The Tempest: Jungian Psychoanalysis

The Tempest: Jungian Psychoanalysis

Why is Shakespeare still considered so important nowadays? While entire books have been filled on his particular gift for writing, and his gargantuan contribution to the English language cannot go unmentioned, it can be argued that a great deal of his magic resides in the skillful way he weaved stories dealing with such basic human feelings and experiences that even 400 years later resonate with their audience, regardless of their social or economic status, for they are universal and timeless; that is, they appeal to our collective unconscious through its archetypes (inborn prototypes for ideas, which channel events and emotions, embodying the fundamental, nonspecific characteristics of a thing). As Hillman (1990) mentions, "psychology shows myths in modern dress and myths show our depth psychology in ancient dress." Therefore, it is possible to view several of Shakespeare's plays through a psychoanalytic lens; the following essay will apply basic concepts of depth psychology to The Tempest, a neo-classical tragicomedy written at the end of his career.

This particular play lends itself to a Jungian archetypal analysis because it deviates from the traditional ornateness and complexity of Shakespeare's most famous dramas and favors instead a deliberate return to naiveté through a rather simple characterization, a single, isolated setting, the use of eye-catching enchantments and mythological figures and the adherence to the traditional time unity. This gives the play a whimsical, magical tone that sets the story not so much in reality but in a dreamy parallel, which is even lampshaded in one of the speeches: "We are such stuff/ as dreams are made on." Therefore, the four main dual, opposite archetypes, that is, the Anima, the Animus, the Spirit and the Shadow can be easily identified in the main characters; as a matter of fact, all of the characters in the play possess a pair. The process of individuation, integration or conformation of the Syzygy, "a quaternion composing a whole, the unified self of which people are in search" can also be perceived throughout the plot.

The story of The Tempest is centered on Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, who has spent 12 years exiled on an island with his young daughter Miranda, Caliban, a monstrous servant, and Ariel, a spirit that is binded to him. Prospero conjures a storm through the use of magic to bring ashore Antonio, his brother, the man who usurped his throne, and his companions, most importantly Alonso, the King of Naples and his son, Ferdinand. He has, in fact, orchestrated a plan through which he manages to make his daughter and the king's son fall in love, thereby arranging their future marriage and securing a strategical political position through which he can also regain his own dukedom.

However, other conflicts arise separately within the King's group when Antonio convinces Alonso's brother to kill Alonso in his sleep as they believe Ferdinand to be dead, a plan that is thwarted by Ariel; and meanwhile, Trinculo and Stefano, a pair of servants, find Caliban and give him alcohol, making him believe they are gods and compelling him to swear loyalty to them, going as far as to create another assassination plot, this time involving Prospero. In view of the fact that he and Ariel have been carefully controlling the events ever since the titular tempest, it doesn't take them much to stop the upheavals and punish those who were guilty of wrongdoings, after which Prospero forgives and makes peace with the other noblemen. The entire group later embarks towards Italy, but not before Prospero completely renounces the use of magic and sets Ariel free. As Beck (1993) mentions, "this is a play of repentance, power, revenge and fate that can also be seen as fantasy, dream, imagination, metaphor or magic."

For the purposes of this interpretation, Miranda is seen as the embodiment of the main archetypal myth of the Anima, while Ferdinand personifies the Animus. Archetypes, as it has been mentioned, come in opposite pairs: the presence of the Anima is that of the erotic feminine ideal, the cherished female image, virginal - she represents the feminine aspects of a male psyche, such as gentleness, tenderness, patience, receptiveness, closeness to nature, among others. The Animus, on the other hand, is the male side of a female psyche: assertiveness, control, power, leadership, fighting spirit, etcetera. The sudden, immediate surge of romance, the "love at first sight" between Ferdinand and Miranda is, in fact, a sign of their equality and parallelism, since such a reaction is, in the man, the product of finding a woman who matches the internal image of his Anima, and in the woman, the product of finding a man who matches her Animus (Alli, 1999). Once they are joined together by the rite of marriage and consummate the union (which Ferdinand is strongly warned about doing before time by Prospero) they become the "Divine Couple", the union between the opposites of masculinity and femininity.

Ariel and Caliban, on the other hand, possess characteristics so opposite that it would be hard not to associate one with the archetypal Spirit and the other with the image of the Shadow, respectively. As Beck (1993) puts it, "Ariel is consciously directed; he is civilized and ordered. Time and space are not obstacles for him, but he is the rational and logical means by which Prospero effects changes in the outer world." Ariel is presented explicitly as an air spirit, "(his) very being is spun of melody and fragrance; if a feeling soul and an intelligent will are the warp, these are the woof of his exquisite texture" (Hudson, 1909). He also appears to have a high sense of morality, since he preferred to suffer captivity rather than "act the earthy and abhorr'd commands" that were required of him by the evil witch who was Caliban's mother.

Caliban however represents the Shadow's almost absolute amorality, the basest primitive instincts, which most people try to repress or reject in themselves. "Though he has all the attributes of humanity from the moral downwards, so that his nature touches and borders upon the sphere of moral life, the result but approves his exclusion from such life in that it brings him to recognize moral law only as making for self" (Hudson,1909). He is described physically as a deformed and monstrous male, and mentally, one can see that he makes no attempt to act virtuously and is instead led mostly by fear and hatred, rebelling against Prospero whenever possible. Nevertheless, it's important to note that, just as each archetype has a pair, they are also composed of duality themselves, for not even the Shadow is made exclusively of flaws; it also has a positive side, creativity, which can be seen in Caliban when he describes the island in a well-expressed and poetical manner in the middle of Act III. It would be fair to note, too, that even in his insults to Prospero he shows a high degree of eloquence.

The appearance of the aforementioned essential archetypes is set in such a way that the plot itself mirrors Jung's concept of the process of individuation: in the very beginning, both the Anima (Miranda) and the Shadow (Caliban) are denied agency or relevant participation by Prospero, who not coincidentally is the only character that is complexly "fleshed out" with various flaws, virtues, desires, memories and plans, as he represents the individual in his quest for transmutation and change. He has repressed his feminine side through his marked introspectiveness caused by his excessive faith and interest in his studies, neglecting the importance of emotion as a necessary counterpart to reason, and acts in denial of his own flaws, projecting them into the figure of Caliban and verbally and physically abusing him for showing all the characteristics he doesn't want to recognize in himself. However, as events unfold, he finally allows the union of Miranda with a suitable male counterpart, allowing her to evolve and go outside of his range of command, while also accepting his responsibility of dealing with Caliban by proclaiming in front of everyone "this thing of darkness/ I acknowledge mine." His over-dependence on Ariel, higher spirits and magic also comes to an end by his own choice, and he decides to return to a normal life as a common human being. Thus, all the opposites have been integrated and balanced: as Gonzalo, one of the lords, says, "in one voyage did Claribel her husband find at Tunis; and Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife where he himself was lost; Prospero, his dukedom in a poor isle; and all of us, ourselves when no man was his own."

In summary, The Tempest, while apparently an uncomplicated play, is full of significance from a psychological point of view thanks to the themes and characters portrayed in it, which serve as a representation of one of the most important inner experiences of mankind: personal growth. Its benevolent comment of human nature and ends on a light note, though it "seems the appropriate statement of age, of the man who having seen it all can teach us that the profoundest statement is the lightest and that life, when we see through it, is joyful, tragicomically joyful - that the evil, the violence, the tragedy are all part of providential design. We lose in order to recover something greater; we die in order to be reborn to a better life" (Langbaum, 1964).

Works cited 

Alli, A. (1999, June 12). On the term "archetype". Retrieved March 20, 2013, from Paratheatrical: http://www.paratheatrical.com/archetype.html

Beck, B: 1493, Aria Mungia me reaion. Retrieved March 20, 2013, from

Hillman, J. (1990) Oedipus Variations: Studies in Literature and Psychoanalysis.

Zurich, Switzerland: Spring Journal Books.

Langbaum, R. (1964). The tempest, with commentaries and a revised bibliography.

New York: Signet Classics.

Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Ed. Henry Norman Hudson (1909). New York:

Ginn and Co. Retrieved March 20, 2013, from:

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/thetempest/hudsonarielcontrast.html