A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Feminist Interpretation of Marie in Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine

Abstract: This thesis is an analysis of Marie’s struggle for empowerment within a patriarchal system in Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine. The main focus of this thesis is the untangling of Marie’s desire: why does she choose the path that she has taken in life and why is she seemingly unable to feel content? Marie’s life takes place within a patriarchal framework and this paper utilizes feminist theory to delineate this framework and demonstrate its oppressiveness. In order to untangle Marie’s desire, this paper also employs a Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective. The object of Marie’s desire seems to be to become empowered within patriarchal society, but she is socially castrated by its gatekeeper, Leopolda. Even though Marie attempts a different path to empowerment, she is unable to be satisfied until she confronts Leopolda once more. In typical Lacanian fashion the object of her desire keeps returning until its form becomes clear: the object of her social castration, that is, the “phallic” spoon.