Theory Paper: Black Swan Genevieve Young PSY 350 11/16/2011 Jennifer Perez

Black Swan, a psychological thriller, portrays a young ballet dancer, who must shed her innocent and nave persona for a role as the Black Swan in a remake of Swan Lake. She desires to be the best dancer, doing whatever it will take to get there. She is confronted with the task of examining her darker side so that she is able to reach a larger understanding of herself, thus becoming a better artist and dancer. Nina had always been a diligent ballet dancer, but for the role as Swan Queen, she had to dig deep into her psyche to reveal her true self. She would be an impeccable white swan, with her rigid and stiff dance style. However, the black swan requires someone who can reveal her sensuality and passion. Black Swan exposes Ninas paranoid hallucinations of her

subconscious; consequently she is able to truly represent the Swan Queen, however, this also eventually destroys her. In analyzing this film, we can apply Carl Yungs theory of archetypes. This paper will focus on three main archetypes of Jungs theory, persona, shadow and the animus. The persona is the mask that we wear when we present to the world. It is how we choose to dress, how we express ourselves, how we talk to others. On the other hand, the shadow is what has been repressed from our consciousness. Jung says that, The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself. Jung also says that as we repress our consciousness, the more intense our shadow lives in our unconscious mind. As we identify more and more with our persona, our mask, we reject parts of ourselves that we do not like. If we do not integrate our shadow, it can be damaging to our personality. Lastly, the animus is the

unconscious masculine attributes of a woman.

A womans animus is the

connection between the conscious and unconscious until it eventually incorporates into the self. This theory also states that we tend to project our animus onto others, if we have not integrated it into our self. At the start of the film, Nina is not aware of her unconscious mind and her higher self. Nina only sees herself as the white swan, a sweet and innocent young woman, who does not know that she has an intense darkness under her faade of sweetness. Her psyche is still undifferentiated, her ego unaware of itself. Ninas world is adorned with stuffed animals and pink bedding, with suggests innocence and representation of childhood. Her focus is on ballet, which does not leave time for anything else in her life. We can see that her mother shelters her from life and sees her as a child. When Nina is cast as Swan Queen, her mother gets a cake to celebrate which resembles what a child might pick out. The mother goes into a rage when Nina doesnt want to eat the cake, as she threatens to throw it away. Yet, when Nina succumbs to her mother, the mother returns to her cloying, yet false, demeanor. The ballet director, Leroy, is represented as the animus of Ninas unconscious mind; it is symbolic of her true self rather than how she presents herself to the world. Leroy does not believe that Nina has the ability to portray the black swan. He sees her as young, innocent girl, who could not fulfill the role as the sensual and seductive black swan. Despite his doubts, he assigns the role to her and challenges her to find her inner darkness. In one scene, he seduces Nina, but it is only a trick, as he rejects her after. She understands that he did

that to make her learn, to inspire her to find her black swan. Leroy also tells her to explore her sexuality, something that she has never done before. Ninas mother made sure that her sexuality would stay repressed, as evident by her behavior. Leroy is symbolic of the animus and how it encourages change and development and can instill a sense of masculine attributes that can ultimately give a sense of direction and courage to a woman. As Nina starts to train for her role, she strives to be a flawless Swan Queen, struggling to embody everything she is not. For Nina to become the Swan Queen, she has to bring out her shadow, not matter how dark it might be. She had never explored her shadow because it was seen as a danger, fearing that it might possibly take possession of her. Jung says that we seldom use the same character in both public and private life. We might talk to our professor one way, but speak to our friends another way. Nina only has one mask that she shows; the same one at home and at her ballet studio -- her shadow rests inhibited in her unconscious. The shadow figure is quite symbolic in this film, Ninas shadow or projections often shows up in mirrors, on the subway, and in walkways and alleys. At this point in the film, Ninas projections of herself grows more intense and at times, we are unable to determine if what we are seeing is real or if its just a projection of Ninas shadow. Jung says that projections are a result of the clinging traits of our unconscious that have not integrated with out conscious mind. Another ballet dancer, Lily, is everything that the black swan should be. Nina knows that Lily has the sensuality and energy that she lacks within herself,

which in turn makes her feel threatened. Lily effortlessly embraces her imperfectness, which Nina tries so hard to do. She can only see her repressed qualities outside of herself, in Lily. She integrates some of her shadow, but instead of integrating both qualities of light and dark to create unity, she strives for perfection in which she allows her shadow to dominate over her. There is a blurry line between Ninas inner and outer awareness. This may give the message that what is outside of ourselves is also inside of ourselves. We can see how the shadow first presented itself with the projections; gradually it took over her consciousness, possessing her. There is a scene before the first act, where Nina stabs Lily, as she thinks she is trying to steal her part. We learn that Nina had really stabbed herself; it was only a projection that had possessed Nina. Nina became controlled by her shadow without realizing. At the end of the film, as Nina lay dying, she whispers, It was perfect. Ninas shadow was too overwhelming due to the suppression caused by her mother and herself, and ultimately, it led to her demise.

Works Cited Journal of Psycho-Social Studies - E-Journal." Welcome to UWE Bristol University of the West of England, Bristol. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. <http://www.uwe.ac.uk/hlss/research/cpss/Journal_PsychoSocial_Studies/v2-2/RountreeC.shtml>.

Archetypes - Jung's Archetypes." Psychology - Complete Guide to Psychology for Students, Educators & Enthusiasts. Web. 16 Nov. 2011. <http://psychology.about.com/od/personalitydevelopment/tp/archetypes.ht m>