A Study Of Mary’s Tragedy In The Grass Is Singing In The Light Of Jungian Personality Theory

The Grass Is Singing is a debut work of the famous English writer Doris Lessing, whichmakes her well-known overnight. It tells that in an English colony on Africa a white girl ofthe white-collar class from the town marries a weak and poor white farmer on impulse andgets killed by her black servant in the end. This thesis uses Jungian personality theory toanalyze the causes for Mary’s death. The conflicts between Mary’s consciousness and thesocial consciousness, her personal unconsciousness and the collective unconsciousness makeher feel helpless, unsatisfied and even resentful, finally leading to her mental breakdown.Under the psychological description of Mary by Lessing, we can feel what Mary feels and arefull of sympathy, sorrow and hatred for her. The writer analyzes the tragic life of Mary indetail in the light of Jungian personality theory and makes the image of the protagonist moredistinct, hence the reader can understand Mary clearly from the aspect of personality.This thesis is mainly made up of the introduction, the body and the conclusion. Theintroduction summarizes Doris Lessing’s life, the writing background of the novel, the maincontents of The Grass Is Singing, comments on this novel from critics, etc.The first chapter describes Mary’s consciousness against the social consciousness.Mary’s personal experiences make her living style different from that of other people, whichbrings about gossip about her. On impulse, she abandons her own living style and drives herinto the common matrimony she dislikes; her love to Moses is against the white people’screed, and under the stimulation of Tony, she betrays Moses and then gets killed by him.The second chapter presents the conflicts between her personal consciousness andpersonal unconsciousness. Mary’s goal of marrying Dick is just to wipe out the gossip abouther, moreover her marriage goes against the life requirement in her unconsciousness;unconsciously she is attracted by Moses, but that love is forbidden by her consciousness andthe whole white society, then in consequence her mentality breaks down gradually.The third chapter discusses conflicts between Mary’s consciousness and the collectiveunconsciousness, respectively presenting her consciousness against her persona, her animusand her shadow. Finally, her personality splits seriously and causes severe hurt to Moses and herself.Though Mary lived in Africa in the last century, some matters she met still exist in themodern world too. The modern people should learn a lesson from Mary’s tragic life, timelyanalyze and solve the mental problems, trying to avoid the same miserable life.