Carl
Jung describes the archetype of the shadow as a moral problem that defies the ego.
Everyone has a shadow that consists of their inferiorities, or dark
characteristics. It requires great moral effort to become conscious of one’s
own shadow because it means seeing the dark aspects of their own personality as
being real and current. It is for this reason that those shadows are projected
onto others. It isn’t easy to see the issues and insecurities condensed into
your shadow. When you aren’t conscious of it, it is projected onto those around
you. It is impossible to consciously project your shadow on people because it
is the unconscious that paints the façade.
Becoming aware of your dark characteristics
means you see a problem you have not overcome. It is not something the average
person wants to see in themselves. However, if you have some goodwill and
insight you can recognize some of these aspects and incorporate them into
positively into your personality. This is harder to do with some parts of the
shadow. In fact, some aspects have such an unyielding resistance to this kind
of moral control that they are nearly impossible to influence. These faults
that we project on others that seems so invariably a fault of theirs that we do
not even consider that it is actually our own fault. It takes a large amount of
time and effort to become so aware of your own shadow. Consequently, this is
something that is not commonly done.
In most cases the shadow is
projected onto others. Those faults which are so very hard for us to see in
ourselves seem to be the easiest faults for us to see in others. When we project,
we are isolated from our environment. This happens because we are placing a
copy of our own unknown face on the world and this obscures our view of what is
really in the world. It keeps us from knowing others. We cannot see someone
when we are placing who we assume they are, which is actually part of who we
are, in our view of them. That shadow represents the personal unconscious.
Jung’s study of the shadow and
psychology of the people who project them provides invaluable insight not only
into the human psyche, but in literature as well. After all, a story is delving
into the psyche of the characters that make it up and the author that creates
them. We can better understand the actions of characters when we take into
account this literary theory and apply it to what we read in books and see in
movies. It can be seen everywhere from past literature to popular movies like Mean Girls. The “plastics” present a
very clear example of people who cannot see their deep faults and insecurities.
They project them most violently on all that surround them. The “Burn Book” is
evidence of their severe projections. None of those girls come close to
recognizing their problems until those around them turn on the girls and tell
them their faults forcibly. Using the shadow archetype as a literary theory we can
analyze plots and characters like this in literature.
