An Analysis of Briony’s Self- atonement in Atonement from the Perspective of Freud’s Theory of Personality Structure从弗洛伊德人格结构理论视角解读《赎罪》中布里奥妮的自我救赎之路文献综述

 2021-11-04 20:59:03

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1. Introduction1.1 Writing backgroundKnown as one of the most influential writers in the contemporary British literature, Ian McEwan was born of an ordinary naval family. His father, a male chauvinist, held the notion that study is useless, however, cultivated Ians desire of reading and writing. The reason why Ian McEwan devotes himself to writing novels about the theme of war, crime and human nature lies in the fact that his gloomy wandering adolescence. Ian McEwan always intends to write a novel to salute to Jane Austen. As a result, Atonement published after nearly ten years of polishing. Two representative symbols in Austens works, romantic love story and class hindrance, also appears in McEwans Atonement. However, Atonement is not a typical love story. It analyzes the dark side of humanity based on the plot of Brionys self-atonement.1.2 A brief introduction to AtonementIan McEwan published several well-known novels such as First Love, Last Rites, The Child in Time, Amsterdam and so on. Atonement is one of his masterpieces, which is also a climax of his writing career.The novel is divided into three parts. The first part is set in the English manor in the summer of 1935. Precocious and sensitive 13-year-old Briony finds the special relationship between the maids son, Robbie, and her elder sister, Cecilia. Soon after, Briony accidentally witnesses them engaging in sexual acts. However, Briony who is ignorant of sex misunderstands that Robbie is behaving aggressively to Cecelia. Robbies image collapsed in Brionys eyes because she has a crush on him originally. Therefore, Briony deliberately identifies Robbie as the criminal in the subsequent rape case. Then Robbie was arrested and jailed. The second part is set by the time WorldWarII started. Robbie is released after enlisting in the army. Cecilia believes that Robbie is innocent, cutting off all contact with her family and becoming a nurse. They still love each other while Briony becomes a trainee nurse instead of studying in Cambridge because of the uneasiness of her conscience. In June, 1940, she finds them in Balham, wanting to apologize and clear Robbies name. Since the victim of the rape case reject to testify against the real rapist, theres nothing Briony can do. Finally, Briony has not been forgiven by the young couple. The third part comes to 1999. Old Briony who has become a successful novelist, tells readers the truth. In fact, the scene in which she confesses to them is imagined and could never happened, because Robbie died of septicemia in 1940 during the Dunkirk evacuations and Cecilia was killed by the bomb in Balham Underground station in September of the same year. She only has an opportunity to atone for the rest of her life and makes Robbie and Cecilia a happy ending in her novel. Briony says that as long as there is a single copy, a solitary typescript of my final draft, then my spontaneous, fortuitous sister and her medical prince survive to love (McEwan, 2001: 333).2. Literature review2.1 Freuds Theory of Personality StructureThe Theory of Personality Structure was put forward by the famous psychologist, Sigmund Freud. Personality is regarded as a psychological mechanism to control a persons behavior from their inside and it can determine ones behavior characteristic and patterns in all given situations. Zhao Xudong (1992) points out that in the early 1900s, Freud classified it as three different parts, namely, id, ego and superego, which refers to Freuds Theory of Personality Structure.Every individual is born with id. It includes human basic needs and desires, such as hunger, thirst and sex. Id demands immediate satisfaction of desire instead of consideration of morality, which can make people gain happiness through relieving the pain or tension. People may behave according to their pleasure.Ego is generated by the development of the id. Since people cant meet their desires whenever and wherever possible in reality, they have to accommodate various constraints and learn how to satisfy their needs in another feasible way. In other words, people behave by the restriction of reality.Superego is a moralized ego and is gradually formed by receiving the education of moral standards. It can make people set a goal for themselves and keep working hard. That is to say, people behave with their conscience and personal ideal. These three always interact with each other. Id is at the mercy of the latter two, superego is at the highest level of personality and ego is the balance between them. Ego needs to seek for things that id demands while it must make sure the thing wont violate superegos principles. As long as egos imbalance, personality structure is easy to be imperfect, which leads to a series of adverse consequences.Looking back on the past century, Freuds Theory of Personality Structure has been applied not only in neuroscience or psychology but also in humanities. For example, the theory is crucial in education. It has even become the theoretical basis for raising children. In addition, Zhao Hongquan (2004) believes that Freuds theory can be used for reference in the study of human moral development, individual moral personality and the evolution of human social morality and it also plays a vital role in revealing social moral problems and promoting moral constructions. Whats more, more and more literature researchers do some study based on Freuds Theory of Personality Structure, especially the researches of novels. It can help people analyze the characters better and interpret the novel from different angles.2.2 Researches on AtonementIan McEwans medium-term works focus on history, war, politics, morality and other serious topics. Atonement is one of these. The story revolves around the main character, Brionys self-atonement. The artful storytelling method makes the novel very popular and becomes one of his most well-known works. It was named by Time as one of the 100 greatest novels of all time in 2005. It has also attracted the research of many literature lovers.Foreign scholars have paid attention to Atonement earlier and their research direction covers a lot of different fields. Finney (2004) analyzes the narrative technique of stream of consciousness in Atonement, and holds that the novel aims to discuss how to write a novel. Hidalgo (2005) finds the intertextuality of Atonement, which increases the artistry and depth of the content. For instance, Atonements main character, Briony, recalls Catherine Morland who is the heroine of Jane Austens Northanger Abbey due to their imperfect knowledge of the world. The country house of Atonements first part makes inevitable association with Jane Austens Mansfield Park and Evelyn Waughs Brideshead Revisited. Atonements dinner scene reminds readers of the long dinner party in Virginia Woolfs To the Lighthouse. Harold (2005) judges that narrative imagination is dynamic and multipolar rather than static or unified, because it manipulates imprecise language skillfully through the complex connection between knowledge and morality. From the understanding of class, Fraser (2013) considers that the prominent feature of this novel is to review the class conflict in the miniature of British society through the characters in the army and nursing college before the Second World War.Owing to being adapted into a hit movie, the book becomes popular worldwide. More and more Chinese scholars started to study Atonement as well. From the perspective of Feminism, Pan Min (2009) feels Brionys bravery by her protection of her sibling and her independence and autonomy by her endless writing. The writing background of Atonement is related to the moral and ethical crisis in British society in 1990s. Hypocrisy can be seen from private life to government activities. Social ethical and moral standards become empty words. Hu Huiyong (2014) thinks that Ian McEwan is good at unreliable narration. Readers can feel that the narrators lack of reliability through the contradiction between the fact and narrators words. In Atonement, the author compares young Brionys testimony in the rape case with old Brionys account of the fact. On one hand, it indirectly mocks the selfishness of British upper-class society and the prejudice against the class origin. On the other hand, it provides readers with endless space for imagination. From the perspective of growth theory, Geng Xiao (2014) regards Atonement as a typical novel of initiation, which describes the growth experience of teenagers. Brionys lifetime points out another way to grow, that is, to admit the disadvantages in human nature, to face ones mistake bravely and fix it in time. ReferencesFinney, B. (2004). Brionys Stand Against Oblivion: The making of Fiction in Ian McEwans Atonement, Journal of Modern Literature, 27(2), 68-82.Fraser, I. (2013). Class Experience in McEwans Atonement. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 54, 465-477.Harold, J. (2005). Narrative Engagement with Atonement and the Blind Assassin. Philosophy and Literature, 29, 130-145.Hidalgo, P. (2005). Memory and Storytelling in Ian McEwans Atonement. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 46, 82-91.Jiang, F. (2019). Analysis of The Children Act from the Perspective of Psychological Criticism. Overseas English, 10, 178-179.McEwan, I. (2007). Atonement. 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