Hamlet - Collective Unconscious In Hamlet

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through parallels between Jung’s work and the play.
Carl Jung believed that the structure of the human psyche is comprised of three main parts: the conscious, personal unconscious and the collective unconscious (refer to figure 1). The conscious is basically the function or activity which maintains the relation of psychic contents with the ego or one’s state of awareness. Personal unconscious consists of experiences or memories that can be recalled by an individual, either through the will of the person or by employing special technique (e.g. Hypnosis). The final part of the psyche is the collective unconscious, which can be considered something that links us all together. It is the reservoir of our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge the human race are all born with of which we can never be directly conscious of (refer to figure 2). The collective unconscious influences all of our experiences and behaviors, particularly the emotional ones; however, we are only ...

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which he knows is in keeping with his conscious intentions, while it also meets the requirements and fits the opinions of society, first motive and then the other to gain the upper hand." (Definitions, Jung par. 811).
The shadow archetype manifests itself in the character of Claudius. The shadow is the "dark side" of one’s personality; it is the sum of all the amoral acts that individual is capable of. Not so much classified as an evil, "The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality" (The shadow, Jung par. 14). This archetype is seen in the character of Claudius where he merely gives in to "the shadow" and performs the base action of murder. This single ...

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