Harold Fry’s Pursuit Of Self Identity In The Unlikely Pilgrimage From The Perspective Of Lacan’s Mirror Stage Theory

Rachel Joyce is an experienced British playwright,who has written radio scripts for more than twenty years.She has also been active in the drama stage,and won numerous screenplay awards.As her debut,The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry has been sold in over forty countries,shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2012.Once published,it is highly recommended by the domestic and foreign medias.This book is one of British best sellers in 2012 and has won the Annual Award of Best Newcomer of British Waterstones.The book tells a story about self discovery and return of love,which shows the nature of human beings and the pursuit of self identity.The protagonist,Harold Fry,an old man of more than 60 years old,walked over 627 miles using 87 days,who not only measured the geographical distance with his feet,but also his own life with his memories.Walking to the end,Harold finally reconstructs his self identity.Jacques Lacan’s mirror stage theory is one of the important theoretics focusing on the research of self identity.Based on Lacan’s mirror stage theory,this thesis attempts to analyze the causes for Harold Fry’s loss of self,interpret his awakening of self-consciousness,and discuss his pursuit of self-identity from the perspective of self and others.This paper consists of five chapters.The first chapter briefly introduces the author and her novel,the current researching trend at home and abroad,the innovation of this paper as well as its purpose and significance.It also details Lacan’s mirror stage theory,the concept of self,others and the relationship between self and others.The second chapter analyzes the formation of Harold Fry’s self awareness from the influence of original family and essential others.The lack of mother’s mirror image and the negative father’s specular image have devastating consequences on Harold’s growth,while the relationships with others also shape and influence his self consciousness constantly.The third chapter discusses the awakening of Harold’s self consciousness,which is the turning point of his pursuit of self identity.After experiencing the loss of self and dissatisfaction with reality,Harold starts to think about the question: who am I? The fourth chapter focuses on Harold’s long and difficult pursuit of self identity.Under the integration of self and others,he finally completes the reconstruction of self identity,finding himself.The last chapter summarizes the achievements and deficiencies of the paper.There are still deficiencies in alot of thesis analyses,but the author hopes to arouse all people to think about their own identities through analyzing the protagonist’s self identity pursuit with Lacan’s mirror stage theory.The ego always exists in the connection with others and establishes self identity through the recognition from others;if we can’t deal with these relationships properly,it will easily lead to identity crisis.Applying Lacan’s mirror stage theory to analyze and study this work can not only provide experience for the research on self-identity,but also help modern people to go through the identity crisis.