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SYMBOL AND ARCHETYPE: APPLES
Imagery in literature refers to an author’s use of descriptive language to represent objects or experiences in a way that appeals
to our physical senses. Sometimes an image can be a symbol: a physical object that is also associated with an abstract idea.
Many symbolic images appear over and over literature from around the world. A repeated pattern that can be seen in
literature across many cultures is called an archetype.
The three familiar stories below all feature the image of the apple, which also appears in The Imitation Game. As you read,
try to determine what ideas are associated with the image of the apple in each.
I.
THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS
This excerpt from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology introduces the ancient Greek legend of the Trojan War.
The evil goddess of Discord, Eris, was naturally not popular in Olympus, and when the gods gave a banquet they were apt to
leave her out. Resenting this deeply, she determined to make trouble—and she succeeded very well indeed. At an important
marriage, that of King Peleus and the sea nymph Thetis, to which she alone of all the divinities was not invited, she threw
into the banqueting hall a golden apple marked For the Fairest. Of course all the goddesses wanted it, but in the end the
choice was narrowed down to three: Aphrodite, Hera and Pallas Athena. They asked Zeus to judge between them, but very
wisely he refused to have anything to do with the matter. He told them to go to Mount Ida, near Troy, where the young prince
Paris, also called Alexander, was keeping his father's sheep. He was an excellent judge of beauty, Zeus told them. Paris,
though a royal prince, was doing shepherd's work because his father Priam, the King of Troy, had been warned that this
prince would some day be the ruin of his country, and so had sent him away. At the moment Pariswas living with a lovely
nymph named Oenone. His amazement can be imagined when there appeared before him the wondrous forms of the three
great goddesses. He was not asked, however, to gaze at the radiant divinities and choose which of them seemed to him the
fairest, but only to consider the bribes each offered and choose which seemed to him best worth taking. Nevertheless, the
choice was not easy. What men care for most was set before him. Hera promised to make him Lord of Europe and Asia;
Athena, that he would lead the Trojans to victory against the Greeks and lay Greece in ruins; Aphrodite, that the fairest
woman in all the world should be his. Paris, a weakling and something of a coward, too, as later events showed, chose the
last. He gave Aphrodite the golden apple. That was the Judgment of Paris, famed everywhere as the real reason why the
Trojan War was fought.
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II.
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
This excerpt from the biblical book of Genesis tells the story of Adam and Eve’s fall from grace in the Garden
of Eden. Interestingly, this famous translation uses only the word “fruit.” John Milton’s Renaissance epic
Paradise Lost retells this story, and the English Milton labels the fruit an apple - - a detail that stuck.
Genesis 3:1-13
King James Version
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field
Paradise Lost
which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the
A goodly tree far distant to behold
woman, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree
Laden with fruit of fairest colors mixed,
of the garden?”
Ruddy and gold: I nearer drew to gaze;
2
And the woman said unto the serpent, “We may eat of the
Eve:
When from the boughs a savory odor blown,
fruit of the trees of the garden:
Grateful to appetite […]
3
To satisfy the sharp desire I had
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye
Of tasting those fair apples, I resolved
touch it, lest ye die.”
Not to defer; hunger and thirst at once,
4
And the serpent said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely
Of that alluring fruit, urged me so keen.
die:
5
Powerful persuaders, quickened at the scent
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil.”
6
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,
and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired
to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,
and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew
that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together,
and made themselves aprons.
8
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the
trees of the garden.
III.
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES
This fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm features a jealous witch poisoning the beautiful Snow White with a
tainted apple.
Back at home she asked her mirror:
Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
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Who in this land is fairest of all?
It finally answered:
You, my queen, are fairest of all.
Then her envious heart was at rest, as well as an envious heart can be at rest.
When the dwarfs came home that evening they found Snow-White lying on the ground. She was not breathing at all. She was
dead.
They lifted her up and looked for something poisonous. They undid her laces. They combed her hair. They washed her with
water and wine. But nothing helped. The dear child was dead, and she remained dead. They laid her on a bier, and all seven
sat next to her and mourned for her and cried for three days. They were going to bury her, but she still looked as fresh as a
living person, and still had her beautiful red cheeks.
They said, "We cannot bury her in the black earth," and they had a transparent glass coffin made, so she could be seen from
all sides. They laid her inside, and with golden letters wrote on it her name, and that she was a princess. Then they put the
coffin outside on a mountain, and one of them always stayed with it and watched over her. The animals too came and
mourned for Snow-white, first an owl, then a raven, and finally a dove.
Snow-White lay there in the coffin a long, long time, and she did not decay, but looked like she was asleep, for she was still
as white as snow and as red as blood, and as black-haired as ebony wood.
Now it came to pass that a prince entered these woods and happened onto the dwarfs' house, where he sought shelter for the
night. He saw the coffin on the mountain with beautiful Snow-White in it, and he read what was written on it with golden
letters.
Then he said to the dwarfs, "Let me have the coffin. I will give you anything you want for it."
But the dwarfs answered, "We will not sell it for all the gold in the world."
Then he said, "Then give it to me, for I cannot live without being able to see Snow-White. I will honor her and respect her as
my most cherished one."
As he thus spoke, the good dwarfs felt pity for him and gave him the coffin. The prince had his servants carry it away on their
shoulders. But then it happened that one of them stumbled on some brush, and this dislodged from Snow-White's throat the
piece of poisoned apple that she had bitten off. Not long afterward she opened her eyes, lifted the lid from her coffin, sat up,
and was alive again.
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What descriptive words or
details are associated with
the apple?
What events and outcomes
are associated with the
apple?
What ideas are associated
with the apple?
The Judgement of Paris
The Garden of Eden
Snow White
The Imitation Game
What does the archetypal apple often symbolize?
Do you think the director of The Imitation Game, Morten Tyldum, was aware of these ideas? How can you tell? Why might
he include the image of the apple at all? When does the image appear? Be specific and think about the director’s choices.
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