Supremacy of Signifiers in Developing Unconscious in ‘Happy Endings’ by Margaret Atwood: A Lacanian Perspective

Abstract

This research structurally analyses Happy Endings by developing connections within the different sub-plots to show that each plot in isolation is a meaningless entity with no substantial grounds. Through the psychoanalytic theory of Lacan, with a particular focus on the symbolic order, it proves that meaning is decentred, and delocalized, and it lies outside the signifiers in the space that is often taken as empty and vacant; by linking one plot to another the research extracts meanings that are imperceptible to common sight. This research studies each subplot as a signifier and demonstrates that the Lacanian Unconscious is a web of understanding that is derived from language, where language itself is an inadequate medium that can be either restricted or expanded as per the number of signifiers. This analysis brings a new perspective to the study of signifiers as a scope of an individual's understanding. Through a close reading of the text, it shows that language is the “big Other” that entraps an individual and turns him/her into a subject. The findings of this study contribute to the field of psychoanalytic literary criticism by stressing the relevance of Lacanian theory in interpreting literary texts that could enhance our understanding of the complex dynamics of lingual control and desire in these texts.