Abstract: Wide Sargasso Sea, published in 1966, is regarded as a reversal of Jane Eyre，centering on the life experiences of Antoinette, the mad woman who is imprisoned in the attic of Thornfield Manor in Jane Eyre. The writer Jean Rhys turns Antoinette’ s character from “the other” in Jane Eyre to “the self” in her story by depicting a new vivid image of Antoinette. Based on Lacan’ s Mirror Stage Theory, this paper aims to analyze how the heroine Antoinette builds up her self-identity, with the focus on four image relationships to unveil the process of the self-construction so that readers can achieve better understanding of the heroine and the novel. 

Key words: Wide Sargasso Sea; Mirror Stage; heroine; identity; self-construction

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1.-Introduction-1

1.1-A Brief Introduction to Jean Rhys-1

1.2-Introduction to Wide Sargasso Sea-2

2.-Lacan’ s Mirror Stage Theory-3

2.1-An Introduction to Mirror Stage Theory-3

2.2-Lacanian Three Stages-4

3.-Antoinette’ s Self-Construction-6

3.1-The First Image Relationship--With Mother and Nanny-6

3.2-The Second Image Relationship--With Black People-8

3.3-The Third Image Relationship--With Husband-10

3.4-The Fourth Image Relationship--With Mirror and Dreams-12

4.-Conclusion-16

References-17