The Tragedy Of Dorian Gray’s Self-destruction

Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray describes the tragedy that the innocent youth Dorian Gray gradually degenerated to an immoralist and murderer,ending up with death and self-destruction when he made an attempt to destroy the portrait.In former researches of the novel,the consequences of Dorian’s conscious behavior were emphasized rather than the pivot role that the unconsciousness played in his self-construction process.At the end of the nineteenth century in Britain,people were trapped in the dilemma of self-identification under the unconscious influence of others and the society.The thesis explores the underlying cause that gives rise to the tragedy of Dorian Gray’s self-destruction by analyzing the influence the unconsciousness exerts in different stages of his self-construction process from the perspective of Jacques Lacan’s Theory of Subject.Dorian was always at the mercy of the other in his self-construction process,which resulted in his tragedy.His imaginary self was established on the mirror image that Lord Henry and Basil Hallward created in virtue of the portrait and the yellow book.However,the formation of his imaginary self was the initiation of his self-destruction.Immersed in the pleasure and satisfaction brought by the imaginary self,he was unaware that his ego,the compression of his mirror images,had already been alienated and even replaced by the other.In order to free himself from the control of the other and pursue his true self,he intended to get away from the poisonous influence of Lord Henry but failed.As a subject of unconsciousness,he was in the dominance of symbolic orders including the language and social environment in the Symbolic.To be exact,his self was eliminated by the big Other.With the intention of erasing the evidence of his sins and beginning his new life,he made an attempt to destroy the portrait.However,he was not aware of the fact that the portrait had already been integrated into his self.Therefore,his inclination to destroy the portrait was essentially the inclination of self-destruction.Psychological descriptions are abundant in the novel,which displays Wilde’s exploration of mental activities of literary figures.By elucidating the crucial role that the unconsciousness plays in people’s self-construction process from the view of Lacan’s Theory of Subject,the thesis reveals the fact that people were deprived of autonomy and wholeness under the influence of the other,providing a new perspective for them to reexamine the interpersonal relationship as well as the relationship between people and the society.