Find A Complete Self

Doris May Lessing (1919—) won the Nobel Prize in Literature of 2007. She was described by the Swedish Academy as " that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny". This thesis chooses the images of five protagonists in Lessing's five novels which happened in England to discuss their search for self.Combining with Jungian analytical psychology, this thesis demonstrates these five female characters' journey in psyche to individuation. During this journey of their psyche, they all not only integrate the ego-consciousness with the complex in personal unconsciousness and the archetypes in collective unconsciousness, but also perceive other unconscious parts of the ego suppressed or unrealized by the ego-consciousness. As a matter of fact, the motif in Lessing's novels about how to sustain the integrity of people's psyche and personality in a fragmentary and compartmentalized modern society is also always concerned by Doris Lessing.As the images of heroine in modern society, these female protagonists in different stage of life and age were keeping searching for the self, which simply refers to the totality of the entire psyche and the personality in Jungian theory. From my point, only those who are courageous enough can face to the crack up happened in one's psyche and break through; and only through this special psychic journey, the female protagonists in these five novels can finally identify the self as well. It is concluded that the process of searching for the self which is manifested in Lessing's life and the characters of Lessing's novels is lifelong and never be ended in one's life.