TITLE:
Self-Construction in The Importance of Being Earnest from the Perspective of Lacan’s Mirror Stage Theory
AUTHORS:
Lulu Wang
KEYWORDS:
The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde, Mirror Stage Theory, The Other
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.7 No.6,
June
24,
2020
ABSTRACT: The Importance of Being Earnest is the most representative play of Wilde. Since the publication of it, domestic and foreign scholars have demonstrated it from many perspectives. This paper employs Lacan’s mirror stage theory to analyze the self-construction process of “identification-disintegration-reidentfication” of Jack and Algernon, the two protagonists in the play, that is, to identify themselves with the mirror images, discover the misidentification of themselves, get rid of the mirror images and reidentify themselves. It is emphasized that the self-construction process of Jack and Algernon is based on the influence of the other.