Mimetic Desire and the Mirror of the Self in Honglou Meng 紅樓夢

In Honglou Meng, Cao Xueqin presents us with a two-sided mirror (Fengyue Baojian) with the object of desire in the front and a skull in the back. This thesis contextualizes Cao Xueqin’s mirror as the development and refinement of Ming-Qing mirror imagery in works such as Jin Ping Mei and Mudan Ting. Through a close reading of primary texts, the study analyzes the novel’s mirror imagery through the lens of René Girard’s mimetic theory by reading the mirror of Honglou Meng as a metaphor for mimetic desire, seeking to open a new dialogue between theory and text. Ultimately, this thesis argues (to borrow a phrase from Mark Ferrara) that the mirror of Honglou Meng serves as a “soteriological instrument” for what I call in this thesis novelistic conversion, which parallels Buddhist notions of enlightenment: i.e. the recognition of the illusion of desire and the rejection of the desiring self.