『한 여름 밤의 꿈』: 적극적 상상력을 통한 개체화의 실현

Individuation through Active Imagination in A Midsummer Night's Dream

This paper examines the ways in which Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream experiences C. G. Jung's individuation, especially through the active imagination. This means to become one's own self or to accomplish selfhood or self-realization. To do this, one experiences and follows three stages: the meeting of the one's shadow, the recognition of the syzygy or animus and anima, and the representation of the archetype of the spirit in the shape of the Old Wise man or the Great Mother in the conscious. According to C. G. Jung, active imagination is needed in this third stage for the psychological analytical treatment. It is a process in which the gap between conscious and unconscious is narrowed deliberately until the new and constructive contents of the latter can flow over into the fanner by intensive concentration. Just as the Old Wise Man comes out of Jung's active imagination, so spirits or fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream come out of Theseus' strong imagination or Bottom's bottomless imagination. Spirits appear when the characters cannot accomplish their task for themselves. Therefore, the spirit or fairy is a kind of expression needed to compensate for the deficiency, which comes in the form of a personified thought or in the shape of this sagacious and helpful old man through active imagination. In order for characters to be reunited, the unity and concord of the spirits are a prerequisite because the spirits are the reflectors of the human psyche. The unity of the spirits is expressed by their dance, 'roundrel,' which is equivalent to Jung's mandala, the completion of the Individuation. The harmony between spirits and human beings causes Bottom to contact and fall in love with Titania. By meeting Titania, Bottom temporarily experiences a spiritual vision or self-realization and individuation through his strong imagination. This is not only Shakespeare's theatrical world of unity but also Jung's individuation and wholeness which he had been in pursuit of through his life.