Lawrence's Perversity and the Prussian OfficerFerdinand de Saussure developed his "theory of the sign" as part of a more general course in linguistics taught in the 19th century. The "sign" represents the arbitrary relationship between the signifier (a word, or even a sound) and the signified (the meaning we give to the word or sound in our mind). For example, the word "can" means a cylindrical container to me, but it might mean something completely different to someone who doesn't understand English. The relationship between the word "can" and the can is entirely subjective. It's nothing more than a trigger for my pre-existing notion of the can. SIGNIFICANT (CAN) SIGN = MEANING (CYLINDRICAL CONTAINER) The actual meaning comes from the thing itself, rather than our word for it. Jacques Lacan modified Saussure's original algorithm so that the signifier dominated the signified. We have many words for the same object. For example, the adjectives ugly, unattractive, hideous, revolting, and familiar describe a less than desirable state of physical beauty. Why choose one word over another? The meaning is more or less the same. Yet there are subtle differences between these signifiers – differences that relate as much to the speaker as to the object described. The choice of a signifier is not at all arbitrary; words may not have a transcendental meaning, but they certainly relate to each other within a given linguistic structure: a language, a dialect, or even a piece of fiction. An interesting way to explore the mystery of the signifier is through constructs such as metaphor and metonymy. These function within a text, simultaneously hiding and betraying meaning. Metaphor and... middle of paper... the characters contrast each other. The tension becomes too much and the binary opposites cancel each other out, literally: the orderly kills his captain and then dies himself. In truth, "The Prussian Officer" is tied to a language all its own. Meaning is dynamic and moves with increasing speed towards destruction. The meaning collapses at the end of the story. Fortunately, there is a trace of metaphor and metonymy to reflect the changing relationships between the terms of the battle.[1] David Herbert Lawrence, "The Prussian Officer". DH Lawrence: Complete Stories. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1955 (105). Cited below in parentheses.[2] Anthony Wilden, "Lacan and the discourse of the Other". The language of the self: the function of language in psychoanalysis. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981 (225).