Reconstructing A Balanced Personality

Virginia Woolf was a well-known British writer in the twentieth century, and also one of the most significant representatives of the Feminist Movement. She has not only obtained great achievements in literature, but also actively extended the exploration of theories and practice in literary creation. In her biographical fiction, Orlando: A Biography, she created Orlando, the protagonist who simultaneously possesses the feminine and masculine qualities. Orlando is at first a young noble man with feminine appearance and behaviors. He is subjected to various frustrations when he seeks for the balance of his personality. After that, Orlando sleeps without any conscious for seven days and nights and becomes a woman. The female Orlando still remains many masculine qualities and consequently experiences a series of difficulties and efforts in order to struggle for a balanced development of her psyche. In the end, the masculine qualities of the female Orlando get well developed and her personality reaches a dynamic balance. Through the narration of the particular experiences from the unique perspectives of the androgynous Orlando in different periods, Woolf expresses her recognition of and longing for gender equality and sex harmony. This thesis has applied the theory of archetype analysis of Carl Jung to analyze the psychological development of Orlando in different gender stages, and aims to explore how to achieve a balanced personality and how to realize the social values and life significance of an individual.This thesis is divided into the following five parts, consisting of the introduction part and conclusion part with three chapters embedded between as the main body. The introduction demonstrates the life and literary contributions of Virginia Woolf, and introduces the main content of Orlando: A Biography. Meanwhile, this chapter presents a literature review of current research conditions of Orlando: A Biography as well as the deficiencies thereof. Most of the previous researches concerned were carried out from the perspectives of feminism, gender and super-gender and so on. This thesis attempts to conduct a profound research from the perspective of archetypical analysis, and brings in the archetypal theory of Carl Gustav Jung, the renowned Swiss psychologist and initiator of the analytical psychology, so as to analyze the archetypes of different personae, the anima and the animus when Orlando is respectively a male and a female, and to discuss how to realize the archetype of the Self and how to achieve a balanced personality.The first chapter is subdivided into two parts. The first part analyzes the persona and its positive and negative influences when Orlando is a young, educated noble but boyish man. Then the second part analyzes the different personae that Orlando wore respectively when she becomes a woman, during which time she lives with gypsies for a long time, receives unprecedented courtesy after she leaves the gypsies and gets on a ship back to London, and then is courted by an archduke whom she does not like at all.The second chapter discusses the anima of the Orlando when he is a male. The second chapter is also subdivided into two parts. The first part discusses the obvious woman-like appearance and behaviors of the male Orlando. Then, through the analysis of the feminine qualities of the male Orlando and his love with the Russian Princess Sasha from the beginning to the end, the thesis presents the process of the development of the male Orlando’s anima as well as its characteristics corresponding to each of the developmental stage. The second part of this chapter delivers the demonstration of the oak tree that appears repeatedly in the novel proves that the image of the oak tree is exactly the symbol of the Self which Orlando is unconsciously making efforts to realize. However, due to the failure of a full development his anima, the male Orlando is unable to present his Self.The third chapter deals with the animus of Orlando when she becomes a woman. This chapter is without exception subdivided into two parts. In the first part of this chapter, through the demonstration of the different images of her animus that are projected onto different males, the thesis analyzes the process of the development of the female Orlando’s animus and its characteristics in each developmental stage. Along with the development of Orlando’s animus is the gradual emergence of her Self. The second part of the discussion of this chapter demonstrates that, under the active influence of the well-developed animus, the female Orlando finally finds the balance between her persona and her Self, that is, at the same time of conforming to the rules regulated by the society and the time, Orlando makes her Self come true and works on literary creation and achieves success in the end.The final chapter comes to the conclusion that the anima and the animus is the bridge to connect the persona and the Self as well as the medium for the communication of the two. To overcome the inborn negative elements and fully develop an individual’s anima or animus will help the individual to realize the Self and reconstruct a balanced personality, thus bringing profits to the development of the individual life and career.