Interpreting Sula Through Lacan’s The Mirror Stage
Sula by Toni Morrison shows how the sexual orientations of characters are affected by their identity formation processes. Sula’s and Nel’s beliefs about a woman are different, despite the similarities they share. This is due to their very different role models. The racial and sex roles that were already in place in their society influenced Sula’s and Nel’s beliefs. They created a complex system of rules and double-standards which sexualized women and also discouraged them from sexual activity. The protagonists are influenced by characters who also struggle to understand the paradoxical and complex concept of female homosexuality. A Lacanian reading can demonstrate this. Older characters in the novel serve as imagos, helping their younger counterparts define their social roles.
According to Jacques Lacan, in his essay “The Mirror Stage,” a self-identity is formed by a person when they first look into a reflection and recognize the image. Lacan refers the mirror stage to “an identification” or “the transformative process that occurs in the subject as he assumes a representation” (Lacan, 2). Lacan’s “transformation” is the formation or self-perception of an individual’s ego. The child will mistakenly believe that the image in mirror is their own self, and not a spectral reflection. In the novel, Nel has a cathartic experience when she sees herself and says, “I am me.” I’m their daughter. I’m Nel. I’m me. Me” (Morrison 28). This mistaken identity is the foundation of her narrative. She advances her narrative by misrecognition because she continues identifying with different characters, or imagos. Her personality diverges from Sula’s as a result of the environment influencing her identity.
Identification is not always deliberate. Nel doesn’t try to be Helene. Instead of forming her identity around Helene, Nel begins to create identities with other people. First, Sula. Later, Jude. Nel changes her personality when Sula arrives at her house. She “felt comfortable with Sula in the home that she dreaded, but with Nel who admired it” (Morrison, 29). She isn’t consciously trying, but she does accommodate Sula to be able to connect. This is illustrated in a later text when the author describes their friendship as “so near” that it was difficult to distinguish one’s own thoughts from another (Morrison 83) Nel’s mother is much more like her than she thinks. Helene’s “dazzlingly coquettish smile” (Morrison, 21) at the salmon face of conductor when they were together taught Nel that she should accommodate and satisfy others. Nel’s mother’s “foolish grin” humiliates her and she feels ashamed to realize that the men “were bubbling over with hatred towards her mother, which had not existed in the beginning” (Morrison 21). However, Nel continues this behavior throughout her life. As the text states, this moment totally changes Nel’s perception of her mom. Nel was never sexualized by her mother before, but this moment changes their relationship. Nel becomes aware that she “wants to be certain that no one ever looks at me that way”, and will always “be on guard”. Nel can’t avoid being sexualized and stigmatized as a woman of color, but she is more aware in her later relationship. Both women have similar relationships with their husbands. Morrison writes that Helene “loved to manipulate her daughter and herself” (Morrison, 18). Nel is not outright manipulating Jude. However, she does rely on him for her own identity. It is manipulative to rely on Jude in order to make her feel like she’s a complete person.
Nel does not seem to be the only woman who is inclined to create an image of herself in relation with others. Does the society in which she was raised encourage this type of behavior among women? Black women in particular. It is clear from the text that Jude wants a relationship with someone who will care deeply for his hurt. If he becomes a man, his mother would not be an option. The fact that he loves Nel does not negate his belief that she should be viewed as a part of him, rather than her own being. He wants “the two together to make one Jude” (Morrison, 83). Nel, Jude’s wife, is perfect because “she has no aggression” and she never disagrees. It is not just dysfunctional but also common for the period that the relationship between them forms. Eva tells Sula that “ain’t nobody got no business flounderin’ around on her own” (Morrison 92). Nel tells Sula, in the argument at the end of his novel, that she can’t be everything. You’re not a man. You cannot act like a male. You can’t just walk around doing what you please, grabbing what you want and leaving the rest” (Morrison 142). Her comment shows that she doesn’t rely on other people because she wants to. She does so because there is nothing else for a woman of color to do.
Sula is not a woman of color. She rejects this role that society forces on her. Hannah, too, has an unconventional attitude toward sexuality in women. The two women never marry, but instead enjoy a succession of sexual relationships over time. Sula tries to become a man in order to be able create an identity as a woman. She believes black males are “the envy in the whole of the earth”, and she tells Jude that, “everything around you loves you”. You are loved by white men… and women too? They chase and feel for each other under every bed. Colored women strain themselves to get your cuffs. As the text says, “Sula did not compete with anyone; she just helped them define themselves.” Sula seemed to increase the volume of other people’s voices when she was present (Morrison 95). In her sexual relations with males, Sula does use other people to help understand herself. However, unlike Nel, this is not the case. Sula slept with men “as often as possible” because she “couldn’t find anything else” (Morrison 120). However, she is unable to distinguish between the men who she sleeps. She will look up at them “in wonder” when trying to remember their names (Morrison123). She also dismisses gender roles in her question to Nel. Spending my life keeping up with a male? (Morrison 134) Sula shares the same problem as her mother Hannah because she defines herself without any particular man. Sula was ill-prepared for possessiveness because she identifies herself with imagos. “They thought all men are available, and they select them based only on their taste” (Morrison 119)
Sula’s inability to understand the concept of possession is what ultimately destroys Sula and Nel’s friendship. Sula may have “knew enough about what other woman said or felt, but she believed that both her and Nel always saw through them” (Morrison 119) despite the fact that Sula was “well-aware of how they were feeling.” She is not aware that “marriage has changed all of that” as she “has no intimate understanding of marriage”(Morrison 119). The differences in their definitions of love, friendship and morality at the end are the reason for their disagreement. Nel says “You did not love me enough to let him be alone… You took him away,” which Sula answers “What do mean take him apart?” (Morrison, 145). Sula is unaware that Nel harbors possessive feelings for Jude. She does not know why Nel would no longer want to be with Jude if he cheated on Sula. Sula doesn’t believe that her disregard for social norms makes Nel a bad person. Nel says, “I did good to Sula. Why does that not matter?” Sula challenges her notion by asking, “How can you be sure… that it was me?” How do you recognize it as you? Sula criticizes Nel’s love for her family and friends by creating her own identity. Nel can avoid creating a personal identity in her relationships with family members and friends by putting their needs above hers. She thinks that being concerned about someone involves accommodating every desire. Like when she watches Jude and Sula together and doesn’t say a word to him, because “I was afraid you wouldn’t realize that your fly wasn’t closed and I was scared that they looked like the soldiers’ eyes that time in the train when my mum turned into custard”. (Morrison: 106). Sula shows her love by giving the people she loves what they really need, not what they want. It is illustrated by the speech she gives after saying, “Oh they’ll love you all right.” It will be a while, but they will eventually love you (Morrison 15).
Sula is known for her unconventional lifestyle, which influences the identity of other people living in the Bottom. Everyone strives to be like Sula, because they believe she is the epitome of wrongness. Nel, like Helene, is a woman who has been molded by men. She allows Jude to disrespect her and justifies her behavior as kindness. Sula shares Eva’s unorthodox approach to love. Both rely on a concept called ‘tough-love’.
Works Cited
Lacan, Jacques. The Mirror Stage in the Formation of I Function. 1949. PDF.
Morrison, Toni. Sula. New York: Plume 1973. Print.
