One of the most singularly human experiences is grief. Everyone goes through it in their own ways, of course, with wild variety, but the feeling is still inherently the same, no matter how one might go about dealing with it. As such, thousands of stories have been dedicated to the study of grief and trauma. A common theme among many of them is the protagonist going through some sort of horrifying ordeal in the beginning of the book, either as a part of their backstory or to kick start the plot, and the rest of the novel involves them seeking some kind of closure for it. Ursula Le Guin’s young adult novel, The Wizard of Earthsea, is no exception to this pattern. In fact, one could argue it deals with the psychological effects of grief in a far more direct way than many others of its kind, purely because most of the plot is in direct reference to Ged’s, the protagonist’s, grief, going so far as to make his pain and darkness a physical character and a kind of antagonist. Therefore in the novel, Ged’s shadow, as well as his view of it at any given point, represents his own journey through trauma and more specifically, through the stages of grief.
Before the specific examples can be explained, one must go over what the stages of grief actually are. Kimberly Holland has this to say at the start of Healthline’s official article on the stages of grief; “Grief is universal. People often describe grief as passing through five or 7 stages. The 5 stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The 7 stages elaborate on these and aim to address the complexities of grief more effectively. They include feelings of guilt”(Holland). It is important to note that none of the stages of grief are shown to follow any official order. There is a general list, but humans do not process grief quite so linearly; the only consistent stage is acceptance. Ergo, the paragraphs below will not line up perfectly with the order of the stages, as Ged processes his own trauma in a way distinct to him. The list included in this essay are between the classic five and seven, with only those that are applicable to the book in question. They are also not so clean cut as to be perfectly separate stages; there is a level of overlap and relapse across the six, which will be addressed when relevant. In this case, he experiences them as such: shock, depression, denial, bargaining, guilt, anger, and acceptance.
Ged’s character is, in general, irremovable from trauma. We see it throughout his childhood, at the rough hands of his father, the callousness of his aunt, the lengths he is forced to go to protect his home from invaders. It shapes him into the wild, arrogant, but often brilliant child that he is, walls up and boastful to protect himself from those who he thinks seek to ridicule him. But that significant part of his personality, as well as the journey the plot takes, all changes when he attempts a feat of necromancy far beyond his capabilities. Vetch, his dear friend at the academy, describes the aftermath in horrified awe, as the shadow readers come to know emerges; “So only he saw the lump of shadow that clung to Ged, tearing at his flesh. It was like a black beast, the size of a young child, though it seemed to swell and shrink; and it had no head or face, only the four taloned paws with which it gripped and tore”(Le Guin 67). A not insignificant part of Ged has been ripped from his body, leaving him so near dead that the most powerful mage in Roke has to give up not only all his magic but his life to save the boy. After all this, the first of the stages takes its toll on Ged; shock. He’s essentially comatose for months, bedridden and unable to process anything that has happened to him. Recovery is slow, and even when he comes back physically, the trauma he’s endured does not leave him so easily.
When he does wake up, the following stage takes its course; depression. After he starts attending classes again, he is listless, scarred, and largely unresponsive; “He stayed there alone. When the gong called to supper he went, but he would hardly speak to the other lads at the Long Table, or raise his face to them, even those who greeted him most gently. So after a day or two they all left him alone. To be alone was his desire, for he feared the evil he might do or say unwittingly”(Le Guin 73). He pulls back from his friends and peers, only engaging with Vetch when he actively makes him. He devotes all his time to his studies, but even then falls short, hesitant to even consider speaking magic into being. He also can’t help but think of the trauma he experienced, looping it in his head and destroying his self esteem. These are all textbook symptoms of depression, and only by moving onto the next stage is Ged finally allowed to progress beyond Roke. And all throughout this, the shadow lingers over him, heavy despite its incorporeality. Brandy Ball Blake, in his essay “Daemonic” Forces: Trauma and Intertextuality in Fantasy Literature, argues that; “The behavior of Ged’s shadow further mimics the intrusive symptoms of trauma. First, it repeatedly appears in his dreams. While repetitive nightmares are a typical symptom of trauma, the shadow’s manifestation within Ged’s dreams is more intrusive, for it actually stalks him there. Because it has no definitive form, it is even dangerous to him in his sleep”(Blake 41). Even when the shadow isn’t an active antagonist, with a form and goals, it still torments Ged regardless.
Naturally, after depression falls away, he shuffles into both the next stage of his life and the next stage of grief in denial. He settles in Low Turning, happily giving up a more grandiose life in favor of pretending his shadow doesn’t exist; “It seemed a bright enough place to Ged at first, the house under the flowering trees. There he lived, and watched the western sky often, and kept his wizard’s ear tuned for the sound of scaly wings. But no dragon came”(Le Guin 85). He distracts himself with new friendships, thoughts of far off dragons, and far simpler magic. But even in his comfortable new home, he cannot truly outrun his own grief. When the child of his friend is consumed by fever, he pushes his magic to the limits again, for the first time since his traumatic experience at Roke. In doing so, he nearly dies again, and comes face to face with the shadow he’s been neglecting. Grief is unavoidable, and experiencing this pain once again sends him into the next phase.
Ged’s paranoia catches up with him, leading him directly into the bargaining stage. As Blake so eloquently puts it; “He cannot act, believing that the monster will reappear again. Fixated on his shadow, Ged allows it to control his life—he does not progress; he can only run”(Blake 41). But he cannot leave Low Turning undefended, so he bargains with them. He leaves them to take care of their problem, and after that, he won’t be obligated to come back; “‘I must go. Therefore I ask your leave to go out and do away with the dragons on Pendor, so that my task for you will be finished and I may leave freely. Or if I fail, I should fail also when they come here, and that is better known now than later’”(Le Guin 92). His fear causes Ged to throw himself into greater and greater dangers, choosing, in a sense, the lesser of two evils. He bargains with captains, nobles, and even dragons, just so he can continue to run. But he still refuses to learn the name of the shadow, even when every dark and powerful force he challenges tries to give it to him. His grief, it seems, is still too raw for him to truly face.
It would be incorrect to say that Ged didn’t feel guilt, the following stage, prior to this point. He very much has, especially during the depression stage near the start of the book. But it doesn’t manifest as its own stage until far later, once he truly begins to understand the consequences of his actions. When seeing his old master for the first time in years, he has this to say first; “‘I have come back to you as I left: a fool’”(Le Guin 137). Initially, his desire to keep moving is driven purely by fear for his own safety. But after facing his shadow again, and beginning to understand just how far it will go to hurt him, that changes. The guilt he’s carried for some time takes over, and he becomes even more of a recluse, scared less for himself and more for the damage it could do to the people around him. After the man who guided him became possessed and died, after he had to abandon his last refuge in fear, likely throwing it into turmoil, he cannot think of himself. He is no longer just being chased by something dangerous; he considers himself dangerous by proxy. The shadow is physical now, powerful in his ignorance of it, and only infects and chases when he is afraid of it doing just that. It exists to make him feel guilty.
It is also true that he has certainly felt anger as a part of his grief prior to this stage. But it is also, arguably, the first time his anger has fueled him in such a way since his shadow was ripped from him. Armed with his master Ogion’s advice, Ged turns from hunted to hunter, turning on his shadow and grief with a single minded determination. He lures it onto the water, still trying to draw it away from where he believes it holds power, and chases it, trying to grab and kill it himself; “He spoke no word, but attacked, and the boat plunged and pitched from his sudden turn and lunge. And a pain ran up his arms into his breast, taking away his breath, and an icy cold filled him, and he was blinded: yet in his hands that seized the shadow there was nothing—darkness, air”(Le Guin 159). It eludes him, tricking him into crashing, running circles around him. Even as he changes purpose, trying to fix his mistake with all the might he has, he is still not putting in the effort to understand it. He is still avoiding knowing it, because knowing it would be knowing him, as readers later discover. He can only feel it as a pain in his chest because it is a physical manifestation of just that; his pain.
This last stage, for Ged, comes in two parts. The first involves his acceptance of Vetch on his quest to hunt the shadow. Guilt, depression, and denial had kept him from seeking much help, but Vetch was able to console him, and bring him into his home. There he finds warmth and family again, and for the first time, true healing begins to settle within him. And when the two go off, following the world’s end, he is more confident and assured, his nihilism tempered by his friend’s care. The second, and most important, is when the shadow and him join again as one individual; “And he began to see the truth, that Ged had neither lost nor won but, naming the shadow of his death with his own name, had made himself whole: a man: who, knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself, and whose life therefore is lived for life’s sake and never in the service of ruin, or pain, or hatred, or the dark”(Le Guin 196). His grief can not be killed, or trapped, or banished. It is a part of him, even as a separate, semi-physical form, and the novel is only able to end when he accepts it back into his body. For the first time in most of the book he laughs. And then he weeps.
This story cannot exist without Ged’s grief. It drives and challenges him, it fundamentally changes him, it is physical and metaphorical all at once. Le Guin captures raw emotion and makes it the plot, weaves it directly into the world she has created, and the character meant to traverse it. Every stage is a chapter or two, lovingly explored and handcrafted to truly highlight Ged’s experience, from the boy that is hurt to the young man who is, in some way, healed. Grief binds and changes people in so many ways. This book exists to remind readers that any way, and even every way of dealing with it, is a journey in itself worth knowing.
Works Cited
Brandy, Blake Ball. “Daemonic” Forces: Trauma and Intertextuality in Fantasy, University of Georgia, 2009, getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/blake_brandy_b_200912_phd.pdf.
Holland, Kimberly. “The Stages of Grief: How to Understand Your Feelings.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 2023, www.healthline.com/health/stages-of-grief.
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