The Magic Toyshop as Nucleus of Desire: A Lacanian Analysis

Abstract

The Magic Toyshop (1967), Angela Carter's second novel, is the story of a young middle-class English girl-Melanie, who with her brother and sister has to move to London and live with her uncle after the death of her parents in an accident. Uncle Philips functions as the primordial father in the household and does not tolerate any digression or transgression from the Law. This paper aims to offer a Lacanian analysis of The Magic Toyshop by focusing on the major polarity that stands out in the novel around which all the narrative is structured: Desire and Law.