Return To The Real-Lacanian Analysis Of Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea published in 1966 is a reversal of Jane Eyre in literary world. The female writer Jean Rhys renews the mad woman, Bertha Mason who is imprisoned in the attic of Thornfield Mansion in Jane Eyre. The madwoman is deprived of the right of discourse in Jane Eyre. Everything about her is narrated by the others. In the narration of others, Bertha is repulsive in appearance and is a stumbling block in the happy matrimony life of Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Bertha Mason is rescued by Jean Rhys from the attic and is turned from "the other" on the margin into "the self' in the text. In the novel, the ex-wife of Rochester, Antoinette Cosway, tells about her story, her memories and her secrets. In the whole story, Antoinette's personality transforms from sanity to confusion between reality and dreams. With much attention to Jean Rhys, researches of this novel at home are like kaleidoscope. Some analyze the artistic features and themes of the novel; some focus on symbolism, aesthetic images and death images; some read it from the perspective of Semantics, some from the angle of narratology; Some compare the novel with others and some emphasize on characterizations. In most ways the researches of this novel focus on the colonialist discourse. Critics abroad study this novel from the perspective of feminism and narrative strategy. A few researchers and critics have paid attention to the characterizations, but they stressed on the relation between the disposition and fate of characters. Therefore, this paper, according to the presupposition of Lacan's subject theory, attempts to analyze the characterization of the heroine Antoinette and both the inner cause and outer cause of her transformation from a normal woman into a mad one. Lacan's theory has a deep influence on feminism. The theoretical foundation of this thesis includes Lacan's subject theory. The object of this thesis lies in probing into the arduous journey in which the heroine Antoinette identifies the self in a marginal society and loses the self under patriarchal system. To some extent, the paper is an achievement of the writer, who endeavors to do some meaningful research on novels. Furthermore, I hope it could be a significant complement for the existed studies of the novel and the experience of it can be used for future researchers.This paper begins with a brief introduction to Jean Rhys' life experience and her works. The object of the study of this paper, Island of India is one Sargasso Sea, which is staged in Westward of White Creoles. Antoinette, the heroine, is hybrid descendants of colonists and aborigines. The background of the story is the liberation in Dominica, which leads to the freedom of black slaves. In this novel, it shows the decline and waning of a class and along with it the trauma of local habitants. Meanwhile, it displays the living predicament of a woman who hardly locates her self identity.Chapter One deals with the first order- the symbolic order of lacan's subject theory. According to Lacan, Imaginary order is the fundamental narcissism by which the human subject creates fantasy images of both himself and his ideal object of desire. The imaginary order is closely tied to Lacan's theorization of the mirror stage. The idea of the "mirror stage" is an important early component in Lacan's critical reinterpretation of the work of Freud. Drawing on work in physiology and animal psychology, Lacan proposes that human infants pass through a stage in which an external image of the body (reflected in a mirror, or represented to the infant through the mother or primary caregiver) produces a psychic response that gives rise to the mental representation of an "I"(self or ideal ego). In this part, her mother, Christophine, Rochester, and the pet parrot are mirrors for the female protagonist.Chapter Two in accordance with Lacan's theory of the symbolic order mainly discusses the confusion of Antoinette's self identity and the arduous journey of her self reorganization in Black culture and in White culture. The relationship between Antoinette and Tia shows the racial gap clearly and obviously. Antoinette hardly finds the racial identification in the white and the black. she is just a in-between, a marginal white Creole. What's more, the name of father is another important concept in this chapter.Chapter Three in terms of Lacan's views of the real order, in this chapter, gender construction is mainly discussed, especially in the patriarchal society and capitalist society, on the basis of her confusion of self identity. Finally Antoinette reidentifies the self through the reunion with the black girl Tia.The last part is the conclusion of this thesis. Reading Jean Rhys' novel Wide Sargasso Sea in the light of psychoanalysis, this thesis probes into the experience of the heroine Antoinette's seeking for the self, and losing the self.