Searching for Identity—Analysis of Antoinette’s Identity Crisis from the Perspective of Lacan’s Theory of the Mirror Stage

Abstract

Wide Sargasso Sea, as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, has been very influential in English literary field. Its author, Jean Rhys, expressed what Charlotte Bronte hasn’t expressed in Jane Eyre: The author has given a thorough analysis about Antoinette’s life before she becomes insane from different aspects, which make the insane woman newly understood for the readers. This paper intends to analyze Antoinette’s journey of searching for her identity through interactions with different people and the functions of mirror as the object in real life by applying Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage.