Abstract

Oscar Wilde is one of the most famous play writers in Britain in 19th century. He is a pioneer of aesthetics movement and also a poet. The play Salome is commonly regarded as the only tragedy among his plays and one of his masterpieces. Studied by so many critics and laymen, this memorable play is famous for the main characters’ wired behaviors. General studies of this play often fall into feminism, aestheticism, hedonism and so on, which provide us with findings useful but not comprehensive. This thesis finds a new path, analyzing this play from the perspective of behaviorist psychology, trying to illustrate the manifestation and reason of main characters’ personality disorder and approach the intention of Wilde.

 This thesis focuses on three aspects: uncertain reactions to authority, unbalanced emotional equipment and unrestricted instinctive sex responses. It will analyze the manifestation and reasons of the characters’ personality disturbance, probing into Wilde’s intention to write this play. Chapter one consists of the background of the play, literature review of this thesis as well as an overview of behaviorist psychology. Chapter two illustrates main characters’ attitudes toward authority through analyzing their religious belief, social standards and marriage morals. Chapter three sets foot in unbalanced emotional equipment of the characters. Their infantile emotional reactions, over-emotional reactions and thwarted Emotions will be recognized as the objects of study. Chapter four analyzes unrestricted instinctive sex response. The targets of study fall into three parts: heterosexual fixation, uncovered desire as well as marital frigidity and avoidance. The last chapter summarizes the evidence and reasons of personality disorder manifested in the main characters. Throughout the thesis, the application of behaviorist psychology and the intention of Oscar Wilde are expected to be presented with a new approach.

Key Words: Oscar Wilde, Salome, Personality Disturbance

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Oscar Wilde and his Salome-1

1.2 Literature Review-2

1.3 An Overview of Behaviorist Psychology-5

1.4 Layout of the Thesis-6

Chapter Two Uncertain Reactions to Authority-7

2.1 Inconstancy in Religious Belief-7

2.2 Mobility in Attitudes to Conventional Standards-10

2.3 Sensitivity in Reactions to marriage morals and ethics-13

Chapter Three Unbalanced Emotional Equipment-16

3.1 Infantile Emotional Reactions-16

3.2 Over-emotional Reactions-18

3.3 Burst of Thwarted Emotions-19

Chapter Four Unrestricted Instinctive Sex Responses-22

4.1 Heterosexual Fixation and Infatuations-22

4.2 Uncovered love and desire-24

4.3 Marital Frigidity and Avoidance-26

Chapter Five Conclusion-28

References-30