The Search of the Unconscious Self: A Jungian Approach to Henrik Ibsen's Three Realistic Plays

• Main Authors: Hsin-chi Yuan, 袁欣祺
• Other Authors: Thomas Price
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/48512509445374312228

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 西洋語文研究所 === 89 === The main issue of this thesis is to advocate the development of personality, namely the enlightenment of the unconscious self (individuation). Jung has suggested that there is an unconscious self higher than our fragile, premature, conscious ego, which “designates the whole range of psychic phenomena in man,” which “expresses the unity of the personality as a whole.” Awareness of the unconscious self is a very important process toward self-development. Ibsen’s three realistic plays under the aid of Jung’s analytical psychology will provide new light to the better understanding of ourselves. The three plays chosen are Ghosts, A Doll’s House, and An Enemy of the People. Jung’s first stage of individuation, that is the need to approach our shadow side, is lucidly illustrated in Ghosts. In this play, Ibsen launches a scathing attack on the idealized images of the persona that people adhere to. By only adhering to the ideal images of persona, Mrs. Alving has unconsciously developed a shadow that is completely out of her control. Ibsen explicitly demonstrates the importance of confronting our shadow side, and the need to integrate it into our personality, for tragedy will inevitably fall on us if we ignore our dark aspect. The second stage of individuation, namely the approach to our unconscious anima/animus, Ibsen anticipates in A Doll’s House, which develops a striking parallel with Jungian thought on this subject. In this play, Ibsen shows the conflicts between a man and a woman as resulting from their different attitude types and dominant functions of thinking. In the present world, the roles of men and women have become so complicated that the traditional beliefs about the complementary relationships between the sexes become rather unreliable. It is therefore essential for each individual to develop his or her contrasexual feminine or masculine component in order to maintain a harmonious interplay between outer world and inner soul. In An Enemy of the People, Ibsen anticipates Jung’s third stage of individuation through the spiritual quest of his character Dr. Stockmann. Stockmann is the spiritual man who sees through the moral test given by the ‘wise’ old man, Kiil. The five acts of the play depict a series of events metaphorically comparable to Jung’s description of the five different levels of the dynamic Self. From the angle of Jung’s analytical psychology, I have offered a new perspective for interpreting three of Ibsen’s realistic plays, an angle of vision that will hopefully contribute fresh insights into the central issues of these dramas. I believe both Jung’s theories and Ibsen’s dramas echo each other, providing us a new light for the exploration of our mystifying future.