Anxiety Over Self And Identity

As a master of psychological realism at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century,Henry James opens up a new field of psychological novels.His works display the labyrinth-like inner world of the ordinary people.The Wings of the Dove,one of his influential works,shows the complicated and contradictory inner world of the heroine,Milly Theale.Through analyzing Milly's predicament of psychological anxiety during her travel in Europe,James reveals a universal social phenomenon behind her anxiety.With the help of Horney's anxiety theory,this thesis explores the embodiment and the source of her anxiety and her strategies against it,and finds that Milly's anxiety reflects a certain kind of Americans' anxiety over self and identity in Europe.Milly's effort to fight against anxiety indicates that James tries to help the Americans out of their psychological predicament but fails in the end.The thesis consists of three parts.The first part is a brief introduction to The Wings of the Dove,the studies abroad and at home,the problem to be studied and the theory to be applied in this thesis.The second part is the body,which is made up of three chapters.The first chapter discusses the embodiment of Milly's anxiety,primarily focusing on the depressing scenes of life,the terrifying image of “abyss”,the disturbing images of “dove” and the “other”,which all embody Milly's endless worry about and fear of life.Milly's anxiety over death,love and moral and cultural identity all stems from the huge gap between her ideals and the reality.She pursues her self and identity,such as longing for the familial warmth,friends' love,social and cultural identity,however,she loses everything in life.She not only experiences the bereavement of all her family and the betrayal of her friends but also the limitation of the European society and culture.The second chapter analyzes the causes of Milly's anxiety.Milly wishes to pursue romantic love and colorful life in Europe,but the real life only leaves her lonely and miserable.The huge gap between her ideals and the reality comes into sharp inner conflicts which consequently cause her anxiety.Chapter three explores Milly's resistance to her anxiety.On the one hand,Milly positively meets her desires in an attempt to comply with every wish of her friends and bravely confronts the challenges of her life;on the other hand,she avoids the cruelties of the reality in a negative way,such as idealizing her situation and running away from the complicated relationships,nevertheless,she dies lonely and ends up with a tragedy.The third part is a conclusion.It summaries the main ideas of this thesis and indicates that James writing about and representing Milly's anxiety in The Wings of the Dove conveys his concern with and worry about the Americans' self and identity predicament when they travel in Europe.