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Carolina De la Rosa
Lee
English IV
5 January 2022
Honorbound
Antisocial and Shadow Traits in Robert Neville presented in I am Legend
“That what you think is your world.” Said by Richard Matheson, the author of I am
Legend, this quote perfectly describes the situation that its, protagonist Robert Neville, finds
himself. Taking place in Los Angeles in the 70s, the Kippin virus emerges killing 90% of people
and causing another 9% to be transformed into living vampires, as Neville soon finds himself to
be the only human alive and possibly on Earth. Not only does Neville have to deal with fear as
he is defending himself amongst the vampires, but he has to carry on his back the personal pain
that has endured during this time from the death of his wife and daughter and from the sexual
torments he faces on a daily basis. While the suffering in his situation is inevitable, the way he
handled the pain could have been altered to where he could have possibly been changed to where
he suffers less than what he has to already. Because of the way Neville copes with losing his
family as well as experiencing sexual urges, he ends up increasing his stress and sadness which
results in him developing antisocial and shadow traits.
Undoubtedly, the most difficult part for Neville was when his wife, Virginia, and
daughter, Kathy were both hit by the plague, which was the initial cause for his drinking and
alcoholism. Kathy was the first one to have died as her body had to be burned in the city’s large
fire pit by law. Soon after, Virginia shortly dies from the virus as Neville, who is unable to repeat
the process of burning a loved one, decides to bury her. His worst nightmare occurs later when
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Virginia comes back from the dead as a vampire and demands his blood. When she starts
attacking him, he is faced with no other choice than to kill her. It is through the traumatic death
of his family and isolationism that he now faces, that he starts drinking to cope with his pain.
While the drinking most likely intensified throughout the course of the plague and the difficulties
he faces, he initially starts drinking to cope with his new faced isolationism. Neville most likely
drinks as a way to either numb the pain or as a way to distract himself from the pain he feels
from losing his family
Apart from Neville’s alcoholism, he also has to deal with his sexual frustration and urges.
Every night, Neville is harassed by the female vampires that surround his house flaunting their
bodies at him as this causes him to be tormented by his sexual urges. Unable to deal with these
urges and frustration, he decides to start performing experiments solely on female vampires that
he finds attractive. Interestingly enough, Neville was unaware that he was singling out women at
the beginning of his experiments. This is seen by how Matheson uses highly sexualized language
to describe the experiments that Neville does, such as by describing the female’s bottoms as
“soft, fleshy buttock” when Neville injected allyl sulfide into the women. It was not until one day
when Neville was driving home with a female vampire in the back of his, that it finally occurred
to him that he was performing his experiments solely on female vampires to take out his sexual
frustrations on them by simply telling himself “I’m not going to rape that woman.”
Neville’s experiments on women vampires reveal to the readers the antisocial traits and
that he has developed. An antisocial personality disorder is a mental disorder in which a person
is unable to differentiate right from wrong as well as lacking sympathy for others. As clinical
psychologist Dr. Peterson say, antisocial males are among the most dangerous types of people
that there are. From his research, he has included that these traits develop in someone most
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commonly in the start of childhood from either neglect or abuse as they are get use to the pain
and no longer able to process it. Interestingly enough, he concludes that women and men express
their emotions and frustrations differently. While women express it verbally, most commonly
through gossip or reputation destruction, men express it through physical violence, which is why
males are more likely to murder and why mass shootings occur commonly among males. This is
seen with how Neville performs violent experiments towards vampire women to express his
sexual urge.
The characteristics that Neville displays of being an alcoholic and having to deal with his
sexual tensions are characteristics of his “shadow self.” In psychology, a shadow can be
described as the negative qualities and emotions that one possesses and tries to conceal or hide
from the general public. Invented by Jung, he described that “if [the shadow] is repressed and
isolated form consciousness, it never gets corrected, and is liable to burst forth suddenly in a
moment of unawareness” (Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 11, Psychology and Religion: West and East).
Furthermore, Jung describes the shadow as “the thing a person has no wish to be” (Carl Jung,
C.W Vol 16 Practice of Psychotherapy). The characteristics that Neville possesses are very much
his shadow are the sexual urges he is unable to cope with along with his alcoholism. As quoted
by Jung, these qualities “burst forth” at the emergence of the Krippin virus, “in a moment of
unawareness.” Furthermore, the shadow in Neville might even stem from earlier traits and
circumstances before the virus. It could be that the drinking Neville experiences stems from a
past habit to drink whenever in pain as well as his sexual urges from younger years might be
connected to the sexual debt he has experienced in his younger years before meeting his wife.
Regardless of the source of his habits and emotions, the Krippin virus has undoubtedly reveals
the shadow self of Neville through his drinking and sexual frustration.
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Without a doubt, Neville has suffered greatly because of the plague that has hit Los
Angeles and its unfortunate outcome. From losing his family, being tormented by vampires, and
having to spend his waking hours and nights killing vampires, it is no doubt that this will result
in Neville becoming depressed and stressed. Regardless though, Neville adds to his misery by
using coping mechanisms to subdue the pain that he feels and experiences either through his
alcoholism or experiments on female vampires. While these may temporarily alleviate Neville of
some pain and give him pleasure, in the long run, they do nothing more than make him miserable
and furthering his ability to face his emotions and to do reflective work to find the root cause of
his pain. Matheson’s quote “That what you think is your world” reigns true for Neville. While he
could have potentially just admitted his unfortunate circumstance and choose to move forward
and find hope in being able to find a cure, he instead chooses to numb his pain either through
drinking or experimenting on female vampires.
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Works Cited
C., Hull, and Carl Jung. Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 16: Practice of
Psychotherapy. Princeton University Press, 2014.
“Jordan Peterson: The Danger of Antisocial Males.” YouTube, YouTube, 26 Apr. 2018,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBKPQsKHgck.
Jung, Carl, et al. Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 11 Psychology and Religion: West and
East. Princeton University Press, 1970.
Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend. Gold Medal Books, 1954.