• Title/Summary/Keyword: 엘런 올렌스카

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Ellen Olenska as the objet petit a and the Relationship Between Man and Woman in Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence (대상 소타자로 작용하는 엘런 올렌스카 - 『순수의 시대』에 나타난 남녀관계)

  • Lee, Misun
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.53
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    • pp.73-102
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    • 2018

  • The purpose of this study was to explain, using Jacques Lacan's theory of desire, how Ellen Olenska functions as the object petit a in her relationship with Newland Archer and to connect the impossibility of Newland and Ellen's love with the impossibility of desire, in Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. In New York society in the 1870s, the unpleasant truth was avoided, personal opinions were excluded, no room for imagination existed, and other-ness was expelled. In that society, Newland realized that true love and true emotions were lacking in his life. For Newland, Ellen was the gap in New York society and the object that could fill that gap. Ellen functioned as the object petit a. But the romance between Newland and Ellen was forbidden in New York society, where everything was dominated by strict social codes, and especially because Newland was engaged to Ellen's cousin, May Welland. Ellen became inaccessible to Newland and this set Newland's desire for Ellen in motion. He idealized Ellen as the objet petit a, based on the fantasy that she would fill the void in his life. However, at every critical moment, Newland delayed unification with Ellen by resorting to social codes. His actions betrayed that the goal of his desire was not the fulfillment, but the reproduction of desire, with its circular movement. His decision not to see Ellen in Paris again at the end of the novel can be interpreted as Newland's effort to maintain Ellen as the inaccessible object, objet petit a, forever. It is this impossibility of desire that the romance of Newland and Ellen is predicated upon. Another purpose of this study was to expand this impossibility of desire to the relationship between man and woman and to interpret The Age of Innocence as a story showing the characteristics of the relationship between the sexes. The relationship between Newland and Ellen shows that there is no harmonious relationship between the sexes and that woman exists only as a fantasy object, objet petit a for man.