Wang Chia-Chih's Repression/Self-Identification in Lust/Caution

• Main Authors: Chih-Chun Liu, 劉芷君
• Other Authors: Whitney Crothers Dilley
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/4n8b99

碩士 === 世新大學 === 英語學研究所(含碩專班) === 101 === Ang Lee adopted Eileen Chang's short story “Lust, Caution”for his eponymous movie Lust/Caution (2007). Set in the background of the anti-Japanese war, the film tells the story of a group of patriotic college students who plan to kill a Chinese traitor after one successful performance. Wang Chia-Chih is supposed to seduce Mr. Yi but she falls in love with him. When she lets him escape, Wang ruins her life, her loyalty for her country, and all her group members' lives. This thesis attributes Wang Chia-Chih's change of attitude to her desire for her father’s love: Wang never feels her father's love, and he ultimately abandons her. Without the familial love, Wang Chia-Chih can only heal her wounded heart and repress her true feeling. When Wang's confused love for her father becomes a classic Electra complex, she projects the love for her father onto Mr. Yi. After Wang Chia-Chih has sex with Mr. Yi, she finds love and self-identification that she never experienced before with Mr. Yi. When Wang is convinced that Mr. Yi really loves her, she also faces her true feeling and spares Yi's life. The first part of the thesis discusses Wang's Electra complex in real life and how the author characterizes Wang as a woman suffering from the same complex. In addition to the role of Wang Chia-Chih in Lust/Caution, in his adaptation Ang Lee expands Eileen Chang's short story to add details about the family affair for the film; therefore, Wang Chia-Chih's symptoms can also be explained by the Electra complex in Lust/Caution. The second part examines Wang's Electra complex as the source of narcissism and self-repression. Wang Chia-Chih's Electra complex stems from her father's abandonment of her; at the same time, Wang’s inner repression is extreme. Also, the thesis will discuss Virginia Woolf's argument regarding women's self-repression in the patriarchal system. The third part examines how Wang Chia-Chih’s narcissism comes from her Electra complex, using Shoshana Felman's essay “Women and Madness”to discuss how Wang faces her true self and identifies herself through Mr. Yi. The searching of self-identity from other people's reflection coexists with the repression within one's inner mind and outer surroundings. The thesis argues that, both in the film Lust/Caution and the short story“Lust, Caution,”the character of Wang Chia-Chih never loses her true self and ultimately finds her own identity, even when she faces the inner struggles and outer repressive surroundings.