The Struggle between Shadow and Consciousness in Nezami's Kheir & Shar

Nezami Ganjavi enjoys a worldwide reputation as a great poet. His story-telling is based on reality. Together with his indescribable imagination, this feature has made him a distinguished poet in the realm of humanism and psychiatry. It seems that his genius is best depicted in Haft Peykar (Seven Planets) especially in his seven tales containing the inner layer as well as the outside elements of the story. One can go from the surface structure of his poems to the deep structure of his human character and, hence, discover the hidden aspects of his human character. A remarkable story in Haft-Peykar is the story of "Khair" and "shar". The theme of this story is a debate between two young people called Kheir (good) and Shar (evil/bad). This story can be interpreted in terms of psychology of the young. According to this classic psychological theory, the hidden aspects have a special status in manُ s spirit. These aspects sometimes manifest themselvessymbolically in humanُ's consciousness. In this story, good symbolizes humanُ s consciousness and bad/evil is the symbol of shadow and humanُ s subconscious. These two aspects finally reach a unity after a long debate with each other. The numerous archetypes such as anima, shadow, rebirth, journey, water and tree play significant roles in this struggle. The present paper is an attempt to shed some lights on these aspects.