Psychoanalyzing the unconscious : construction of identity in Alice in Wonderland and Dracula

Abstract

This study examines the role played by the socio-political environment in the construction of identity of Alice from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and Lucy and Mina from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. By placing these characters in their respective historical and social contexts, this thesis investigates aspects of the process undergone by each as a child in an ever-growing institutional Victorian England. Adopting a Foucaultian perspective, an examination of this time period explores the socio-political power structures present at the time, the institutions that represented them, and the role they each play in society. The study traces the psychosocial development that occurs from infancy to adulthood into an analysis of each of these characters as undergoing such an experience. By assessing elements of power relations, sexuality, and instinct, this thesis explores and compares each of the characters as they undertake their respective social experiences. The context and results of the analysis reveal an understanding of the unconscious drives inherent in the individual, as characters struggle to develop aspects of their identity via various scenarios illustrated in their respective texts. An investigation into the relationship formed between the acclimating child and his or her social environment in Stoker’s and Carroll’s texts juxtaposed with the developmental theories of Freud and Erickson, emphasizes the social experience undergone by Alice, Mina, and Lucy. Through this analysis, the negotiation of two opposing powers, internal drive and external influence, become the essence of the social individual, and one’s identity is formed through a mediation of the two.