Darkness And Brightness Reflected In The Earthly World

William Golding is obviously one of the greatest writers in the 20th century; most of his works reflect the evil and dark side of humanity through describing characters and events in specific background, among which Darkness Visible has obviously strengthened this theme under the background of modern society. With the help of Freud’s theory of the structure of personality and Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious, the present thesis attempts to analyze the characters in Darkness Visible comprehensively. This thesis not only reveals the rooted evil in humanity and promotes the good of human nature, but also analyzes the causes resulting in the evil and the good, and points out the social significance of this kind of analysis.If one wants to talk about psychoanalysis, Freud’s theory of the structure of personality and Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious must not be neglected. According to Freud, a complete personality consists of Id, ego and superego. These three parts connect with one another and become an organic entirety. A functional personality will help people adjust to the external environment. Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious is developed on the basis of Freud’s individual unconscious. Archetypes are very important content of the collective unconscious, Jung identified five major archetypes that have remarkable influence on our personality and can explain our behavior. These archetypes are the persona, the shadow, the self, anima and animus.Matty and Sophy are the hero and heroine respectively in Darkness Visible. Their fates have connected with each other; however, they represent the opposite aspects of humanity. In Darkness Visible Matty is a representative of kindness and brightness, whose story begins with the London Blazer in WWII. What happens in his childhood wakes the shadow archetype inside of Matty and it causes the death of a little boy. After his miserable childhood Matty begins his wandering journey and at that time Matty is likely to possess the self archetype. During this journey Matty encounters a series of hit and suffering and he begins to pursue the meaning of his life. At the end of the story Matty fulfills the salvation and realizes his superego by sacrificing himself to rescue a kidnapped boy; he also saves Mr. Pedigree from the torture of his own desire and gives him peace.Just like Matty who represents the kindness, Sophy and Toni are the representatives of the darkness and evil in Darkness Visible. Their lives are mainly affected by the shadow archetype and persona archetype. While analyzing the twins, the present thesis not only discusses the dark side of their personalities but also concentrates on tracing their mental process from their childhood to the adult, discovering the actual reasons of their dark personalities. The present thesis states that instead of regarding their evil as their own nature, seemly that it is gradually formed in a complex process. Besides the shadow archetype, Sophy and Toni’s life are majorly influenced by the persona archetype; their behaviors in the public are totally different from what they are in private.Besides the main characters, there are many other typical characters who are under the influence of the persona archetype. Just like the others living in the world, there is neither extreme evil nor extreme kindness in them, however, they still have their secrets and eccentricities that they just want to keep them hidden from other people. They try to hide their kindness and evil in different levels, and the actual self as well.The significance of analyzing a literary work is not only to understand it better but also to gain inspirations for the real life. As a masterpiece that reflects a lot of problems of reality, Darkness Visible helps us to think about what will happen to a single person in the framework of the whole society’s moral principles. Through the specific analysis of Darkness Visible, the author of the present thesis hopes that the readers will be able to re-examine the good and evil in humanity from a dialectical angle and can appreciate Darkness Visible from a new point of view.