The Psychological Plight of Women in Society: The Journey of Individuation in We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Loading...
Date
2022-06
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
UNIVERSITY OF MOHAMED BOUDIAF
Abstract
ABSTRACT
When writing a character and forming its personality, authors prove that art is often a conscious
or an unconscious expression of the logical associations that his/her mind makes between the
premises and the consequences that s/he observes in the society. Therefore, the present study
addresses the psychological plight of two female protagonists in two novels “We have Always
Lived in the Castle” by Shirley Jackson and “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys, as study
samples to examine and understand the grounds behind the state of madness that the female
writers emphasized in the two characters. To achieve this, a deep analysis is conducted using the
theoretical basis of Carl Jung’s Modal of Psyche. This research; thus, suggests a range of
hypotheses. The first states that the two protagonists underwent similar psychological distress
due to their imbalanced psyche. In addition, the reason behind that distress is their traumatic
childhood and societal norms that restricted a healthy individuation. Rhys and Jackson’s
narratives with the help of Jung’s science expose how the individuation process of the human
self takes place by balancing multiple components of the psyche that get disintegrated through
various events in their lives.
Description
Keywords
Key Words: Psychoanalysis, female madness, individuation, psyche, Carl Jung, self, collective unconscious, complexes, shadow