Page 102 - Middle Georgia State University - Knighted 2019

Jung, is the part of the self that comes from reason and adaptation (Barentsen). At the end of the
story, Sophie understands that she does not need any prince to survive in her fairy tale. The only
thing she needs is her best friend, Agatha, whom she can trust completely. Also, Sophie realizes that
she is needed at the school in the way she really is, Evil, because she can be the balance between the
two schools, being beautifully evil.

Sophie firmly believes that she will be a princess and that she is as beautiful as her mother
has always told her. These beliefs echo her Ego, enlarging the idea that she is in the wrong school.
At the beginning of the novel, and also throughout most of it, Sophie is more worried about her
looks because she wants, almost needs, to be perfect and beautiful, more than she cares about her
soul. These belief and convictions are the part of the personal unconscious mind. Sophie finds hard
to fight it because her Ego is blinded by the other people’s influence. Sophie firmly believes she is
good and pure, while her heart is full of greed and jealousy. The Evil part, seen as her persona, is
the only part of her unconscious that tries to make her understand who she really is. Even though
she takes a lot of time for understanding it, at the end of the novel, thanks also to the love she feels
for her friend Agatha, she finally accepts the evil nature that lies in her inner self.

Jung’s theories of individuation helps to understand Sophie’s process to her individual
growth and her reach of the consciousness of her persona. Throughout the story, Sophie wants to
find her place in a fairy tale, and she will have her place in it, just not in the part she expected. Her
individuation will help her to understand that, through her Evil side, she has everything she always
hoped to become: a whole with herself and her life. Sophie is a complex character that grows
through the novel. In the end she accepts her evil nature and that she will never have her Prince
Charming. According to Jung, individuation is a process always in progress, but that sometimes
people are not able to achieve, probably because their ego does not allow the persona to truly
express itself, as it happens in the case of Sophie at the beginning of the story. Though, towards the
end, Sophie shows an impressive change of her mindset and finally reaches her individuation,
understanding who she really is.

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