Christiana Morgan and The Psychology of Women

 This whole tower and Christiana Morgan topic is making me feel like I’m in psychology class. Yet, learning this in Women’s Studies has made me realize how much the psychology of men and women can vary, or at least how society can contribute to the way men and women think. At this time, society believed men and women had very different roles—that being your stereotypical: men are dominant and the moneymakers and women should be proper and conforming to their husbands—and thus men and women had very different ways of thinking. This is evident in how Christiana Morgan interacted with her mother vs her father. Her mother assimilated a lot more with her Boston home, which was a fancy house where she had coming out parties, while her father assimilated a lot more with her Maine home, which was a rustic house which her father built. These homes tie a lot into each parent's way of thinking, as Christiana’s mother valued being a proper lady, while her father was much more earthy and grounded. 

This idea of society affecting the way women and men think is also evident throughout Christiana Morgan’s marriage. Although she is happily married to William Morgan, she still feels discontent and unfulfilled, and thus seeks out Carl Jung. This feeling that Morgan was having wasn’t unique among married women of the time. As we learned earlier in reading The Feminine Mystique, many women felt as though they were missing something, most of the time that being a goal and dream that they want to accomplish. Yet, Morgan travels to Europe to meet Jung and their work together begins. However, something Morgan believed that I would find completely detrimental to the mind and the perception you have of yourself is the fact that she believed that she was a reflection of the men around her. When they succeed, she felt that she was a reflection of that success, and when they failed, she believed that she was a reflection of that failure. Jung was the one who put this into her mind as he believed she was a muse for men. 

Things only get worse when Christiana Morgan meets Harry Murray. He performed abusive psychological tests on college students, and I don’t doubt that he verbally abused Morgan in their relationship. We already know he cheated on her and gaslighted her into giving the tower, which was a symbol of the “love,” to the school instead of her son. We know Murray was verbally abusive, so I believe that he was physically abusive in their relationship as well and drowned Christiana in the water in the Virgin Islands, yet made it look like an accident.