Transcending Inferiority Complex:Individual Psychology In Stephen Crane's Three Protagonists Of Inferiority Feelings

Stephen Crane,the famous American poet,novelist and short-story writer in the early 20~thh century,is recognized by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation.Prolific throughout his short life,he wrote notable works in the realism tradition as well as some early examples of American Naturalism and Modernism.Besides the masterpiece,The Red Badge of Courage,his short novels are also well known by his readers.Based on real world,most of Crane's characters are small potatoes from daily life.The thesis has selected three protagonists among them--they are Maggie Johnson from Maggie:A Girl of the Streets,the Swede in“The Blue Hotel”and Henry Fleming from The Red Badge of Courage,who all suffer from different levels of inferiority complex,put forward by the founder of Individual Psychology,Alfred Adler.Inferiority complex,rooted from the inferiority feelings,plays an important role in the process of individual psychological development.The first part goes to Introduction.This session gives a brief introduction about the research methods of this thesis,Stephen Crane and his work.Then it summarizes the literary criticism from home to abroad on Stephen Crane and the above three works.The purpose and the significance of the thesis are also elaborated in this part.The second part is divided into three chapters.Each chapter makes a comparative analysis of the protagonist in the corresponding stories.From the perspective of Individual Psychology,the thesis presents a variety of abnormal or ridiculous behaviors of the three mentioned protagonists,elucidates their corresponding inferiority complex,and especially illustrates their various ways of transcendence and different endings.The first chapter analyses the story of the young girl,Maggie.Influenced by her family and external factors,Maggie always holds the sense of inferiority.When falling in love with Pete,Maggie becomes more inferior and sensitive.After many trials of surpassing inferiority complex turn to be failures,she chooses to commit suicide as the sublimation of her soul.The second chapter discusses a short story of an outlander,who tends to be offensive,suspicious and unfriendly under most circumstances.In the story,the Swede is an experienced tailor with shaky eyes.His dreadful journey to the western town,a short stay in the blue hotel and two experiences of playing card games with the local people all foreshadow his miserable ending.His bizarre behavior and arrogant attitude hinder the pace of his transcendence and the death of the Swede witnesses his difficulty of transcending inferiority complex.The third chapter probes the growth of a timid youth becoming a warrior in the novel The Red Badge of Courage.Henry Fleming,the protagonist,who joined the army to prove himself at the very beginning,became a deserter in the war due to the instinct of survival.After the baptism of war,the departure even death of his comrades and the torture of his inner soul,he eventually succeeds in transcending inferiority complex and grows up as a truly brave soldier with the badge of courage.Conclusion sums up what have been discussed in the previous chapters,that is,the poor girl Maggie who has made many attempts but failed during the transcendence of inferiority complex.The Swede,who got certain improvement against inferiority complex,finally lost his life in this process.And the weak youth Henry has turned to be a courageous warrior during his endeavors of transcending his inferiority complex.Through the analysis of three figures with inferiority complex from the perspective of Adlerian theory,this thesis attempts to explore Crane's work by utilizing the psychological development of his characters and to put forward a relatively new viewpoint on the study of Stephen Crane so as to enrich the research dimensions of Crane's works.