Exploring the manifestations of persona in Sane’ al-Hub written by Ihsan Abd al-Quddous using Gustav Carl Jung’s theory

Introduction: Mask plays an important role in accepting people in society since it brings people a social image. It can be said that mask is a social necessity and can find its traces in the literature. Ihsan by his interest in fiction, just began writing stories and novels. Sane’ al-Hub is his first collection of stories. He describes what happens during his travel to Europe and about the customs and beliefs of the West.



Methodology:Persona is the mask we put on or hide behind it to introduce ourselves as something different from what we really are (Schultz, 1990, p. 79). Jung divides persona into: 1-The mask that a person puts on to present himself what he is not, 2- The unreal thoughts that impede the development of his true personality. Carl Jung sees the mask that impedes people’s development harmful (Heidarian Ataabadi, 2013, pp. 29-30). Masks have positive and negative aspects. It should be stated that the positive role of mask has nothing to do with ethics.



Results and Discussion

“Dutch virgin girl” story: Here we see three masks that the characters put on in different situations: the wisdom persona, the indifference persona, and the virginity persona. The wisdom and indifference persona are the masks that the writer uses when facing the Dutch girl and the virginity persona is the mask that the Dutch girl puts on to prevent men from approaching her. Eventually this mask is removed and the truth is revealed.

“The beautiful secretary” story: The characters of “the beautiful secretary” used four masks while interacting with others: composure persona, smiling persona, indifference and being bossy persona, and joking and laughing persona for hiding the seriousness of speech. The personas of composure, indifference and being bossy are the masks that Abd al-Quddous uses while dealing with women and the secretary girl. The smile mask belongs to the women who came for interview, where she used it for hiding her defects. Joking and laughing were used by the male secretary, when he had fallen in love and uses smiles and laughing.

“The Russian queen” story: Here we can see two masks. The job mask that is put on by the shopkeeper and the attendants, and the richness mask that Abd al-Quddous uses to revenge, put himself in the place of rich people, and enjoy the pleasures.

“A girl from London” story: As the name calls, the main character of the story is a girl who stands in front of a man and uses the smile mask to keep her composure, but she did not use this mask properly and the paralyzed man finds out when her behavior changes.

“The virgin girl” story: Abd al-Quddous has two masks in this story. He puts on one of the masks when he is in a job situation (he is a respectable man in the situation) and the other one is used in the Hotel du Louvre (who is a reckless man). Another mask that can be seen in this story is the girl's mask (Valentine), which she wears when facing with different people and shows herself as a powerful and authoritarian person who gives orders to all others and other people obey her.

The story of “The unfamiliar faces (Marseille port)”: Popularity is the persona that a Greek woman puts on in Marseille port to attract the attention and support of the people on the ship. She tries to make people love her by reciting her stories and by her behavior.

The story of “unfamiliar faces (London)”: here, Abd al-Quddous became emotional when seeing the picture of a lonely man in the snow, but by pressing his lips and his hands together tried to keep calm and put the indifference mask.

The story “The unfamiliar faces (Paris)”: In Paris, Abd al-Quddous visited Mr. "K" at the request of his friend. Mr. "K" always had a smile on his face while it was with hypocrisy, meanness, and cowardice, but he did not use the persona fully and did not impact favorably on his audience. So, people understand who really he is behind his smile.

The story “Familiar faces (six men and a girl)”: Here, only one mask is clear for the girl. The mask is put on when the men introduce themselves one by one and they expect the girl to choose them, but smiles after the introduction to hide her feelings.

The story “Familiar faces (girls)”: Here, the Palestinian immigrant girl puts on the mischief mask after emigrating and assumes and accepts the mask and does not want to forget it.

The story “Familiar faces (new generation)”: This story begins when the Abd al-Quddous introduces his friend who had accidentally involved in politics and took refuge in a house to escape the punishment. He then fell in love with the daughter of the landlord. So, he do political issues and put on the mask of a political hero to get close to the girl and see her all the time.



Conclusion: Using the Jung's theory shows that the most mask used by the characters of Sane’ al-Hub in their social relationships is a smile that is placed on the characters' faces in different situations in order to hide the their true self. The second one is the mask of indifference that is specific to Abd al-Quddous in the stories. Such other masks as knowledge, virginity, ignorance, popularity, and hero can be seen in the novel. Moreover, the positive or negative function of a persona has nothing to do with ethics but its kind is determined only according to its conscious and unconscious use and being useful or useless in a particular situation. Only one mask was found to be negative and all others were positive and the right one had been put on at the right time. The person had been totally aware of his choice and took it off in some situations. . The “Palestinian girl” mask that the person forgets her own self is the negative mask.