An Interpretation Of Dubliners From The Perspective Of Freudian Psychoanalysis

James Joyce is one of the greatest writers in 20 th century and is also one of the most influential novelists throughout the world.His writings all come from life.The collection of short stories Dubliners is one of his early works.The story collection takes the real characters as prototype,which reflects Joyce’s deep insight and thinking on human nature and society.The thesis attempts to analyze the internal causes of characters’ abnormal behavior and mental phenomenon in this story collection through the application of three theories of Freudian psychoanalysis,which is the psychological theory that explains people’s spirit or behavior.And it can clearly explain the psychological nature and root causes of the phenomenon from people’s abnormal behaviors and mental activities.The thesis utilizes personality structure,self-defense mechanism and life instinct and death instinct to reveal the mental phenomenon of characters,the roots of tragic fate so as to further express the theme of this story collection,which is exposed from the following aspects:First of all,by analyzing the conflict among id,ego and superego in personality structure,ego can’t buffer and balance the contradiction among id,social environment and superego so that it presents characters’ callousness,spiritual paralysis and death in Dubliners.Secondly,the thesis reveals the roots of tragedy of characters.Due to the conflict among id,social environment and superego,ego takes self-defense mechanism to mediate the contradiction.However,the self-defense mechanism is so weak that it can’t be properly used to alleviate the conflict.Therefore,the characters’ tragedy is inevitable.Finally,the thesis points out life instinct and death instinct throughout personality structure.Especially,Mr.Duffy’s life instinct is in contrast to Mrs.Sinico’s death instinct,which emphasizes the theme of death again.Consequently,the thesisexplores characters’ inner mind and discusses the internal reasons behind the tragedy to disclose the theme of this story collection and indicate Joyce’s concerns for the country and the people.In light of Freudian psychoanalysis,the thesis explores the distorted characters in Dubliners,which highlights the theme of this story collection and reflects social condition of that time and the author’s concern about his country and people.Not only can it deepen the understanding of this story collection,but also it can extend the method to interpret literary works and the scope of literary appreciation,which has a far-reaching significance.