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摘 要

乔治·萧伯纳被认为是爱尔兰最有天赋的剧作家之一，其三幕剧本《巴巴拉少校》是一部十分具有吸引力的作品，为萧伯纳赢得声望作出了很大贡献。大多数学者都从女权主义、性格特征、主题和社会影响等视角解读该文本，而本文则主要借助弗洛伊德性格结构理论中的自我、本我和超我理论，从家庭、工作和爱情的角度解析巴巴拉上校的人物性格。

巴巴拉的自我一直在本我和超我之间摇摆不定，最终她决定将信仰置于物质财富之上。巴巴拉的家人对她影响深远，在其本我和超我的冲突斗争过程中，母亲、哥哥和父亲起了关键作用。在救世军中,珍妮的协助使得巴巴拉的超我变得强大，而比尔的出现使得巴巴拉的信仰又一次遭到冲击。珍妮和比尔之间的冲突就是巴巴拉的本我和超我之间的斗争。在她整个性格变化的过程中，未婚夫库森斯则承担了支持和引导的角色。最后,巴巴拉的自我在本我和超我中找到了平衡点，她不再是道德的守护者，而是成为信奉金钱第一、道德第二的现实主义者。

总之，作者希望该论文能够启发学者们从新的角度研究《巴巴拉少校》，帮助读者领略语言大师萧伯纳的文学风采，并能为人物性格及内心世界问题的研究道路上提供新的研究视角。

关键词：《巴巴拉少校》 人格结构理论 自我 超我 本我 巴巴拉的性格

1. Introduction

• 1. Research background

George Bernard Shaw, who was born on 26 July, 1856 and died on 2 November, 1950, was an outstanding Irish playwright. Shaw is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925 and an Oscar in 1938. At first, he intended to reject the Nobel Prize since he had no desire for public honor; however, later on he accepted the honor because of his wife's request, but he refused the bounty that was used to finance the translation of his fellow playwright August Strindberg's works from Swedish to English.

Even though he made quite a few excellent musical and literary comments, Bernard Shaw showed more interest in drama. All his life, he composed more than 60 plays, the majority of which focused on prevailing social problems including education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege. At the beginning of his writing career, Bernard Shaw wrote several undesirable novels. Gradually, with profound humor, Shaw’s plays became increasingly popular and welcomed. His plays were first staged in the 1890s and then he became an accomplished playwright. When approaching 50, Shaw produced those outstanding works with mature views such as Caesar and Cleopatra in 1898, Man and Superman in 1903, Major Barbara in 1905 and The Doctor's Dilemma in 1906. On the other hand, as a passionate socialist, Shaw expressed his views on and feelings for the Fabian Society in many brochures and speeches.

 The year of 1907 witnessed the publication of Shaw’s Major Barbara which was finished in 1905. The three-act play is the most Shavian of Shaw’s plays (Bloom 2011) and was first produced at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1905 by J.E. Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker. Ten years later, on December 9, 1915, Major Barbara was first staged on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre (Wikipedia). According to Shaw, what he wrote in his play was what he observed in the actual life. This play reflects the British social life in the unique era that the poor have nothing to eat while the rich love nothing but money. Many scholars speak highly of the play because of its profound social influences and the character of the heroine, Major Barbara. She is a pious Christian since she aspires to devote herself to rescuing souls of the poor by working as an officer in the Salvation Army. She looks down on the way how her father makes money; however, she ultimately accepts the stark fact. In conclusion, Barbara possesses many favorable features in her personality.

From the above discussion, we can feel that there are three aspects in terms of the human inner world, which can be elaborated on from the perspective of Sigmund Freud’s The Ego and the Id, namely, the ego, the superego and the id. According to Freud, these three parts combined can produce very complicated behaviors. The ego deals with reality; the id meets basic needs; the superego equals the combination of reality and morality. As the clue of the novel alludes to the severely spiritual conflict of Barbara’s ego, superego and id, this thesis will analyze her personality under the guidance of Freud's theory of mental structure.

1.2 Need of the study

As one of the main theories in modern psychology and social psychology, Psychoanalytic theory not only occupies an important position in western psychology but also becomes a kind of important social ideological trend in western contemporary culture. Freud who states the theory of personality structure in the abstract advises that people's behavior, mental health or morbid personality of an individual should be explained in terms of the psychoanalytic theory so as for us to better understand them.

The characters in Shaw’s plays are vivid and many faceted. By describing a single character with language, behavior, appearance, and mental activity, Shaw tries to tell us every well-rounded character in his plays. Therefore, a psychoanalytic interpretation of his Major Barbara can help us better understand the personalities of the heroine and the themes of the play. The thesis will conduct an in-depth analysis from the ego, the id and the superego, which can demonstrate Barbara’s spiritual world. However, the relevant search of cnki.net and cqvip.com cannot witness an analysis of the play from the perspective of psychoanalysis, despite the fact that some scholars have conducted studies on the major characters’ personalities in Major Barbara. For instance, Yang Xue (2011) made detailed analysis about the personality of each female role in Major Barbara. Therefore, the author of the thesis believes it is of vital importance to conduct a psychoanalytic interpretation of the personality of the heroine in Shaw’s Major Barbara under the framework of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. This thesis may enlighten scholars to explore Barbara’s personality, enrich people’s understanding of the novel, and popularize the mental structure devices in literary review.

2. Literature Review

This chapter introduces the origin and development, definitions, and significance of psychoanalytic theory and mental structure devices. Then, previous studies on Shaw’s Major Barbara will be analyzed in detail.

2.1 The psychoanalytic theory

As one of the main theories of modern western psychology and social psychology, the psychoanalytic theory was produced in the practice of the treatment of mental disorder and then became a kind of psychological theory that emphasized the unconscious process, sometimes called "deep psychology". It was put forward by Sigmund Freud between the late 19th century and the beginning of 20^th century.

2.1.1 Origin and development

The psychoanalytic theory generates from the progress in the study of Anna O.’s treatment in the late 19th century. Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856 –1939) first conducted his studies on the psychoanalysis in collaboration with Dr. Josef Breuer. In 1899, Freud’s theory began to gain its reputation due to the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams. Since then, an increasing number of scholars have devoted to the research of the psychoanalytic theory which consists of topographical theory, psychic determinism, object relations theory, and structural theory of personality.

The year 1923 witnessed the publication of The Ego and the Id, which helped the theory of personality structure gain its popularity in both psychological and neurological circles. With the passage of time, an increasing number of scholars have dedicated to the structural theory of personality. For example, Lili Hernández (2012) focused on the conditioned mind of ego and superego by studying the psychological dimension of the outsider, that is to say, the condition of living outwardly and becoming a stranger to the self. Therefore, the psychoanalytic theory can help better understand the personality of each role in a given text and its author’s intention(s) as well as find the implied meanings in the text, which can obviously enrich literary analysis.

2.1.2 Classification and significance

The psychoanalytic theory includes the topographical theory, the psychic determinism, the object relations theory, and the structural theory of personality (to be introduced in Chapter 3). Topographical theory studying the human spiritual world consists of consciousness, preconsciousness and unconsciousness. Preconsciousness means the things that do not exist in one’s consciousness at the moment can be transferred into consciousness by intentional attention. In Li’s opinion (2009), consciousness is distinguished from unconsciousness by “repression”; in topographical theory, unconsciousness is composed of infantile sexual and aggressive wish and repressed derivative, such as dreams.

Psychic determinism, a type of determinism, theorizes that all mental processes are not spontaneous but determined by the unconscious or preexisting mental complexes (Wikipedia). The theory believes that any human accidental action has specific motivation and reasons.

The object relation theory describes how experience affects unconscious predictions of others' social behaviors, with repeated experiences of the caretaking environment forming internalized images, which usually depict one's mother, father, or primary caregiver, and later experiences only somewhat reshaping these early images (Wikipedia).

The Psychoanalytic theory enriches the method in which psychologists study the inner world of human beings. Humans’ language and behaviors often externalize their inner world. The individual spiritual richness is not only a single reflection of the outside world, but also the result of the struggle and cooperation among the ego, the superego and the id. Furthermore, the theory of personality structure, a brand of psychoanalytic theory, provides us with a clear and three-dimensional way to recognize ourselves. It can give readers a scientific understanding of the characters as well as the novel. What’s more, both readers and society can benefit from it a lot.

2.2 Previous studies on Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara

Major Barbara rocked that age; as a result, it has become the favorite of literary critics. Many scholars analyze it from perspectives of themes, language, and characterization.

Themes such as social problems are the top concern. Most of the social problems in Bernard Shaw’s plays stem from the actual life. In the opinion of Huang Jiade (1989), Shaw’s plays were mirrors of the real life, without creating stories, imaginary plots or distorting human emotions. Zhou Hongyan (2011) gave a relatively thorough analysis of the conflict between money and religion and Barbara’s final choice. According to Zhou, every charitable institution had to rely on the rich’s donation if wanting to exist for long. Mr. Undershaft, Barbara’s father, whose religion was money and fortune, believed that religious organizations were the tool with which the rich oppressed the poor. However, they don’t study the relationship between the social problems and the personality of the heroine, Major Barbara. Wei Jinmei (2011) discussed the social problems from the perspective of realism and tried to illustrate its relevant characteristics under dramatic structure.

Some scholars focus on feminism in Bernard Shaw’s plays. Li Jingyi and Sun Mei (2008) made an analysis from the feminist perspective and concluded that female images who had both social ideal and philosophical thoughts in Shaw’s plays reflect modern women’s excellent qualities, such as independence, wisdom, kindness and braveness, and refusal to rely on men, which could thus spur the feminist movement. Zhang Mingai (2009) pointed out that Major Barbara reflected that Barbara was his spokesperson of the views on society, religion and marriage. Yang Xue (2011) agreed that Bernard Shaw described an independent and brave lady who differed from the traditional women images in that Shaw intended to arouse women’s consciousness of independence and passion for participating in social affairs. However, such scholars don’t conduct further study of Barbara’s inner world.

As a world-reowned play, Major Barbara has been translated into many languages, including Chinese. Chen Xiaoli and Zhang Yuanyuan (2011) compared two translated versions of Major Barbara with the theory of translation strategy and the audience acceptance in order to find the simplest way of translation that could exert the best effect. He Ning (2009) believed that the language in George Bernard Shaw's drama was simple, sharp and sophisticated. The language features of Major Barbara were studied in three aspects: detailed stage instructions, long discussion, spoken language and dialect. In Rosanne G. Potter’s opinion (1989), research on changes in Shaw's rhetoric in Major Barbara led him to a heuristic for gaining literary critical control over computer output. Potter analyzed the language in Major Barbara in the eleven-step process.

Yang Xue (2011) tried to understand Barbara’s character in the aspects of autognosis, rebellion against male chauvinism, and the awareness of social responsibility. Camelia Manea and Anca Popescu (2010) insisted that Barbara Undershaft who seceded herself from the established social order and her family be a typical Shavian character: a rebel and a libertine. It is easy to find that the relevant researches on Major Barbara have failed to analyze Barbara’s character under the framework of the psychological theory. This is why the author of this thesis will conduct a detailed research on her personality under the guidance of Sigmund Freud’s structural theory of personality which will consist of three parts: the ego, superego and the id.

3. A Psychological Approach to Major Barbara

3.1 Theoretical Framework

Structural theory of personality, first presented in the prelude of The Ego and the Id written by Freud in 1923, refers to the individual personality consisting of three parts: id, ego, and superego. When a baby is born, his personality is made of id and obscure ego. The individual personality has instinctive aspect for id, rational aspect for ego, and moral aspect for superego. A healthy personality has balance among id, ego and superego.

According to Freud, ego considers the real situation, sometimes tending to be id and sometimes agreeing with superego. If being not strong enough, a person’s ego will be the puppet of his id or superego. A man with strong ego can hardly be a mental patient.

Ego, "I", often means the likes of "self" or "identity". It refers to one of the three factors in Sigmund Freud's Structural theory of personality. It accords with the reality principle by mediating between id and the real situation. In popular language, we may see that the ego stands for reason and circumspection while the id the untamed passions (Freud 1962). According to Freud, the ego, the most significant part of these three aspects, is the darkest part hardly to access; as a result, we know little about it.

Id, meaning human basic and instinctual drives, is a factor of personality present from birth and a source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives (Wikipedia). Id that has no patience and intends to quench its desire immediately will be punished with the feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inferiority if its desire cannot be satisfied at once. It is our instinct, a chaos, a cauldron of seeking excitement with no organization and no unified will, only an impulsion to obtain satisfaction for the instinctual needs in accordance with the Pleasure Principle (Freud 1962).

Superego reflects the internalization of cultural rules. It often forms under the guidance or influence of parents. Superego acts according to appropriate social rules while id is eager for instant self-gratification. Superego that controls the sense of right, wrong, and guilt always helps us adapt ourselves to the society and make us behave ourselves. It is representative of “all moral restrictions, the advocate of the impulse towards perfection. In short, it is as much as we have been able to apprehend psychologically what people call the higher things in human life” (Freud 103-105)

The ego deals with reality, which tries to meet the desires of the id in a way that is socially acceptable in the world. The superego depends on morals and judgments. The ego itself is neutral while the superego and the id are rivals. When working together, the id, ego and superego create a behavior. Freud (1962) once cited one interesting metaphor: Id was just like a horse, while the ego the coachman who decided the direction for the horse to go towards.

As the main framework of this thesis, the structural theory of personality is the key point to further comprehension of Barbara’s personality and inner world. The author of the thesis believes that it is vitally significant to conduct an interpretation of Shaw’s Major Barbara in the aspect of structural theory of personality, which will lead to a deep, overall and comprehensive understanding of Barbara’s personality as well as the social influence on her personality.

3.2 Major Barbara: A Mental Structural Interpretation

In Shaw’s three-act Major Barbara, Barbara Undershaft，a charming and magnetic lady，has become the research object of many scholars. The birth of the theory of personality structure since the publication of The Ego and The Id has brought a welcomed method in literature analysis. This chapter will state and analyze the ego, superego, and id in Barbara’s personality and discover how her family, her job, and her love affect her.

3.2.1 From her family

Barbara’ personality takes its form in the process of her growth. Thus, her family has profound influence on her. Barbara’s mother, Mrs. Undershaft, who is a mammonist, shows her aversion to her husband and her eagerness for the money from Mr. Undershaft. Stephen, Barbara’s brother, seldom cares for any affair that is correlated with his family. In his mind, his father is an evil with great amount of money that is earned by robbing others’ rights of living since Mr. Undershaft is an arms merchant.

Barbara’s mother and brother represent her id and superego. Her money-loved mother can be regarded as Barbara’s id, while his brother is the representative of Barbara’s superego. Barbara’s id always represents her desire. At the beginning of the novel, we can learn from the conversation between Mrs. Undershaft and Stephen that Mother is a woman who loves money from the bottom of her heart. From the following conversation, we can clearly see that her mother’s attitude to money is contrary to that of her brother.

LADY BRITOMART. I must get the money somehow.

STEPHEN. We cannot take money from him. I had rather go and live in some cheap place like Bedford Square or even Hampstead than take a farthing of his money (1. 303-307).

We can feel the mother’s strong eagerness for money in the conversation. She uses the word “must” and the word “somehow”. The word “must” shows her burning desire for getting more money; the word “somehow” presents that she is determined to get money by all means. However, Stephen uses the word “rather” to express that he was disgusted by his father’s business. He prefers to live in cheap places rather than a better place that is paid by his father’s money. Thus, we can find that Stephen regards his father’s money as evil and he was Barbara’s superego.

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