Analysis of the Lover and Beloved Personality Typology in Layli and Majnun by Nezami Based on Karen Horney's Perspective

10.22034/caat.2025.528714.1133

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 03 November 2025

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Professor of Persian Language and Literature at Mohaghegh Ardabili University

2 PhD student in Persian Language and Literature, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran.

Abstract
Literature interacts with the emotional forces and inner world of humans, and it may sometimes help alleviate psychological issues and strengthen the emotional balance of individuals. Therefore, by properly analyzing a literary work, one can trace the existence and essence of the author. This article examines the character typology of the lover and beloved in Nezami's Leyli and Majnun based on Karen Horney's theory. Horney, as a reformist psychoanalyst of Freudian theory, has either completed or revised Freud's concepts. Her perspective on personality, like that of other personality theorists, reflects her personal experiences. According to her view, the methods and strategies an individual resorts to for self-protection lead to the emergence of three personality types: compliant, aggressive, and withdrawn. The research method is descriptive-analytical. The results indicate that the society depicted in Leyli and Majnun is closed, filled with oppression and humiliation, and the attainment of rights and the realization of desires can only be achieved through force and the sword. In such a society, Leyli and Majnun are inevitably forced to choose a compliant strategy. Leyli, in a society that grants no rights to women and where her life has no value, sees the solution in lowering her head, remaining silent, and submitting to the fate that others have predetermined for her. Ultimately, she exits this world in a plaintive and unsuccessful manner, harboring the hope that perhaps she may find her desires fulfilled in the afterlife.

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Subjects
  • Receive Date 06 June 2025
  • Revise Date 13 July 2025
  • Accept Date 20 July 2025