A psychoanalytic interpretation of “The Story of the Black Cow” reveals several Jungian interpretations of a young child’s maturation. Whereas a Freudian interpretation of “The Story of the Black Cow” focuses on the individual traumas and coping mechanisms of the boy, a Jungian interpretation attempts to present the characters of the fairy tale as representative of unconscious societal archetypes. In the story, the black cow is the archetypal caregiver. She actively cares for the boy when he is neglected by the stepmother, giving him food and shelter (The Story of the Black Cow, 124-125). This archetype, however, has a negative reflection of it, what Jung referred to as a “shadow”. The shadow of an archetypal caregiver is the suffering martyr, someone who cares for others incessantly, to the point where they are controlling their peers by making them feel guilty. The cow does exactly this: when the boy realizes that he forgot the cow, he rushes back to her, only to find her “bones” (127). Only when he creates a funeral pyre to jump into does the cow reveal her deception, and she justifies it as a “test of affection”, effectively guilt-tripping the boy for abandoning her. The boy most closely reflects the Jungian orphan, whose life is aligned almost entirely on the axis of emotion. The orphan has undergone a life full of trials and difficulties (for the boy, his mom dying and being abused by his stepmother), and their main goal in life is emotional security and belonging. For the boy, this security comes in the form of the cow, and belonging comes in being accepted by her, as well as his eventual introduction into a royal lifestyle. The latter part of the story demonstrates the orphan’s greatest pitfalls of being too easily influenced by those around them; as soon as the boy is taken to the palace, all thoughts of his prior securities and relationships are lost, and he doesn’t remember the cow until much later (126). These archetypes, according to a Jungian interpretation, are supposed to represent society’s collective opinions on human dynamics, in this case the banes and boons of the mother-son relationship.
The other major character of this story, the snake, does not match any one archetype, as a divine force doesn’t exhibit the same potential for personal growth that a Jungian archetype does. Snakes, however, do have a significant role in psychoanalytic practice: Freudians would associate snakes with phallic symbols and male genitalia, while Jungians would see snakes as a more abstract force, capable of both good and evil. This latter, Jungian definition is more easily seen in “The Story of the Black Cow”. The snake is mostly painted in a benevolent light, being referred to as the Great Snake, and granting the boy golden clothes and a golden body (125). It’s that gold, however, which eventually gets the boy discovered by the castle. While this led to riches and fame for the boy, it also led to the destruction of the parent-child relationship between the boy and the cow, which is not totally fixed for the rest of the story; “and then they went their separate ways as before”(126). The role the snake plays, as well as being a more literal representation of Jungian concepts, may also demonstrate a warning to the child listening to this story, about the possibly negative consequences of instant riches and glory.
Work Cited
Tatar, Maria. The Classic Fairy Tales. Second ed., Norton, 2017.
“Cinderella” (Pages 139 - 181)