An Interpretation Of The Image Of Lily Bart In The House Of Mirth From The Perspective Of Lacanian Subject Theory

As one of the most celebrated American female writers in the late 19 th and early 20 th century, Edith Wharton(1862—1937) is the first woman novelist to win the Pulitzer Prize and the gold medal of The National Institute of Art and Literature. With exquisite psychological depiction and actual description of the upper-class in New York, she is known as a custom novelist and a psychological realistic writer.The House of Mirth, published in 1905, which is her first novel to arouse extensive attention. It not only describes moral crisis, physical contradictions and spiritual conflicts under strong pressure of a vulgar, snobbish and hypocritical social phenomenon, but also makes their struggles to get rid of the difficulties caused by the conflicts with social forces and individual natural feelings. The novel sets scenes at the upper-class of Old New York society, telling a tragic story that the heroine Lily Bart tries her best to marry a rich husband for the sake of a luxurious and comfortable life. Nevertheless, due to the resistance to loveless marriage, she unwillingly subjects to the patriarchal society in the innermost heart. After her downfall to the bottom step by step, she is abandoned by the upper-class and eventually ends with suicide. The novel attains widespread praise of the literary area because of its complex multiple perspectives and deep psychological exploration for the self-identity. In the novel, Lily Bart—an image with a strongly tragic color has touched readers’ heartstrings for more than a century, thus her comment has never stopped. This thesis applies Lacanian subject theory to interpret a distinct image of Lily Bart for the purpose of exploring Lily’s way to pursue the ego in the reflection of the other. The thesis can be mainly divided into introduction, four main body and conclusion.The introducing part, in which briefly introduces Edith Wharton and The House of Mirth, domestic and foreign research of the novel, and a thematic review of the thesis.Chapter One is theoretical foundation. It mainly illustrates the origin and development of Lacanian subject theory, and some key terms of the theory including the mirror stage theory, the ego and the other, and the three orders.From Chapter Two to Chapter Four is the main body, which further interprets the image of Lily in the application of mirror stage theory, the ego and the other and the three orders respectively. Chapter Two employs a special metaphor of the term “mirror” in the mirror stage theory to combine with three factors—emotion, morality and society which have tremendous influence on the characterization of Lily’s image, expecting to achieve a unique flavor of the literary art and the artistic literature. It aims to profoundly reveal thought poison and spiritual oppression under the atmosphere of Old New York society and the patriarchal society.Chapter Three mainly employs the theory of the ego and the other to analyze Lily’s self-pursuit reincarnation from the formation of the ego, the searching for the ego to the regression of the ego; accordingly, a progressive process of the other characterized by the beginning to alienate, the alienating and the alienated. Thus, it presents Lily’s mental progress filled with obstacles and conflicts, continuous healing and grown-up in the journey of transformation.In Chapter Four, it applies the theory of the three orders to establish a specific character orientation for Lily in every abstract order respectively, through the “subject” in the imaginary order the “other” in the symbolic order and the “Id” Lily in the real order, so as to demonstrate Lily’s tragedy from the inner ideal to the choice of death.The last part is the conclusion, which briefly demonstrates the above analysis and interpretation to deepen the theme and draw the ultimate conclusion: the construction of the ego is based on imaginary identification of the other, to some extent, the ego is the other. In reality, the pursuit of the ego and the realization of the ego are completely impossible, the fact fully testifies Lacan’s philosophical view—“the impossibility of the real order”. Finally, the researching value and referential significance of the thesis are concisely illustrated.