The bisexual: Freud, Lawrence, and Woolf

This study applies Freud's 2 psychoanalysis theories to examine the bisexual characters, Rupert Birkin in Women in Love written by Lawrence and Clarissa Dalloway in Mrs. Dalloway written by Woolf and the bisexual characters' relation with the authors. In Chapter 1, I divide this chapter into 3 subheads. In subhead 1, I discuss "either-or" theory to demonstrate Freud's sexual orientation (i.e., the bisexual). Then, I track on Freud's either-or theory and assume that his preference of bisexualities comes from the Oedipus complex and the ego and super-ego. In subhead 2, I resume examination of Lawrence's effeminacy and sum up with the assumption that Freud's male Oedipus complex causes his effeminacy; however, his ego insists on his masculinity. Therefore, the idea of the ego (super-ego) makes him merge into an idea of bisexualities. In subhead 3, I compare and contrast Lawrence's bisexuality with Woolf's. I conclude that Woolf's bisexuality is simply the result of the female Oedipus complex, so that she demonstrates an androgynous mind, which indicates her sexual preference of bisexualities. In Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, I assume that Lawrence and Woolf, as the author of the 2 novels, play both a masculine and a feminine role in each. Although Lawrence and Woolf both create the doubleness in the characters (Lawrence assumes the roles of Rupert Birkin and Ursula Brangwen and Woolf enacts those of Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith), we may recognize that their development of the idea of bisexualities, in accordance with Freud's psychoanalytic theory, is diverse.