Tragedy Of “Misrecognition”

Compared with the males,females in the middle century were socially far below them,and were deprived of equal social rights as them.The story about the first female pope—Joan in the history happened right in the dark middle age.Donna Woolfolk Cross,the author of the novel Pope Joan,dramatically displayed the heroine Joan's legendary life: from a female rejected by the society to a pope adored by people of Rome,she has endured so many hardships.Besides,she fights all her life to seek for equal social statuses as men and recognition of the society.For women in that age,her spirit is of pioneering significance.However,the ending of the story is thought-provoking.What is the reason that leads to Joan's tragedy? Hence,this M.A.thesis tries to illustrate psychological traits of the heroine from the perspective of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's theory,aiming at exploring inner causes resulting in Joan's tragic fate and implications for people today.This thesis is divided into six chapters.Chapter One is the overall introduction,i.e.brief introduction to the author and the story,significance of the research,along with the layout of the thesis.Chapter Two is literature review,which makes a summary of the research status at home and abroad.Chapter Three is the theoretical foundation which elaborates relative theories applied to the thesis,including the Mirror Stage Theory and Desire Theory.Chapter Four applies the Mirror Stage Theory to analyze Joan's misrecognition of the “mirror image” and the reality.Chapter Five moves on to analyze Joan's misrecognition of the desire: exploring how Joan misrecognizes the desire of “others” as the desire of herself and misses her lifetime of happiness,which results in her final tragedy.Chapter Six is the conclusion part.Through the above analysis,the thesis comes to the conclusion that Joan's miserable fate is more than a tragedy of the dark middle ages.It is also a tragedy caused by her own misrecognition of the self and the desire.Although the social system can be changed,the ultimate determinant is the subject's self-recognition.For Joan,it is her not being able to correctly recognize and control the self that generates presumptuous desires,which finally brings about her tragedy.The research reveals: in one's life,there would be countless “mirrors”;each person should learn to choose the right “mirror of life”.With regard to those false “mirrors”,one should have the courage to destroy them.Besides,one should not be obsessed with a desire impossible to be realized.When faced with choices,one should learn to give up and let something go without being affected by the circumstances.Otherwise,even though external factors,such as the dark social system,were changed,unrealistic desires would give rise to tragic result.