Contents
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin follows Ged, a boy who becomes a wizard. Ged’s journey, however, is ‘not only to learn to be a wizard, but to learn to be Ged’. His experiences change him, forming his character arc.
Character flaws of Ged
Ged is a flawed character. As a boy, he is reckless and proud. His motivation for learning magic is to ‘know and do what [others] knew not and could not’.
The inciting incident occurs when Ged attempts to raise a dead spirit after being baited by Jasper. Ged is overcome by his need to impress his peers and prove himself. He lacks the self-awareness to see his flaws, but the narrator does not: ‘He did not see, or would not see, that in this rivalry, which he clung to and fostered as part of his own pride, there was anything of … darkness’. The consequence of Ged’s actions is the summoning of the antagonist — the shadow.
An important distinction to note is that Ged’s flaws are not defined by what he does, or the outcome, but his intentions. Ged is not flawed for failing to raise the dead spirit, or for summoning the shadow, but because he does so out of pride and arrogance.
Shadow side of Ged
Ged’s character flaws act as the ‘antagonist, tripping up [Ged] along the way and creating both great tension and the beginnings of a character arc’[1]. At first, he does not know what the shadow is — just as he does not know who he himself is. The shadow instigates Ged’s character arc; the more he learns about the shadow, the more he learns about himself. It is only once Ged comes to know himself that he realises the shadow is the personification of his flaws.
‘Carl Jung coined the term shadow side to refer to flaws that the character doesn’t fully grasp about [themselves]’[2]. The shadow character is used throughout the novel as a metaphor for Ged’s flaws, even before its true nature is discovered: ‘It is the shadow of your arrogance, the shadow of your ignorance, the shadow you cast’.
Ged fears confronting what he doesn’t understand and believes the shadow ‘seeks to destroy [his] true being’. He plays into Jung’s concept that ‘the more we repress the shadow, the more destructive, insidious, and dangerous it becomes’[3]. The shadow only becomes less dangerous once Ged decides to ‘accept and take seriously the existence of the shadow’[4]. In the end, he does not destroy the shadow, because to do so would be to destroy a part of himself. Instead, ‘light and darkness met, and joined, and were one’.
Character arc of Ged
Le Guin wrote in the afterword: ‘To be the man he can be, Ged has to find out who and what his real enemy is. He has to find out what it means to be himself’. The story arc is about overcoming the shadow, but the character arc is about Ged discovering who he is and accepting himself, flaws and all.
A Wizard of Earthsea shows us that a story can be filled with fantastical elements and lore, but still be relatable to readers because it is grounded by realistic characters.
References
Rosenfeld, Jordan (2016) Writing the Intimate Character, F&W Publications Inc, US
Le Guin, Ursula K (2018) The Books of Earthsea, Orion Publishing Group, London, UK
Sharp, Daryl (1991) Jung Lexicon
Exploring Your Mind (2018) The Shadow Archetype — The Dark Side of Your Psyche
[1] Rosenfeld (2016) p67
[2] Rosenfeld (2016) p67
[3] Exploring Your Mind (2018)
[4] Sharp (1991)