摘 要

《木马赢家》是劳伦斯晚年著名的短篇小说之一，小说描绘了一位内心被金钱和物欲逐渐扭曲异化的母亲，以及一位渴望母爱，期望通过各种方式赢得母亲的关爱却最终酿成悲剧的儿子的形象，以现代寓言的形式揭示了金钱至上的社会中人性的扭曲和母爱的缺失，批判了西方工业社会中金钱对人与人之间关系的扭曲。本文以弗洛伊德的精神分析批评理论为指导，从俄狄浦斯情结和人格结构理论等方面分析了作者劳伦斯的创作动机，以及其代表作《木马赢家》中主人公保罗的人物形象，剖析了对母亲非正常的依恋和扭曲的朝我是如何潜移默化的支配着主人公的人生，并使其最终走向悲剧。揭示小说背后更深层的社会及心理原因，引起人们深刻的思考，以期探索小说更深层的内涵和意义。

关键词：弗洛伊德；精神分析批评；俄狄浦斯情结；超我

Abstract

The Rocking Horse Winner is one of Lawrence's famous short stories in his later years. The novel depicts a mother whose heart is gradually distorted and alienated by her greed for money and material comfort and a son who longs for the love of his mother and wants to win it by all means. The Rocking Horse Winner takes the form of modern fable and reveals the distortion of human nature and the lack of love in a money-oriented society, and criticizes the distortion of the relationship between people caused by money in the western industrial society. Based on Freud’s psychoanalytic criticism theory, this paper analyses the creative motivation of Lawrence and the character image of Paul in his masterpiece The Rocking Horse Winner from the aspects of Oedipus Complex and personality structure theory. It discusses how the Oedipus complex and distorted superego exert a subtle influence on the life of the protagonist and lead him to a tragic ending at last. The significance of this paper lies in revealing the deeper social and psychological reasons behind the novel, and gaining a profound understanding of the author’s writing.

Keywords: Freud; Psychoanalysis criticism; Oedipus complex; Superego

Contents

摘 要 I

Abstract II

1.Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 3

2.1.Freud's psychoanalytic criticism 3

2.1.1.Essence and Characteristics of Literature: Satisfaction of Repressed Desire and Unconscious Sublimation 3

2.1.2.Literary Appreciation and Literary Criticism: Revealing “Oedipus Complex” and Personal Structure 4

3. Psycho-analysis of the author 7

3.1.The influence of Lawrence’s own experience on his creation 7

3.2.The childhood experience of Lawrence 9

3.3.The relationship between Lawrence and his mother 10

4.Analysis of the image of Paul 11

5.Conclusion 14

Acknowledgements 15

References 16

1.Introduction

D. H. Lawrence is a great English novelist whose works have far-reaching influence. Some of his works are also caused intense social controversy and reaction, and even once has been banned by the authorities. The most direct reason is that Lawrence’s description, language, and thoughts are beyond the scope of ethics and morality that people and society can bear at that time (Leavis,1995). In other words, the novels of Lawrence did not conform to social ethics and morality at that time. However, with the development of the times and the improvement of the level of people’s understanding, scholars gradually realize the ethical value and significance of Lawrence’s works. Lawrence’s works could breathe a new life, which has a profound impact on the lives and thoughts of individuals. “Literature, as an art form, typically and centrally reflects the moral phenomena of human society and describes the moral contradictions and conflicts existing in society” (Keith, 1998:5). In addition, “literature is a unique expression of ethical concepts and moral life in a specific historical stage. Literature is essentially the art of criticism”(Li, 2001:18). Many of Lawrence’s works have explored the fates and ethics of human beings in society. Among them, The Rocking Horse Winner is Lawrence’s masterpiece of short stories. This story explores Lawrence's concern about the relationship between the son and his mother, reflecting the distortion of healthy and harmonious interpersonal relationships caused by money in the western industrial society. The story is concise and thought-provoking. It has a strong shock effect and practical significance. So far, maternal love is still an eternal topic, and the important significance of social relations such as mother-child and husband-wife is self-evident. This paper mainly analyses the image of Paul in The Rocking Horse Winner through psychoanalytic criticism theory, which has important reference significance and inspiration for the construction of the harmonious relationship between people in modern society, especially for the construction of happy family relationship. Besides, through Freud’s theory, we can have a deeper understanding of the creative psychology of the author so that better understand the novel.

The Rocking Horse Winner reflects the distortions of money on healthy and harmonious interpersonal relationships in western industrial societies, which resulted in the materialization of the family relationship. The scholar Bi Binbing commented on The Rocking Horse Winner as “revealing the complete alienation of family relations and the destructive power of women in the modern money society: Paul’s mother was greedy for money, and not only did husband and wife alienate each other, but also lost maternal love and neglected children”(Bi, 2012:67). So the study of this novel can serve as a good warning to establish a natural and harmonious relationship between contemporary men and women, family members, and even to have a normal attachment relationship between mother and son.

2. Literature Review

2.1.Freud's psychoanalytic criticism

2.1.1.Essence and Characteristics of Literature: Satisfaction of Repressed Desire and Unconscious Sublimation

The literary thoughts of Freud have exerted a wide influence on world literature in the 20th century. Especially when “psychoanalysis” was first appeared, literature became the best ally of psychoanalysis--the psychoanalysis criticism (Xiong, 1999).

For Freud, a literary work is the external expression of the author’s unconscious spirit, so it must be treated as a dream (Freud, 1914). Psychoanalysis techniques are applied to the text to reveal the deep creative motivation, suppressed desires, and aspirations of the authors. Literature is not only the main object of psychoanalysis, but also the most widely used place of psychoanalysis. Since the intervention of psychoanalysis in literary creation, the depiction of human nature in literature has gained unprecedented depth. In his literary analysis, he introduced such psychological concepts as “consciousness”, “pre-consciousness”, “subconsciousness”, “interpretation of dreams”, “libido” and so on (Freud, 1940). Through the analysis of his works, he mainly searched for the psychological clues of the author in his writing. He was able to better explain some ambiguous details and themes, and draw a refreshing conclusion. “The true pleasure of literature comes from the release of tension in our hearts” (Ethel,Peteramp;Servulo, 2019:64). He found a striking resemblance between literary creation and dreaming: all literary creation is day-dreaming. Readers read their day-dreams from the writers’ works without “self-reproach or shyness.” Chinese and western writers and literary schools have taken on a different degree of psychoanalytic tone in that process of literary creation and criticism practice (Ethel et al, 2019). Works have penetrated into the characters’ hidden sexual psychology and unconscious system, emphasizing the instinctive desire to enter, highlighting the conflict between soul and body, describing abnormal sexual desire, exposing the ugliness of human nature, which makes the works to explore the characters’ hearts a deeper layer, which objectively promotes the literature to the deep understanding and attention of the human spiritual world.

According to Freud, literature is the satisfaction of suppressed desire -- unconscious instinct. The purpose of literary creation is to realize some desire which cannot be realized in real life--unconscious instinct impulse. But this instinctive impulse is not manifested directly in literary works, but is purified and sublimated (Freud, 1949).

Based on this theory, we can get a better understanding of Lawrence through the analysis of his novels. Lawrence was born in 1885, and anyone who saw him as a child said he was the thinnest child they had ever seen. This makes Lawrence be more concerned and loved by his mother. “I spoiled him since he was born, and my mother dug out the heart for him.” Lawrence's eldest brother George recalled. At that time, Lawrence’s mother Lydia dared not expect her baby to live for three months, so she poured all her love on him. That is, from Lawrence’s childhood, the seeds of Oedipus complex were buried, and Lawrence’s early subconscious is always like a child who wants to enter the mother’s belly again (Keith, 1998).