The Emergence of Lacanian Ideal Ego in the Light of Ego Ideal in Atonement

The Emergence of Lacanian Ideal Ego in the Light of Ego Ideal in Atonement [PP: 132-142] Hourieh Maleki Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, University of Kurdistan Sanandaj, Iran Bakhtiar Sadjadi (Corresponding author) Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, University of Kurdistan Sanandaj, Iran ABSTRACT The study investigated Ian McEwan‘s Atonement (2001) in terms of the Lacanian concepts of Subjectivity, Desire and the Symbolic. The novel depicts the need to atone for the really horrific thing Briony Tallis, the thirteen-year old protagonist, did when she was a kid that is accusing her sister‘s lover, Robbie, of rape and ruining their lives. Therefore, the central objective of this research is to demonstrate the affinity between the Symbolic Order, in which the Briony and Cecilia are positioned, and their subjectivity. In this regard psychological growth of them is elucidated via Lacanian triplet orders. The paper goes through the exploring the process of ego formation toward the issue of the subject formation. Using the concepts of the ideal ego and the ego ideal, this study strives to reveal the original reasons of Cecilia and Briony‘s narcissism and their craving for controlling the lives of the others. The analysis of the case study showed that the subjectivity of the characters of Atonement is in the process of ever changing and becoming. This relational aspect of subjectivity suggests that the characters have little or no influence in determining their identity. In other words, they are not the creators but rather they have been created. Although Briony, Robbie and Cecilia are frequently due to change, they are not the decision makers, but rather they are decided for. Keywords: Lacanian Triplet Orders, Subjectivity, Desire, The Symbolic, Lacan, Ian Mcewan ARTICLE The paper received on Reviewed on Accepted after revisions on INFO 27/03/2018 15/04/2018 28/06/2018 Suggested citation: Maleki, H. & Sadjadi, B. (2018). The Emergence of Lacanian Ideal Ego in the Light of Ego Ideal in Atonement. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 6(2). 132-142.

1. Introduction this brings about a fundamental change in Ian McEwan (1948) known as the their lives. Robbie and Cecilia are the author of Atonement, is a very prominent victims of the younger girl‘s imagination. British writer. His novels cover common Having committed a crime, Briony, will issues of the modern time such as love, spend the rest of her life trying to atone. gender, politics, war, morality, science, Through reading of Ian McEwan‘s politics, social discrimination, limitations of works the reader comes across this feeling rationality and religion. Atonement (2001) is that McEwan is familiar with writings of one of his greatest achievements; it received Freud, Hegel, Darwin, Marx. Ian McEwan‘s the WH Smith Literary Award (2002), conspicuous skill in using language and his National Book Critics‘ Circle Fiction Award penetration into characters‘ state of mind is (2003), Los Angeles Times Prize for Fiction admiring. Dominic Head in his outstanding (2003), and the Santiago Prize for the work Ian McEwan asserts that ―he writes in European Novel (2004) (Roberts and a period in which the problem of identity – McEwan, 2010: 71). After publishing this conceived as a problem of moral being – has grandiose novel, he was known as the author become more acute… There is certainly an of Atonement. The novel, splendid in its emphasis on self-understanding, a quest for meticulous depiction of childhood, love and identity, in many of McEwan‘s novels‖ war, explores the need to atone for the really (Head, 11-14). The affinity between horrific thing Briony Tallis, the thirteen-year psychoanalysis and literature is undeniable, old protagonist, did when she was a kid and since the psychoanalytic studies of literature accused her sister‘s lover, Robbie, of rape. have had a significant growth in recent Briony, a precocious in literature, makes a years. Exploring Lacan‘s key concepts, the false comprehension of adult motives and

The Emergence of Lacanian Ideal Ego in the Light of Ego Ideal … Hourieh Maleki & Bakhtiar Sadjadi

present paper attempts to demonstrate them process of their overcoming‖ (Žižek, 2010: in McEwan‘s novel, Atonement. 232). Amir Barati, taking Žižek‘s idea for Lacan, a ―psychoanalyst and a theorist granted, asserts that Briony undertakes in France‖ (Fendler, 2014: 21), historian of Žižekian process of separation and also that ideas, and a philosopher, is also best known of overcoming its presuppositions. To him for his activities in psychiatry, human the ―process of atonement caused Briony sciences, and other sorts of studies. As Sean overcome its presuppositions‖ (Barati, 2015: Homer puts it, Lacan is the ―most important 121). To him Briony ―goes through the psychoanalyst since Sigmund Freud (1856– process of subjectivity‖ and ―does her best a 1939), the originator and founding father of processual subjectivity through the very psychoanalysis‖ (2005: 1). On the basis of abandoning of naturality and freeing what Roudinesco says Lacan is also ―the themselves from their status quos to gain originator of a system of thought. Based on their selves.‖ (ibid, 121). To him Briony is both Freudianism and Hegelian philosophy. not a subject until she loses herself and tries Lacan‘s work provided the French to ―express herself in a signifying chain‖ psychoanalytic movement with an (ibid, 122). Though Žižekian ―failure of alternative to searching for an impossible signifying representation‖ resembles identity‖ (2007: 99). Lacan‘s thoughts and Lacanian object petit a, since both aim at theories could best be applied to various locating something missed, it deserves works and studies. mentioning that Briony upon entering the Accompanied by the introduction and realm of the symbolic is bereft of her the conclusion, this essay consists of a identity and turns to a subject rather than section entitled ―Atonement with Respect to through undergoing the process of Lacanian Triplet Orders‖ which is allocated separation. to the elucidating the psychological growth Tomasz Dobrogoszcz in ―Narrative as of the characters. It is divided into three Expiative Fantasy in Ian McEwan‘s subsections that is ―Retrospection of Briony Atonement‖ focusing on Briony as the main and Cecilia to the Imaginary Order‖, the character of the novel strives to explore ―Trap of Subjection to the Symbolic Order‖ subjectivity through Lacanian desire and and ―Beyond Representation, the Trauma of fantasy. To him ―The ultimate aim of the Real‖. These subsections are devoted to fantasy is not to grant us access to the object the explanation of the ego formation, the of our desire, but to set the specific mise-en- subject formation and the characters‘ scène for this desire … Briony assiduously speechlessness respectively. constructs her world of fantasy through 2. Literature Review writing, endeavouring to ascertain the Generally speaking, in psychoanalytic ―coordinates‖ of her desire‖ (Dobrogoszcz, criticism the emphasis is on the writer‘s or 2015: 124-125). Briony attempts to achieve the reader‘s state of mind. The aim of this what seems unattainable in the real world in sort of criticism is scrutinizing the ways in the realm of fantasy. During the process of which the meaning blossoms out of the text. fantasizing her desire, she turns to a subject With the advent of Lacanian and Žižekian because each time she is left frustrated. criticism, the focus moved from the author A great number of reasons have been and the reader to the characters in the story. posed for Briony‘s composition of the novel. In this new trend of psychoanalytic criticism Psychoanalytic critics have related it to a each character is regarded as a subject lack felt by her which has put her in an whose action and behavior must be studied interminable quest. Huw Marsh has linked it to penetrate the hidden cause of his/her to the matter of the unreliability in narration. behavior. To clarify the process of subject Confirming Bruno Zerweck‘s ideas, Marsh formation, Atonement as a literary work has asserts: gone through various psychoanalytic ―unreliability has become naturalised reading. in contemporary fiction, even contemporary Unlike Lacan, who considers realist fiction, because ‗subjectivity and subjectivity as a result of child‘s entering the unreliability are accepted as realities, and realm of the symbolic, for Žižek subjectivity reliability is regarded as an impossibility‘, to the extent that apparent reliability is suspect, is a process that a subject undergoes. For ‗whereas a narrator who exposes his [sic] him ―the subject has no substantial actuality, cognitive or epistemological limitations is it comes second, it emerges only through the arguably much more in tune with our notions process of separation, of overcoming its of ‗normality‘ and of the possibilities of its presuppositions and these presuppositions fictional representation‖ (10). are also just a retroactive effect of the same

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International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies (www.eltsjournal.org) ISSN:2308-5460 Volume: 06 Issue: 02 April-June, 2018

His commentary on the novel is not far utilizing the theories of Capra and Blachot from Lacanian analysis. Because Briony as says ―The world that is presented by the subject of the symbolic order cannot McEwan is a world where structure and access to the domain of the real she is the order is threatened and often broken down. subject of her desire and also of the other‘s When this disjuncture occurs, man feels desire. It is for this reason that what she says anxious and confused‖ (68). Pitt takes is unreliable and this unreliability is natural “Atonement” and “Saturday” as traumatic to the nature of the human being. novels. Emphasizing the usefulness of the Adi Brata Wisnu Yudha in his traumatic event, he stipulates that the research, focusing on the main character of traumatic event is one of the causes of desire the novel, has read the novel through for knowledge and quest. Lacanian point of view. According to his Peter Mathews in ―The Impression of opinion, Briony by writing her a Deeper Darkness: Ian McEwan‘s autobiographical novel reveals her true Atonement‖ argues the matter of multiple identity: ―the existence of Atonement is not layers of meaning and focuses on how the just to atone the past mistaken of Briony text can sway the reader‘s perceptions. Tallis, but also to reveal her real identity‖ According to Mathews it is the reader who (Yudha, 2017: 4). Based on Lacanian ideas, seeks atone not Briony. He ―turns this logic the real is unattainable, although the subject of shame back onto the reader, so that the can experience it for a while. There is a book‘s conclusion leaves us, as witnesses, to great discrepancy between real and Lacanian ponder our own ability to testify about the the real. The researcher has mistaken the story that Briony has just described‖ real as the Lacanian the real ―Identity term (Mathews 148). He counts several in here does not mean as the multiple techniques which disrupt the text of its identities or mask personality that famously objectivity. Mathews based on the premise understood in our reality principle, Lacan of ‗the secret as the promise of knowledge‘ assumes it as the Real / agalma / a precious says it is an empty promise that maintains hidden object / a surplus jouissance / objet a the reader forever in the search of truth petite‖ (ibid, 4). It seems that, by ―the real (meaning). To him ―Atonement is built on identity‖, the author means the true identity this basic formal structure: if there appears or the hidden identity. to be a secret, even if it is entirely illusory, Dr. Erin Maree O‘Dwyer in her the result of an authorial fabrication, the doctoral thesis alluding to Lacan‘s analysis reader is nonetheless drawn compulsively to of Edgar Allan Poe‘s The Purloined Letter, know, to judge, and, above all, to moralize‖ takes the whole novel, Atonement, as an (ibid: 149). Just as Mathews argues, the epistolary novel in that: existence of a secret, even the illusory one, ―Though the narrative is not written in incites the people in pursuit of knowledge. It letter format, we find all the same themes – can be claimed that the knowledge acts as a loneliness, exile, lament for lost love, a kind of empty signifier, which is rallying call against the existing social unattainable. It is this elusiveness of structure. The correspondent Briony writes knowledge that makes the circle going. in the absence of the beloved and stages The concentration of the recent studies revolt against the events of the past‖ (107). Considering the act of writing as ―the has been on Briony, the protagonist of the presence of another gaze in the scene‖, she novel. The researchers have analyzed her concludes ―McEwan exploits the epistolary subjectivity and the reason of her inclination mode, using it to afford an investigation into to concoct a novel. The psychoanalytical the split subject– Briony as little girl/older reading of the other characters of the novel woman, as innocent child/wicked teenager, has been omitted. With too much respect for and as subjective player/objective (though what they have done, the present study, ultimately unreliable) narrator‖ (ibid, 111). taking the symbolic order as the prime Since 9/11 terrorist attacks, fear of source of misjudgment, attempts to locate destruction encompassed most of the British the reason of Briony‘s enthusiasm in novelists and aroused them to reflect this controlling the life of the others; besides, it fear in their writings. McEwan is not an follows her psychological growth and tries exception. Among his published works to explain the reason of her narcissism. Atonement and Saturday are highly related Furthermore, it strives to summon the other to the matter of fear and destruction, characters, that is Cecilia and Robbie, to be although the former is not directly akin to scrutinized with a psychoanalytical eye. 9/11 attacks. Daniela Pitt in his thesis,

Cite this article as: Maleki, H. & Sadjadi, B. (2018). The Emergence of Lacanian Ideal Ego in the Light of Ego Ideal in Atonement. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 6(2). 132-142. Page | 134

The Emergence of Lacanian Ideal Ego in the Light of Ego Ideal … Hourieh Maleki & Bakhtiar Sadjadi

3. Analysis and Discussion: Atonement in She had no doubt. She could describe Terms of Lacanian Triplet Orders him. There was nothing she could not 3.1 Retrospection of Briony and Cecilia to describe. She knelt down beside her cousin the Imaginary Order … If her poor cousin was not able to Lacan, represents the subject in the command the truth, then she would do it for her. I can. And I will. (155-158) signifying chain consisting of the Imaginary, It is for this reason that Cecilia in a the Symbolic, and the Real. The infant in the letter to Robbie emphasizes that Briony does early stages of his psychological not belong to the world of realities, or to development perceives both the environment what Lacan calls the Symbolic, and calls her and its body as fragmented shapeless a dreamer: ―She might not mean what I entities. It is in the Mirror Stage, as Lacan think she does, or she might not be prepared calls it, between six and eight months, that to see it through. Remember what a dreamer the infant for the first time recognizes itself she is‖ (McEwan, 2001: 199). The fact is in the actual mirror and as a result regards that what exists in the Symbolic is regarded itself as a unified whole and identifies with as real, as something definable. According it. According to Wolfreys, the subject‘s to Salgó, ―by taking seriously the Imaginary, recognition of himself ―is a misrecognition the playful and the fabulous, we will embark of an image, not a fact‖ (2003: 111). Having on a journey in the domain of the fantastic in not acquainted with language, the preverbal order to tell the story of democracy in a infant sees the world through the images. different way‖ (ibid: 2). Briony liberates In the course of the novel, Briony, the herself from the pitfall of the Symbolic protagonist, aspiring to acquire the full unity Order and has a fresh look to the events with her mother and locating the ultimate nearby. object of desire to fill the existing gap, goes The Imaginary Order is the source of through the three Lacanian orders. There are creativity, in a sense that one‘s perception of some traces that are emblematic of Briony‘s the surrounding world differs from that of all delving into the Imaginary Order: others. To Christian De Cock et al, ―The She wanted the inspector to embrace her and comfort her and forgive her, imaginary now has to be considered as a however guiltless she was. But he would potential source of creativity and freedom‖ only look at her and listen. It was him. I saw (2013: 155). It means that, a person who is him. Her tears were further proof of the truth in the Imaginary Order, lives beyond the she felt and spoke, and when her mother‘s restrictions brought about by the Symbolic hand caressed her nape, she broke down Order. No one, except for Briony, sees the completely and was led toward the drawing man in the pavement as ―a giant chess room … Briony was next to her mother on piece‖ (McEwan, 2001: 303). She is creative the sofa. (163-165) in using the images. This section of the novel is one of the The little other exists in the Mirror many cases when Briony reverts back to the Stage. The preverbal infant, in the Mirror Imaginary Order, to that state of unification Stage, upon the feeling of being alienated, with her mother. It is in such occasions that due to recognizing its image in the mirror, she feels she has been endowed with the strives to identify its own image with whom power of controlling the world. This sense it appreciates: of having the world under control originates How could she tell them that Arabella in the sense of wholeness in the Mirror was not a freckled person? Her skin was pale Stage. By the same token, Imaginary Order and her hair was black and her thoughts were ―is a world of fullness, completeness, and Briony‘s thoughts. But how could she refuse delight because with the child‘s sense of a cousin so far from home whose family life itself as a whole comes the illusion of was in ruins? (ibid, 13) control over its environment‖ (Tyson, 2006: Briony has written a seven-page play, 28). She aspires to control rather than to be The Trials of Arabella. She is going to give controlled which is the distinguished quality the play to be acted by her cousins, Lola and of the Symbolic Order. It should be kept in the twins. Having thought Lola, neither mind that ―the child‘s preverbal feeling of physically nor mentally fitted for the role of complete union with its mother and, Arabella, the main character of her play, she therefore, complete control over its world is picked out that role for herself. As if she was illusory, but it is nonetheless very satisfying in the Imaginary Order, she equates herself and very powerful‖ (ibid). That is why in the with Arabella who is a princess. Lola‘s following pages of the novel Briony‘s self- stubbornness over playing the opening part confidence reaches its acme: of Arabella sent Briony into the state of misery and despair.

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International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies (www.eltsjournal.org) ISSN:2308-5460 Volume: 06 Issue: 02 April-June, 2018

In the Mirror Stage the infant sees its before her brother‘s arrival. Finally, she reflection in the mirror and identifies with it. chooses her favorite dress: By the term ―identification‖ Lacan means Cecilia stepped out of her bedroom, ―the transformation that takes place in the caught sight of herself in the gilt-frame subject when he assumes [assume] an mirror at the top of the stairs and, image‖ (2006: 76). Namely, when a subject immediately dissatisfied, returned to her identifies, he assumes the characteristics of wardrobe to reconsider…Cecilia followed at a slow pace, passing the critical mirror with another subject and in his imagination turns a glance and completely satisfied with what to that person he adores. This leads to she saw. (90-95) having a chimerical understanding of the The Mirror Stage refers to the self. Briony sees her own image in the narcissistic relationship with the body-image character of Arabella. In other words, or as Lacan puts it, ―for the subject caught Arabella, for Briony is the little other with up in the lure of spatial identification, turns whom she identifies with. She is the desired out fantasies that proceed from a fragmented object that has originated from the image of the body‖ (Lacan, 2006: 78). It is projection of the ego. As Lacan remarks the at this situation that the ego is born. There is little other is ―one‘s fellow man, he who is a strong affinity between the concepts of the given in the relationship that is half rooted in narcissism and aggressivity. At the naturalness of the mirror stage‖ (Lacan, beginning of this scene, Cecilia, upon seeing 1993: 229). Lola, acting the role of Arabella, her own image in the mirror, shows a turns to Briony‘s rival. In other words, Lola profound dissatisfaction, i.e., ―immediately vicariously has turned to Briony‘s ―rival dissatisfied‖ (McEwan, 2001: 90). The word image‖ or her little other to whom she dissatisfaction does not imply that she is not aspires to identify with. It is for this reason satisfied with her reflection in the mirror but that later on in the novel we read: rather she urges more satisfaction. Relating Forced by international rivalry to dissatisfaction to demanding for more love, compete at the highest level among the Wolf asserts ―the dissatisfaction is world‘s finest and to accept the challenges that came with preeminence in her field— experienced as a mortifying jouissance but her field of nettle slashing—driven to push refused as a gift of satisfaction for the other beyond her limits to assuage the roaring (2015: 151). Similarly, Cecilia wants to crowd, and to be the best, and, most appear charming to elicit more love from importantly, unique. (71) Robbie. Having attracted by the ideal image, Cecilia, although is partly satisfied Briony assumes a competitive relation with with her reflection, she attempts to precede it. She even wants to surpass her and be it in beauty. Such a rivalry turns back to the unique. This has been affirmed by Lorenzo Mirror Stage. She becomes the image‘s rival Chiesa where he says: ―this relationship in that, the observed wholeness in the image ends up in a permanent rivalry of the subject has been missed in her fragmented body. As with himself, with the narcissistic image of Chiesa puts it ―Such a rivalry is already himself that the lure of the mirror creates‖ evident at the level of the dialectic between (2007: 20). The combinations of these the subject‘s perception of his fragmented identifications- whom the infant choses as body and his parallel vision of the its own models- culminates in formation of completeness of the specular body‖ (Chiesa, the ego. In other words, the child identifies 2007: 20). For Lacan the burgeoning of with the others as it does with its own aggressivity is one of the signs of entering image. Lacan argues that ―it is this image the Mirror Stage. As stated by him ―the one that becomes fixed—this is the ideal ego- you fight is the one you admire the most. from the point at which the subject fixates as The ego ideal is also, according to Hegel‘s ego-ideal. The ego is thus a function of formula which says that coexistence is mastery, a game of bearing, and constituted impossible, the one you have to kill‖ (Lacan, rivalry‖ (Lacan, 2006: 685). It must be 1977a: 31). That is why Cecilia, mentioned that although the ideal ego simultaneously, lives in the state of love and predates the ego ideal, it is the ego ideal that hatred toward her reflection. Hesitation in controls the ideal ego. selecting the dress is indicating of her As aforementioned, Mirror Stage unconscious will to surpass the image in marks the transition to the Imaginary Order. beauty. Falling in love with her reflection, Cecilia, unconsciously attempting to look Cecilia commences her animosity with it. At attractive, has trouble to choose a dress the end she attains that level of satisfaction.

The Emergence of Lacanian Ideal Ego in the Light of Ego Ideal … Hourieh Maleki & Bakhtiar Sadjadi

Unlike Freud, Lacan differentiates intends to identify with the ego ideal. It is between two terms that is ―ideal ego‖ and the ego ideal upon which the subject ―ego ideal‖. Relating the ―ideal ego‖ to the criticizes himself. This can be linked to realm of the Imaginary and the ―ego ideal‖ Lacan‘s famous sentence ‗desire is always to the Symbolic, Lacan considers the former the desire of the other‘. Cecilia‘s urge to as an ―aspiration‖ the latter as a ―model‖ look attractive is the result of the Other‘s (Lacan, 2006: 562). Furthermore, the subject expectation. Unconsciously she knows that regards his father as an ―ego ideal‖ and tries if she have a slovenly appearance she would to identify with him in order to move from not be loved by the others. Lacan posits the the state of nature to culture. In other words, matter in this way: ―the [visual] capture for Lacan, ―ego ideal‖ means ―the paternal involved in the ideal ego—drag the subject identification‖ (ibid: 462). Žižek in this into the field where he hypostasizes himself regard asserts that ―the ideal ego will be in the ego-ideal‖ (2006: 569). Taking the what the subject once was, the ego ideal loved image as her beloved, Robbie, Cecilia, what it would like to be in order to retrieve haunted by the image, tries to be what the what it was, this being achieved by the big Other approves. introjection of someone who was once part Easthope concerning the loving if a of itself‖ (2002: 15). Cecilia, similarly, in perfect woman stipulates that ―the man loves order to regain what she was once, attempts himself in his ideal ego … he installs her to assimilate herself to the image in the figure in the place of his ego ideal, using it mirror in order that she turns back to that to see himself at his best and as he hopes state of primordial unity with her mother, others see him, the perfect lover‖ (1989: 71). scilicet; her satisfaction with her reflection Now that Cecilia is in love with Robbie, comes from the fact that it reminds her of substituting their roles, she is in fact in love the dyadic unity with her mother. with herself. Cecilia stands Robbie‘s image All through the novel, it is revealed in the place of ego ideal and from his view that there are some other little others with point regards herself in a way she likes to be whom Cecilia identifies. That is to say, she seen. For Lacan, as Chiesa argues, ―the ego- sees her own image in them. Among them is ideal provides the ideal ego with a ―form‖ the scene in which Cecilia identifies with (2007: 23). It means that the ego ideal Shirley Temple Black (born 1928), controls the projections of the ideal ego, American child movie star who later became although the ideal ego comes to existence a politician. She wished the mirror has prior to the ego ideal. According to him ―if shown her in that way. Temple is an ideal the ideal ego is a projection of the ego‘s ego for her, someone whom Cecilia aspires ideal image onto the external world, the ego- to be. Comparing ideal ego with ego ideal, ideal is the subject‘s introjection of another Mokros affirms ―Although the ideal ego external image that has a new (de)formative may appear to be an other that the ego ideal effect on his psyche‖ (ibid). Additionally, if attempts to emulate, the ideal ego is in part a Cecilia wants to be Temple, it is in fact the projection of the ego ideal itself‖ (1996: result of the influence of the ego ideal. That 302). Accordingly, Cecilia, as a subject, who is, as Lacan‘s schema L demonstrates, the is herself a copy of her father- that is, her ego is simultaneously formed by both ideal desire is in line with that of her father- ego and the ego ideal. That is why Lacan regards the ideal ego with wistful eyes. At says ―the ego is constructed like an onion‖ the same time this ideal ego, Temple, is (Lacan, 1988a: 171). It is for this reason that herself the projection of her father. That is Chiesa concludes: ―it is therefore correct to why in Mokros‘s opinion ―the ego ideal and maintain that love ultimately superimposes a ideal ego are not two self-contained psychic new ego-ideal onto a preexisting ideal ego‖ tendencies‖ (ibid). Therefore, both ego ideal (2007: 23). It is the love of Cecilia to Robbie and ideal ego are inherently interrelated. that compels Cecilia to assume each time a Ego ideal is in fact what the society, new ego ideal. better to say, the Symbolic Order and the big 3.2 The Trap of Subjection to the Symbolic Other expects the subject to be and the ideal Order ego is what the subject aspires to be. Robert The Symbolic Order is a domain into Samuels asserts that ―ego ideal is the place which the subject is born. It determines from which the subject wants to be loved, subject‘s identity, gender and ideology. while the ideal ego represents the object that Žižek respecting subject‘s ideology remarks is loved‖ (2012: 16). Cecilia, on that that ―ideology is the place of the insertion of account, in order to be loved and be the subject in those realms or orders - the accepted by the Other, throughout her life Symbolic and the Real‖ (2003: 38). But the

International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies (www.eltsjournal.org) ISSN:2308-5460 Volume: 06 Issue: 02 April-June, 2018 Page | 137

International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies (www.eltsjournal.org) ISSN:2308-5460 Volume: 06 Issue: 02 April-June, 2018 point is that how this ideology forms the marriage the main engines of housekeeping‖ unconscious of the subject. Hughes posits (ibid: 7). During the process of play writing, that ―for Lacan, meaning, and the symbolic she applies a high level of fastidiousness; in order as a whole, is fixed in relation to a other words, she aims not only to give order primary transcendental signifier which to the unruly world of the real people but Lacan calls the phallus, the signifier of also to that of the fictional characters. That sexual difference‖ (2002: 72). Consequently, is to say, ―her passion for tidiness was also no unconscious can be imagined out of the satisfied, for an unruly world could be made domination of Symbolic Order in which the just so‖ (ibid). Accordingly, it can be phallus is in its center. inferred that Briony‘s behavior, likewise, is The preverbal infant is introduced to organized in the Symbolic Order; that is why the preexisting world of Symbolic Order via her cousins‘ failure in rehearsal, ruins her the law of the father, or as Lacan puts it the- sense of order and decorum. Name-of-the-Father. It demolishes the To intensify this register as the domain mother-child unity of the Imaginary Order in of law and rule Lacan says ―when you go to the Oedipus complex. There are so many work, there are rules, hours - we enter into ways by which the child thinks of himself as the domain of the symbolic‖ (Lacan, 1988a: a separate being who has been alienated. 223). Law is articulated via language; it is The first of which is when the child here that the signification of language comes recognizes his reflection in the mirror during in. There should be nothing out of the the Mirror Stage. The second is when the sovereignty of language. No Symbolic Order pre-linguistic child enters the realm of could be thought of without language. Lacan language acquisition in the Symbolic Order. in his second seminar remarks ―everything is Lacan in his second seminar affirms ―If it‘s tied to the symbolic order, since there are you, I‘m not. If it‘s me, it‘s you who isn‘t. men in the world and they speak‖ (322). That‘s where the symbolic element comes Therefore, it can be claimed that the into play‖ (169). From now on, the feeling Symbolic Order is a linguistic realm. of lack or loss overpowers the infant, and According to Elliott ―Lacan views later on the subject. Language for Lacan, as subjectivity itself as constituted to its roots Elliott puts it, ―is the fundamental medium in language‖ (2001: 144). In the novel the that structures the Oedipal process. The rules that are legislated by Betty for the child enters the symbolic via language … it twins have been existed even before their is in and through language that the subject birth. Surprisingly, though Betty acts as a attempts a reconstruction of lost, imagined big Other for the twins, she is not the real unities‖ (2013: 144). However, this lack, lawmaker. In fact, she is a subject herself. according to Rivkin and Ryan, ―can never be The only thing she is its proprietor is just filled, and all human desire circulates around speech. it, yearning to hark back to the lost unity‖ Lacan‘s famous slogan is ‗desire is (2004: 441). There is no outlet to evade the desire of the Other‘. Lacanian Other is influence of the Symbolic Order, that is to located in the Symbolic Order, it is a locus say, ―I emphasize the register of the from which the speech of the subject symbolic order because we must never lose originates. It determines both the content of sight of it‖ (Lacan, 1988a: 179). Barker and the unconscious and the process of Galasinski in this respect argue that ―for signification. This Other is barred, that is, Lacan outside of the symbolic order, i.e. the like any other subjects has a lack. The overreaching structure and received social subject is supposed to fill the lack embodied meanings, lies only psychosis‖ (2001: 32). in the Other and exactly desire what the Unlike her sister, Briony‘s life is in direct Other desires. Therefore, the pressure felt by relation with the Symbolic Order. The order the twins results from the Lack existed in has been taught to her. Her mind has been Betty. They must act as she wishes; there is structured from her childhood. Namely, ―her no way to disobey. The matter of the Other wish for a harmonious, organized world should not be taken superficially, since denied her the reckless possibilities of considering the Other as an actual Other is wrongdoing‖ (McEwan, 2001: 5). Her one of its distant significations. Its widely submission to Law and to the Symbolic used meaning is the locus of Law which Order permeates other fields of her life surrounds the subject before its birth until including marriage, death and even after his death that manifests itself through housekeeping, videlicet, or as the reader is the real Others. Betty is not the only big told ―a love of order also shaped the Other that attempts to structure the kids. principles of justice, with death and Their sister, Lola, is another example. Lola,

The Emergence of Lacanian Ideal Ego in the Light of Ego Ideal … Hourieh Maleki & Bakhtiar Sadjadi

scrambling to alleviate her brothers, the simultaneously controlled by the big Other twins, who have begun to feel as the Symbolic Order and the big Other as homesickness, tells them that ―we will be another subject, unconsciously and going home soon‖. To her surprise, tearful consciously respectively. Jackson, her brother, says ―It won‘t be soon. It is the Other which enables the You‘re just saying that. We can‘t go home subject to acquire some level of self- anyway . . . It‘s a divorce!‖. He has uttered consciousness. As stated before, Lola, a big the obscene word, divorce: Other, was a yardstick for Briony to be Pierrot and Lola froze. The word had compared with. The first big Other that the never been used in front of the children, and child encounters with is the mother. As never uttered by them. The soft consonants Rabaté remarks ―Lacan‘s big Other, [is] suggested an unthinkable obscenity, the mostly embodied by the Mother‖ (2003: 22). sibilant ending whispered the family‘s The child realizes that her mother is not a shame. (54) complete Other and includes lack, because Being a subject to the dominant rules her desire is directed toward its father. That of the society, Lola tries to transfer the Law is why Lacan in his fourteenth seminar says to the kids. It should be mentioned that the ―This Other does not exist‖, and talks about kids, having not been structured yet, still live ―the fall of the big Other‖ (47). Lacan in his in the Imaginary Order. Consequently, they seventh seminar remarks that ―man is in the feel free to say whatever they please. Not process of splitting apart‖ (Lacan, 1992: knowing that ―saying it out loud was as 274), it comes to mean that in moving from great a crime as the act itself, whatever that the Imaginary to the Symbolic the feeling of was‖ (ibid: 54). It is related to the power of lack and loss overcomes the subject due to the language or of the word. That is why the primordial separation from his mother. even uttering the forbidden word, i.e. To illuminate Lacan‘s dictum that ―there is divorce, is a crime. no Other of the Symbolic Other‖, Chiesa Law permeates the unconscious of the asserts that for Lacan the primordial One subjects to the extent that the subject equals with zero; ―the zero equates with the unconsciously is obedient to the Law. It is always already lost mythical jouissance of for this reason that we read in the novel the real Real: the fake one needs the fake ―None of them, including Lola, quite knew‖ jouissance of the object a in order to make (ibid). The word ―divorce‖ has been one‖ (2007: 184). Although zero as a forbidden by the big Other, unconsciously number cannot be used in counting but it is they know that the word must not be zero that makes the one to come into being. articulated without knowing the reason. As Likewise, Briony‘s identity is consisted of Lacan confirms the desires of the child nothing, in other words, she is endowed with ―initially pass via the specular other. That is a Zero, that is Lola, by whom she can create where they are approved or reproved, the Symbolic Order based on which accepted or refused. And that is how the language is established. It is the absence of child serves his apprenticeship in the the subject that brings language into life. symbolic order and accedes to its Without being aware of Lola‘s lack, Briony, foundation, which is the law‖ (Lacan, a divided subject, takes her as an object a to 1988a: 179). Likewise, it is the society, or fill her lack with. It is the lack that causes the big Other, that determines the kids‘ Briony to choose Lola as her object cause of desire. desire. This statement ―The witnesses were Although Lacanian concept of the big guilty too‖ demonstrates the shock that upon Other signifies Law, language, that is recognizing the fact that Lola like any other inscribed in the Symbolic Order, it also subjects is barred, overcomes her. means another subject. In a sense that each 3. 3 Beyond Representation: the Trauma of subject can take the position of being the the Real Other for another subject, or as Lacan puts it Lacanian concept of the Real is a ―the Other and for the Other‖ (Lacan, 1998: convoluted one that is hard to grasp. The 150). Accordingly, the subject will be Real ―is that which resists symbolization‖ endowed with the power of subjectivating (Homer, 2005: 83). It is something that another subject without being felt, provided exists beyond any ideologies and meaning that the subject be in a place that ―is valid making systems. As Lacan says ―everything for another subject‖ or possesses the ―most that is rejected in the symbolic reappears in radical point‖ (ibid: 231). The twins do the real‖ (Lacan, 1966: 53). All subjects respect their sister, Lola, otherwise they experience the Real, even for a short could not obey her. The twins are moment. It is when the subject realizes that

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International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies (www.eltsjournal.org) ISSN:2308-5460 Volume: 06 Issue: 02 April-June, 2018

―it is ideology that has made the world as impossible‖ (Lacan, 1995: 280). It is [he] knows it‖ and ―what govern the society impossible because it cannot be articulated are hoaxes and mistakes‖ (Tyson, 2006: 32). in language. The interesting point is that Lacan points to the traumatic nature of the ―the use of language in general, in fact, Real and says it is when the subject is implies a loss, a lack‖, (Tyson, 2006: 29), incapable of putting in words what he has because insofar as the infant regards the witnessed. In the second chapter of the novel things as inseparable from him there is no the reader is introduced to some mind- need to use language as stand-in. This can be boggling scenes: connected to the matter of Lacanian concept The convoy had entered a bombed of absence and presence. village, or perhaps the suburb of a small Lacan in his first seminar delivers a town-the place was rubble and it was speech on the matter of absence and impossible to tell. Who would care? Who presence in language. Alluding to the second could ever describe this confusion, and come chapter of Freud‘s Beyond the Pleasure up with the village names and the dates for Principle, he poses the discussion of fort/da. the history books? And take the reasonable view and begin to assign the blame? No one Fort! and Da! are German words of would ever know what it was like to be here. interjection uttered by Freud‘s grandson Without the details there could be no larger playing a game. The child throws away the picture. (214) reed and says Fort! (far) and when he pulls Speculating about the situation, the thread back says Da! (here). In Lacan‘s Robbie wonders if he can recount what just idea fort/da is the child‘s first step toward has happened and says ―it was impossible to symbolization or getting access the tell‖ and ―Who could ever describe this Symbolic Order. He says ―in this confusion‖. Due to the fact that, the phonematic opposition, the child transcends, observed scene belongs to the domain of the brings on to the symbolic plane, the Real, Robbie ebbs to the state of phenomenon of presence and absence. He speechlessness. Lacan in his famous renders himself master of the thing, seminar, eleventh seminar, specifies that the precisely in so far as he destroys it‖ (Lacan, term real is an adjective ―to describe that 1988a: 173). Therefore, the foundation of which is lacking in the symbolic order, the the Symbolic Order is based on this fact that ineliminable residue of all articulation, the the subject be able to accept the absence of foreclosed element, which may be the things and make them present by the approached, but never grasped: the umbilical means of language. Robbie, Briony and the cord of the symbolic‖ (Lacan, 1995: 280). It mother and child‘s inability in locating the is for this reason that Robbie, shocked by the exact word to fill the absence of what scene, is speechless. already has happened is the cause of When a ―Stuka carrying a single traumatic silence. thousand-pound bomb‖ approximates, 4. Sum Up Robbie runs away from the road and McEwan‘s Atonement is in accordance attempts to rescue a mother and a six-year- with the Lacanian ideas about the formation old boy who are beside him. Shoving them of ego and subjectivity. The characters of to the ground, he succeeds to rescue them. the novel need the recognition of the others; On account of the second attack the mother their subjectivity is constructed through their and the child are obliterated. Catastrophic social interaction with the others. Briony and and macabre nature of the war incapacitates Cecilia become the subjects by the views both the child and the mother. As it is and the perspectives of the others especially observed in the novel, ―the mother seemed of their parents. It should be kept in mind incapable of running‖ (McEwan, 2001: 222) that, this Other is not a concrete individual, and ―the boy had gone silent with shock‖ although it may be incarnated in one (father (ibid: 223). It is the traumatic nature of the or mother, for instance), but stands for a Real; the trauma of the Real refers to a state larger social order. Mere subjection to the in which the subject knows nothing about, dominant regulation of the society turns the he knows something is there, but does not characters to lack of being entities. It means know what it is. Here it seems that it is their that it is the outside world that constructs first encounter with war. That is why no their identity and therefore their subjectivity. word no sentences could be uttered except Accordingly, the subjectivity of the for crying. characters of Atonement is in the process of According to Lacan, the subject may ever changing and becoming. This relational approach the Real but its grasping is aspect of subjectivity suggests that the impossible, that is to say, ―the real is the characters have little or no influence in

The Emergence of Lacanian Ideal Ego in the Light of Ego Ideal … Hourieh Maleki & Bakhtiar Sadjadi

determining their identity. In other words, Easthope, A. (1989). Poetry and Phantasy. they are not the creators but rather they have Cambridge: Cambridge University been created. During the course of the novel Press. the identity of Briony, Robbie and Cecilia Easthope, A. (2003). The unconscious. changes frequently. Since they are not the London: Routledge. decision makers, but they are decided for, Elliott, A. (2001). ―Jacques Lacan.‖ In A. their identity is not permanent and steady. Elliott & B. S. Turner (Eds.). Profiles There is a process of identification in Contemporary Social Theory (pp. with others which confirms the unsteadiness 140-150). California: Sage. of the characters‘ identity and this is Evans, D. (2006). Dictionary of Lacanian clarified in the case of Lacanian Triplet Psychoanalysis. Brighton: East Orders. Briony and Cecilia‘s entrance into Sussex. the Mirror Stage and the Imaginary Order Felluga, D. F. (2015). Critical Theory: The molds their ideal ego. And their ego ideal Key Concepts. London: Routledge. shapes in The Symbolic Order and controls Fendler, L. (2014). Michel Foucault. their ideal ego. The Symbolic Order is a London: A&C Black. domain into which the subject is born. It is Fink, B. (1997). The Lacanian Subject: the domain of law and rule. This rule Between Language and Jouissance. transfers to the subject via language. Law New Jersey: Princeton University permeates the unconscious to the extent that Press. the subject is obedient to the Law Fink, B. (2009). A Clinical Introduction to unconsciously. Subsequently, the characters Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Theory and or the subjects‘ identity is constructed by the Technique. Massachusetts: Harvard outside world or the dominant regulation of University Press. the society or the big Other. That is why the Head, D. (2013). Ian McEwan. Manchester: character of the novel are the epitome of the Manchester University Press. big Other. The traumatic nature of the Real Hecq, D. (2015). Towards a Poetics of Order is another aspect which is alluded to Creative Writing (Vol. 10). Bristol: in this paper. It is state of the Multilingual Matters. speechlessness; therefore, Robbie, Briony Homer, S. (2004). Jacques Lacan. London: and the mother are unable to find the exact Routledge. word to say what already has happened. Hughes, C. (2002). Key Concepts in References Feminist Theory and Research. Barker, C. & Galasinski, D. (2001). Cultural California: Sage. Studies and Discourse Analysis: A Lacan, J., & Granoff, W. (1956). ―Fetishism: Dialogue on Language and Identity. the Symbolic, the Imaginary and the California: Sage. Real.‖ Perversions: Psychodynamics Barati, A. (2015). ―Ian McEwan‘s Zizekian and Therapy. pp. 265-76. Process of Subjectivity, A Study of Ian Lacan, J. (1958). Seminar VI: Desire and its McEwan‘s Atonement & Solar.‖ Interpretation 1958-1959. (Cormac International Journal of Applied Gallagher, Trans.). Unpublished Linguistic & English Literature. 4(2), Seminar. pp. 120-124. Lacan, J. (2005). Ecrits. (Alan Sheridan, Chiesa, L. (2007). Subjectivity and Trans.). New York: Norton. Otherness: A Philosophical Reading of Lacan, J. (1988). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan. Massachusetts: Mit Press. Lacan, Book II: The Ego in Freud’s Cock, C., Rehn, A. & Berry, D. (2013). ―For Theory and in the Technique of a Critical Creativity: The Radical Psychoanalysis 1954–55. (Sylvana Imagination of Cornelius Castoriadis.‖ Tomaselli, Trans.). Jacques-Alain In K. Thomas & J. Chan (Eds.). Miller, Ed. New York: Norton. Handbook of Research on Creativity Lacan, J. (1993). The Seminar of Jacques (pp. 150-161). Cheltenham: Edward Lacan. Book III, The Psychoses 1955- Elgar Publishing. 1956. (Russell Grigg, Trans.). Jacques- Dobrogoszcz T. (2015). ―Narrative as Alain Miller, Ed. New York: Norton. Expiative Fantasy in Ian Mcewan‘s Atonement.‖ In Roczniki Lacan, J. (1998). The Seminar of Jacques Humanistyczne. LXIII(5), pp. 115- Lacan. Book VIII, Transference 1960- 127. Retrieved July 24, 2016. from 1961. (Cornac Gallagher, Trans.). http://dx.doi.org/10.18290/rh.2015.63. Lacan, J. (2011). The Seminar of Jacques 5-8 Lacan. Book XII, Crucial Problems for

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