The beautiful Annabel Lee
4-18-11
Comp. II
The Collective Unconscious
And the Beautiful Annabel Lee “The unconscious is commonly regarded as a sort of in capsulated fragment of our most personal and intimate life- something like what the bible calls ‘the heart’ and considers the source of all evil thoughts” (Jung 380). Jung thinks that by using dreams, we can break into that unconscious barrier we have in order to understand what is truly going on deep inside the corners of our minds. He uses all kinds of archetypes to help comprehend and determine what really lies deep inside. According to Carl Jung’s theory, Annabel Lee is portrayed by the narrator as the anima archetype of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem in “Annabel Lee.” This whole poem is about the narrator fighting a war that is going on with a certain side of himself that he wants to let go of, but simply cannot. I think it is safe to say that the narrator of this poem is completely mesmerized by this woman named Annabel Lee. “The Jungarian complex is not, like the Freudian concept of the name, limited to repressed material or inhibited impulses from the personal unconscious; sometimes complex-activity is accompanied by the numinous experience indicated the archetype, the collective unconscious” (Utyman 192). Jung believes that archetypes indicate what lies in the collective unconscious, and in this instance, The anima is fighting with the narrator’s collective unconscious. An anima, in Jung’s words, is a “mischievous being” (a projection by a man) that can change into any sorts of shapes and “infatuates young men and sucks the life out of them” (386-87). She is exotic and unusual and has the narrator casted under her spell and does not plan on letting him go. Even death will not set the man free of his torture. According to Jung, the anima can be represented and analyzed in many types of ways. Throughout the poem, there are an abundant amount of symbols that tie into the anima. When the narrator says
Comp. II
The Collective Unconscious
And the Beautiful Annabel Lee “The unconscious is commonly regarded as a sort of in capsulated fragment of our most personal and intimate life- something like what the bible calls ‘the heart’ and considers the source of all evil thoughts” (Jung 380). Jung thinks that by using dreams, we can break into that unconscious barrier we have in order to understand what is truly going on deep inside the corners of our minds. He uses all kinds of archetypes to help comprehend and determine what really lies deep inside. According to Carl Jung’s theory, Annabel Lee is portrayed by the narrator as the anima archetype of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem in “Annabel Lee.” This whole poem is about the narrator fighting a war that is going on with a certain side of himself that he wants to let go of, but simply cannot. I think it is safe to say that the narrator of this poem is completely mesmerized by this woman named Annabel Lee. “The Jungarian complex is not, like the Freudian concept of the name, limited to repressed material or inhibited impulses from the personal unconscious; sometimes complex-activity is accompanied by the numinous experience indicated the archetype, the collective unconscious” (Utyman 192). Jung believes that archetypes indicate what lies in the collective unconscious, and in this instance, The anima is fighting with the narrator’s collective unconscious. An anima, in Jung’s words, is a “mischievous being” (a projection by a man) that can change into any sorts of shapes and “infatuates young men and sucks the life out of them” (386-87). She is exotic and unusual and has the narrator casted under her spell and does not plan on letting him go. Even death will not set the man free of his torture. According to Jung, the anima can be represented and analyzed in many types of ways. Throughout the poem, there are an abundant amount of symbols that tie into the anima. When the narrator says
Cited: Jung, Carl G. “The basic writings of C. G. Jung edited, with an introduction by violet staub De Laszlo. New York: Random House, 1959. 380-90. Print. Utyman, J. D. Rev. of “Complex, Archetype, Symbol in the physchology of C. G. Jung. Ed. Routledge and Kegan Paul (1959): 192 Web. Print. Changingminds.org: Jung’s Archetypes. “The anima and the animus.”