An Analysis Of Characters In The Progress Of Love From The Perspective Of Carl Jung’s Theory Of The Collective Unconscious

Noted as “Master of The Contemporary Short Story”,Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013 and her works also won various awards in Canadian literature.As a female writer,Munro successfully demonstrates ordinary people’s inner world on families and self-reflection in ordinary life using the methods of psychological description,time-space conversion and narrative strategy.The 11 stories in her work The Progress of Love are the most detailed manifestations of daily life,including love,hatred among family members,lovers,and friends,which also record the growth of a person at different stages of his or her life.This thesis mainly explores the personality formation and growth of the characters from the perspective of Carl Jung’s collective unconscious theory,trying to find out the causes of the character’s hidden emotion,so that everyone in the complex society would have more chances to achieve self-awareness and growth.This thesis begins with an introduction to Alice Munro and The Progress of Love and the study on The Progress of Love both at home and abroad,followed with the theoretical foundation,which mainly introduces the definition and three contents of Jung’s collective unconscious theory including the shadow,the persona and the self.The third chapter analyzes the dark side of characters from the perspective of the shadow and the influence after experiencing hardship on the characters.The fourth chapter starts from the persona theory and analyzes the multiple masks disguised by the characters to cater to multiple scenes.Together they form who they are.The fifth chapter starts from the theory of the self and analyzes the self-development of the characters after experiencing something unpleasant.The sixth chapter is a conclusion,including the main findings and inspirations,while pointing out the limitations and suggestions for future study.