A psychoanalytic approach to the female selfhood and the male gaze in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea

The aim of this project is to examine the factors constituting the female self inVictorian society within the framework of the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud andJacques Lacan. It has been argued that there are many factors in Victorian society, which isalso the representative of the patriarchy, that have influences on a female who is in search ofher real selfhood. The theories emphasize that these factors are always psychical andpsychological and they are resulted from the relationships between the child and his/herparents. The familial relations affect an individual?s later relationships with others and her/hislife as an adult unconsciously. It is through these relationships that an individual can reachself-awareness and the real selfhood. To examine the female self hood under the ?male gaze?in Victorian society, Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea have been analyzed. My aim inanalyzing the female characters in these novels is to show how their ?lacks?, physical andpsychical needs shape their later lives and how their self hood is subject to destruction by themale gaze, suggesting two different possible solutions to save their selves in a society ruledby patriarchy. These solutions are to develop the ego in order to survive, balancing the desiresof the unconscious and the expectations of the society; or to find real selfhood in selfannihilation, which means to refuse any kind of obedience and conformity.