Pursuing The Existence Of True Self: An Analysis Of The Summer Before The Dark From The Perspective Of Existentialism

Doris Lessing is an outstanding female writer in the 20 th century. She creates many prestigious works in England, even in the world during her lifetime. She is particularly focused on women’s life in her works and The Summer Before the Dark is a typical one of them. Although there aren’t complex story lines in this novel, the content is a very intriguing. It tells how a common middle-class woman deals with her mental crisis through the experience of a summer journey, which makes her reconstruct her self-consciousness and then return her home at last.The heroine’s experience of this summer is the main line of this story. From the perspective of Sartre’s Existentialism, this thesis analyzes the changing process of her thoughts and then discusses how she wakes up in the predicament as well as how she begins her journey of pursuit in anguish. Finally the heroine gets the existence of true self by free choices. Sartre’s existentialism is the theoretical basis for this thesis, which can help readers understand the process of heroine’s pursuit more deeply and see through its implicit realistic meaning. In order to make the framework of this thesis more clearly, it can be divided into six chapters. The first chapter mainly outlines Lessing’s life story and the main content of this novel, The Summer Before the Dark. The second chapter is the literature review. This part puts forward the research significance of this thesis on the basis of others’ research achievement with the help of research literature at home and abroad. The third chapter is the theoretical basis for this thesis, which introduces the development of existentialism and Sartre’s existentialism. Combined with the plots, the forth chapter analyzes the heroine’s existential predicament. The first part analyzes Kate’s unauthentic living state and the being state of her awakening consciousness by applying being-in-self and being-for-self. The second part analyzes Kate’s anguish when she faces choices and the torture caused by the conflict between the two being states. Besides, others have important effect on the individual’s being because others’ eyes and expectations are also main reasons for making people lose their authentic life. Facing unknown choices, the negative being-in-self and the bondage of others, her awakening being-for-self takes her into the anguish. The fifth part mainly discusses how Kate pursues the essence of her being by choosing freely and she gets out of the predicament at last. Kate faces the life bravely and finally she chooses to return home with being an independent self after making two different choices. Not only do her choices make her own get out of anguish, but also take responsibility for others. Based on the above analyses, the sixth chapter makes the conclusion for this thesis. This thesis chooses Sartre’s existentialism as research perspective, which fits in with the theme of this novel. It reveals that people must be good at self-reflection and keep their own authenticity to decide their destiny. The anguish in life is inevitable but people can actively find their way out to achieve the meaning of their existence through free choices.