The Construction and Destruction of Clay’s “Ideal Self” in Dutchman

Abstract

Amiri Baraka’s play Dutchman tells the tragic story of Clay, a black man who is seduced, insulted and killed by a white woman Lula on the subway. In order to fit into mainstream American society, Clay always constructs his “ideal self” and plays the role of a fake white man. Lacan’s mirror stage theory can explain the cause of the construction and destruction of Clay’s ideal-self.