The Abnormal Psychology Of Character Images In Ian McEwan’s Novels

Ian McEwan is one of the best-known contemporary British writers. His works integratereadability with artistry, which are received widely by readers. Influenced by his ownchildhood experience, the social environment and other writers, McEwan pays great attentionto the inner activity of characters. He applies psychological theories especially abnormalpsychology theory to make a careful psychological description about pervert lust andabnormal spirit of characters. He has portrayed a large number of characters with abnormalpsychology: such as neurotics, patients with personality disorder, sadists and masochists. Thisthesis is based on psychoanalysis and abnormal psychology theory through the way of textanalysis. The paper selects four works, which show most obvious abnormal psychology,“TheCement Garden","The Comfort of Strangers","Atonement" and "On Chesil Beach” for adetailed analysis and it concludes that McEwan has portrayed a large number of characterswith abnormal psychology not for the sake of novelty, but for the pursuit of goodness ofhuman nature.This thesis is divided into four parts. The introduction part(The first part) firstly gives abrief account of Ian McEwan’s composition, then it introduces and summarizes the currentsituation of researches having being done by scholars home and abroad，finally it explains thetopic ideas and research significance of the thesis. The first chapter and the second chapter(The second part) adopt the way of text analysis to discuss the abnormal psychology ofcharacter images in Ian McEwan’s novels. The first chapter has a detailed discussion of theearly works: incest in “The Cement Garden” and sadomasochism in “The Comfort ofStrangers”, explaining the world of pervert lust in early works of McEwan. The secondchapter has a detailed discussion of the later works: Narcissistic personality disorder in“Atonement” and Neurosis in “On Chesil Beach”, explaining the world of abnormal spirit inlater works of McEwan. The third chapter (The third part) has a detailed discussion ofMcEwan’s own childhood experience, the social environment and the influence of otherwriters, explaining the thought origin of McEwan’s novels.The conclusion part(The fourthpart) summarizes the essence of abnormal psychology of character for McEwan’s attention，pointing out the characteristic of his works.