Sophy’s Failure Of Realizing The Self In Darkness Visible

William Golding was one of the influential British novelists in the twentieth century.His works won him a lot of prizes including the Booker Prize of Britain and the Nobel Prize.In 1979,Darkness Visible was published.It was about Golding?s interpretation about human nature.In this thesis,the author will do a psychological study on the female protagonist Sophy in Darkness Visible with Carl Jung?s archetypal theory of collective unconscious,aiming at analyzing Sophy?s spiritual development and the psychological root of her failure of realizing the self.Carl Jung?s psychological theory believed that the content of collective unconscious was composed of four archetypes: the shadow,the persona,the anima and animus,and the self.Through analyzing the dynamic process of Sophy?s archetypal development,this thesis finds that compared with the constantly degraded persona archetype,the shadow and animus archetypes are greatly overdeveloped in Sophy?s psyche,which breaks Sophy?s mental balance and makes it hard for the self to integrate every part of the personality harmoniously.Finally,this thesis proves that it is the unbalanced and distorted distribution of archetypes in Sophy?s personality that causes her failure of realizing the self in the end.This thesis focuses on analyzing the shifting dynamic power of four archetypes in Sophy?s mental development,which is helpful for understanding the psychological motivation behind Sophy?s behaviors and probing into the deep inner reasons that lead to her personal tragedy.