On The Psychological Motivations Of Briony's Behaviors In Atonement In Lght Of Psychoanalysis

Since the publication of Atonement,various approaches have been applied to study and explore it.As one of the representative works of Ian McEwan,Atonement shows the adept writing skill of the author in language performance and details description especially the characters' mental activities.Therefore,the researches on the novel have often emphasized the writing skill and the narrative technique.Since McEwan has an elaborate depiction and portrait of character,it is greatly worth to probe into the character's psychology to understand the story.Besides,readers would ponder over characters' behaviors during the reading.Thus,to understand Atonement well is not limited to his writing skill.This thesis is to focus on the protagonist Briony and explore the psychological motivations of her from the perspective of Freudian psychoanalysis.The study examines Briony's personality structure and presents her development process from being self-willed to mature,which also demonstrates the process of individual's personality from the imbalance to the balance.Thus,the analysis aims to manifest that individuals must assure that the personality structure is in balance if they want to have a healthy and normal mentality to live.This would prompt people to pay more attention to the contemporary psychological issues as well.Besides,through the analysis,the motivation and the reason of Briony's behaviors especially her wrong accusation of Robbie could be revealed,which is helpful for having a better comprehension of the story in the novel.