Electra Complex In The Female’s Pursuit For Power

D. H. Lawrence is one of the most important modern novelists in Englishliterature. While the Oedipus complex in his works is well-studied, its opposite, theElectra complex, is often neglected. So this paper is going to study the Electracomplex in Lawrence’s work, taking his The Rainbow as a case. It aims to prove thatin this novel, there exists the Electra complex and this complex comes from the girl’spursuit for power.This thesis includes four chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to theresearch aim and methodology of this paper. Its theoretical foundation is Freud’spsychoanalysis. On this basis it stretches to one of its branches, the Electra complex,which is the topic of the whole paper. Then it sets out some studies and researches onthe novel to give a general background. The second chapter and the third chapter aredetailed analysis of Anna and Ursula’s childhoods and growth in terms of the ElectraComplex. In chapter Two, Anna’s feeling to her stepfather Tom changed from hatredto love. Their affection was a mixture of friendship and love. She worshiped thepowerful man and we can see the Electra complex in her. But after her marriage withWill this complex seemed to disappear. However, it had been in the woman’s heart.She would keep it until she found another mighty being. So to some women, theElectra complex is in her all her life. In chapter Three, little Ursula also had thisElectra complex to her father, but when she went into her adolescence she changedher objective of worship. During this period, the relationship between her and hermistress Miss Inger is some sort of Lesbian. But when Ursula recognized her mistake,she left Miss Inger decidedly. At last Ursula found herself and had an independentbeing, a real being. So if a girl can grow to herself and have her own being, she wouldprobably get the fid of the Electra complex. The forth chapter is a conclusion of thestudy. Through Anna and Ursula’s experiences, we can get the conclusion that the Electra complex starts from a girl’s worship for power and ends with her own being’sformation. In fact, Electra complex is only a part of a girl’s growth. If she could growup in soul, then she would give away the complex, becoming an independent person.