Jane the Virgin is a series about a young woman who was a pregnant virgin. She was inseminated on accident and did not believe in abortion by her religion, so she decided to have the baby. She was always into telenovela’s, as she always watched them with her mother and grandmother. Watching these series tempted Jane to want to create her own. As time went on, Jane decided she had big dreams and wanted to become a writer. She would sit in the bookstore reading and writing all the time to fulfill her life. Throughout this journey, Jane had many failures such as being dropped by her publisher. Jane did not allow this to stop her, she was driven by her motivation to become a published author, and so she did. Jane’s energy towards this accomplishment was her libido. She placed all of her energy into this book and used her drive to accomplish this goal. The actual publishing of her book was the cathexis, which she invested all of her libido in. The excitement she gained from reading and writing gave her the drive to follow through with her dreams.
She would gain pleasure from each step accomplished from creating her book, which gave her the drive to keep pushing. These were her life instincts. The life instincts moved her towards her life pursuits which caused her to grow began to start fulfilling things in her life. Like any dream, along the way Jane had to overcome a few obstacles. She was dropped by her publisher, which was the biggest failure of her life. Jane had always been an over-achiever but being dropped caused her to be doubtful. She had every reason to stop trying, but her id gave her the drive she needed to become an author. With all odds against her, Jane decided to keep her beliefs of finishing anything she starts which was derived from what her mother taught. Although Freud’s ideas were surfacing in Jane, Erikson’s idea of intimacy was shown in her life as well. Jane was currently in the Intimacy vs Isolation stage of her life. She was finally able to be productive within her writing, and also decided to rekindle things with the accidental father of her child.
They were able to merge together without losing herself. She was still able to focus on her book, be a great mother, and have time for her love life with Rafael. They became a “we”. After being dropped by her publisher, she had minor role confusion, as she doubted whether she needed to find another career or not. This allowed her to further experiment with whether she wanted to become a writer or continue working at the Marbella, which was a hotel. Her maldevelopment dominated which allowed her to see that she needed to continue being a writer, as this is what she felt she was destined to be. Throughout this series Jane showed very high social interests through the relationships se built. She would always be around someone and had no problems communicating with others. She enjoyed these conversations as well. As Jung described, Jane was the thinking and feeling type. She was always being rational in her decisions, and would not only take in information, but evaluate it as well. There was a scene in this series where Xo and Alba were arguing and stopped speaking to each other.
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Jane did more than just watch the fight, she evaluated why they were fighting and realized Alba was in the wrong. Jane demonstrated an extraverted feeling personality type. She was very emotional, as shown in the series, specifically when her heart would begin to glow. She also followed all ethical and moral codes. She would not go along with anything that had malicious intent and made sure to follow all rules. Jane was very socially responsive, as she made friends everywhere she went. She always gave second chances due to her big heart and many people respected her for this. She was also very energetic and tried to help everyone around her if needed. After finally publishing her book, Jane was finally able to fulfill her esteem needs. She had already fulfilled the important needs such as physiological, safety, and belonging/love needs through having a secure job at the Marbella, feeling safety with the father of her child, and finally having him as her love interest.
Once she was able to fulfill all of important needs, she was able to focus on her esteem needs. Once she became a published author, she felt accomplished and had higher self-worth. She had high confidence in herself, and in her abilities as a writer. Now that all of her needs were satisfied, she was able to begin to self-actualize. Selfactualization is known as the maximum fulfillments of our potentials, talents, and abilities. She was undistracted by her lower needs, free of caring what society may think of her, having a positive self-image of herself, knew her strengths and weaknesses, and was able to feel whole. Publishing Jane’s book was peak moment in her life because this was something she worked towards for years. Being able to accomplish this, and have her loved ones support her caused this to be a moment where she finally felt everything in her life was together.
Alba plays an important role in Jane’s life. She is seen as the old wise woman in this series. Jane looks to Alba for support and wisdom as she faces different adversities. Alba is able to give her real world examples such as her previous love life and great knowledge. In a way, Jane would model Alba since her mother Xo was not seen as the fit mom. Although she was Jane’s caregiver, she had her daughter at a very young age, and this was used throughout the film to make sure Jane stayed abstinent. Alba shapes Jane’s decisions as she is trying to be the perfect granddaughter and not disappoint Alba. This allows Jane to see what traits she would like to indulge, and what she may want to steer away from.
An important symbol demonstrated in this series was the flower. Jane was given this flower at the age of 9 and was explained that if she lost her virginity before marriage, the flower would be crumbled which was a metaphor for Jane as a pure woman. Due to her religion, the flower represented being whole and the purity of her virginity. This flower reoccurred throughout the series whenever she thought about sex. There was a scene where she decided to defy Alba’s wishes and have sex with Michael, but she looked up at the flower and decided to stop. Jane’s virginity plays a major role in her decisions with her relationships which is the base of the series.
Her catholic religion is shown throughout the series as well, as this is very important to Jane. Throughout the series, any time Jane felt strongly about something, her heart would glow. This was a representation of emotion for Jane. There was an episode where Jane and her previous husband Michael’s heart both glows. Before Michael had an important test, they discussed their future plans and the symbol appeared. This was a representation of the emotions they had for each other, which reoccurs throughout the series within different characters. Another important symbol that many may not recognize is that both Michael and Rafael are names from the bible.
Being that Jane is a catholic woman, and these two men were the most important throughout the series, this could be considered a reoccurring symbol. It relates back to her catholic ways and their names are justified as the main center of her life, such as her faith. Lastly, snow is represented as a reoccurring symbol throughout the film with her relationship with Michael. This couple’s relationship was signified by snow falling when they had their first kiss. When they first met, they watched a telenovela where two lovers had snow fall which created a fantasy. I feel this was a representation of their relationship as a fantasy even through the death of Michael and having him return as if it was a reincarnation. There are many symbolic things throughout Jane the Virgin, and it was interesting to dissect the meaning of these symbols.
