Nina’s Quest For The Self: An Interpretation Of Strange Interlude In The Light Of Lacan’s Theory Of Subject

This thesis applies the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s theories on subject construction to interpret self quest motif of the play Strange Interlude which was created by the American dramatist Eugene O’Neill.This thesis is composed of three parts besides the introduction and conclusion.In Introduction, Eugene O’Neill’s life experience is surveyed. He was born into a theatrical family and his painful life experience and his inner split and conflicts became the source and inspiration in his drama creation. Following that, there is a brief introduction of the play and various criticisms about it in the literal circles. This part is a preparation for the later discussion.Chapter One "Lacan’s Theory of Subject" illuminates the interpretation of the subject from the psychoanalytical perspective. Lacan’s elaboration of the psychic structure of the subject, the Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real reveal that the self is reliant on the reflection of the other and subject to the influence of the Other.Chapter Two "Nina’s Disintegration of the Subject" focuses on the process of Nina’s painful experience of disintegration from her whole self and constituted subject to shattered ones. According to Lacan, in "The Mirror Stage" the self is constituted of an external image---the other in the mirror in the Imaginary. Before Gordon’s death, Nina’s self is constructed by the other---her father and her fiance. Nina is traditional, faithful, chaste and conservative. And Nina’s subject is established under the influence of the Other---Puritanism which is represented by Nina’s father. She believes in Puritanism and behaves in accordance with the law of the "father". After the death of Gordon, everything changes. Nina finds the truth that her father prevents Gordon from marrying her because of his egoist reason. And she rejects the belief of Puritanism which is taught to her by her father. Nina withdraws into the stage between the mirror stage and the Symbolic, in which Nina has not got the imagery self and the constructed subject.Chapter Three "The Pursuit of the self and Subject" tells that Nina begins to reconstruct the self and subject with the help of others. Nina thinks she is selfish to refuse to give her self to Gordon before Gordon’s death. Nina’s failure to give herself to Gordon and be Gordon’s wife is the trauma. She has the idea that if she devotes herself to the soldiers in the war who suffer as Gordon does, she can find her ideal self. But she fails again. Meanwhile, the fact that the direct cause of her life tragedy is the war is exposed. In the second interlude, Nina is persuaded to find herself through her husband Sam and having a baby. But she is disappointed again. Materialism which is represented by Sam and flourished after the war can not construct Nina’s subject because of its weakness exposed by Sam. The third interlude is about Nina and her lover, Darrell. Her failure to find herself through Darrel, a doctor, indicates that sciences as the new belief cannot help Nina find her subject and cannot cure the society of its sickness. Ned and Sam, science and business, have been fighting for Nina’s physical body, but it is finally Puritanism that claims her immortal soul, in the figure of Charles Marsen.The conclusion is that Strange Interlude presents the agony and frustration of human being in the process of quest for the self. Every other composes a strange interlude in the process of the subject’s construction. The disintegration of Nina’s self and subject and the process of her quest for the self and subject expose the frustration and agony of human being’s existences after World War I. Nina is also an allegoric figure of modern man who tries to find a new brief in the belief crisis after World War I. Whether the materialism, scientism and new Puritanism flourishing after the war can lead people to find the meaning of the life attract public’s attention. Nina’s search for self is endowed with universal meaning. The ending of Nina’s quest indicates that the author hope that new Puritanism can be the remedy.