On The Awakening Of Maggie’s Sell-Consciousness From The Perspective Of Psychoanalytic Feminism

George Eliot, in her masterpiece The Mill on the Floss, fully presented that the demands on women’s behaviors and norms the society had made in Victorian Age when the male takes the dominated position. After its publication, the ending of this novel has gained widely attention. Many scholars are confused about the ending of the novel, and they think Maggie’s death is abrupt and illogical. This thesis attempts to prove the ending of this novel is appropriate to the author’s intention and tries to analyze the deep meaning of Maggie’s death from the perspective of Psychoanalytic Feminism. In this novel, as a matter of fact, Maggie Tulliver has been trying to realize the awakening of her own female consciousness through her short life though having to bear the pressure from her own family and the society. This thesis, based on discussing the process and change of Maggie’s self-consciousness, aims to reveal the fact that the heroine with rebellious spirit struggles on the process of awakening her self-consciousness, and in the end, sacrifices herself to reach a harmonious state between men and women. Besides, this thesis also tries to explore the feminism awareness permeated in Maggie as well as George Eliot herself.This thesis consists of four major parts in addition to the introduction and conclusion. The introduction includes the general presentation of the author and the novel, gives a simple review of an extensive literature review of the works both at home and abroad, and the introduction to the theory used in this thesis. Based on Freud’s psychoanalytic personality theory, the first chapter discusses the inner influences of Maggie’s development of her self-consciousness through her own personality. The second chapter mainly reflects the germination of Maggie’s self-consciousness by discussing her female image, her incongruous personality with the patriarchal society and her both rebellious and worship attitudes toward the patriarchy. The third chapter further discusses the awakening of Maggie’s self-consciousness, which is displayed in her runaway, her eager to get knowledge and her rebellion to her brother Tom. The fourth chapter illustrates the sublimation of Maggie’s self-consciousness. After she is confronted with kinds of emotional suppression, Maggie becomes mature enough to know what she wants to get and to make her own choice between right and wrong. In the end, she reaches a reconciliation with her brother and finally realizes her own self-salvation through her own sacrifice.In conclusion, this thesis is to discuss the awakening of Maggie’s self-consciousness in The Mill on the Floss from four parts and try to illustrate George Eliot’s opinion that "human beings are born with the desire to pursuit self-consciousness. When self-pursuit contradicts with the reality, people have to sacrifice themselves because of their love and sympathy on others".Maggie struggles to pursuit her own consciousness all her life, and her final choice is to sacrifice her own life in order to reach a harmonious relationship with the outside world. Perhaps only in this way can she truly realize and ascend her own self-consciousness.