Jung's Principles
Although many critics have added to the conversation of the novel, very little has been written about how the dreams help contribute to the subjects of restraint and freedom with regard to Jane Eyre’s psyche. Exploring Jane Eyre through the philosophical eyes of dream analyst Carl Jung, a predecessor of Freud who has studied dreamers and dreaming in a unique perspective, may help readers view the struggle for autonomy in a new fashion through the use of imago, archetype, and shadow.
Jung initially began searching for his patients “mythology” when he heard them discussing their dreams and visions (Bair 246). Since he could never consent to Freud’s theory of dreams as “facades,” Jung himself separated and devised theories of the unconscious that deal with the imago, archetype, and shadow (Jung, Memories, 161). Jung’s theories stem from the collective unconscious, the concept that all human beings are equipped with ancestral history that supplies us innate knowledge, explaining why humans attach emotional reactions to universal objects. Consequently, this knowledge facilitated informing the idea of the archetype (Jung, Dreams, 78). The archetype is literally considered an “original model,” formed by all the “content of the collective unconscious” (Hall 38). As Jaffe adds, archetypes, which are “inner dispositions or propensities,” can be revealed through various mediums (15,16). In Jane Eyre, then, the looking glass becomes an archetypal figure, defined as a universal motif objectified in dreams, visions, and delusions (Jung, Memories, 392). The mirror is an archetypal image that illuminates Eyre's insecurity, which forms the from the imagos, or perceived images, of the Reed family she lives with.
The shadow is another archetypal images. Jung explains that the shadow “ is everything that the subjects refuses to acknowledge about himself” (Jung, Memories, 399). More so, the shadow is also considered the conformity archetype, since it encompasses society’s rules. It also deals with conflicts of conformity and “man’s basic animal nature” (Hall 48). It has been my goal to prove that through Jane's stellar imagination, “the freak image imposed on Jane at Gateshead and Lowood reveak the more hideous manifestatio when she meets her shadow, Bertha Mason (Chen 381).
Using this knowledge of Jung's principles, I have compiled a chronological structure of Jane Eyre's dream development. Starting in adolescence, Jane's is met with the mirror, a major image that holds power to her. She haunted through the mirror all the way to Thornfield Hall. Moving further, we will also use Jung's theories to interpret a major prophetic dream of Eyre's, made possible by her vivid imagination.
Photo of C.G. Jung is from Sangraal.com
Read more:
Introduction to the Dreams of Jane Eyre
Jung's Principles
Mirrors on the Wall: Early Imaginative Unconscious
Awakening the Imagination
Making Meaning of Prophetic Dreaming
Shadows: Reflections of the Self
Afterthoughts
Critics
Further Reading
About the Author