Self-construction in The Importance of Being Earnest from the Perspective of Lacan’s Mirror Stage Theory

The Importance of Being Earnest is the most representative play of Wilde. Since the publication of it, domestic and foreign scholars have demonstrated it from many perspectives. This paper employs Lacan’s mirror stage theory to analyze the self-construction process of “identification-disintegration-reidentfication” of Jack and Algernon, the two protagonists in the play, that is, to identify themselves with the mirror images, discover the misidentification of themselves, get rid of the mirror images and reidentify themselves. It is emphasized that the self-construction process of Jack and Algernon is based on the influence of the other.