Mimesis as the Triumph in the Victorian Symbolic Law

Abstract

This study will examine the traces of Lacanian psychoanalytic principles, specifically the Symbolic Order and its process underlying selected Thomas Hardy’s novel, the Mayor of Casterbridge (1886). The use of Lacanian psychoanalysis will allow for a greater understanding of the Victorian cultural unconscious, which presupposes that women are passive and muted, and should be kept as such. This is to underscore the patriarchal authority of that society, and its suppression of women achieved by restraining and viewing them as being devoid of self. This study also illuminates women’s potential power in light of Luce Irigaray’s psychoanalytic concept, Mimesis, thereby exploring the Victorian Victorian woman’s capability to threaten the unconscious of their identity in that Symbolic era. By investigating these theoretical observations, I hope to highlight the continuing issue of comodifying the value and dignity of women which can be observed in the patriarchal system of the Victorian era exist today however women can learn from such strategies of resistance and reverse the inferior symbol of women in the present society.

Key words: Mimesis; Symbolic Order; Thomas Hardy; Victorian Age; Women