Carl Jung and Visionary Mode of Artistic Creation: A Study of Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O’Neill
1. Introduction
The beginning of the 20th century marked the emergence of many fields of enquiry in arts, science and culture. These fields of enquiry gave rise to different schools of literary theory with their own distinct critical ideas and sets of vocabulary. One of such schools of thought that has remained dominantly influential in literature throughout the 20th century is the school of psychoanalysis which marked the conscious interconnection of psychology and literature. Later on, it pioneered a way for various other theories in psychology that stemmed through it as well as differed from it.
Psychoanalysis is a “dynamic form of psychology” founded and developed by Sigmund Freud. (Abrams 320) According to him, psychoanalysis is a “procedure for the analysis and therapy of neuroses”, which he later broadened to explain and interpret “many developments and practices in the history of Civilization, including warfare, mythology and religion as well as literature and other arts.” (Abrams 320)
Ever since the beginning of the field of psychoanalysis, it has connections with literature as Freud had a fascination about literature. Literary theory and criticism play a significant role as mediator between psychoanalysis and creative literary works. In some of his works, Freud started to use literature as an example as well as a source to explain his ideas and concepts of psychoanalysis. From then, literary criticism employs the theories of psychology to interpret and evaluate literature. Similarly, writers also use psychoanalysis and other psychological theories in literature for creative purpose.
Like literature, psychoanalysis explores the intricacies of human experience. Further, psychology is also structured around narratives like literature. Freud discusses the connection of the literary works and inner workings of the human psyche. His disciple Jung further draws the theory of archetypes associated with both the myths and creative imagination, stating how collective unconsciousness gets manifested through myths and symbols. The theories are further explored and invented by Lacan, Frazer etc.
The psychoanalytic theory sees the literature and arts not only concerning their ability to convey the unconscious content in the cloaked form but also as a means of exploring the fantasies. For instance, such fantasies are chiefly sexual. Such overlapping of the unconscious, as well as fantasies, can be explored in many literary works like Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Divine Comedy by Dante, Faust by Goethe, Ulysses by James Joyce, Hamlet and Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Sons and Lovers by D. H, Lawrence, the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky, surrealist works and so on. Freud, Jung and Lacan have taken various examples from literature in order to explain their ideas.
2. Jung and His Views on “Psychology and Literature”
2.1 About Jung
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss Psychologist who founded the field of analytical psychology and one of the prominent, influential thinkers of the 20th century. Along with psychology, his works influenced and still continue to influence fields of philosophy, literature, religious studies and anthropology. His theories and ideas have also influenced pop culture through movies, theatre, and musicians like David Bowie and the American band Tool. His key concepts include archetypes, collective unconsciousness, individuation, synchronicity, extroversion and introversion. His major books include Memories, Dreams, Reflections, The Red Book, The Psychology of the Unconscious, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconsciousness, The Psychological Types and Synchronicity.
2.2 “Psychology and Literature” by Jung
“Psychology and Literature”, first published in 1930, is one of the most influential works on psychological theory in literature. The essay talks about the work of art, artist and the process of artistic creation concerning the connections of psychology and literature. Jung, establishing the theoretical framework, begins his essay, asserting, “the human psyche is the womb of all the sciences and arts.”
Jung divides the essay into two parts. The first part deals with the work of art, i.e. “a product of complex activities - but a product that is apparently intentional and consciously shaped”, and the other part with the artist, i.e. “the psychic apparatus itself”. (Jung 175) First part analyses the “concrete artistic achievement” and the other analyzes the “living and creative human being”. (Jung 175) He tries to examine the relationship between the both, and notes that even though both are “closely related and even interdependent” and many aspects can be understood about each other, they do not necessarily provide conclusive answers about each other. Moreover, the art can never be fully understood, but the creative act be considered as manifestations which will “forever elude human understanding.” (Jung 176)
2.2.1 The work of art
Jung bifurcates the work of art into two categories based on the mode of artistic creation: psychological and visionary. Psychological mode of artistic creation “deals with materials drawn from the realm of human consciousness.” (Jung 178) It represents the emotions and experiences that are understandable like feelings such as passion, hope, everyday experiences etc. The poet utilizes this material of the conscious realm, interpreting it, illuminating it and raising it to a poetic experience. (Jung 177) In the result of this process, there is nothing much left for the psychologist, as everything is already clearly expressed and demonstrated. The examples of this mode are the works of Benoit, Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle and even Melville’s Moby Dick.
On the other hand, the visionary mode reverses all the conditions of the psychological mode. It is difficult to define as it deals with unfamiliar and unknown. The material is derived from “a primordial experience which surpasses man’s understanding”, arising from timeless depths, “foreign and cold, many-sided, demonic and grotesque” and exceeding the grasp of human understanding. (Jung 177) The examples of it are “The Shepherd” of Hermas, the second part of Goethe’s Faust, Nietzsche’s Dionysian, the poetry of William Blake etc.
Jung further says:
In dealing with the psychological mode of artistic creation, we never need ask ourselves what the material consists of or what it means. But this question forces itself upon us as soon as we come to the visionary mode of creation. We are astonished, taken aback, confused, put on our guard, even disgusted - and we demand commentaries and explanations. We are reminded in nothing of everyday, human life, but rather of dreams, night-time fears and the dark recesses of the mind, that we sometimes sense with misgiving. The reading public for the most part repudiates this kind of writing - unless indeed it is coarsely sensational—and even the literary critic seems embarrassed by it. (179)
2.2.2 The poet
Jung’s views on the artist and the creative process of artistic creation are contradictory to the opinions of Freud. Freud connects the personal life of a writer with his work, while Jung considers the writer as a “man in higher sense” – a “collective man” – who “is creating and living as a member of the human race, rather than the individual, that is speaking to humanity … His artistic disposition involves an overweight of collective psychic life as against the personal.” (Jung 186)
Primordial images, as Jung calls it archetypeas, is a Jungian term for the inherited pattern of events and characters in the collective unconscious. It is a permanent imprint that all share. But filtered through the personal unconscious, such images in dreams and myths take the form of persons and actions experienced by the individual in dreams and myths. They figure in myths, dreams, art and literature, are all-pervasive images that have existed from time immemorial. Myths are the medium through which archetypes manifest themselves and articulate themselves to the human mind. They are, by their definition, are universally pervasive images, and so they can be identified in all the works of art regardless of genre or classification “archaic remnants”, “pre-existing forms”, “primordial images”, “representation collectives”. (Jung 186)
Jung concludes his point by comparing a great piece of art to a dream: “It does not explain itself … and we must draw our own conclusions” (Jung 187) and nor does it “explain the poet”. (Jung 187) This part can be summarized that, according to Jung, a great work of art is comprised of intentional acts along with tapping into the collective unconscious, and pushing the viewer to reflect and ponder on the greater questions.
3. Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O’Neill
3.1 About the Author
Eugene Gladstone O’Neill (1883-1955) was a prominent American dramatist. He is the third most translated and produced dramatist after Shakespeare and Shaw. He is the only American dramatist to receive Nobel Prize for literature in 1936. His chief works include Beyond the Horizon, Anna Christie, Strange Interlude, Ah! Wilderness, The Iceman Cometh and Long Day’s Journey into Night.
He was born to a theatre artist father. His childhood was spent on backstage and in travelling. The conflicting lifestyle of his parents affected him emotionally and led him to a chaotic mental state in his adult life like alcoholism and suicide attempt. After his stay at the sanitarium due to tuberculosis, he started writing plays, and later he considered that time as a “rebirth”. (para. 4 Gelb) In his initial phase, between 1916 and 1920, his one-act sea plays like Bound East for Cardiff, In the Zone, The Long Voyage Home, and The Moon of the Caribbees were produced which earned him a small reputation. Beyond the Horizon is the play that received critical claim as well as won him his first of four Pulitzer Prizes, the other three being Anna Christie, Strange Interlude, and Long Day’s Journey into Night. His major works were produced between 1920 to 1943 like Emperor Jones, The Hairy Ape, Desire Under the Elms, The Iceman Cometh and many more.
He made use of realism and expressionism with the tragic sense of life in his plays. He makes the excellent use of Greek myths as well as Freudian and Jungian ideas in his plays creating masterpieces like Desire Under the Elms; Mourning Becomes Electra and The Iceman Cometh.
3.2 Summary of the play Mourning Becomes Electra
Mourning Becomes Electra, published and produced in 1931, is considered to be the most ambitious and critically acclaimed works of Eugene O’Neill. Modelled on Aeschylus’s drama, the play is divided into three parts with a modern retelling of the story in a backdrop of American Civil War. The characters and storyline are parallel to the Greek play. Agamemnon from the Oresteia becomes General Ezra Mannon. Clytemnestra becomes Christine, Orestes becomes Orin, Electra becomes Lavinia and Aegisthus becomes Captain Adam Brant. The setting of the Trojan War is replaced by the American Civil War. The play deals with the themes of incestuous love, revenge and adultery.
3.2.1 The Homecoming
The first act introduces the characters of Lavinia, Christine and Adam Brant. The incestuous theme is invoked from the beginning. The birth origin of Adam Brant is revealed to Lavinia that he is the son of David Mannon (Ezra Mannon’s brother) and the nurse Mary Brantome who were thrown out of the house and disowned by their father Abe Mannon. Adam has come to woo Lavinia, but it is revealed that Adam is, in fact, back to take revenge for the misfortunes he and his mother experienced due to Mannons. Lavinia spies on her mother Christine and finds out about her adultery. She confronts her and threatens her not to betray her father and to bid Brant farewell forever. Three weeks later, Brigadier-General Ezra Mannon is back from war wanting to reconcile his relationship with his wife. But Christine has planned something sinister with Adam Brant in advance for Ezra whom she hates intensely. At the time of daybreak, she reveals her true intentions to Ezra, which gives him a heart attack, and in the name of medicine, she poisons him. Ezra dies, pointing accusing finger towards Christine in front of Lavinia.
3.2.2 The Hunted
Orin is back home from war two days after Ezra’s death. Now Lavinia and Christine both try to manipulate Orin to get him on her side. Orin loves his mother and is very jealous upon hearing about her relationship with Brant. Lavinia takes him to New York where Christine has gone to visit Brant. When he sees them together as lovers, he is outraged and murders Brant as soon as Christine leaves from there. When Orin breaks this news to Christine, she is devastated, and she kills herself.
3.2.3 The Hunted
The last part is set after a year of that incident. Orin and Lavinia are back from their trip from the much talked about dream islands. Now they look in the image of Ezra and Christine, in appearance as well as manners. Lavinia wants to marry Peter as an escape, but Orin blackmails and threatens her about revealing the horrifying secrets of their family. A month later, after their arrival, Orin shoots himself out of guilt, for considering himself the reason for Christine’s death. At the end of the play, Lavinia closes the door of the Mannon house, and chooses to stay there as a punishment from the dead.
4. Jung’s Visionary Mode of Artistic Creation in Mourning Becomes Electra
The play Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O’Neill provides a lot of scope for psychological reading, especially for Freudian interpretations. Carl Jung’s essay “Psychology and Literature”, however, provides thought-provoking discussion on the interconnections of psychology, literature and the creative process which can bring out interesting observations in this play.
As discussed before, Jung distinguishes two modes of artistic creation: psychological mode and visionary modes. Though Mourning becomes Electra chiefly deals with the apparent psychological process in the context of Oedipus and Electra complex, the setting and symbols often shift into the mode that corresponds with the mode of artistic creation what Jung considers visionary. An attempt has been made to trace and examine such visionary aspects of the play.
4.1 Use of Greek Myth
One of the most Jungian aspects of the play lies in the use of mythology. According to Jung, the use of myth provides the peep into the primordial images and collective unconsciousness. He states that the poet would “resort to mythology” in order to give his primordial experience the “most fitting expression.” (Jung 183) According to Jung, “the primordial experience is the source of his creativeness; it cannot be fathomed and therefore requires mythological imagery to give it form.” (183) Further, “he must resort to an imagery that is difficult to handle and full of contradictions in order to express the weird paradoxicality of his vision” which is full of themes and images that range from “ineffably sublime to the perversely grotesque.” (183) Similarly, other critics and thinkers also affirm with primaeval nature of myth. A Gerald Laure notes that “Myth is fundamental, the dramatic expression of our deepest instinctual life and our primary awareness of man.” (Laure 2) Martin S Day states that “...within the myth are the fundamental structures and organizations of a society.” (Day 249)
O’Neill employs well-known myth employing the apparatus of psychology. The myth in the play is deeply interconnected with psychology that culminates into reality. Mourning Becomes Electra has, as Jung says, “mythological themes clothed in modern dress.” (Jung 183) In the play, Agamemnon from the myth becomes General Ezra Mannon. Clytemnestra becomes Christine, Orestes becomes Orin, Electra becomes Lavinia and Aegisthus becomes Captain Adam Brant. The setting of the Trojan War is replaced by the American Civil War. The incestuous relationships among the characters are taken up from the myth of Oedipus and Electra bringing up the primordial images. The use of ancient myth with the primordial yet pervasive themes of love, libido, murder, sin and revenge for the contemporary conscious attitudes, as Jung says, provides the manifestations of “collective unconsciousness”.
4.2 The Mannon House
Another visionary aspect that can be traced in the play is the symbolic use of the Mannon house which embodies something supernatural, ghostly and sinister. As Frederick I Carpenter rightly observes, “Dream, Drunkenness and Death have been described as the subject matter of O’Neill’s dramaturgy, and the key to all his plays ... in O’Neill’s best plays it is the unconscious evil and the weakness of human nature that cause tragedy.” (Carpenter 82) In Mourning Becomes Electra, along with the other two elements, death is the most prominent element. The Mannon House itself is used as a metaphor for death. The play is full of the deaths of Mannons as well as references to the dead Mannon. The titles of the second and third parts, “The Hunted” and “The Haunted” also indicate the reference to the ghostly presence of the dead.
Christine finds the house as “a tomb”, and “mere like a sepulchre The “whited” one of the bible – pagan temple front stuck like a mask on Puritan grey ugliness! It was just like old Abe Mannon to build such a monstrosity - as a temple for hatred.” (O’Neill 14) Lavinia, especially in “The Haunted”, constantly feels haunted by the dead. For instance, she utters the name of Adam while proposing her love for Peter: “Adam? Why did I call you Adam? I never even heard that name before - outside the Bible (Then suddenly with a hopeless, dead finality) Always the dead between! It’s no good trying any more ! ... I can’t marry you, Peter ... Love isn’t permitted to me. The dead are too strong,” (O’Neill 139)
Further, none of the members of the Mannon house ends up in peace. David Mannon, Mary Brantome, Ezra Mannon, Adam Brant, Christine, and Orin, all of them die an unnatural death. Ezra is poisoned, whereas Christine and Orin commit suicide in the house itself. In addition, the classical myth is revamped to highlight Lavinia’s role in perpetrating the tragedies of the family. As a responsible Mannon, she has to embrace the Mannon fate and accept the legacy compulsorily. She atones for the crimes of her ancestors by entombing herself in the house. As the last Mannon and its only living member, it is justice that has come full circle, and it befits her to mourn till death.
4.3 Incest as a Primordial Image
The grotesque and shocking primordial experience of incestuous love forms a very prominent theme of the play. The play is full of intricate incestuous relationships. The very obvious ones are mother-son Christine and Orin, and father-daughter Ezra and Lavinia. This kind of love is an immediate, brusque, predatory and ravishing love which is always condemned, because it is illegitimate. For instance, Christine’s love for Adam, Orin’s for Christine, Lavinia’s for Ezra/Adam, Adam’s for Christine.
The sensual longing of the Mannons is unable to find expression outside the concrete walls of their surroundings, and when they do, their resemblance to their incestual love interest is remarkable. Orin is fated to be a lover of his mother and his sister. Similarly, Lavinia finds happiness in love with her brother or with her father or with her father image Adam. These characters view their consummation of life through biological relationships surrounding them.
In the case of Lavinia, she wanted to be the central figure of her family. She had been jealous of her mother. Lavinia loved Ezra very much and always wanted to steal Christine’s place, which is an exemplary display of the Electra Complex. As Christine argues, “You’ve tried to become the wife of your father and the mother of Orin! You’ve always schemed to steal my place!” (O’Neill 27).
Orin, who is both fascinated and repulsed by sex and unable to enter into a healthy relationship with Hazel Niles, is drawn to his mother by subconscious incestuous impulses. He tells Christine, “You’re my only girl!” (O’Neill 72). He manifests strong Oedipal tendencies when he speaks of Adam Brant, “If I had been he, I would have done what he did! I would have loved her as he loved her - and killed Father too - for her sake!” (O’Neill 92)
Also, the cyclic resemblance of the characters is uncanny. Mary Brantome, Christine and Lavinia share the resemblance. Similarly, Adam Brant, Ezra and Orin share the resemblance.
... peculiar gold-brown hair exactly alike in Lavinia and her mother same as hair of the dead woman, Adam’s · mother, whom Ezra’s father and. uncle had loved who started the chain of recurrent love and hatred and revenge emphasize motivating the fate out of past ... strange, hidden psychic identity of Christine with the dead woman and of Lavinia ... with her mother. (O’Neill)
Lavinia is first shown resembling her father in her military bearing, but her facial resemblance to her mother is also striking. She covets her mother’s role as the wife of Ezra, mother to Orin and beloved to Adam. Once the mother is removed from the scene, Lavinia assumes Chritine’s characteristics with chilling conviction. “She seems a mature woman sure of her feminine attractiveness. Her brown-gold hair is arranged as her mother’s had been ... The movements of her body now have the feminine grace her mother’s had possessed.” (O’Neill 109)
While Lavinia becomes more and more like Christine, Orin shows a reversal towards the characteristics of his father. He has even grown a beard and walks “like a tin soldier”. (O’Neill 123) He feels that he and Lavinia have become Ezra and Christine. He says, “Can’t you see I’m now in Father’s place and you’re Mother? ... I’m the Mannon you’re chained to!” (O’Neill 123) About the patterns of resembleance and incest, Douglas notes that,
The archetype of incest is also at the back of the primitive notion that the father is reborn in the son, and in the hierosgamos of mother and son in its pagan and Christian form; it signifies the highest and the lowest, the brightest and the darkest, the best and most detestable. It represents the pattern of renewal and rebirth, the endless creation and disappearance of symbolic figures. (Doughlas 521)
4.4 The Dream Islands
The utopian dreamscape is also one of the visionary aspects in the play. The south sea islands are recurringly referred to by different leading characters. Significantly, the islands appear both in dream discourse and the course of the events. The Mannonian habitat knows only one dream of escape – the dream islands.
In “Homecoming”, Adam Brant refers to them as the “Blessed Isles” and ·the “Garden of Paradise”. (O’Neill 19). In Act III, Ezra Mannon aspires to go “to the other side of the world - find some island” where he and Christine “could be alone a while.” (O’Neill 45) The allusions to the Islands are imbued with sexual overtones becomes apparent gradually, and this feature keeps growing in the later plays. For Adam, the Islands are a Paradise, where sin is unknown, and life is simple and sweet. For Ezra Mannon, they represent isolation and freedom, a chance to start all over again. Christine and Brant·plan to sail there together to attain happiness.
In “The Hunted”, to Orin, the phantasy of the dream islands “came to mean everything that wasn’t war, everything that was peace and warmth and security.” (O’Neill 72) He tells Christine that,
I used to dream I was there ... There was no one there but you and me. And yet I .never saw you, that’ s the funny part. I on1y felt you all around me. The breaking of the waves was your voice. The sky was the same colour as your eyes. The warm sand was like your skin. The whole island was you… A strange notion, wasn’t it ? But you needn’t be provoked at being an island because this was the most beautiful island in the world as beautiful as you, Mother! (O’Neill 72).
Sons, Adam and Orin, represent primaeval and amoral heaven for them, whereas, for Christine, the infidel mother/wife, the islands denote a retreat for illicit love and an escape. In Act II, the mention of the islands leads to Christine’s startled question, “Islands! Where there is peace?” (O’Neill 72). The overlapping description of the South Sea Islands by the various characters indicates a difficulty in interpretation. Thus the South Sea islands represent on one level, “release, peace, security, beauty, freedom of conscience, sinlessness etc - a longing for the primitive -- and a mother symbol of yearning for pre-natal - competitive freedom from fear.” (Sheaffer 356)
4.5 The Song
Linked with the South Sea Islands, is the recurring chanty “Shenandoah -- a song that more than any other holds in it, the brooding rhythm of the sea.” (O’Neill 5) Associated in particular with Seth, who is cast in the mould of the all-knowing seer, The Wise Man archetype. The strange words of the chanty have striking meaning when considered in context of the tragic events in play for its references to the love for daughter, suicide, hanging the mother and being bound.
5. Conclusion
Jung, as a psychologist, has often failed to justify his findings with actual scientific research, relying instead on his own experiences of the world in the manner traditional of a philosopher. He argued that ample evidence to sustain his theories about collective unconsciousness and archetypes could be found by exploring their influence on the conscious human experience as well as their ubiquitous presence throughout the dreams, mythology, and folk tales.
However, applying Jung’s concepts in the practice of literary analysis shows how these universal psychic contents, as discussed by him, have manifested themselves within a specific piece or body of work of art such as Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O’Neill. This play, along with his some other plays, is abundant of devices, images and symbols that incorporate with Jung’s visionary mode of artistic creation. This mode of artistic creation puts forward seemingly primordial, grotesque and even absurd aspects through the play. However, once an individual has opened up to the possibility, that the sublime depth which they see and pass through in a work of art is the result of their own soul, and of every human soul – ‘collective unconsciousness’, being reflected back at them, the seemingly incomprehensible symbols and images that the world of art is copious with are no longer so confusing abnormalities. The visionary aspects of the play illuminate this sense of unity and universality in human existence.
Works Cited: