George Orwell's 1984: Carl Jung's Theory of the Individual Psyche (Research Paper Sample)

Analytical Psychology
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Summary: 1984
The story revolves around an individual called Winston Smith. Smith is a low-ranking member of dominant and ruling party in nation of Oceania. He is surrounded by the party’s ubiquitous presence everywhere he goes. The leader of the Party is known only as the Big Brother. The party is so influential that it controls virtually every aspect of life in Oceania. It even controls the language and history. At the time the story begins, the party was busy implementing a new language called Newspeak. The language was set in such a way that it did not have vocabulary to describe political rebellion. Thus, the purpose of the language is to eliminate any form of political rebellion (Orwell, 2009). The ruler criminalized even thoughts on political rebellion.
Winston secretly loathes the party and all that it stands for because it limits the freedom of individuals to freely think and act. He purchases a diary to record all illegal thoughtcrimes that he has as a way of letting off. He is fixated on O’Brien, a guy he believes is part of the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is the supposed group of rebels that seek to overthrow the Party. The alleged leader of the Brotherhood is Emmanuel Goldstein who has been labelled the most dangerous man alive (Orwell, 2009). Winston does not personally believe the he is based on the idea that he is fighting for the freedom from the Party’s control.
There is a girl with dark hair that keeps looking at his at work. She finally sends him a note saying that she loves him. He is glad and sad at the same time. He is happy for being loved and having the chance to love back. He is sad that the Party will be monitoring them a lot and therefore, the chances of them being together are reduced. Regardless, the two of them rent a room and start living together. Winston assumes the role of the pessimist in the relationship always afraid of what the Party might do to them if they found out. The girl, Julia, is not afraid in fact she is hopeful they will make it. O’Brien finally contacts Winston saying he wants to talk. Both Julia and Winston visit O’Brien in his luxurious apartment. The host admits that he hates the party too and is has been working with the Brotherhood to bring down the Party (Orwell, 2009). He attempts to recruit the two lovebirds before the Thought Police come in and arrest them Winston later learns that the house owner is part of the Thought Police while O’Brien is a Party spy.
After the arrest, Winston is tortured by O’Brien who only wants him to turn on Julia. Through months of struggle and resistance to the torture meted out by O’Brien, Winston finally snaps. This is after he was taken to the dreaded room 101.This is a room where prisoners are made to face their worst fears. In this case, Winston’s worst fear is rats attacking him. That is exactly what O’Brien uses to get Winston to snap and turn on Julia. From here onwards, he is released and no longer harbors love for Julia. He chooses to accept and love the Party and by extension the Big Brother. The experience changed him a lot. The story is based on the relationship between the powers -that-be and the oppressed. This is a story that is relatable to many countries around the world (Orwell, 2009). Such self-centered entities as the Party exists in many areas of the world. The author was trying to depict as a story that affects most people in the world.
Jungian Psychology
Carl Jung furthered the psychoanalytic studies on the human psyche. Though his findings contradict those of Freud, he provided four ways of categorizing the human psyche. He emphasised that an individual’s unconsciousness contributes immensely in shaping their personality. Thus, he classified the unconsciousness into two main categories namely the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The former refers to the repressed memories or the temporary memories people store for a moment. If there are more elements attached in this area, the more the influence on the individual. The collective unconscious refers to the natural contribution of unconscious thoughts on the individual (Huskinson & Stein, 2014). This description led Jung to the archetypes that characterize persons through the unconscious. Specifically, Jung offered four archetypes namely the mask, the shadow, the anima/animus, and the self. Through these archetypes, the characters of Winston and Julia can be understood from a psychological standpoint (Fordham, 2013). Given the situation that Winston faced throughout the novel, these archetypes manifest themselves in his character in various ways as will be discussed.
The Mask Archetype
The mask archetype refers to the pretentious character in people. Everyone has a different way of acting in different situations. People often behave different when at work compared to when they are at home. Each individual has a character they try to hide or suppress in some situations. People typically act freely when at home because they are free to do as they wish because their families will not judge them as harshly as other people elsewhere. In some special instances, we may be forced to act in a certain way so as to survive. In the book, Winston is forced to take a different persona while at work because the Party expected individuals to act and think within the law (Fordham, 2013). Therefore, since any form of rebellion or deviation was treated as a criminal activity, Winston and all the citizens in the country were expected to forego their individual personalities and act in the way that the Big Brother expected them to behave. In essence, the Party was forcing the citizens to wear a mask while interacting with others in public. This pretentious personality imposed on the people is the one that Jung described as the mask archetype. Nonetheless, in this case it is not a voluntary archetype for the majority of the people as most of them desire freedom from the Party.
The Anima/Animus Archetype
This particular archetype refers to the crisscross between gender tendencies. In other words, it refers to the feminine tendencies in males and the masculine tendencies in females. This is a situation where a man depicts certain inclinations that are culturally or in normally belong to a different gender. When women try to do things that traditionally done by men, this desire to engage in such an activity by a woman is what is referred to as the anima/animus archetype. From the novel, the author depicted this psyche in both Julia and Winston characters. Julia decides to make the first move in a romantic engagement between her and Winston. In most cultures, men are expected to initiate romantic engagements between themselves and the women (Huskinson & Stein, 2014). By Julia doing it, it shows her masculine tendency coming out. As well, Winston shows the female inclinations when the two decide to rent a house. He was fearful and pessimistic in thinking that they Party would eventually get to them and punish them. Conversely, Julia was hopeful and settled. She did not show any form of fear in living together. In most societies in the world, women are expected to fearful while men are expected to be calm and courageous (Huskinson & Stein, 2014). In this case, the opposite was happening. Therefore, while Julia exhibited masculine tendencies, Winston showed his feminine side.
The Shadow Archetype
The shadow archetype refers to the animal side of the human psyche. It is the source of our destructive and/or creative energies. As an individual, it is necessary to ensure that we make use of the energies that we possess while suppressing the destructive energies. However, there are individuals who choose to let out the destructive energies in the same capacity as the creative ones. A perfect example of this is O’Brien. He is a spy for the Party who uses his ingenuity to lay a trap for Winston and Julia. He pretends to be a member of the Brotherhood after noticing that Winston thinks that he is which was not the case. He calls them to his