The Self-Actualization of Catherine--An Analysis of Catherine in Washington Square from th

中外文学文化研究本栏目责任编辑：王力The Self-Actualization of Catherine--An Analysis of Catherine in Wash⁃ington Square from the Perspective of the Motivation TheoryLIANG Yi-ren(Beijing Language and Culture University,Beijing 100083,China)Abstract ：This thesis analyzes the protagonist Catherine in Washington Square from the perspective of the theory of motivation.This theory belongs to humanistic psychology,a branch of psychology mainly developed by Abraham.H.Maslow.Key words :humanism psychology;Washington Square;M otivation and Personality;self-actualization 中图分类号：I106文献标识码：A文章编号：1009-5039(2019)12-0203-031Catherine in Washington SquareHenry James was famous for his psychological reality,a sa⁃lient writing feature well expressed in his novel Washington Square .This novel aroused great public attention since it has been published.It tells the story of Catherine,a young girl who lived in a wealthy family,fell in love with a playboy who was greedy for her money.After understanding the bitter coldness of reality,she devel⁃oped her ability to help and love others and finally found her own value in her single life.The characters ’inner world has excellent depiction,which is important to push the development of the story.2The Motivation TheoryThere are many theses about Catherine,but the perspectives are not very original.As a literature work characterized as psycho⁃logical reality,an effective way to analyze the character is from the angle of psychology.There are many analyses interpreted Cathe⁃rine ’s behaviors or personality from Freudian Psychoanalysis.In literature,Freudian Psychoanalysis has already become a trend,but actually in psychology Freudian Psychoanalysis mainly focuses on those psychologically abnormal people (Guo 297).As normal people like Catherine in Washington Square ,humanistic psycholo⁃gy is more suitable.There are few theses that analyze characters from the perspective of humanistic psychology,especially Maslow ’s motivation theory.In this thesis,the motivation theory by Maslow is used to analyze Catherine ’s behaviors and choices.Humanistic psychology is the Third Force in psychology led by Rogers and Maslow.The other two are Behaviorism led by Wat⁃son and Freudianism led by Freud.Maslow put out the idea of “the motivation theory ”in his Motivation and Personality .He argued that our needs can be divided as The Physiological Needs,The Safety Needs,The Belongingness and Love Needs,The Esteem Needs and The Need for ter he added two needs--The Cognitive Needs and The Aesthetic Needs,and put these two before The Need for Self-Actualization.“Man is a wanting animal and rarely reaches a state of com⁃plete satisfaction except for a short time ”(Maslow 24).Maslow em⁃phasized that human beings were motivated by their needs and the satisfaction of their needs leads to higher level needs.“As one de⁃sire is satisfied,another pops up to take its place.When this is sat⁃isfied,still another comes into the foreground,etc.”(30).These needs usually arrange themselves in a definite hierar⁃chy.The higher need is a later phyletic or evolutionary develop⁃ment.“The higher the need the more specifically human it is ”(Maslow 98).Catherine ’s life experience is typically a growth peo⁃ple finally achieved self-actualization.3Lack of Love and BelongingnessCatherine was born in a wealthy family.Her mother died threemonths after she was born .Her father (Doctor Slope)and her aunt (Lavinia)raised her up.According to Maslow,generally speaking the physiological needs are relative to the needs of food,etc.And the safety needs refers to “security;stability;dependency;protec⁃tion;freedom from fear,from anxiety and chaos;need for structure,order,law,limits;strength in the protector;and so on ”(39).She had her mother ’s relics and her father ’s support.Her life was sta⁃ble and simple,she was satisfied of the need of physiology and safe⁃ty but her need for love and belongingness was frustrated.Because her father was not fancy of her,although he decided to treat her nice.At first,Doctor Slope wanted a boy but later he got a girl.Then he wanted Catherine to be beautiful and smart just like her mother,and this is the reason why he named Catherine after her mother ’s ter Catherine grew up as a plain,simple yet a good-tempered girl,which disappointed Doctor Slope,but as a fa⁃ther ’s duty,he still treated her well in material life.Doctor Slope always mocked at Catherine.No matter what Catherine did and said she could not satisfy Doctor Slope.This caused Catherine ’s longing for love.She never gained real respect and warm in her family.Without her father ’s respect and care,her need for love and belongingness was frustrated.Her father ’s atti⁃tude to her is polite but cold.Between them there ’s a big distance.He never liked Catherine,although “he proposed to himself to make the best of her ”(5).With a child ’s natural love for her par⁃ents,Catherine was very fond of her father,Doctor Slope,yet afraid收稿日期：2019-02-17修回日期：2019-03-17作者简介：梁伊人（1995—），女，山东寿光人，北京语言大学硕士在读，主要研究方向为英语语言文学。