A Jungian Analysis of Sacraments in John Donne’s 'Holy Sonnets'

This article aims to analyse three poems in John Donne’s religious sonnet collection titled Holy Sonnets within the context of the Jungian concept of the individuation process. In this respect, the article presents two related arguments. First, it is contended that the poetic personae of the selected poems, namely “Thou hast made me,” “Oh my blacke Soule!,” and “Batter my heart,” suffer from neurosis because of their reluctance and inability to perform the two tasks of the individuation process. The process put forward by Carl Gustav Jung requires an individual to both separate herself/himself from societal demands and integrate the unconscious part of her/his psyche with the conscious one. In the case of the selected poems’ speakers, their unconscious sides are constituted by their carnal desires which they wish to suppress to the point of extinction. Feeling inadequate to suppress their bodily passions, they ask their Creator to intervene in the process. However, neither God responds to their prayers, nor their undesirable selves disappear from their conscious minds. Thus, the poetic speakers oscillate painfully between their carnal and spiritual selves, indicating that they suffer from neurosis. God’s silence in this process stems from the speaker’s rejection to utilize sacraments as mediatory objects. In this respect, it is argued that the speakers are influenced by Protestant iconophobia. Therefore, the second argument suggests that the selected poems showcase that rejecting sacraments’ mediatory function halts one’s attempt to bridge the gap between the conscious and the unconscious parts of the psyche which is the main aim of the individuation process.