The Interpretation Of Psychoanalysis For The Picture Of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde, as the British aestheticism representative, with his extraordinary literary attainments and bold uninhibited life style, was significant to the history of world literature. Just as Wilde's rebellious character, his literary works reflect a strong personal color, and the content of his works not only covers Wilde's aesthetic beliefs, but also reflects his disgust on the rigid dogma era and pursuit of individual liberty. In addition, the language of his works is cold and beautiful but contains profound wisdom, so his ironic works can reveal the reality and sink immediately into people's hearts. In 1891, Wilde published his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. With its unique conception and strange idea, this novel tells that a handsome man Dorian Gray, a new entrant into the society, exchanged souls with the portrait in order to always maintain his beauty. And at the end of the novel, the author left a puzzling suspense, making it a permanent hot topic discussed by readers. With regard to the end of the novel, some people think it is because of Wilde's aestheticism faith, and some people think that the reason why Oscar Wilde wrote like this is to want to convey a moral to the public. Not just the ending, this novel itself is very attractive, so even now the novel is still the focus of academic discussion. Some scholars start from aestheticism theory to interpret Wilde's aesthetic beliefs embodied in this novel, and some start from the view of freedom to analyze Wilde's concept of freedom by Dorian Gray's excessive pursuit of material desires, furthermore, some examine Wilde's homosexual identity through analyzing the novel. Various interpretations directly prove the novel's charm. The author believes that Wilde narrates and reveals his struggle and desire in his own heart by the novel protagonist Dorian's upbringing. Overall, Wilde's life experiences and Dorian's growth process reveal a common kind of inner struggle and desire. Therefore, this paper tries the method of psychoanalysis, and combines La Can's psychoanalytic theory to analyze the process of Dorian's self-discovery, self-denial, and self-quest. In addition, according to Wilde's own experiences and multiple identities, this paper will analyze the end of the novel and reveal the philosophical implication of the death of Dorian and the athanasia of portrait at the end of the novel.La Can's psychoanalytic theory has been discussed in academic circles, whose theory of mirror stage, theory of illusion, theory of desire and so forth break the self-construction theory of people-centered. Lacan believes that people construct their own bodies with the outside mirror and combined with his own imagination, the subject presets a "non-self" model which is "ideal self" the subject wants to achieve in his lifetime, and under the guidance of illusory image, this subject gradually abandons himself to become "others." Besides the main reason why the subject identifies with "ideal self" is that the existence of "ideal self" is based on the lack of subject. And this lack not only provides the impetus for the subject becoming unlimited "others", but also declares the failure of the construction of self by the subject. That is to say, the subject not only does not find himself but also holds himself walking on the way of self-abandon.For Dorian in the novel, the forever young and forever beautiful teenager in the portrait is the ultimate goal of Dorian, and under the magic of the portrait, Dorian realizes the dream of eternal youth. Dorian who has fulfilled his dream generates excessive desire under the external stimuli, and becomes more eager to enjoy the beautiful youth. On the other hand, he even cannot look straight into really ugly self in the portrait. The double stimuli let Dorian fall into contradictions when he seeking self, and finally he chooses to destroy his true self in exchange for eternal youth, and it turns out to his tragic death under the portrait.Dorian's passive growth process is just like the subject's self-seeking process in La Can's psychoanalytic theory. This article will be divided into two parts to interpret Dorian's growth and death with La Can's theory. On the one hand, we will use La Can's subject theory to interpret Dorian's passive growth in order to reveal the human subject's passive failure to seek self. On the other hand, combined with Wilde's era and his own multiple identities, we will analyze the bizarre ending of the recovery of Dorian's death portrait, and strive to explore philosophical moral of the work.