Objectification and Psyche in Shakespeare's Cymbeline
This paper examines Shakespeare's Cymbeline through a psychoanalytic lens, focusing on the subject-object dynamics that define Imogen's relationships with her father Cymbeline and her lover Posthumus Leonatus. Drawing on D.W. Winnicott's theory of object relations and objectified identification, the paper analyzes how the ring and bracelet function as transitional objects that map each character's stage of psychic development. Imogen is argued to embody a feminist spirit, resisting objectification while demonstrating greater emotional maturity than Posthumus Leonatus, who remains trapped in infantile object-fixation. The paper also considers the symbolic significance of the absent mother and the erotic tensions underlying the play's central relationships.
- Introduction: Imogen as Object and Subject: Imogen's dual role as patriarchal property and psychic subject
- The Ring and Bracelet as Symbolic Objects: Ring and bracelet as lovers' symbolic surrogates
- Winnicott's Object Relations and Psychic Development: Winnicott's developmental stages applied to the play
- Posthumus Leonatus and the Destruction of the Object: Posthumus's symbolic destruction of the ring
- Imogen's Resistance to Objectification: Imogen's self-awareness and defiance of objectification
- Conclusion: Psychic Maturity and the Subject-Object Transaction: Contrasting psychic maturity of Imogen and Posthumus
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What makes this paper effective
- Integrates a specific psychoanalytic framework — Winnicott's object-relations theory — consistently throughout the analysis rather than introducing it as a one-time reference.
- Uses close reading of textual evidence, including direct quotations with act, scene, and line citations, to anchor psychoanalytic claims in the play's language.
- Maintains a dual focus on gendered power dynamics and psychic development, giving the argument both feminist and psychological depth.
- Draws a clear contrast between Imogen's psychic maturity and Posthumus Leonatus's arrested development, providing a coherent comparative structure.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied theoretical criticism: it takes an established psychological framework (Winnicott's stages of object relations) and maps its stages systematically onto characters and props in a literary text. This technique shows how theoretical vocabulary — transitional objects, externalization, symbolic destruction — can sharpen literary interpretation beyond surface-level character analysis.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by establishing Imogen's dual status as patriarchal object and proto-feminist subject. It then introduces the ring and bracelet as symbolic proxies for the lovers before grounding the analysis in Winnicott's developmental model. A focused section on Posthumus Leonatus traces his regression through the object-destruction stage. The paper then contrasts Imogen's self-awareness and resistance, concluding with a judgment about relative psychic maturity.
Introduction: Imogen as Object and Subject
Titular Cymbeline's stubborn and self-willed daughter Imogen embodies the spirit of feminism as she seeks simply to marry the man she loves. In the patriarchal society in which Cymbeline is set, Imogen is by law and custom the king's property until she is wed. Essentially, Imogen is an object in every sense of the word. Posthumus Leonatus likewise views his beloved as an object of his own, albeit in a far different manner than that which Imogen's father recognizes her.
An object, as Winnicott frames it, is something that has use or value in its utility for the subject. Given that Cymbeline enjoys the titular role in Shakespeare's play, it is safe to say that Imogen is suitably objectified, and also that the playwright may be making deft commentary about the nature and consequences of objectification. An object is, after all, also empowered because of the power it holds over the subject. The subject loses himself in the object, much as Cymbeline loses his power without Imogen's obedience, and just as Posthumus Leonatus is bereft of his own intelligence until Imogen returns as Fidele.
The Ring and Bracelet as Symbolic Objects
Shakespeare plays upon the subject-object duality in Cymbeline by adding a further symbolic dimension in the ring and bracelet. Imogen's ring becomes her surrogate, and likewise, Posthumus's bracelet symbolizes the man. When they exchange these objects, the two lovers objectify each other and therefore engage in a prenuptial game that closely follows the psychic evolution of objectified identification as described by Freud and Winnicott.
Winnicott's concept of objectified relating focuses on symbolic objects just like the ring and bracelet. The concept of objectification pertains largely to the evolution of the infant's fascination with the object: the infant fixates on an object, identifies fully with it, and links the object to certain qualities or states of mind — and especially to people like the mother. In the case of Imogen, her mother is absent from the play. The absence of the mother creates a dramatic psychic tension for the protagonist. Imogen will continually long for union with the mother and has no objective substitute for her. On the other hand, Imogen does have an objective substitute for her lover and fixates on that object, the bracelet.
Winnicott's Object Relations and Psychic Development
The object begins as a direct extension of the self, or as an item that cannot be easily distinguished from the person it symbolizes. As Winnicott points out, however, the object must eventually become externalized — realized as being completely distinct from the self. This is a moment of psychic awakening, when, as Winnicott puts it, changes in the self take place on a deep level. Recognizing the self as separate from the object is a potent moment in ego growth. The subject recognizes herself in the object, is enriched by that encounter, and, depending on the degree of physical involvement or interaction with the object, the interaction may become sexual in nature.
Conclusion: Psychic Maturity and the Subject-Object Transaction
The subject-object transaction is a central moment in human psychic development. The psychoanalytic perspective espoused and expanded upon by Winnicott shows how Imogen serves as an object in and of herself. The actual physical objects in the play — particularly the ring and bracelet that represent the union between Imogen and Posthumus Leonatus — are the proverbial objects that an infant fixates on, unites with, and eventually destroys on some level in order to grow and mature.
Whereas Imogen has moved well beyond the stage of needing to identify her love for Posthumus Leonatus with a simple object, her lover has yet to develop such a keen level of maturity. He must still go through the stages of psychic development that Winnicott describes — stages that Imogen's clear-eyed self-possession suggests she has long since navigated.
References
Shakespeare, W. Cymbeline. Open Source Shakespeare. http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=cymbeline&Scope=entire&pleasewait=1&msg=pl
Winnicott, D. W. (1989). Psycho-Analytic Explorations. Harvard University Press.
Winnicott, D. W. (n.d.). The use of an object and relating through identifications. Retrieved from
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