Anima and Animus in Fairy Tales

Jung says that theoretically anima and animus as psychological constructs, are
produced by the remaining biological inferior or minority of contrasexual genes
(Development of Personality pg.198). Conceptually, fairy tales illuminate the collective
aspect of these psychological constructs, so could we say that the anima and animus
represent the inferior collective gender experiences bubbling up from the unconscious?
By inferior, I mean the collection of unrecognized experiences that speak to the
common folk, as we “commonly” refer to a fairy tale by its other name, the “folk” tale.
Let’s take a look at the common motifs found in fairy tales.
If we look the sensitive topic of the traditional roles of gender, and generally speaking in
most cultures, the predominance of males served as warriors who take life away, and
females served as mothers and bringers of life. I say this only to illustrate the concept
that the heredity of these experiences fell into the background and were found
empirically in the study of dreams by the early Jungians during the spirit of their times.
Which is why von Franz says that you generally see the anima as an archetype of life
and relationship, and the animus as an archetype of death and loneliness (Interpretation
of Fairy Tales pg.183). But the anima and animus as archetypes of life and death are
simple snapshots for the different lights in which they appear and in our day and age,
these concepts may have changed.
But for the sake of clarity, historically, the images of the anima in fairy tales appear as a
pagan troll, a heathen, a miraculous spirit, a ferocious animal, as an image of restraint
like a/the virgin, as spell casting and bewitching figure, as giving riddles and as a
princess that has to be won over (Interpretation of Fairy Tales pg.142-149).
The animus motif is not so widespread but when found it appears as poor man, a
beggar, someone who is hiding the great treasures of the unconscious, an old man,
bearded man or father figure, the invisible/mysterious lover like the androgynous moon
man (who is still connected to death but also rebirth), as a fiercely dangerous
aggressor, as a ghostly spirit (to which the name animus as spirit makes sense since it
is likely coming from the German “geist”), and as a higher power of heaven like the Pole
Star.(Interpretation of Fairy Tales pg.170, 173,183 & 188).
What they have in common is that they both appear as mediators to the unconscious, or
as guides of the hero/heroine into the unknown dark parts of the psyche and reflect
these roles as guides in fairy tales, though the hero/heroine often doesn’t know what
they are being led to. They both also show up as fascinating figures who have a certain
radiance about them, something which highlights them as partly magical and very
intriguing. One can see this easily in our daily digital fairy tale practice of watching
Netflix, where we encounter magical love interests in movies or shows which enchant or
capture the attention of the main character.
There is a quote that von Franz cites that is very interesting, which is the phrase spoken
by Kepler, which says that “all creatures long to be spheres” (Interpretation of Fairy
Tales pg.153).I will touch upon in a moment but first, I have to set up why we long to
become spheres, aside from the obvious planetary allusion. The anima and animus are
tied to the inferior functions, the part of our typology that we are not as skilled in dealing
with. It has a spontaneous character (like the unconscious) and is closer to the
unconscious. This shows up as a personified version of our unknown other half.

Therefore, the anima and animus have a relational aspect that is in contrast to the
persona. Though, in the classical Jungian construct, the persona is the side of the
Janus face we turn to the outer world, and the anima/animus the face we turn towards
the inner world. Two sides of the same coin.
So, in conclusion, the anima and animus motifs show a collective representation of
images coming at us from the macrocosm of the collective unconscious, from which we
seek to translate to our individual fairy tales and the microcosmic images found in our
dreams. As, we “long to become spheres,” which is to say, we long to become whole,
the anima/animus motifs in fairy tales serve as examples for the intuitive apprehension
and as guiding parts to the whole.

Resources:

Franz, M.-L. von, & Franz, M.-L. von. (1996). The interpretation of fairy tales. Boston:
Shambhala.
Jung, C. G. (1991). The development of personality. Routledge.

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