A Freudian Analysis On Lily Bart’s Personality Formation In The House Of Mirth

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was a very famous and prolific American female writer who won the first female Pulitzer Prize and the golden medal. As an influential and versatile master in American literary history at the turn of the twentieth century, Edith Wharton held her literary belief of "Art for life" throughout her literary career. Her first novel The House of Mirth is her masterpiece and a big success, which was published in1905and mainly portrayed the aspects of the Old New York upper class society and depicted the oppression and constraint of the female in the patriarchal society.This thesis attempts to make use of the Freudian psychoanalytic theory to study the protagonist in The House of Mirth, so as to reveal the significance of keeping a balanced personality in our lives.The thesis is mainly composed of four parts. The first part is an introduction that briefly presents Edith Wharton’s family background, together with her contribution to the American literature, a brief introduction to The House of Mirth and the literature review.The second part makes a detailed introduction about Freud’s psychoanalytical theory.The third part examines on the formation of Lily Bart’s unbalanced personality from the adverse impact of her domestic education and her family, the constraints of the female’s id in the male-dominated upper-class, her disembodied choice and frustrated love affairs caused by her lost id and ego. Lily had no ability to make a living and she had no choice but to seize a rich man to acquire the social status and happy life. When Lily was deserted from the upper class, she sank into great anxiety and she used the defense mechanism to struggle for her life.The fourth part is the conclusion of the dissertation. The education and living environment may influence a person’s personality and the personality influences the destiny. So in order to realize the value of life, we had better build and keep an independent and balanced personality, and enrich our mind to build a peaceful family atmosphere where people can adjust their mind and behaviors positively.By analyzing the protagonist’s personality and her imbalanced personality, it enlightens the modern women to tutor themselves and to enhance the coordinated development among the id, ego and superego. Possessing such kind of balanced personality will help us to achieve the value of life.