Sharp Objects Adora Crellin: a Psychoanalytical Approach

Abstract

The matriarchal force of destruction in Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects (2006) is one which affects the characters in irreversible ways. While the existing research mainly focuses on the characters of Camille and Amma with feminist approaches, the subject of study in this research is Adora Crellin, explored through Carl Jung’s psychoanalytic theories of the primary archetypes, the mother image and its complexes. The imbalance of her psyche is investigated through over identification with the persona, the repressed shadow, the animus and the disintegration of the self. In addition, the image of the mother is applied to her, in order to demonstrate her deviation from it and the complex this created in her children.