A Failure Of Individuation

Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet and author of numerous short stories and one novel. His only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray which was published in 1891 was one of the aesthetic novels. The plot and the theme of the novel show aesthetic concept of Wilde. Since the publication of the novel, various criticisms appeared successively. This thesis will use archetypal theory of Carl Jung to analyze the individuation of Dorian Gray and the reason of his death.Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker, and the founder of analytical psychology. As the central concept of Jung's theory, individuation is a psychological process of integrating the conscious with the unconscious while still maintaining conscious autonomy. It contains the process of recognition of basic archetypes, such as shadow, persona, anima/animas, self, and harmonious integration of these archetypes.This thesis contains five parts. The first part gives a detailed introduction to Oscar Wilde and his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, literature review, and Jung's archetypal theory including the basic archetypes and individuation. The second part analyzes the shadow and the persona of Gray. The conflicts between shadow and person and the failure of being conscious of shadow show the first failure in the process of Gray's individuation. The third part analyzes the anima of Gray. Sibyl in the novel is the symbol of Gray's anima. The tragic love story between Sibyl and Gray and the suicide of Sibyl show the second failure in the process of Gray's individuation. The forth part analyzes the self of Gray. As the symbol of Gray's self, Basil plays an important part in Gray's life. However, he was killed by Gray at last. The death of Basil shows the third failure in the process of Gray's individuation. The fifth part is the conclusion. The conflict among his psychological archetypes and the fail recognition of the archetypes cause the failure of Gray's individuation and cause his death in the end.In the process of Gray's individuation, he cannot integrate every part of his psyche harmoniously. Such disintegration causes the failure of individuation and thus, becomes the root of his death.