A Study Of The Protagonist Of Ben,in The World From The Perspective Of Freudian Psychoanalysis

Doris Lessing,one of the well-known female writers in Britain in the 20~thh Century,is awarded as the greatest British female writer since Virginia Woolf.In 2007,she won the Nobel Prize for The Golden Notebook.Doris Lessing is the oldest woman among the Nobel Laureates.With a colorful experience and under the impact of trends of thoughts,her works have both width and depth in perspectives,and the reflection and exploration about human nature inside are worthy for us to develop and have an analysis.Ben,in the World is a miner work during Doris Lessing's late period creation and also the sequel of The Fifth child.A special emotion and deep expectation of the writer towards characters of this novel can be seen when continuation started after 12 years since the closure of The Fifth child.The study of critics mainly pays attention to her representative works in the wake of the Nobel Prize.As a miner but thought-provoking work,Ben,in the World has disclosed humanity in a vivid and incisive way,and it is the boundary of love and devastation of selfishness that decide the miserable ending of Ben.This thesis puts an emphasis on Ben's personality structural analysis by the adoption of Freud's psychoanalysis theory and conducts a brief analysis of the root of Ben's tragic fate Lessing's thought about human nature.The thesis is divided into three parts,which include introduction,main part and conclusion.Chapter One is about theoretical basis with the introduction of Freud's theory of personality structure and its regulatory mechanism:psychological defense mechanism.The personality structure consists of id,ego and superego.Id,the subconsciousness,is dominated by pleasure principles,represents people's passion for original requirements as well as the desire and impulsion;ego,which would be formed in one's five-year-old,is dominated by real principles,is the primary performance of non-instinctive desires,the main role of which is to address contradictions between id and superego so that the demand between these two can be met in a proper approach;superego,the supreme regulator in personality structure,is dominated by moral rules,is in an elegant condition.However,anxiety and other mental conditions of the subject are unavoidable when these three are working,for the time being,psychological defense mechanism would generate depression,regression and so on to deal with the frustrations in front of the subject.Chapter Two conducts an analysis of personality structure of Ben with the combination of Doris Lessing's works.Alienation of personality structure has been generated out of his physical difference and barbaric behaviors by gene mutation,the lack of family caring and disidentification in society.His tragedy was doomed by barbaric demand of id,long depressed ego and underlying superego.Chapter Three applies psychological defense mechanism to focus on Ben's efforts to utilize psychological defense mechanism including depression and regression to adjust him when he was in a society filled with repulsion and disagreement so that he can be accepted.Ben's psychological depression and regression derive from an aloof family,cruel social interaction and frightening domination of social sciences.Both depression and regression are all his compromise of personality structure to the society,whereas this concession didn't bring him enough hope and he still failed to escape the destiny.Chapter Four sets forth people's attitudes towards Ben with only some fragments of personality structure and their impact on him under the background of a divided civilization.Ben worked hardly and constantly to win social recognition but in return the fate played tricks on him heaps of times and friends left him because of economic benefit or other self-centered reasons.When he realized the cold fact that the pictures on the rock are perhaps the only companion he can find,added with a huge hit of social disidentification and he was led to perish.Her abundant life experiences grants her an unique perspective of a divided civilization and the conflict between human civilization and humanity remains a constant theme for Doris Lessing to think and explore.Human civilization develops through long-term and continued depression and sublimation of human nature.However,compromise to civilization is not a permanent solution when humanity's compromise reaches to a certain degree.Destruction or complete collapse is inevitable when humanity reaches compromises to civilization blindly.Therefore,a certain extent of liberalization of humanity should be achieved,out of which dialectical unification relations between civilization and humanity have been formed.Ben,in the World expresses Lessing's reflection on humanity and works as an alarm bell for the process of human moral civilization.