From Imp to Sylph

Abstract Adolphe Nourrit’s 1832 Romantic ballet, La Sylphide , was inspired by Charles Nodier’s 1822 tale Trilby, ou Le lutin d’Argail but it transposes the figure of the male imp with that of a female sylph, a change necessitated by the shift from novella to ballet. This essay will demonstrate that the fantastical characters of the imp and the sylph act as the animus and anima in the development of each protagonist toward psychological integration. Viewed through this Jungian lens, this change from animus to anima unveils the consequences of the subsequent logos/eros substitution and its effects on the marriage plot as the cause of the very different outcomes in the novella and the ballet.