.
These postcards are for viewing by those who derive sexual stimulation from the images that are portrayed. The viewer places himself in the position of the submissive or herself in the position of the dominatrix. The question arises as to why such images arouse sexual feelings in those whose preference is for this type of sexual relationship. Perhaps for the submissive all control is lost and anything that happens cannot be his fault and therefore he cannot be punished or threatened by the 'castration'. All the anxieties generated in childhood by being scolded for masturbating can be negated by putting himself in the complete control of another. Often a child will try to avoid punishment by denying that it is him but some other person within him that is the guilty party.
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