My Spirit Is Struck from All the Beautiful: A Journey to Keats's Psyche - Research Paper Example

Topic: "My Spirit is struck from all the Beautiful:" A Journey to Keatss Psyche Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………40-42 2. Keywords………………………..……………………………………….42-43 3. The Shaping of Keats’s Ego......................................................................43-45 4. Shadow and the Consciousness: “Sleep and Poetry”.................................45-50 5. Mythology Reflecting Keats’s Shadow in Endymion…............................50-53 6. Quest for Conformity in Hyperion I and II................................................53-55 7. The conflation with the Anima: “La Belle Dame sans Merci”..................58-62 8. The United Self in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”..............................................62-71 9. Conclusion...........………………………………………………………...71-73 Chapter Two “A Mansion of Many Apartments”: A Psychological Study of the Keatsian Stages of Literary Maturity Introduction This chapter tries to analyse the psychic stages of literary maturity in the works of Keats. The literary developments were scholarly works of Carl Jung’s archetypes. Jung used the concept of the personal unconscious as well as the collective unconsciousness that he states contains the arche types. Archetypes are the tendencies in forming universal images also called archetypal images. Archetypal images could be images of human beings, animals, immortal beings such as the gods or goddesses, ideas or patterns. Collective unconsciousness that is common in the human race world-wide brings in the concept of need for balance in order to get psychic health. Jung’s psychology further states that when a person is troubled, he is bound to dream in an archetypal manner. The aim of the vision is to balance an individual’s psyche that is referred to as the concept of compensation. In the same way, thoughts are archetypal so is literature. The primary aim of balancing the psychic was individuation that is distinct from each person. Jung believed individuation involved merging with these archetypes: the shadow, the self and the anima/animus. Theoretically they are limitless in number and spring from the collective unconsciousness thus can be either positive or negative. From Keatsian’s poem “A mansion of many apartments”, a mansion is symbolic of one’s personality or psyche. In his letter to Reynolds, a house of many rooms is simply drawing parallelism to human life. His anima views women as complex hence not trusted since his mother played absent parenthood in his life. His friendship towards men develops an animus that sees commitment to other men as vulnerability as a result of his great friendship with Reynolds. In archetypal relations, he finds human life to be symbolic of the shadow where what one does is. When he prefers the philosophy to luxury stating that it will be good for the society. Endymion addressed the moon goddess, Cynthia, saying: “My spirit struck from all the beautiful! On some bright essence could I learn, and lull / Myself to immortality” (Keats, Endymion3:171-73). This chapter attempts to trip to Keats’s psyche and ascertain what it is struck from, by shedding light on the undisclosed chambers of Keats’s soul or mind. It includes his conscious and (his personal and collective) unconscious sides of his personality. The unconscious side of Keats’s character manages to intermingle with his conscious side, which amounts to a totality governed by Keats’s Self. This can be into Jungian individuation process. The entity of the Self does not replace the ego (the conscious) but rather includes it in a superordinate concept. This concept will be in Keats’s poetry and correspondence, which are analyzed in this chapter through the framework of Jung’s psychology. It is how the treatment of various classical and other myths in individual works mirrors what in Jung’s terminology would be called the Shadow, the Persona, and the Anima in turn. There is then a discussion of the changed role of myth in “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” which demonstrates that Keats achieves the Self archetype which Jung defines as “individuation” or wholeness by uniting all of these unconscious parts of his psyche with his consciousness. Keywords 1. Introversion: The psychic energy is turned away the object and becomes subjective. 2. Extraversion: psychic energy is towards the object. Outward in nature. 3. Consciousness: The state of the mind being aware of the world and all that pertains to it. It can be into four parts namely; -Thinking: relates to cognitive thoughts about the world. -Feeling: this refers to judgements i.e. good and evil, pleasant and unpleasant. -Sensation: This utilizes the senses in experiencing the world. -Intuition: This is whereby one perceives through his or her unconsciousness. 4. Archetypes: a character that contains the potentiality for the opposite of their central character. If they are positive, the negative can also be possible trait in them. 5. The Anima: The female part of the male psyche. This can take many forms, from physical to immortality and wisdom. 6. The Animus: male side of a woman’s psyche. Just like the animal it can take several forms from physical to spiritual. Archetypal Concepts and Themes 1. The Platonic ideal is an inspirational source as well as a spiritual ideal for a person. More focused on intellectual/spiritual rather than physical attraction. 2. The Quest is a search for anything beneficial to the quester. 3.The task: it’s something whose result achieves something valuable. 4. The Mandala: a circle/ square used as a symbol to signify wholeness. 5. Light and Darkness: this is a metaphorical meaning of the conscious and the unconscious. The Shaping of Keats’s Ego The ego, as far as Jung is, is capable of indefinite extension for no limits can be set to the field of consciousness where the ‘ego’ is its centre. One cannot delineate the ego as a simple, uncomplicated factor. Rather Jung believes it to be a complex factor which cannot be. What Jung seems to be sure of is the fact that the ego rests on two bases: the somatic and the psychic. According to Jung, the ego has psycho-somatic constituents which in their part “on the one hand rest on the total field of consciousness, and on the other, on the sum total of unconscious contents” (Jung, Collected Works 9.2:4). 1. Shadow and Consciousness: “Sleep and Poetry” 1816 The shadow in this case draws parallelism to sleep which is unconscious according to Jung. Jung believes that the most significant characteristics of someone are unknown just like the Ego. Others only feel These unconscious characteristics, or one knows them from an outside perspective” (Jung, Collected Works 9.2:5. Jung states that the shadow contains inferior characteristics mostly. 2. Quest for Conformity in Hyperion I and II “The first attitude explored in Hyperion is that of conscious acceptance of a ‘posthumous’ existence” (Vendler 198). The Titans are envisaged nostalgically from the perspective of the poet’s present time. Far from being ashamed or discouraged by the negative criticism of his work, Keats redoubles his efforts to join the hall of fame alongside the greatest poets of all time. Keats later abandons Hyperion I later revises it to have Hyperion II. Hyperion II takes place in a vision like a dream. According to Jung, his appearance in dreams among others is a figure of supra-ordinate personality (Jung, Collected Works 6:407). Conclusion In conclusion, we find that Keats undergoes all of Jung’s psychological stages of literary maturity through the study of his collection ‘A mansion of many apartments’. We started by analysing how Keats’ ego was shaped up whereby Jung explains that the ego is a very complex factor in literary development and depends on two roots namely; the somatic and the psychic. He explains that the ego entails psycho-somatic elements that on is the conscious and unconscious self. By this we take an analysis of Keats’ awareness, insight through reading all that what surrounded him and shaped his encounters with the reality and what he learned as a result of his observation of others. An example was his contact with history and classic literature during a young boy in 1803. In 1810, his guardian suspended his classes in history and Literature wanting him to be a medical apprentice with Thomas Hammond and later in 1816 gets licensed. This experience led to him composing sonnets and odes; sonnet to Lord Byron and Ode to Apollo. With the early education saturating his first stage of self-knowledge during which someone learn from the world around him made him struggle to build his expertise and reputation as a poet since he didn’t know how to conduct himself and from it he wrote “Imitation of the Spenser”. We also notice that his personality matures with time and experience as a result of balancing out between the unconscious and conscious self. With reference to sleep and Poetry which signifies shadow and consciousness, Jung states that the ego which is the most decisive quality in a person is often unconscious hence only perceived by others or with help from the outside (Jung, Collected Works 9.2;5) . Jung states that the shadow and the anima are the archetypes with the most frequent and disturbing influence on the ego. In this case the shadow is composed of imperfect or inferior characters in an individual. These shadow characters tend to have emotional nature and emotions can’t be controlled by an individual but rather happen to him and are. Emotions cause also lies with the person. The shadow further marks the first stage in the analytic process leading to recognition of the anima and animus. Jung’s theorization about the shadow is traceable in Keats’ poetry and correspondence in a way that reflects Keats’ progression towards the union of psyche. Keats’ entered the poetry world through imagination and communion with nature. What seems clear in this poem is that the world of sleep holds the link to valuable information about the inner self. 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