Introduction
Though revered for its longevity and
ability to reach across continents, the genre of romance literature is
generally thought of as mere entertainment by a fairly large cross section of
society. It certainly doesn’t warrant
close study. It doesn’t reflect
reality. Therefore, what’s the use of
these stories? Why get a degree in
reading and writing at all? Why waste my
time reading stories written thousands of years ago and then writing papers
that try to make sense of it all? “I
hear data management is where the money is,” I was told recently by a family
member, “maybe you should take some classes in that.”
I believe literature provides us with
a focused lens through which we can view valuable lessons, such as the concept
of individuation. Within the common
elements of romance literature are the ingredients by which we realize our
individual personalities. Throughout the collections of ancient tales, such as Daphnis
and Chloe, and Lucius and the Ass, all the way up to and beyond Haroun
and the Sea of Stories, elements of the story such as the quest, apparent
death and revelation all lead to the hero and/or heroine realizing what is
referred to in analytical psychology as "the self."
According to
Jung, the process of individuation is an important component of personal
fulfillment. He and other psychologists describe the
process in terms of a holistic healing, with the end result being the
maturation of the individual.
Individuation is the process of personal transformation in which the
unconscious becomes part of the conscious self.
It is comprised of three components:
the shadow, the senex and the anima or animas. In many of the romance tales we studied this
semester, the main characters confront these elements on their way to a better
understanding not only of themselves, but each other, and their psychological
and physical environment. And by reading
and studying these stories, we can gain a better understanding not only of
literature, but of our own selves.
Individuation in
Literature
Long before
Carl Jung and his colleagues presented the world with a framework for the
concept of individuation, storytellers and authors were creating characters
that exemplified this transformational process.
Within these stories the hero and heroine, despite being fictionalized,
can appear almost real in our imaginations.
We empathize with them. We laugh
at what they say and do. We cry tears of joy when they are reunited with their
long-lost love.
But what is it about these characters
and their journeys that draw us in to them?
What makes us forget, however briefly, that they aren't real? What causes us to draw parallels between our
lives and theirs? Jung might say it's
the need for all of us to become whole beings, that we're all on our own paths
toward individuation and because fiction, however implausible it may seem to
some, is a textbook for what it is to be human.
It helps us get closer to our goal of realizing our true selves.
In essence, individuation answers the
question, "what's the use of stories that aren't even true?" In order to realize our identities we must
understand that the world we inhabit is much greater than what simply happens
in our own lives. We build walls around us,
insulating ourselves from the people who walk by us on the streets and those
living on the opposite side of the planet. Stories tear down those walls and open us to
the experiences of others. Our lives are
so short (and generally so dull) that we can hardly expect to encounter the
number and scope of crises that our fictional friends experience in their
lives. Stories open our minds to the world of the descent, of forbidden love,
of death and destruction. They remind us
of our humanity and, ultimately, of our fragility.
On the surface, they are just that -
stories, fabrications, lies. But within
the world of literary criticism we can take the time to look beyond the story,
to read between the lines, to find the truth within. Frye emphasizes that not only is the story
important, but “what is being said about the society that the story is
'reflecting'” (45) is important. These
stories are a looking glass, a window into our souls. Frye also says that “man remains a Narcissus
staring at his own reflection, equally unable to surpass himself,” (61) but the
question is “what part of your reflection do you stare at?” Do you look only at the image of
yourself? Or do you look also at the
world surrounding you, the backdrop of your reflection, and do you see that
world behind you also as a part of you?
“Reality, we remember, is otherness, the sense of something not
ourselves” (60). Romance teaches us
this, while at the same time providing us with some much-needed
entertainment. That is the point of
stories, after all – to educate and to entertain us. The greatest works of literature can do both
equally well.
The King and the Corpse, as told by Heinrich Zimmer, is a short tale in which the
hero, a king, is presented with a series of difficult riddles. If he fails to solve them, he will die. If he succeeds, he will be rewarded with much
more than the promise of being a hero.
This story is a perfect example of a character who is presented with a
path toward individuation. An
examination of this path, as well as the elements that comprise the process of
individuation follows.
The Shadow
Jung
describes the “shadow” as turning one’s inferiority into a perceived deficiency
in someone else. This important step in
the process of individuation allows the person to see their darker side as a
part of their persona. In The King and The Corpse, the King’s shadow
is personified in the sorcerer. “In the
kingly person there can lie concealed a secret unkingliness,” (Zimmer, 212). In this case, that unkingly figure arrives
with the promise of adventure, magic and riches. The sorcerer is symbolic of the King’s
ego. Despite recognizing the danger that
the sorcerer represents, however, the King chooses to meet him at the burial
grounds. The sorcerer represents the
King’s inferiorities, which the King has chosen to confront. This is the first step in the individuation
process: accepting your darker side and
bringing it under your conscious control.
The King faces the challenge and, therefore, owns up to his dark side.
The Senex
The Senex is
represented in a character that shows wisdom and sound judgment or, as we see
in the character of the Corpse, an all-knowing, otherworldly being that brings
the King face to face with the part of his ego that is the “dead weight from
the past” (223). The Corpse is a
manifestation of the King’s ego that “dwells behind, beyond, within the kingly
‘I’ that we consciously consider ourselves to be” (223). The Senex character leads the King on his
path toward individuation, but he does not reveal the answers. “The king’s problem,” says Frye, and the true
answer to the riddles the Corpse poses to him, “is to become truly and entirely
himself” (225). By integrating the senex
into both the conscious and unconscious, both the knowing and unknown, the King
is able to find the answer, which is that he does not know the answer. Overcoming his ego’s desire to know
everything, as a king might think he should, allows him to discover what it is
he is truly looking for: his Self.
Anima
Anima
describes the feminine qualities of the male unconscious. According to Jung, this oftentimes manifests
itself in the dreams of a male. The
scene of the burial ground could certainly be considered a dreamlike sequence
of events. And the King comes to terms
with his feminine side when he is forced to serve the whims of the Corpse. He becomes submissive, which is more typical
of a feminine character, and very rarely one of a king in folk tales. This king finds himself carrying the corpse
on his shoulders over and over again until the Corpse gets what it wants: the King’s silence. Zimmer says, “it is because we have finally
submitted to its whim and will that it can save us” (229). It is not until the king becomes the subject
that he can become a truly “potent” king.
In this
stage of individuation, we see the Corpse symbolizing the coming together of
the King’s conscious and unconscious. It
is only when we allow this to happen that we are able to realize who we are and
where we are going. This final stage,
the realizing of the Self, brings us to a greater understanding not only of
ourselves, but of everything around us.
We finally understand that our power comes not only from ourselves, but
from everything else that inhabits our world.
Good comes from within us, but evil also lives in each of our
minds. “In the end, the ghost…proves to
be the savior” and it turns out to be “the only one in the whole world, the
only guide in the darkness of the night of our being, who can save us from the
magic circle of our own self-created evil” (229).
Conclusion
Individuation can only occur when we
have integrated the unconscious into the conscious, when the two become one. In that way, individuation is very much like
the coming together of two lovers. This
is the very essence of the romantic tales we have studied this semester. “The improbable, desiring, erotic, and
violent world of romance reminds us that we are not awake when we have
abolished the dream world: we are awake
only when we have absorbed it again” (Frye, 61). Love can be very much like a dream. And so we must remember to absorb it like we
do our favorite books.
Frye says, “one of the things that
the study of literature should do is to help the student become aware of his
own mythological conditioning, especially on the more passive and critically
unexamined levels” (167). When I first
read this, I understood it only in one sense, which is that we should be aware
of how we have come to be indoctrinated with the cliché mythology. But now I understand it as something
more. I believe that Frye is trying to
tell us that we need to be aware of the myths that we have built around ourselves: those stories that our egos tell us that are,
at best, only half-truths. Until we can
recognize this dangerous mythology which we suppose to be our reality, it is
our lives that will remain a cliché. We
will be the indoctrinated unless we can de-program ourselves. And we can only do that by learning to look
beyond our own Self and realize that we are part of a greater mythology – one
that involves love for others, art, music, nature, and of course,
literature. The ability to tell stories
is one of the defining qualities of what it is to be human. I would go so far as to say it is our defining characteristic. And because of this, we also have the ability
to know who we truly are. By reaching
into the great Ocean of Stories, we can cleanse ourselves of the need to be in
control and give ourselves to the story and maybe, if we pay close enough
attention, or simply by letting go for one moment, we can find the value and
wisdom that is inside each of us.
WORKS CITED
Frye,
Northrop. The Secular Scripture.
Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1976. Print.
Zimmer,
Heinrich. The King and the Corpse.
Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1975. Print.
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