Self-destruction in the Mirror: A Lacanian Psychoanalysis of Death of A Salesman

【作者】 冯育军；

【导师】 刘煜；

【作者基本信息】 西安外国语大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2011， 硕士

【摘要】 阿瑟·米勒(1915-2005)是美国最杰出的三大戏剧家之一,也是美国二战后出现的最重要的两位剧作家之一。他的戏剧通常涉及社会道义,个人良知,负罪感和责任心。父子关系成为他的剧作中经常展现的焦点,父子冲突是经常出现的主题。《推销员之死》这部米勒的代表作,描写了小人物威利·洛曼由于内心严重的精神危机而导致的自我毁灭的催人泪下的故事。批评家们从马克思主义、文化研究等众多理论指导下对其进行了分析解读,然而从精神分析角度解读特别是拉康镜像三阶段理论来探求主人公悲剧的还比较少有。在本文中,笔者将从拉康镜像理论的视角分析解读这部历久弥新的作品。从心理分析的角度出发,展示人类由于在镜像阶段形成的自恋的天性束缚,在高度异化的资本主义世界里痛苦不堪追求自恋的理想形象,由于对想象界理想自我的严重误认和象征界流行的却很偏颇的价值观的误导,在唯利是图的商业世界的严重的缺陷面前不知何去何从,于是自我欺骗和麻醉自己以求自我安慰,强烈的自恋情结加上卑微的自尊心将主人公压得濒临崩溃,这就触及了威利的悲剧性---以自杀的方式终结了他的主体性也终止了欲望的继续滑动,如此以来与母亲和自然的结合的欲望才得以满足并回到现实界,主体欲望追求过程中的强大张力得到永远的释放。基于拉康的镜像三阶段理论,读者将深刻意识到镜像中的误认才是主人公威利洛曼人生悲剧的真正肇因。更多还原

【Abstract】 Arthur Miller (1915-2005) was one of the three greatest playwrights in the twentieth century American literary history and one of the two important playwrights after the Second World War. He has been widely acknowledged as a social playwright because his play is mainly about social moral, personal conscience, guilty conscience and sense of responsibility of common American people. During his life time he wrote many prominent plays with the theme of conflict between father and son.Death of A Salesman as a representative play of Miller depicts Willy Loman, a small man’s self-destruction due to his crisis of mental world. Critics have interpreted the play in different theories like Marxist criticism and cultural studies. However, critics seldom reread the play from the perspective of psychoanalysis, especially from the Lacanian triad order of human psyche.Hence, this thesis intends to unfold the exploration of the causes of the self destruction of the protagonist from the perspective of Lacanian psychoanalysis. According to the mirror theory, narcissism is very important in the process of the formation of self-identity. Because of the instinctive bondage of narcissism of human nature, those who desire to seek the ideal ego in an alienated capitalist society will surely find it hard to integrate into the merciless world of severe flaws, but the world is constructed under the law and language, which is the realm of Symbolic Order. To return to the state of nature in the Real Order is the only salvation. The protagonist Willy chooses to commit suicide to flee from the endless war of the innermost being, thus his desire to be with the Mother is satisfied.Thus, the readers may have a profound understanding of the genuine cause of the tragedy—the severe misidentification in the Mirror Order in the protagonist Willy under the light of Lacanian psychoanalysis.更多还原