| William Somerset Maugham(1874-1965),is one of the most eminent novelists in Britain in the twentieth century. His representative works are: The Razor's Edge, of Human Bondage, The Moon and Six Pence and so on. He is expert in telling attractive stories and revealing the distorted marriage relationships in his works. His novel ---- The Painted Veil is the typical one.The Painted Veil is not as well known as other Maugham's works, but one of the most popular novels. It tells us a moving story happened between Kitty and Walter with their unfortunate marriage in Maugham's typical narrative style, which is so noticeable that attracts a lot of scholars'attention. Researchers focus on the study of The Painted Veil from different literature theories.Jung was a famous Swiss psychiatrist, a student of Freud, and he has great contributions to archetypal theory research. The substance of Jungian archetypal theory is seeing collective unconsciousness and its archetypes as the core of literature research. Animus, anima, shadow, persona and self are all very important archetypes in Jungian psychological system. Jungian archetypal theory provides a new angle on the literature research, digging out deeply the character's inner world and personality. It plays an important role in literature critic practices.This thesis attempts to interpret the unfortunate marriage between Walter and Kitty by means of the archetypes of the couple, based on Jungian archetypal theory, researching the archetypes of them and revealing the great impressions on their marriage, adding new information on the study of The Painted Veil. It consists of four chapters.Chapter One mainly explores the conflict of anima and animus with Kitty and Walter's marriage."Anima"blinded Walter's eyes and misled him to choose Kitty, a shallow and love-starved girl. Kitty's betrayal to her husband is the influence of her"animus".Chapter Two mainly probes the marriage problem caused by Walter's and Kitty's"persona". Walter's"persona inflation"made his marriage life very boring and tedious; Kitty was restricted by society and her parents, which stood for her"persona". It is just her"persona"that directed her to choose Walter as her husband without love, but for reality. Chapter Three focuses on the negative roles of Walter's and Kitty's"shadow"in their marriage. Kitty's"shadow"induced her to betray her husband and stay with her lover together regardless of Walter's feeling. Her"shadow"stirred up Walter's"shadow", Walter's"shadow"controlled himself and forced him to do some crazy and harmful things, which eventually let their marriage break up.Chapter Four analyzes the failure adjustment of"self"in their marriage. Walter's and Kitty's"self"can not control their archetypes and its failure leads to their unfortunate marriage ending at last.Conclusion is drawn that it was disharmonious relationship among Kitty's and Walter's archetypes that caused their tragic marriage. The thesis will reveal to us a new interpretation for Kitty and Walter's unfortunate marriage from the perspective of Jungian archetypal theory. If a person wants to live comfortably and get well with others in the society, he should adjust and control his archetypes in an appropriate range, letting them be harmonious with one another. Through analyzing Kitty's and Walter's archetypes separately, the thesis guides the direction in people's achieving harmonious conditions, which has certain social and realistic significance. |
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