THOMAS GRAY’S “ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD”:

ACKNOWLEDGING THE COLLECTIVE SHADOW

Mushtaq ur Rehman
Department of English Language and Literature, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan
(Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) Pakistan.

ABSTRACT
Thomas Gray’s “Elegy” focuses on the undeveloped and unacknowledged humans of the country side
who are or have been marginalized from the main stream of the society. The abject poverty which
keeps them underdeveloped or undeveloped like weeds beneath the tall trees is the result of unequal
distribution of wealth and un-acceptance of their due rights as humans. If read from a Jungian
analytical psychology, these marginalized contents of the society are symbolic of the collective
shadow which needs to be acknowledged and integrated into the conscious attitude. This paper is an
attempt to read the “Elegy” from a Jungian point of view and sheds light on how Grey urges us to
accept the unacceptable into our conscious life which is so essential for a peaceful coexistence

INTRODUCTION undesirable contents of the unconscious. 3

Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a
Country Churchyard” is a well-known
master piece of artistic creation which
guides us to think how necessary it is to
acknowledge the rugged, unrefined, and
undeveloped outcasts as integral part of
ourselves for psycho-socio development of
the society. It is indispensable for us to
realize that thorns grow next to roses and
weeds next to trees.
This suppression/marginalization of the
humans on the basis of wealth and power
or caste, creed and colour by the
overgrown persona causes lopsidedness
and disequilibrium not only in our
personalities but also at the collective level
in our society as a whole which disturbs
both our inner and outer adjustment at
personal, local, national and international
level.

In the opening stanza the “Elegy” brings
before us a very dreary, dark and
deplorable image of the poor country folk
who are marginalized. Being rugged,
uncouth and undesirable is what makes
them symbolic of the collective shadow
from a Jungian perspective. 1 On the other
hand, the rich and wealthy people of the
society in their blind pursuit of adjusting
themselves in the society due to their
overdeveloped persona which makes them
look at these neglected individuals with
scorn, hate and indifference. 2 This
implies that their exaggerated persona
suppresses the collective shadow as
The poem portrays a gloomy, dark and
pathetic picture of the rural folk who are
marginalized as undesirable humans as a
result of our inflated ego and
overdeveloped persona which suppresses
the shadow to its dark underworld of the
unconscious. Gray in the opening lines of
the poem says:
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary
way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to
me. (“Elegy,”1-4)

Gomal University Journal of Research, 28(1). June, 2012

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The above passage overtly reveals a sense
of suppression, neglect and oblivion. The
words “weary,” “plod,” and “darkness”
evoke a sense of heaviness and repression
as if the ego which is heroic in its
functioning hammers the shadow to its
dark cavern of the unconscious which
needs to be integrated into the conscious
attitude. It implies that the persona in a
fanatic fashion for its elated social
adjustment becomes domineering and
aggressive which represses the shadow
rather integrating and illuminating it into
our conscious side of the self. Since the
persona needs to stay in touch with the
unconscious for proper adjustment at inner
and outer level in the society, it has to be
guided by the poet accordingly for
accepting the neglected shadow. At the
outer level the ignored lot of the society
needs to be rehabilitated; the wretched
poor and the oppressed needs to be
brought from the background to the
foreground. This is why Gray says:
Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals of the Poor.
(29-32)
The above passage is a clear message of
the poet to the persona not to overstep its
measures and undervalue or look down
upon what is not in matching with the
social norms and mores. The phrases
“Ambition,” “Grandeur,” “disdainful
smile” represent the dazzling persona. And
the “useful toil,” “destiny obscure” and
“short and simple annals of the poor”
carries an undertone of the suppressed
shadow. 4 If the persona in its blind
pursuits of fitting itself in the social set up
does not correspond to the redundant
energy lying latent in the dark realm of the
unconscious, the potential energy turns
Gomal University Journal of Research, 28(1). June, 2012
Rehman, Thomas Gray’s Elegy
negative and begins to harbor its revenge.
The repressed dark energy (collective
shadow) forms a tide in the unconscious
and then bursts at times violently in the
form of insurgencies, sectarianism,
extremism, terrorism and Nazi holocausts
which is “the revolt of the powerless, the
insatiable greed of the ‘have-nots’” (Jung,
1954). This compensatory counter move
of the dark and terrible shadow becomes
uncontrollable which erodes even the
intellectual and moral boundaries of the
conscious reality. The suppressed
undertone of calm rebellion is audible in
the whole poem. This is why perhaps the
poet vehemently warns the collective
persona to beware of the apprehended
dangers. Jung aptly says:
Clearly there must be something wrong
with the conscious attitude [collective
persona] for a compensatory move of this
kind to be possible; something must be
amiss or exaggerated , because only a
faulty conscious can call forth a counter
move on the part of the unconscious
[collective shadow] (Jung, 1954).
The individual being stuck up in the
persona of either racial superiority or
beauty and wealth or rank and religion,
caste and colour are all factors of inflated
ego. These are the false/unnatural layers,
acquired in our blind pursuits of outer
adjustment, which need to be shed off in
order to individuate. 5 Perhaps that is why
Gray is quite critical of these exaggerated
personas which distance us from becoming
ourselves. He says:
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er
gave,
Awaits alike th' inevitable hour:-
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
(33-36)
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The above passage overtly hammers the
idea of vain glories and conquests of the
overgrown persona and reiterates further
that all humans are essentially equal and of
the same stuff if they shed off their
unnatural selves. The phrases like “The
boast of heraldry,” “the pomp of power,”
“beauty” “wealth” and “glory” are
symbolic representations of the
overdeveloped persona. Death is the
ultimate great leveler which gives us a
seminal lesson of equality. Which is why,
one of the well-known Jungians, Harry
Wilmer, states:
In ancient Rome it was the custom of the
conquering hero to ride triumphantly
through the city. By his side in the chariot
sat a wise man whispering into the hero’s
ear, over and over, ‘You are mortal,
Remember, you are mortal’ (Wilmer,
1987).
Our constant pursuit of persona keeps us
blind to the bigger whole. We are
unaware of the fact that the social roles we
play in life are our temporary masks that
we wear for social adjustment and
individual identities. Our total reliance
and convergence on these temporary
masks leads us turn our back on the
unconscious/ collective identity which
distances us from one another as humans
in a vast chain of human society. To
disdain the deserted poor contents of the
society who are the victims of abject
poverty is to marginalize and scornfully
deny the shadow which needs to be
integrated. Instead of integrating the
neglected ones as integral parts of
ourselves, we insist on their severance at
all levels of meaning. David Richo aptly
throws light on the necessity of both for
each other’s existence. He says:
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Rehman, Thomas Gray’s Elegy
In our collective history we are not trying
to destroy the darkness so that only light
remains but rather we are trying to accept
them both. Each requires the other for
existence, as thesis and antithesis are
required for synthesis (Richo, 1999).
When we fail to acknowledge this dark
energy lying latent in the dark region of
the unconscious we cease to be productive
and efficient individuals of the society.
This unknown power of the
society/unconscious without being
accepted goes wasted due to lack of
opportunity. Which is why the poet
laments the tremendous loss we suffer
from not only on individual level but also
on national and international level. The
following passage best illustrates the idea.
Gray says:
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush
unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
(53-56)
The image of “dark unfathome’d caves of
ocean” overtly refers to the deep and dark
caverns of the unconscious psyche which
the sun (persona) never penetrates. It is
imperative on the reluctant and stiff
persona to make a journey of the dark
underworld of the unconscious in order to
be flexible and empathic. If the shadowy
power of the unconscious (lying latent like
gems in the ocean) is not illuminated and
brought to the lime light of the conscious
self, it turns negative and backfires from
the unconscious violently like a disguised
deadliest enemy who is lying in ambush.
“What is not integrated splits off and
becomes autonomous (like the cult of
Dionysus in ancient times)” (Richo, 1999).
The following passage in the poem
100
perhaps points to the situation where we
can smell some symptoms of calm
rebellion. The poet says:
Some village-Hampden, that with
dauntless breast
The little tyrant of his fields withstood,
Some mute inglorious Milton here may
rest,
Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's
blood. (57-60)
Gray’s highlighting of these dark contents
of the society points to this problem of
marginalization of the collective shadow
as part and parcel of our being. In our
blind pursuit of personas we fail to see
them as part of ourselves. The result is
that we demonize and “otherize” these
humble contents of society. This alienated
unbroken knot of humans is the subject of
our scorn. The slaves are a good example
of marginalization. Collective
marginalization of humans on racial,
religious, and social or cultural grounds is
more dangerous than the individual
shadow. The collective shadow often
leads to counter move on continuous
suppression as “crossed fingers, gives us
an ‘out’ when pressed too far” (Wilmer,
1987). Bloody revolutions and holocausts
are good examples. Talking about the
collective shadow Mattoon says:
The collective shadow is more consistently
destructive. It is sometimes described as
“absolute” evil. I prefer to say that the evil
of the collective shadow is as absolute as
possible in human life…The collective
shadow’s manifestations are the offences
of the racial, economic and social groups
against each other (Mattoon, 1997).
We also suppress some of our instincts,
desires, and even ideas in order to avoid
marginalization. The result is that we
Gomal University Journal of Research, 28(1). June, 2012
Rehman, Thomas Gray’s Elegy
become psychologically morbid and
depressed. Fear of marginalization also
narrows down our natural course; and we
feel shut up in the cocoon of our
psychologically crippled personality.
This is why Jung says, “We limit
ourselves to the attainable, and this means
renouncing all our other psychic
potentialities (Jung, 1971).
All marginalized minorities in the world
exhibit features of the collective shadow
as they are deemed “less” and “inferior”
on the basis of caste, colour, creed,
profession or politics. This leads to
racism, extremism, and hatred in the
society. Whitmont says, “Every minority
and every dissenting group carries the
shadow projection of the majority, be it
Negro, white, Gentile, Jew, Italian, Irish,
Chinese or French” (Whitmont, 1969).
This attitude of the people leads to
communal riots, mass massacre, and
terrorism in the society. Jung, while
talking about the Psychology of Nazism,
points to this collective shadow of the
mass psychology as “‘blond beast’ [which]
was stirring in an uneasy slumber and that
an outburst was not impossible” (Jung,
1954).
In the present day world of conflicts and
disintegration, to acknowledge the
individual and collective shadow has
become a challenging task for all of us.
That is why Martin Drahon Gallard says,
“Consequently one must act, not only in
relation to the conscious personality, but in
relation to the contents of the shadow
which is often in contradiction with
consciousness” (in Mattoon, 1997).
Instead of coming to terms with the
shadow as “the ever-present dark brother
or sister” (Whitmont, 1969), we are
spending lots of resources on the
eradication of the shadow which is our
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futile attempt. In other words, we wage
wars with what (shadow) cannot be
eliminated. Instead of bringing
marginalized humans and societies closer
to ourselves, we are bent upon eliminating
them which leads to further disintegration
of the society and the world.
Compressed into a single expression, the
above figures can be described as a
“stranger,” which we are never ready to
recognize as a functional mechanism of
our psychological dynamics. It is Gray’s
feeling antenna that captures the repressed
side as deserted country folk. These
marginalized humans symbolically refer to
an abyss in our psychological lives—the
lack of feeling. Our duty as readers of
Wordsworth is to feel the gravity of the
above lack and access our inner
“marginalized figures” to counter the
overdevelopment of the thinking side.
The seminal message that we get from the
“Elegy” is that recognition of the shadow
is beneficial and healthy for balanced
growth of individual and society.
Knowing and being conscious that there is
a dark side to us is indeed very humbling;
it makes us more empathic and
accommodating. Actions and behaviours
that we hate in others are mostly part and
parcel of our day to day life. We may
laugh at others for being thrifty, but fail to
see how we are not generous enough to
accept the thriftiness of others—something
which is symptomatic of the shadow.
Becoming conscious of the shadow helps
us understand that we also have in our
personality traits and behaviours that we
hate in others. We realize that what we
pursue as a desirable norm is a temporary
role and an adjustment to our social
environment; not the whole and absolute
identity. Being conscious of the shadow
helps us stay rooted in reality; we become
Gomal University Journal of Research, 28(1). June, 2012
Rehman, Thomas Gray’s Elegy
conscious of how people in other social
environments have their desirable and
undesirable norms. While we consciously
pursue the persona, we also remain
conscious of how there is a dark side to us
that we hide from others
CONCLUSION
Healthy, peaceful, and productive life
essentially demands our conscious
integration of the shadow into our
attitudes, and accept the rights of others as
we assert ours. Our conscious acceptance
of the shadow within ourselves and in the
society leads to the solution of many
problems, conflicts, and discords within
and without. Knowing ourselves through
knowing the shadow is the road to reach
harmony within ourselves and in the
society. Conscious acceptance of the
shadow helps us know our origin as to
who we are; where we are from; and what
relation we have with others around us.
Of course, to integrate the shadow is a
painful process; there are many hazards in
the way and lots of sacrifices in the form
of shedding of “artificial” selves and our
cherished ideals. It involves courage and
moral efforts to accept what we detest.
But in order to reach harmony within
ourselves and in the society around us is
not possible without encountering the
shadow. Becoming conscious of the
shadow leads us to rehabilitate the rejected
and the marginalized humans back into the
main stream of the society with respect
and dignity. Embracing the shadow helps
us to confer freedom, independence, and
equal status on all those individuals and
communities who have been ruthlessly
marginalized. This helps the individuals
meet each other like sovereign states with
all mutual respect and dignity, and who
never lose sight of each other’s humanity.
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Notes
1
Shadow according to Jung is the
undeveloped dark side of our personality and
is one of the archetypes of the unconscious.
It is anything that we do not want to be or
have; the most undesirable and the most
condemned. Personal shadow we acquire
during our life time but collective Shadow is
an archetype inherent in us; it is a collective
dark/undeveloped/weak side of a society, a
group, a sect or community or a nation. It is
the projection of our collective shadow when
we otherize, criminalize, satanize and
marginalize others in order to divinize our
selves. For detail see C. G. Jung, The
Portable Jung. Trans. R. F. C. Hull. Ed.
Joseph Campbell. (New York and London:
Penguin Books, 1971), pp. 144-48. Also see
Frieda Fordham, An Introduction to Jung’s
Psychology, (Harmondsworth: Penguin
Books Ltd, 1953), p.50.
2
Persona is not the real face but the
outer covering, the outward public image
through which we interact with the people for
adjustment in the society. For further detail
see C. G Jung, “Relations Between the Ego
and the Unconscious,” The Portable Jung.
Trans. R. F. C. Hull. Ed. Joseph Campbell
(New York and London: Penguin Books,
1971); Frieda Fordham, Introduction to
Jung’s Psycholog (Harmondsworth: Penguin
Books, 1953), pp. 47-49; Edward C.
Whitmont, The symbolic Quest: Basic
Concepts Analytical Psychology (New
Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1969), pp.
156-59
3 How can you say I am a king? (111.ii, 172-
According to Jung the unconscious is
the biggest part of the psyche which is an
infinite store of contents which cannot be all
known to the conscious part of the psyche.
However, some of its contents can be
illuminated and integrated into the conscious
attitude. For detail see C.G. Jung, “The
Relations Between the Ego and the
Unconscious,” The Portable Jung. Trans. R.
F.C. Hull. Ed. Joseph Campbell (New York:
Penguin Books, 1971), pp. 70-138.
4
This and all other textual references
are to Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a
Country Churchyard” in The Norton
Gomal University Journal of Research, 28(1). June, 2012
Rehman, Thomas Gray’s Elegy
Anthology of English Literature. Vol 1.
Eds. M.H.Abram, etal (New York: W.W.
Norton Company Incl.1968) and are
indicated by line numbers unless otherwise
indicated.
5
These are not the only words and
phrases which symbolically represent the
dark repressed shadow but a lot of other
words and expression recurring in the
whole poem like “neglected spot,” “frail
memorial,” “uncouth rhymes,” “Chill
Penury repress’d their noble rage/And
froze the genial current of the soul,” “The
threats of pain and ruin to despise” and so
on, carry the tragic tone of the
repressed/marginalized collective shadow
of the society.
6
From Jungian point of view
individuation means becoming one’s self ;
it refers to self realization and the
attainment of psychic wholeness. Jung
says, “The aim of individuation is nothing
less than to divest the self of the false
wrappings of the persona” (The Portable
Jung, p.123).
7
It is reminiscent of how remarkably
Shakespeare hits the mark in his The
Tragedy of Richard the Second, where the
transformed persona of the King realizes
the superficiality of its outward semblance.
The King says:
…Throw way respect,
Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty;
For you have but mistook me all this while.
I live with bread like you, fell want, taste grief,
Need friends. Subjected thus,
177)
8
Jung holds Germany first among
Western nations to be victim of this collective
shadow whose forces, which were lying
dormant, broke through all moral and
intellectual barriers and flooded the conscious
world in order to compensate exaggerated role
of what Jung calls the “faulty
consciousness”(Essays, 3). For detail see C. G.
Jung, Introduction: the fight with the shadow,
Essays on Contemporary Events: The
Psychology of Nazism, Trans. R.F.C. Hull
(New Jersey: Princeton University Press,
1954).
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REFERENCES
Frieda F (1953). Introduction to Jung’s
Psychology. Harmondsworth: Penguin
Books.
Jung C G (1971). The Portable Jung.
Trans. R. F.C. Hull. Ed. Joseph Campbell.
New York: Penguin Books, p-11
Gomal University Journal of Research, 28(1). June, 2012
Rehman, Thomas Gray’s Elegy
----. (1954). Introduction: the Fight with
the Shadow, Essays on Contemporary
Events: The Psychology of Nazism.
Trans. R.F.C. Hull. New Jersey:
Princeton University Press.pp-5,3,2.
Mattoon M A (1997). Preface. The
Archetype of Shadow in Split World: