The Man In Black

These are approximate reactions to the man in black that I got when recently showing Violent Grace at a fair: “He looks like Loki.” “What is Snape doing in there?” “What’s up with Dracula?” “He reminds me of the Dream King.” Mention of the mask at his feet brought up both Phantom of the Opera and V for Vendetta.  I even discovered that the goblin king from Labyrinth made his way in there. All of these observations, even the ones I did not intend, are correct.

The male figure in this collage has a very personal history with me, but also a very archetypal one layered over him.  This dark haired man with intense blue eyes has been appearing in my art and writing for decades, with very little change in his appearance save for the fact that somewhere along the way, he started wearing black. When people look at this piece, they won’t necessarily see “him”, they will see the other characters that are overlaid on his image.

The man in black was based off of at least five different characters from comic books and movies. I say “at least” because upon showing this piece in public, people made associations with the figure that, while unintended on my part, were in alignment with his archetype. From what I can tell, this archetype is a more modern one than some of the others that are more familiar like the wise old man or the damsel in distress. He is very active in popular culture right now, and considering the current cultural and societal climate, this really is not a surprise to me. I thought I knew who he was, but I found that I had to do more research to really nail him down, and came back with more than I had even bargained for.

So, who is he then? He is a bad boy, a villain. He is brilliantly intelligent and strong, either being an artist of some sort, or possessing skills that approach the level of artistry. He is often deadly handsome, but can also be quite ugly, especially emotionally. Regardless, he is very charismatic. He is a tortured soul, very wounded, often self hating, and frequently has been abused, abandoned, bullied or treated “differently” by others. He dresses darkly, usually in black, though not always. And more importantly, he wears a mask. His mask is sometimes physical, or makeup, but just as often he masks his emotions. He commands very strong powers of magic and/or illusion, has a hypnotic presence and a bent towards the theatrical. His voice is very soft, almost musical when speaking, but is terrifying powerful when he becomes enraged. He is often not without some degree of madness, on the verge of being feral.

The man in black has strong associations with both love and death. He is almost always a killer, and revenge is a common theme with him, but so is power and control. He is a destroyer at the very least, though he often has a way of destroying old systems. He is usually alone, and lonely, (though he would never admit to it) and he does not love himself. He feels monstrous, and therefore often becomes a monster. This is where the theme of love and redemption via love comes into play.

Women are naturally drawn to him in a romantic, often sexual way, and want to “save” him. In fact, the more villainous he is, the more they are convinced of his suffering and the more they are attracted to him. In most stories I have come across, he has either lost the object of his love, his love is unrequited, or love is entirely absent. When he does manage to obtain love, he typically dies or disappears.

This gothically tragic persona has appearing in literature and pop culture for only the last century or so, notably cropping up during the repressed Victorian era- and seems to have gained popularity and honed his persona over time. His recurring presence and place in the cultural consciousness cannot be denied, and I think points to a distinct psychological struggle that is being experienced across a broad swath of society, but especially among women.

*Additional note* In further research, I have noticed that roots of this male figure appear in two other stories which are much older, so I must amend the previous paragraph some. The Man in Black persona has certainly been appearing with increased frequency since the 19th century, but he also figures into the story of Eros and Psyche, as well as Beauty and the Beast. These two stories, in fact have several poignant parallels between them.

Eros (Cupid) and Psyche is a tale from Greek mythology which has been the subject of numerous sculptures and paintings. Psyche is the Greek word for soul, or life, and she is sometimes pictured as having butterfly wings. Psyche is a woman so beautiful, that Aphrodite becomes jealous and sends her son to shoot Psyche with an arrow, forcing her to fall in love with the ugliest mortal possible. When Eros attempts this, he fumbles as she is waking and pricks himself with his own arrow, falling in love with her. No one will wed Psyche, so her parents consult the oracle at Delphi, which ominously tells them to take her to a mountain and ready her for what might as well be her funeral. (here begin the associations with death) They leave her on the mountain, but she is whisked away to a palace where she is pampered by invisible attendants, and visited at night by a lover that she is not allowed to look upon. Her two sisters discover that she is not dead, and become jealous, telling her that her new husband is a "monster" and that she should kill him. When she tries to see him in the light of a lamp, she discovers that he is a god. The oil drips on Eros, waking him, and he flees. The rest of the tale is Psyche mournfully trying to find him, and being put through impossible tasks by Aphrodite in the hopes that she will fail them, yet each time getting help from supernatural means, the last being from Eros himself. Her labours also include a descent into Hades.

Beauty and the Beast is a French tale whose plot has variants of the above story in that Belle (Beauty) is the prettiest of her wicked sisters, and is given up as a sacrifice to a monster, only this time for her father's trespass in stealing a red rose from the Beast's garden for her. Again the heroine finds herself being pampered in a palace, but attended by a hideous beast. As before, there is a visit to her sisters as she is homesick, and once more their jealously strives to put a wedge in her relationship with the Beast by manipulating her. However in this story, the Beast has not fled her and is heartbroken by the loss of her. She finds him nearly dead when she returns, and her love restores him to his true human form. The repeated themes of love, death, and acceptance of something that seems monstrous are key here, and are the building blocks for the archetype that the Man In Black personifies.

In terms of Jungian psychology, this figure is the animus, which is the personification of masculine traits and energies, as well as a bridge to the subconscious. His dark attire and brooding but violent nature are shadow aspects that are an overlay onto this personality. The shadow is often described as those aspects of oneself that are being denied, buried, or disowned by the consciousness because they are somehow deemed unacceptable. Shadow aspects usually are thought of to be more negative traits (anger, lust, greed, etc.) but there are also positive traits that get forced into the shadow as well, such as strength, assertiveness, and healthy sexuality. Jung’s shadow model held that images of the shadow persona appeared as the same sex of the person, but after researching this figure, I’m not sure that is really the case. I never experienced my shadow self as female, and was confused by this during my research, as I discovered my shadow traits were consistently getting “worn” by my animus. I would venture to say that the model is more fluid, or is showing up differently than Jung may have realized it could, as there seem to be scores of women who feel drawn to these Gothic animus figures.

I shouldn’t have to make mention of the obsession over the vampire mythos, which has gained recurring popularity thanks to the Twilight novels. This trope has been around likely the longest, having its most modern roots in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (if not before). This novel came out in the later years of the Victorian period and women’s roles, especially as they related to sexuality, are a major theme here. The romantic, deadly vampire and forbidden love associated with him has been the most propagated version of this archetype. Joss Whedon’s character of Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer certainly fits this mold, but with a twist as he does not die when he feels real love; instead he becomes more of a monster because he is “cursed”. Edward Cullen of Twilight fame also fits, but again the trope warps. The forbidden love between male vampire and human female culminates in marriage and the “monstrous” birth of a child, which results in Bella, the ultimate Mary Sue, being turned into a vampire in order to save her life.  In these latter examples of the “love affair” I find it very telling that instead of the death or disappearance of the dark male character, that there is instead a continuation of the idea that accepting this love is “monstrous”.

Gaston LeRoux’s 1911 Phantom of the Opera certainly deals with the idea of being monstrous head on, and while it was written more as a detective novel, it certainly takes into account women’s behaviours and gender roles of the period as well in the character of Christine. Eric (the Phantom) in both the book and the musical, is a mad genius, whose physical deformity drives him to live underground. Again the themes of love and death are pivotal in the story, where like a vampire, Eric preys on Christine, hypnotizes her, and is deeply fixated on marrying her. The musical and movie versions, as well as some modern prequels, ramp up the sexuality between the characters. In the Phantom story is where we see what is likely the first glimpse of the heroine gaining courage and strength, turning to this dark presence whom some would label evil and depraved, and totally disarming him with love. This action has been repeated over and over again in fanfiction, specifically those with Mary Sues. In recent years, dark, bad boy characters have been brooding and destroying in their canon films and books, only to be taken down by kisses and acceptance in the minds and on the keyboards of many women.

 There are some movies that directly address this theme of love and redemption of this shadowy man such as V in V for Vendetta, and Severus Snape in Harry Potter. V is very much a take on the Phantom, living in a subterranean place so blatantly named the “Shadow Gallery” where he hoards society’s “forbidden” items, like music and art.  V is bent on killing those who have abused power (and him) and is methodically destroying the old order of things. In the process, he discovers Evie, and in the movie certainly falls in love with her. Like the other characters he is violent, mad, and his torture of Evie to make her see his plight may seem like a horrible thing for a human to do. We must remember however, that our dark man is NOT a concrete human. What he really does to Evie is put her through the dark night of the soul, a painful psychological process that changes her forever, much like Psyche's trip to Hades. He dies after a brief admittance of love near the end of the story. I should point out that in the book, V tells Evie that she should discover what is behind his mask, but never to look at his face. Evie ends up taking on the mask and his costume as her own, but goes out to rebuild the world instead of destroying it.

Severus Snape is a character that we mistrust from the get-go because of Harry’s point of view. It is not a mistake that his classroom is in the dungeon, or that he wears all black and is written as unattractive. His mask is certainly emotional. We don’t find out until far later the childhood trauma of bullying, the bad home life, and the pain he hides with behind his icy exterior. We know he is not a nice guy as he was a death eater, and he certainly becomes Dumbledore’s killer, but for a reason we don’t understand until almost the last minute.  The endurance and depth of his unrequited love is the very last piece in the puzzle of who he is, and as he redeems himself because of that love, he dies.

The Crow’s Eric Draven also fits this mold of dark, murderous anti-hero. His story focuses more on his grief over the savage killing of his love, Shelly (and himself) before their wedding. He comes back from the dead, literally, to avenge them and becomes a monster to kill other monstrous people. In this case, his actions are driven by the love which he felt was unduly violated by the depravity of others. Once he dispatches the ring of miscreants who destroyed something beautiful, he returns to the grave, at peace. His mask, like V’s, is physical, and a painted permanent smile over an angry visage.

There are different spots along the sliding scale of this archetype where these characters fit, but they are all basically doing the same thing. These men are not heroes, not in the traditional sense. They are tragic, flawed, tormented, sad, and angry, but they are also a necessarily “evil”, if you will. They have a mischievous side, a bit of the trickster archetype in them. They are also metaphors for humanity’s attempt at coming to grips with the dark sides of our own personalities and accepting them, as well as retrieving the positive things that have been buried or banished with them.

The archetype has become more complex and layered over time and often poses as a villain, but underneath all that anger, as is in life, there is always hidden a deep sadness. The most recent example of this trope cropping up is with the Thor and Avengers movie character, Loki.  He is the most tragic of all, being that any sort of love, least of all for himself, seems beyond his reach or comprehension. If it’s not bad enough that he feels he was always in his “brother” Thor’s shadow and being treated differently, we find out that he was abandoned as a baby by his own frost giant parents for being too small and thusly unacceptable. Strike one. We also find out that he was taken by Odin as an attempt to someday unite the Frost Giants and Asgard.  Strike two, as now he feels like a trophy for political gain, not a person. Loki was not even told of any of this until because Odin wanted to “protect” him. Strike three. His anger building, he thinks Odin hid his true nature from him and doesn’t want him on the throne because he is “the monster children tell their parents about”. As he confronts Odin with this, Odin basically checks out on him and falls asleep.

Loki takes his inner pain and anger and turns it outward to a villainous extreme, driven to find the power that he feels was rightfully his. He seeks control of others (to replace the control he never had) as well as revenge, and ends up banished from Asgard. When we see him again on earth, he is cold, calculating, dark and vicious. He is a killer, and is taking out his rage on anyone who gets in his way. One should make note that in both the movie, where he seems happy? to unleash his army, and in myth, that he is indeed the bringer of destruction- Ragnarok, or the apocalypse. The apocalypse is a metaphor for the destruction of old ways or systems. Like V, he is attempting to topple the order of things, spurred on by his own fury, lack of control, and suffering.

This underlying suffering is something that evolved slowly and appears with these dark characters over time. Dracula is an obvious starting point as negative animus character, but was viewed as more demonic and treated as dark and evil. He possesses Mina and bonds with her, only to be killed by the men who are struggling to save her. In this example, we see a vestige of the “damsel in distress” archetype who needs a man to save her from her peril, but this trope gets turned on its head the further along the dark animus figure progresses and humanizes, as the animus becomes the one needing a female savior. The popular 1992 Dracula movie has a more modern, romantic take on this relationship that does not shy away from inherent sexuality, and a stronger female version of Mina, who kills Dracula herself to bring him peace. As time goes on, the dark man starts to become less of a demon, though he’s still deemed dangerous, and starts to resemble more of a tortured soul whose pain has driven him to madness and rage. It is when the mask is lifted off the Phantom, or V, that the shame and pain of what is buried beneath it makes the heart forget the fear and rage of the monster, and see his true wounds.

This is why the image of the man in black is beginning to approach us with a more sensitive side, and why women are drawn to him more than ever. He doth protest too much; the more he rails, the more they love him because they instinctively know what lies behind the rage.  The thing is, it’s not even about HIM. It’s about THEM. If you look online for fanfiction ( I realize that this is a scary prospect, but hear me out) for many of the characters mentioned here, you will find scads written by women. V for Vendetta, Snape, Loki, Phantom of the Opera, Jareth, all are represented. And what happens in these stories? The dark man finds love and redemption as well as sex. The sexuality with these characters, as odd as it may seem to some, is not truly out of place here as it is an attempt at a sort of integration. Sexuality is part and parcel of these personae because it is a taboo, “unacceptable” portion of women’s lives that obviously even the modern woman has trouble coming to terms with, and thusly gets pushed into the shadow of the animus.

The reason these somber men are so popular with women to the point that they get hot and bothered, or write fan fiction, or even dress as them, is because they are looking at a direct reflection of themselves and what they have disowned in their own personalities. Women’s roles, even up through more recent history, have been traditionally narrow. Choices beyond motherhood and being a caretaker for others have been few. Sexuality was an act meant for procreation as part of a woman’s duty and not supposed to be pleasurable, and women who didn’t fit the model of soft and subservient were looked upon as having something wrong with them. The ideal of what a woman should be was along the lines of a quiet, meek, silently suffering but smiling woman whose progeny is the focus of her life, and never complains about how much work it is to take care of others. She is a not seen as a sexual being, regardless if she is a young girl, mother figure or old woman. If she is shown sexually, she’s a slut, and is somehow tainted or a bad influence on men. Women today are still coming in second to men in pay, in treatment, and in options for life. The worst part is that women as much as men have perpetuated and still perpetuate these restrictive gender roles.

As a result of being raised in societies where women are covered up because the mere sight of their own bodies might reek havoc with a man’s privates, or taught that they need to get married and have kids to be deemed “normal” because tradition demands it and family expects it, women have been forced to push away qualities that were essential parts of them. Assertiveness, confidence, logic, reason and sexuality were all traditionally the dominion of men. When these qualities were displayed by women, they were slapped with derogatory labels like harlot, witch, seductress, or bitch. Merely checking a thesaurus on the topic of femininity can glean a psychological profile of words of what women are and aren’t supposed to be. When being anything but an attractive, compliant, man-dependent servant and mother were the only options available, where were the other qualities which make up a well rounded, healthy psyche to go? Into the basement, the dungeon, the dark, and the subconscious where it wouldn’t be a problem to anyone, except for the women who were being haunted by their own internal boogeymen.

The mode of thinking that one can get rid of negative unwanted aspects  of one’s personality and either throw them away or push them away is made an utter fallacy by the dark characters that populate our cultural consciousness. Zombies, vampires, gangsters and less than savory figures of all kinds are enjoying popularity throughout our literature and movies, but especially in the psyches of today’s women. And the women are responding to these inner reflections of their own sore, wounded animus figures with the desire to love them regardless of their “evil” or “ugliness”.  One can tell the state of the relationship between a woman and her animus/subconscious  by the way they interact.

For example, in some of the Mary Sue fanfiction, she is sometimes tormented and even raped by him, while at the same time feeling strangely attracted to him. In other stories, while the animus figure may act angry or mistrustful towards her, he is eventually softened by the realization that she wants to love him and accept him for who he is, especially in the cases where he feels or actually is deformed. Many women are often trying to heal him or care for him, some even go so far as to apologize for his pain. Often in return for this acceptance, the dark animus takes on a lighter persona in some situations  as he may be seen lavishing affection on female characters who feel misplaced or somehow lesser to bolster their self esteem, and also engage in getting them to face their true nature and desires without fear. While these stories are meant to be healing to those who write or read them, they are not meant to be taken literally. I would be remiss if I did not make mention that there are women who find themselves in relationships where they are trying to "fix" a broken man by loving him enough. These stories, in all their aspects are metaphors for the healing that comes from the acceptance and love of ONESELF, and if a person cannot come to terms with loving themselves, then no effort by another to love them will truly help them.

To see this recurrence of the Man In Black on such a level tells me that society is having trouble with it's own sense of identity, and the modern woman is still struggling with her own identity beyond the confines of her gender. It is indicative of problems with accepting our unwanted dark sides, but it also a sign at attempted healing. We cannot fit into the molds put upon us to be “good”, “proper”, “nice”, and “ godly” because these definitions change over time and with whoever is using them. The expectations that come with them are unreasonable, and don’t allow us to be whole, healthy people. Humans are not one sided creatures, we are complex and contain worlds within us.

The man in black is part of our inner worlds, the things that we must accept about ourselves, even if it hurts. To deny him acceptance is to harm him, to anger him, and to cause him to turn against us in rage. As a human being would be harmed and thrown into despair by being cast out, lied to and rejected by those who are supposed to love him, so is the inner shadow man. He is a real personality, fed by our emotions and thoughts. He is part of the undiscovered county of our subconscious which we do not entirely have access to. If we do not embrace him for who he is in all his ugliness or cruelty, he will surely put us through a very dark night in order to get our attention for the wounds we have caused him and will never see the beauty hidden under his mask. But if we choose to face him without fear and love him unconditionally, we can heal ourselves through him. He can become our greatest champion, support and guide.