Carl Jung’s Archetypes and “The Wizard of Oz”

Abstract

Carl Jung was an amazing psychiatrist and psychoanalysis. He had a theory that we have certain archetypes, which are typical behaviors and personality from our collective unconscious, which as Jung explained they are experiences such as love, death, birth, religion, life, struggle and much more. In the movie The Wizard of Oz many characters showed these archetypes that we can relate to real life experiences and people. I believe that many of these archetypes are human nature and will come to us naturally such as parenting, they will always put their kids first no matter what and that love will win no matter what.

Archetypes

In the movie The Wizard of Oz there is a lot of meaning and significance behind all the major events and characters that took place. Many believed that the movie was just about a fantasy movie for kids for entertainment but once you analyze and take depth into, you will soon begin to see the “allegory and metaphor” in the movie.

The Journey

Such as Dorothy in the movie she experiences the journey, a situation archetype which defined by Jung, “sends a hero in search for some truth of information necessary to restore harmony or justice to the kingdom.” As she travels through the yellow path she meets new characters for example the cowardly lion, scare crow, tin man and many others, although some cause her problems she still cares for them and truly wants the best for them, which in real life can represent us wanting the best for those we love although sometimes it might come with consequences or obstacles we still want to overcome it and show that there is beauty in the struggle. Many of these characters she meets throughout the way have archetypes that Jung explained. For example, the cowardly lion, he first starts off as trying to scare them but once Dorothy hits him he beings to show his side of anima, which as Jung explained is was the feminine image in a male psyche, which throughout the movie we learn that he is not happy, but he begins to show his courage or animus (male image) when he crosses the travelers across a dich. As I see it he can represent our parents, the truly are afraid of losing us but only do it because they love us and will do all they can do to ensure we are safe and it may seem like they are not afraid but truly they are which is love. Many of the emotion the characters face throughout the movie show how our American society is, we can be ignorant, heartless, but again we will always have the good and the evil which an archetype for this can be the shadow, there will always be a darker side, but we just must learn how to overcome it.

Cite this page