TITLE:
The Illusion of Identity: A Psychoanalytic Study of Self in Virginia Woolf's “The Lady in the Looking-Glass”
AUTHORS:
Ragaa Hamed Ahmed Omer
KEYWORDS:
Virginia Woolf, Identity, Illusion, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Literary Study,
Vol.14 No.4,
October
30,
2026
ABSTRACT: Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), a pioneering English author and central figure in modernism, transformed the modern novel by shifting its focus from external realities to the complexities of human consciousness. Woolf aimed to articulate inner experience and memory, conceptualizing character as a continuous stream of impressions and emotions. While she did not formulate a unified theory of identity, her works consistently challenge the notion that identity is fixed, stable, or entirely knowable. This paper contends that in Virginia Woolf’s “The Lady in the Looking-Glass: A Reflection”, identity is unstable and constructed through perception, absence, and unconscious processes. Drawing on the psychoanalytic frameworks of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, the analysis demonstrates that Woolf presents selfhood as fractured rather than unified. Freudian theory elucidates the narrator’s psychological projections and the distinct operations of repression and the uncanny within the text. Lacan’s mirror stage clarifies how self-image forms through images and misrecognition rather than an authentic inner essence. The mirror functions not only as a direct illustration of developmental theory or a vessel of absolute truth, but as a psychological and symbolic device reflecting illusion rather than reality. Ultimately, this research concludes that Isabella Tyson’s “emptiness” is not an objective fact but a narrative construct shaped by external observation and unconscious dynamics. This study contributes to contemporary criticism by integrating psychoanalytic theories with literary analysis, offering a focused examination of Woolf’s significance in debates concerning identity, consciousness, and the fragmented self.