https://www.etymonline.com/word/archetype
The Jungian psychology sense of "pervasive idea or image from the collective unconscious" is
from 1919. Jung defined archetypal images as "forms or images of a collective nature which
occur practically all over the earth as constituents of myths and at the same time as
autochthonous individual products of unconscious origin." ["Psychology and Religion" 1937]
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Archetype
The archetype, a concept developed by Carl Jung, refers to an idealized or prototypical model
of a person, object, or concept, similar to Plato's ideas. According to Jung, archetypes reside in
the level of our unconscious mind that is common to all human beings, known as the collective
unconscious. These archetypes are not readily available to our conscious mind, but manifest
themselves in our dreams and other mystical experiences. While commonalities in the stories
and characters found in all cultures support the existence and universality of archetypes, and
they have proven useful in the study of mythology, literature, and religions of the world, their
exact nature and origin
The archetype is a concept first developed in psychology by Carl Jung. For Jung, the
"archetype is an explanatory paraphrase of the Platonic eidos" (Jung et. al. 1979). The
concept of archetype was already in use at the time of Saint Augustine, who, in De
deversis quaestionibus, speaks of "ideas...which are not yet formed...which are contained
in the divine intelligence." Jung distinguished his concept and use of the term from that
of philosophical idealism as being more empirical and less metaphysical, though most
of his "empirical" data were dreams.
In Jung's theory, archetypes are innate prototypes for ideas, which may subsequently
become involved in the interpretation of observed phenomena. A group of memories
and interpretations closely associated with an archetype is called a complex, and may be
named for its central archetype (e.g. "mother complex"). Jung often seemed to view the
archetypes as sort of psychological organs, directly analogous to our physical, bodily
organs: both being morphological givens for the species; both arising at least partially
through evolutionary processes. Jung hypothesized that all of mythology could be taken
as a type of projection of the collective unconscious.
The archetypes reside in the unconscious, which Jung described as made up of two
layers. The top layer contains material that has been made unconscious artificially; that
is, it is made up of elements of one's personal experiences, the personal unconscious.
Underneath this layer, however, is the collective unconscious: an absolute unconscious
that has nothing to do with personal experiences. Jung described this bottom layer as "a
psychic activity which goes on independently of the conscious mind and is not
dependent even on the upper layers of the unconscious—untouched, and perhaps
untouchable—by personal experience" (Campbell, 1971). It is within this layer that
archetypes reside.
Jung's life work was to make sense of the unconscious and its habit of revealing itself in
symbolic form through manifestations of the archetypes of the collective unconscious.
He believed that it was only possible to live a full life when in harmony with these
archetypal symbols; "wisdom is a return to them"(Jung, Adler, and Hull, 1970, p. 794).
Jung postulated that the symbols and archetypes of an individual's collective
unconscious can be primarily discovered by that person's dreams, revealing important
keys to the individual's growth and development. Through the understanding of how an
individual patient's unconscious integrates with the collective unconscious, that patient
can be helped towards achieving a state of individuation, or wholeness of self.
Jungian archetypes
Jung uncovered the various archetypes through careful recording of his own dreams,
fantasies, and visions, as well as those of his patients. He found that his experiences
formed themselves into persons, such as a wise old man who, over the course of many
dreams, became a kind of spiritual guru, a little girl who became his main channel of
communication with his unconscious, and a brown dwarf who seemed to represent a
warning about certain dangerous tendencies. Jung found that archetypes have both
good and bad manifestations, reflecting his principle of opposites in the psyche.
The key archetypes that Jung felt were especially important include: the persona,
the shadow, the anima/animus, the mother, the father, the wise old man, and the self.
Others include the trickster, the God image, the Syzygy (Divine Couple), the child, the
hero and a variety of archetypal symbols.
The Self
The self, according to Jung, is the most important archetype. It is called the "midpoint of
the personality," a center between consciousness and the unconscious, the ultimate
unity of the personality. It signifies the harmony and balance between the various
opposing qualities that make up the psyche. The symbols of the self can be anything
that the ego takes to be a greater totality than itself. Thus many symbols fall short of
expressing the self in its fullest development.
Symbols of the self are often manifested in geometrical forms such as circles, a cross,
(mandalas), or by the quaternity (a figure with four parts). Prominent human figures
which represent the self are the Buddha or Christ.
The Persona
The persona comes from a Latin word for mask, and represents the mask we wear to
make a particular impression on others. It may reveal or conceal our real nature. It is an
artificial personality that compromises a person's real individuality and society's
expectations—usually society's demands take precedence. It is made up of such things
as professional titles, roles, habits of social behavior, etc. It serves to both guarantee
social order and to protect the individual's private life. A person may also have more
than one persona.
The persona is a compromise between what we wish to be and what the surrounding
world will allow us to be; it is the manifestation of interactional demands. It may be our
attempt to appear as society expects us, or it may be a false mask that we use to trick
and manipulate others. The persona can be mistaken, even by ourselves, for our true
nature. Thus, there is a danger in identifying totally with the persona, becoming nothing
but the role one plays.
Although the persona begins as an archetype, part of the collective unconscious of all
human beings, in some cases, individuals may make so much effort to perfect it that
their persona is no longer within this common realm.
The Shadow
The shadow is a part of the unconscious mind, which is mysterious and often
disagreeable to the conscious mind, but which is also relatively close to the conscious
mind. It may be in part one's original self, which is superseded during early childhood by
the conscious mind; afterwards it comes to contain thoughts that are repressed by the
conscious mind. The shadow is instinctive and irrational, but is not necessarily evil even
when it might appear to be so. It can be both ruthless in conflict and empathetic in
friendship. It is important for the understanding of one's own more inexplicable actions
and attitudes (and of others' reactions), and for learning how to cope with the more
problematic or troubling aspects of one's personality.
The shadow is said to be made up of all the reprehensible characteristics that each of us
wish to deny, including animal tendencies that Jung claims we have inherited from our
pre-human ancestors. Thus, the shadow contains more of instinctive nature than any
other archetype does. It is the source of all that is best and worst in human beings,
especially in our relations with others of the same sex.
When individuals recognize and integrate their shadows, they progress further towards
self-realization. On the other hand, the more unaware of the shadow we are, the blacker
and denser it is, and the more dissociated it is from conscious life, the more it will
display a compensatory demonic dynamism. It is often projected outwards on
individuals or groups, who are then thought to embody all the immature, evil, or
repressed elements of the individual's own psyche.
The shadow may appear in dreams and visions in various forms, often as a feared or
despised person or being, and may act either as an adversary or as a friend. It typically
has the same apparent gender as one's persona. The shadow's appearance and role
depend greatly on individual idiosyncrasies because the shadow develops in the
individual's mind, rather than simply being inherited in the collective unconscious.
Interactions with the shadow in dreams may shed light on one's state of mind. A
disagreement with the shadow may indicate that one is coping with conflicting desires
or intentions. Friendship with a despised shadow may mean that one has an
unacknowledged resemblance to whatever one hates about that character.
According to Jung, the shadow sometimes takes over a person's actions, especially when
the conscious mind is shocked, confused, or paralyzed by indecision.
The Anima/animus
The anima/animus personifies the soul, or inner attitude. Following a person's coming
to terms with their shadow, they are then confronted with the problem of the
anima/animus. It is usually a persona and often takes on the characteristics of the
opposite sex. The anima is said to represent the feminine in men and the animus is the
comparable counterpart in the female psyche. The anima may be personified as a young
girl, very spontaneous and intuitive, as a witch, or as the earth mother. It is likely to be
associated with deep emotionality and the force of life itself. Jung viewed the
anima/animus process as being one of the sources of creative ability.
Jung regarded the gender roles we play as men and women to be societally, not
biologically, determined. He saw human beings as essentially bisexual, in that we all
have both masculine and feminine aspects to our nature. Thus, by fulfilling society's
expectations, we achieve only part of our actual potential as human beings. The
anima/animus archetype represents our "other half," and in order to feel whole we need
to acknowledge and relate to it as part of our own personality.
In a film interview, Jung was not clear if the anima/animus archetype was totally
unconscious, calling it "a little bit conscious" and unconscious. In the interview, he gave
an example of a man who falls head over heels in love, then later in life regrets his blind
choice as he finds that he has married his own anima–the unconscious idea of the
feminine in his mind, rather than the woman herself.
Anima
The anima, according to Jung, is the feminine side of a male's unconscious mind. It can
be identified as all the unconscious feminine psychological qualities that a male
possesses. The anima is usually based on a man's mother, but may also incorporate
aspects of sisters, aunts, and teachers.
Jung also believed that every woman has an analogous animus within her psyche, this
being a set of unconscious masculine attributes and potentials. He viewed the animus as
being more complex than the anima, as women have a host of animus images while
men have one dominant anima image.
The anima is one of the most significant autonomous complexes. It manifests itself by
appearing as figures in dreams, as well as by influencing a man's interactions with
women and his attitudes toward them. Jung said that confronting one's shadow is an
"apprentice-piece," while confronting one's anima is the masterpiece. He also had a
four-fold theory on the anima's typical development, beginning with its projection onto
the mother in infancy, continuing through its projection on prospective sexual partners
and the development of lasting relationships, and concluding with a phase he termed
Sophia, a Gnostic reference. It is worth noting that Jung applied similar four-fold
structures in many of his theories.
Animus
According to Jung, the animus is the masculine side of a woman's
personal unconscious. It can be identified as all the unconscious masculine
psychological qualities that a woman possesses.
Animus is also considered to be that natural and primitive part of the mind's activity
and processes remaining after dispensing with the persona, or "mask" displayed in
interactions with others, which has been shaped by socialization. The animus may be
personified as a Wise Old Man, a sorcerer, or a number of males. It tends to be logical
and often argumentative.
Syzygy
Together, the anima and animus form a divine pair known as the syzygy. The syzygy
consists of three elements:
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the femininity pertaining to the man (anima) and the masculinity pertaining to
the woman (animus);
the actual experience man has of woman and vice versa;
the masculine and feminine archetypal image.
In ancient Greek mythology we find an example of the divine pair in the
gods Hermes and Aphrodite. Jung also observed that the divine pair occupies the
highest place in Christianity as Christ and his bride, the Church. In Hinduism almost all
the major forms of God are Divine pairs.
Great Mother
Great Mother is the personification of the feminine and represents the fertile womb out
of which all life comes and the darkness of the grave to which it returns. Its fundamental
attribute is the capacity to nourish. As infants, we cannot survive without a nurturer. If
we do not have a nurturing mother, we seek one and project this archetype upon that
person. If no real person is available, we personify the archetype. We may also spend
our time seeking comfort through a less personal symbol, such as the church, the
"motherland," or a life on the ocean.
If the great mother nourishes us, she is good. However, if she threatens to devour us,
she is bad. In psychological terms, the great mother corresponds to the unconscious,
which can nourish and support the ego or can swallow it up in psychosis or suicide. The
positive, creative aspects of the great mother are represented by breast and womb.
Mother is the source of life and nurture and the images are nearly inexhaustible:
anything hollow, concave or containing, such as bodies of water, the earth itself, caves,
dwellings, and vessels of all kinds.
Father
As the great mother pertains to nature, matter and earth, the great father archetype
pertains to the realm of light and spirit. It is the personification of the masculine
principle of consciousness symbolized by the upper solar region of heaven. From this
region comes the wind, which has always been the symbol of spirit as opposed to
matter. Sun and rain likewise represent the masculine principle as fertilizing forces,
which impregnate the receptive earth. Images of piercing and penetration such as
phallus, knife, spear, arrow and ray all pertain to the spiritual father. All imagery
involving flying, light, or illumination pertains to the masculine principle, as opposed to
the dark earthiness of the great mother.
The positive aspect of the spiritual father principle conveys law, order, discipline,
rationality, understanding, and inspiration. Its negative aspect is that it may lead to
alienation from concrete, physical reality.
Wise Old Man
The image of the wise old man as judge, priest, doctor, or elder is a human
personification of the father archetype. He is also known as the "Senex" and is an
archetype of meaning or spirit. It often appears as grandfather, sage, magician, king,
doctor, priest, professor, or any other authority figure. It represents insight, wisdom,
cleverness, willingness to help, and moral qualities. His appearance serves to warn of
dangers and provide protective gifts. As with the other archetypes, the wise old man
also possesses both good and bad aspects.
The wise old man is often in some way "foreign," that is from a different culture, nation,
or time from those he advises.
The Trickster
The trickster figure Reynard the Fox as depicted in an 1869 children's book by Michel Rodange.
Jung describes the trickster figure as a faithful representation of the absolutely
undifferentiated human psyche that has hardly left the animal level. The trickster is
represented in normal man by countertendencies in the unconscious that appear
whenever a man feels himself at the mercy of apparently malicious accidents.
In mythology, the trickster's role is often to hamper the hero's progress and generally
cause trouble. The half-god "Loki" is a typical example of a trickster who constantly
plays tricks on the Norse gods. In folklore, the trickster is incarnated as a clever,
mischievous man or creature, who tries to survive the dangers and challenges of the
world using trickery and deceit as a defense. With the help of his wits and cleverness,
instead of fighting, he evades or fools monsters, villains, and dangers with unorthodox
methods.
The trickster breaks the rules of the gods or nature, sometimes maliciously, but usually
with ultimately positive effects. Often, the rule breaking takes the form of tricks or
thievery. Tricksters can be cunning or foolish, or both; they are often very funny even
when considered sacred or performing important cultural tasks.
For a modern humanist, study of the trickster archetypes and their effects on society and
its evolution, see Trickster Makes The World: Mischief, Myth, and Art by Lewis Hyde.
Archetypal symbols
Here are a few examples of archetypal symbols:
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The mandala, a circle, often squared, can also symbolize the wholeness of the Self
or the yearning for such wholeness.
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Light/darkness (representing the conscious and the unconscious), water or
wetness/dryness or the desert, heaven/hell.
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Birds often symbolize the spirit (e.g., the Holy Spirit as a dove), but may
symbolize many other things, including fear and destruction, courage, or wisdom.
For many Native Americans, the eagle is a particularly sacred symbol.
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Caves can symbolize the unconscious, as can bodies of water, the forest, night,
and the moon. These tend to be feminine symbols, just as anything that encloses
or nourishes, depending on the context, can be a feminine symbol.
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In addition to light, the sky, the sun, or the eyes, can symbolize consciousness.
Expressions of Archetypes
Mythology
Jung investigated mythologies and mystical traditions from around the world in his
research on archetypes. Some examples illustrating several archetypes are as follows.
Wise Old Man
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Merlin from the Matter of Britain and the legends of King Arthur
Odin principal deity of Norse mythology
Tiresias from the Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, and other Greek myths
Utnapishtim from the Epic of Gilgamesh
The Trickster
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Agu Tonpa in Tibetan folklore
Amaguq in Inuit mythology
Ananse in Ashanti mythology
Awakkule and Mannegishi in Crow mythology
Azeban in Abenaki mythology
Bamapana in Australian Aboriginal mythology
Eris, Prometheus, Hephaestos, Hermes Trismegistus, Odysseus in Greek
mythology
Brer Rabbit in American folklore
Cin-an-ev in Ute mythology
Fairy and Puck in Celtic mythology
Iktomi in Lakota mythology
Iwa and Kaulu in Polynesian mythology
Kantjil in Indonesian folklore
Kappa, Maui in Hawaiian mythology
Kitsune and Susanoo in Japanese mythology
Kokopelli in Hopi and Zuni mythology
Kwaku Ananse in Akan mythology
Loki in Norse mythology
Nanabozho in Chippewa mythology
Nanabush in Ojibwe mythology
Nankil'slas, Raven spirit in Haida mythology
Ndauthina in Fijian mythology
Nezha, Sun Wukong (the Monkey King) in Chinese mythology
Reynard the Fox in French folklore
Saci-Pererê in Brazilian folklore
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San Martin Txiki in Basque mythology
Tezcatlipoca in Aztec mythology
Till Eulenspiegel in German folklore
Tonenili in Navajo mythology
Literature
Archetypes are often discussed in literature. The epic poem Beowulf describes one of the
most famous Anglo-Saxon hero archetypes. William Shakespeare is known for
popularizing many archetypal characters. Although he based many of his characters on
existing archetypes from fables and myths, Shakespeare's characters stand out as
original by their contrast against a complex, social literary landscape.
Popular culture
As with other psychologies which have infiltrated mass thought, archetypes are now
incorporated into popular culture, such as movies, novels, video games, comics, art, and
television programs.
The Star Wars films include a number of archetypes revealed as the story unfolds: Luke
Skywalker exemplifies the hero. Initially ignorant of the truth of the collective
unconscious (the Force), he begins by rescuing the maiden (Princess Leia), who later
develops into the anima (Luke's twin sister). He fights the shadow (Darth Vader), guided
by the wise old man (Obi Wan Kenobi, later Yoda, and finally Anakin Skywalker when
Darth Vader dies) (Boeree 2006).
The following are a few more examples of the wise old man and trickster archetypes in
popular culture.
Wise Old Man
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Abbot Mortimer from Brian Jacques's novel Redwall
Albus Dumbledore from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series
Ancient One from Doctor Strange
Auron from Final Fantasy X
Gandalf from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series
Allanon from Terry Brooks' Shannara series
Brom from Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Trilogy
Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid
Morpheus from The Matrix
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Oogruk from Gary Paulsen's novel Dogsong
Press Tilton from the Pendragon series
Professor X from the X-Men
Rafiki from The Lion King
Thufir Hawat from Dune
Trickster
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Arsene Lupin, the gentleman thief from Maurice Leblanc's novel series of the
same name
Bugs Bunny
Bart Simpson from The Simpsons
Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Jerry Mouse from Tom & Jerry
Matrim Cauthon from the Wheel of Time fantasy book series
Mr. Mxyzptlk, a tormentor of Superman
Plastic Man, comic artist Jack Cole's shape shifting superhero
Q from Star Trek
The Tramp, Charlie Chaplin's famous silent film character
The Trickster, a super villain in the DC Universe who has been both an ally and an
enemy of The Flash
The Riddler, DC Comics super villain, an enemy of Batman
Archetypes in Personal Development
In her book, Sacred Contracts, Carolyn Myss described the archetype as an organizing
principle and pattern of intelligence that shapes the energy within us, thereby shaping
our lives. Her pioneering work with Norman Shealy, in the field of energy medicine and
human consciousness, has helped define how stress and emotion contribute to the
formation of disease. Drawing from the archetypal research of Jung, as well as a study
of mythology, she sees the archetype as an insight into a person's psyche that helps an
individual to better understand their life situation.
Myss believes that awareness of how an archetype is dominating one's life can help a
person break the pattern and become "his/her own master." The individual is
encouraged to embody what is positive in the archetype, while consciously choosing
what to let go of. To do this, it is necessary to step back from one's life to see the whole
picture, and see which archetypes are dominant. According to Myss, this gives clues to
one's life mission and relationships.
Evaluation
Although Jung's research found commonalities in the archetypes revealed
in mythologies, religions, and other cultural expressions throughout the world, this is
not conclusive proof of their universal or innate character. Jung himself noted that there
is not a fixed number of distinct archetypes, and that they do not follow the usual logic
of the physical world but rather appear to overlap and merge into each other. Thus, the
concept of archetypes, along with the collective unconscious itself, can be criticized as
essentially theoretical, or metaphysical, and not substantiated by empirical data.
On the other hand, archetypes have proved useful in the analysis of myths, fairy tales,
literature, artistic symbolism, and religious expression. It does appear that there is a
limited number of stories and characters in human experience, indicating connections
among human beings throughout history and the world. Thus, even if Jung did not have
the correct explanation of the exact nature of these connections, there is value and
some level of validity to his notion of archetypes.
References
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Boeree, C. George. 1997, 2006. Carl Jung Retrieved June 7, 2019.
Campbell, Joseph. 1971. The Portable Jung. Translated by R.F.C. Hull. Penguin
Books. ISBN 0140150706.
Hyde, Lewis. 1998. Trickster Makes this World: Mischief, Myth, and Art. Farrar,
Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0374958033
Johnson, Robert A. 1993. Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side
of the Psyche. Harper San Francisco. ISBN 0062507540
Johnson, Robert A. 1989. Inner Work: Using Dreams and Creative Imagination for
Personal Growth and Integration. Harper San Francisco. ISBN 0062504312.
Jung, C. G., Adler, Gerhard, and Hull, R.F.C. 1970. The Structure and Dynamics of
the Psyche (Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 8) Bollingen. ISBN 0691097747
Jung, C. G., Adler, Gerhard, and Hull, R.F.C. 1979. Collected Works of C.G. Jung
Volume 9 Part 2. Bollingen. ISBN 069101826X.
Jung, C. G., & Campbell, J. 1976. The Portable Jung, a compilation. New York, NY:
Penguin Books. ISBN 0140150706.
Jung, C. G. and McGuire, William. 1969. Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
(The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol. 9, Pt. 1). Bollingen. ISBN 0691097615
Jung, C. G., Wagner, S., Wagner, G., & Van der Post, L. 1990. The World
Within C.G. Jung in his own words [videorecording]. New York, NY: Kino
International: Dist. by Insight Media.
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Myss, Carolyn. 2003. Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential. Three
Rivers Press. ISBN 0609810111.
External links
All links retrieved November 3, 2021.
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Jung's Archetypes
Jung On Anima
The Archetypal Expressionism Statement
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/archetype
archetype, (from Greek archetypos, “original pattern”), in literary
criticism, a primordial image, character, or pattern of circumstances
that recurs throughout literature and thought consistently enough to
be considered a universal concept or situation.
The term was adopted and popularized by literary critics from the
writings of the psychologist Carl Jung, who formulated a theory of a
“collective unconscious.” For Jung, the varieties of human experience
have somehow been genetically coded and transferred to successive
generations. These primordial image patterns and situations evoke
startlingly similar feelings in both reader and author. The Canadian
literary critic and theorist Northrop Frye was influential in extending
the use of the term archetype to specifically literary contexts.
Archetypal criticism has been connected with another group of
thinkers more closely allied to its Jungian roots, including Maud
Bodkin and James Hillman
https://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/archetypal.crit.html#:~:text=Archetypal%20criticism%20argues%20th
at%20archetypes,by%20cultural%20and%20psychological%20myths.&text=Archetypal%20critics%20fin
d%20New%20Criticism,it%20existed%20in%20a%20vacuum.
Archetypal criticism argues that archetypes determine the form and function of
literary works, that a text's meaning is shaped by cultural and psychological myths.
Archetypes are the unknowable basic forms personified or concretized in recurring
images, symbols, or patterns which may include motifs such as the quest or the
heavenly ascent, recognizable character types such as the trickster or the hero,
symbols such as the apple or snake, or images such as crucifixion (as in King Kong,
or Bride of Frankenstein)--all laden with meaning already when employed in a
particular work.
Archetypal criticism gets its impetus from psychologist Carl Jung, who postulated that
humankind has a "collective unconscious," a kind of universal psyche, which is
manifested in dreams and myths and which harbors themes and images that we all
inherit. Literature, therefore, imitates not the world but rather the "total dream of
humankind." Jung called mythology "the textbook of the archetypes" (qtd. in Walker
17).
Archetypal critics find New Criticism too atomistic in ignoring intertextual elements
and in approaching the text as if it existed in a vacuum. After all, we recognize story
patterns and symbolic associations at least from other texts we have read, if not
innately; we know how to form assumptions and expectations from encounters with
black hats, springtime settings, evil stepmothers, and so forth. So surely meaning
cannot exist solely on the page of a work, nor can that work be treated as an
independent entity.
Archetypal images and story patterns encourage readers (and viewers of films and
advertisements) to participate ritualistically in basic beliefs, fears, and anxieties of
their age. These archetypal features not only constitute the intelligibility of the text but
also tap into a level of desires and anxieties of humankind.
[Whereas Freudian, Lacanian, and other schools of psychological criticism operate
within a linguistic paradigm regarding the unconscious, the Jungian approach to myth
emphasizes the notion of image (Walker 3).]
Works Consulted
Abrams, M.H. "Archetypal Criticism." A Glossary of Literary Terms. 7th ed. Fort
Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999. 12-14.
---. "Psychological and Psychoanalytic Criticism." A Glossary of Literary Terms. 7th
ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999. 247-253.
Biddle, Arthur W., and Toby Fulwiler. Reading, Writing, and the Study of Literature.
NY: Random House, 1989.
Lynn, Steven. Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory. 2nd
ed. NY: Longman, 1998.
Murfin, Ross, and Supryia M. Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary
Terms. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.
Walker, Steven F. Jung and the Jungians on Myth. NY: Routledge, 2002.
https://archetypist.com/what/more-on-archetypes/
A historical perspective
Plato 427 BC - 348 BC
The word ‘archetype’ comes from the Greek ‘arkhetypos’ which means ‘first imprint’. The philosopher Plato first
brought forth the idea of archetypes in his ‘Theory of Forms’. This theory functioned to bring light to the question of
the material (object, changeable) world and the transcendent (form, unchanging). For example an apple (object) may
be described as round, red and firm (forms) and it is these forms that describe the material object. The forms
transcend the object and remain constant in and of themselves, while the object is changeable.
Carl Gustav Jung 1875-1961
Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung pioneered the use of archetypes to illuminate personality early in the 20th century. He
suggested the existence of universal content-less forms that channel experiences and emotions, resulting in
recognizable and typical patterns of behavior with certain probable outcomes.
New York Times Best Selling Author and scholar Caroline Myss began lecturing on archetypes in 1996 and then went
on to author ‘Sacred Contracts -Awakening Your Divine Potential’ in 2001. Sacred Contracts posited that we
Caroline Myss
each have 12 core archetypes that form our contract or purpose in life. This became the basis for archetypal study at
the CMED Institute in Chicago and resulted in a program to train individuals as Archetypal Consultants.
Further inquiry: Numerous philosophers, scholars and professionals in the field psychology have worked with and
expanded upon Jungian ideas. Joseph Campbell, Robert A. Johnson, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Clarissa Pinkola-Estes,
Marion Woodman, James Hillman and Richard Tarnas are all respected and boundary breaking authors whose books
I recommend if you are interested in further reading on archetypes. You can find my favorite selections of their work
in my Amazon bookstore.
“We grow primarily through our challenges, especially those life-changing moments when we begin to recognize
aspects of our nature that make us different from the family and culture in which we have been raised.”
~ Caroline Myss
Review a sample list of Archetypes
https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2014/12/northrop-frye-archetypes-of-literature.html
Northrop Frye: The Archetypes of Literature
The Archetypes of Literature (1951): Northrop Frye
Click here to read original essay
Northrop Frye
1. I n what way Archetypal criticism discovers basic cultural pattern?
2. “Frye proposed that the totality of literary woks constitute a “self-contained literary universe” “.
Discuss.
3. “In literary criticism the term archetype denotes recurrent narratives designs, patterns of action,
character-types, themes, and images which are identifiable in a wide variety of works of literature.”
Elucidate with N.Frye’s views in his essay Archetype of Literature
4. .
Answer:
What is Archetypal Criticism? What are the sources of its origin?
In literary criticism the term archetype denotes recurrent narratives designs, patterns of action,
character-types, themes, and images which are identifiable in a wide variety of works of literature,
as well as in myths, dreams, and even social rituals. Such recurrent items are held to be the result
of elemental and universal forms or patterns in the human psyche, whose effective embodiment in
a literary work evokes a profound response from the attentive reader, because he or she shares the
psychic archetypes expressed by the author. An important antecedent of the literary theory of the
archetype was the treatment of myth by a group of comparative anthropologists at Cambridge
University, especially James G. Frazer, whose The Golden Bough (1890-1915) identified
elemental patterns of myth and ritual that , claimed, recur in the legends and ceremonials of diverse
and far-flung cultures and religions. An even more important antecedent was the depth psychology
of Carl G. Jung(1875-1961), who applied the term “archetype” to what he called “primordial
images”, the “psychic residue” of repeated patterns of experience in our very ancient ancestors
which, he maintained, survive in the “collective unconscious” of the human race and are expressed
in myths, religion, dreams, and private fantasies, as well as in works of literature.
Where is archetypal literary criticism manifested? Who are pioneers of archetypal literary
criticism? What types of archetypal themes, images and characters are traced in literature
by them?
Archetypal literary criticism was given impetus by Maud Bodkin’s Archetypal Patterns in
Poetry (1934) and flourished especially during the 1950s and 1960s. Apart from him, the other
prominent practitioners of various modes of archetypal criticism were G. Wilson Knight, Robert
Graves, Philip Wheelwright, Richard Chase, Leslie Fiedler, and Joseph Campbell. These critics
tended to emphasize the occurrence of mythical patterns in literature, on the assumption that myths
are closest to the elemental archetype than the artful manipulation of sophisticated writers.
The death/re-birth theme was often said to be the archetype of archetypes, and was held to be
grounded in the cycle of the seasons and the organic cycle of human life; this archetype, it was
claimed, occur in primitive rituals of the king who is annually sacrificed, in widespread myths of
gods who die to be reborn, and in a multitude of diverse texts, including the Bible, Dante’s Divine
Comedy in the early 14th cen., and S.T.Coleridge’sRime of Ancient Mariner in 1798.
Among the other archetypal themes, images and characters frequently traced in literature were the
journey underground, the heavenly ascent, the search, the Paradise/Hades dichotomy, the
Promethean rebel-hero, the scapegoat, the earth goddess, and the fatal woman.
What is Northrop Frye’s contribution to the archetypal criticism?
Bodkin’s Archetypal Patterns in Poetry, the first work on the subject of archetypal literary criticism, applies
Jung’s theories about the collective unconscious, archetypes, and primordial images to literature. It was not
until the work of the Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye that archetypal criticism was theorized in purely
literary terms. The major work of Frye’s to deal with archetypes is Anatomy of Criticism but his essay The
Archetypes of Literature is a precursor to the book. Frye’s thesis in “The Archetypes of Literature” remains
largely unchanged in Anatomy of Criticism. Frye’s work helped displace New Criticism as the major mode
of analyzing literary texts, before giving way to structuralism and semiotics[1].
Frye’s work breaks from both Frazer and Jung in such a way that it is distinct from its anthropological and
psychoanalytical precursors.
In his remarkable and influential book Anatomy of Criticism (1957), N. Frye developed the archetypal
approach into a radical and comprehensive revision of traditional grounds both in the theory of literature
and the practice of literary criticism.
For Frye, the death-rebirth myth that Frazer sees manifest in agriculture and the harvest is not ritualistic
since it is involuntary, and therefore, must be done. As for Jung, Frye was uninterested about the collective
unconscious on the grounds of feeling it was unnecessary: since the unconscious is unknowable it cannot
be studied. How archetypes came to be was also of no concern to Frye; rather, the function and effect of
archetypes is his interest.
Frye proposed that the totality of literary works constitute a “self-contained literary universe”
which has been created over the ages by the human imagination so as to assimilate the alien and
indifferent world of nature into archetypal forms that serve to satisfy enduring human desires and
needs. In this literary universe, four radical mythoi (i.e. plot forms, or organizing structural
principles), correspondent to the four seasons in the cycle of the natural world, are incorporated in
the four major genres of comedy (spring), romance (summer), tragedy (autumn), and satire
(winter).
Within the overarching archetypal mythos of each of these genres, individual works of literature
also play variations upon a number of more limited archetypes – that is, conventional patterns and
types that literature shares with social rituals as well a with theology, history, law, and , in fact, all
“discursive verbal structures.” Viewed arhetypally, Frye asserted, literature turns out to play an
essential role in refashioning the impersonal material universe into an alternative verbal universe
that is intelligible and viable, because it is adapted to universal human needs and concerns.
Mythos Grid
There are two basic categories in Frye’s framework, i.e., comedic and tragic. Each category is further
subdivided into two categories: comedy and romance for the comedic; tragedy and satire (or ironic) for the
tragic. Though he is dismissive of Frazer, Frye uses the seasons in his archetypal schema. Each season
is aligned with a literary genre: comedy with spring, romance with summer, tragedy with autumn, and satire
with winter.
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


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
Comedy is aligned with spring because the genre of comedy is characterized by the birth of the hero,
revival and resurrection. Also, spring symbolizes the defeat of winter and darkness.
Romance and summer are paired together because summer is the culmination of life in the seasonal
calendar, and the romance genre culminates with some sort of triumph, usually a marriage.
Autumn is the dying stage of the seasonal calendar, which parallels the tragedy genre because it is,
(above all), known for the “fall” or demise of the protagonist.
Satire is metonymized[2] with winter on the grounds that satire is a “dark” genre. Satire is a disillusioned
and mocking form of the three other genres. It is noted for its darkness, dissolution, the return of chaos,
and the defeat of the heroic figure.
The context of a genre determines how a symbol or image is to be interpreted. Frye outlines five different
spheres in his schema: human, animal, vegetation, mineral, and water.
The comedic human world is representative of wish-fulfillment and being community centered. In contrast,
the tragic human world is of isolation, tyranny, and the fallen hero.
Animals in the comedic genres are docile and pastoral (e.g. sheep), while animals are predatory and
hunters in the tragic (e.g. wolves).

For the realm of vegetation, the comedic is, again, pastoral but also represented by gardens, parks, roses
and lotuses. As for the tragic, vegetation is of a wild forest, or as being barren.

Cities, temples, or precious stones represent the comedic mineral realm. The tragic mineral realm is noted
for being a desert, ruins, or “of sinister geometrical images” (Frye 1456).
Stonehenge

Lastly, the water realm is represented by rivers in the comedic. With the tragic, the seas, and
especially floods, signify the water sphere.
Frye admits that his schema in “The Archetypes of Literature” is simplistic, but makes room for exceptions
by noting that there are neutral archetypes. The example he cites are islands such as Circe[3]’s
or Prospero’s which cannot be categorized under the tragic or comedic.
How do contemporary critics view Frye’s archetypal criticism?
Arguments about the Contemporary Dilemma with Frye’s Archetypal Literary Criticism
It has been argued that Frye’s version of archetypal criticism strictly categorizes works based on
their genres, which determines how an archetype is to be interpreted in a text. According to this
argument the dilemma Frye’s archetypal criticism faces with more contemporary literature, and
that of post-modernism in general, is that genres and categories are no longer distinctly separate
and that the very concept of genres has become blurred, thus problematizing Frye’s schema. For
instance Beckett’s Waiting For Godot is considered a tragicomedy, a play with elements of
tragedy and satire, with the implication that interpreting textual elements in the play becomes
difficult as the two opposing seasons and conventions that Frye associated with genres are pitted
against each other.
But in fact, arguments about generic blends such as tragicomedy go back to the Renaissance, and
Frye always conceived of genres as fluid. Frye thought literary forms were part of a great circle
and were capable of shading into other generic forms. (Diagram of his wheel in Anatomy of
Criticism[4])
Grave Digger's Scene: 'Hamlet'
What are the examples of archetypes in literature?
Archetypes fall into two major categories: characters, situations/symbols. It is easiest to understand
them with the help of examples. Listed below are some of the most common archetypes in each
category.
Characters[i]:
1.
The hero - The courageous figure, the one who's always running in and saving the
day. Example: Dartagnon from Alexandre Dumas's "The Three Musketeers". (Hamlet,
Macbeth, Tom Jones, Moll, … )
The outcast - The outcast is just that. He or she has been cast out of society or has
left it on a voluntary basis. The outcast figure can oftentimes also be considered as a Christ
figure. Example: Simon from William Golding's "The Lord of the Flies". ( Pandavs, RamSita-laxman, Sugreve, Duke, Orlando, Rosalind in As You Like It, tramps in Godot, …)
3.
The scapegoat - The scapegoat figure is the one who gets blamed for everything,
regardless of whether he or she is actually at fault. Example: Snowball from George
Orwell's "Animal Farm". [Tom Jones, Darcy in P&P (breaking of Lizzy’s sis’s
relationship, elopement), Technology in BNW, Tess for death of Prince, giving birth to
Sorrow, …]
4.
The star-crossed lovers - This is the young couple joined by love but unexpectedly
parted by fate. Example: Romeo and Juliet from William Shakespeare's "Romeo and
Juliet". [ Tess and Angel, Heer – Ranjha, Sheeri – Farhad, ….]
5.
The shrew - This is that nagging, bothersome wife always battering her husband
with verbal abuse. Example: Zeena from Edith Wharton's "Ethan Frome". [Katherina
in Taming of Shrew, Paul’s mother in S&L, Lizzy’s mother in P&P.
6. Femme Fatale[5]: A female character type who brings upon catastrophic and disastrous events. Eve from
2.
the story of Genesis or Pandora from Greek mythology are two such figures. Seta, Draupadi or
Surparnakha
7.
The Journey: A narrative archetype where the protagonist must overcome a series
of obstacles before reaching his or her goal. The quintessential journey archetype in
Western culture is arguably Homer’s Odyssey
Situations/symbols:

Archetypal symbols vary more than archetype narratives or character types, but any symbol
with deep roots in a culture's mythology, such as the forbidden fruit in Genesis or even the poison
apple in Snow White, is an example of a symbol that resonates to archetypal critics.

The task - A situation in which a character, or group of characters, is driven to complete
some duty of monstrous proportion. Example: Frodo's task to keep the ring safe in J. R. R. Tolkein's
"The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. AthurianLegends, , bring Helen back to Troy, Kurukshetra’s battle
for Arjun, Savitri…)

The quest - Here, the character(s) are searching for something, whether consciously or
unconsciously. Their actions, thoughts, and feelings center around the goal of completing this
quest. Example: Christian's quest for salvation in John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress". (Search
for Holy Grail, Search for Sita, Nal-Damaanti, Savitri for Satyakam’s life, Shakuntala in Kalidas,
Don Quixote, Jude, …)

The loss of innocence - This is, as the name implies, a loss of innocence through sexual
experience, violence, or any other means. Example: Val's loss of innocence after settling down at
the mercantile store in Tennessee William's "Orpheus Descending". [Moll, Tess, Tom, Jude, …]

Water - Water is a symbol of life, cleansing, and rebirth. It is a strong life force, and is
often depicted as a living, reasoning force.
Wate[ii]r: birth-death-resurrection; creation; purification and redemption; fertility and growth.
Sea/ocean: the mother of all life; spiritual mystery; death and/or rebirth; timelessness and eternity.

Rivers: death and rebirth (baptism); the flowing of time into eternity; transitional
phases
of the life cycle. . . . Example: Edna learns to swim in Kate Chopin's "The Awakening".
{Water movie and novel by BapsiSidhwa, Death by Water, polluted River in Waste Land…]
Sun (fire and sky are closely related): creative energy; thinking, enlightenment, wisdom, spiritual vision.
Rising sun: birth, creation, enlightenment.
Setting sun: death.
Colors:
Red: blood, sacrifice, passion; disorder.
Green: growth, hope, fertility.
Blue: highly positive; secure; tranquil; spiritual purity.
Black: darkness, chaos, mystery, the unknown, death, wisdom, evil, melancholy.
White: light, purity, innocence, timelessness; [negative: death, terror, supernatural]
Yellow: enlightenment, wisdom.
Serpent (snake, worm): symbol of energy and pure force (libido); evil, corruption, sensuality, destruction.
Numbers:
3 - light, spiritual awareness, unity (the Holy Trinity); male principle.
4 - associated with the circle, life cycle, four seasons; earth, nature, elements.
7 - the most potent of all symbolic numbers signifying the union of three and four, the completion of a
cycle, perfect order, perfect number; religious symbol.
Wise old Man: savior, redeemer, guru, representing knowledge, reflection, insight, wisdom, intuition, and
morality.
Garden: paradise, innocence, unspoiled beauty.
Tree: denotes life of the cosmos; growth; proliferation; symbol of immortality; phallic symbol.
Desert: spiritual aridity; death; hopelessness.
Creation: All cultures believe the Cosmos was brought into existence by some Supernatural Being (or
Beings).
Seasons:
Spring - rebirth; genre/comedy.
Summer - life; genre/romance.
Fall - death/dying; genre/tragedy.
Winter - without life/death; genre/irony.
(If winter has come, can spring be far behind?)
(April is the cruelest month…)
The great fish: divine creation/life. (Matsyavatar)
Freud's symbolism/archetypes:
Concave images (ponds, flowers, cups, vases, hollows): female or womb symbols.
Phallic symbols (towers, mountain peaks, snakes, knives, swords, etc.) male symbols.
Dancing, riding, or flying: symbols of sexual pleasure.
http://users.cdc.net/~stifler/en111/archetype.html
Archetypes can be found in nearly all forms of literature, with their motifs being predominantly
rooted in folklore.
William Shakespeare is known for creating many archetypal characters that hold great social
importance in his native land, such as
Hamlet, the self-doubting hero and the initiation archetype with the three stages of separation,
transformation, and return;
Falstaff, the bawdy, rotund comic knight;
Romeo and Juliet, the ill-fated ("star-crossed") lovers;
Richard II, the hero who dies with honor; and many others.
Although Shakespeare based many of his characters on existing archetypes
from fables and myths (e.g., Romeo and Juliet on Pyramus and Thisbe), Shakespeare's characters
stand out as original by their contrast against a complex, social literary landscape.
For instance, in The Tempest, Shakespeare borrowed from a manuscript by William Strachey that
detailed an actual shipwreck of the Virginia-bound 17th-century English sailing vessel Sea
Venture in 1609 on the islands of Bermuda. Shakespeare also borrowed heavily from a speech by
Medea in Ovid's Metamorphoses in writing Prospero's renunciative speech; nevertheless, the
unique combination of these elements in the character of Prospero created a new interpretation of
the sage magician as that of a carefully plotting hero, quite distinct from the wizard-as-advisor
archetype of Merlin or Gandalf. Both of these are likely derived from priesthood authority
archetypes, such as Celtic Druids, or perhaps Biblical figures like Abraham, Moses, etc.; or in
the case of Gandalf, the Norse figure Odin.
References

Abrams, M. H. "Archetypal Criticism." A Glossary of Literary Terms. Fort Worth: HBJ,
1993. 223 - 225

Bates, Roland. Northrop Frye. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1971.

Frye, Northrop. "The Archetypes of Literature." The Norton Anthology: Theory and
Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. 1445 - 1457

Knapp, Bettina L. "Introduction." A Jungian Approach to Literature. Carbondale and
Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984. ix - xvi

Leitch, Vincent B. "Northrop Frye." The Norton Anthology: Theory and Criticism. Ed.
Vincent B. Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. 1442 - 1445

-- "Carl Gustav Jung." The Norton Anthology: Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B.
Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. 987 - 990

Segal, Robert A. "Introduction." Jung on Mythology. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1998. 3 - 48

Walker, Steven F. Jung and the Jungians on Myth. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995.
3 - 15
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetypal_literary_criticism"
Resources
Books
Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957. (Available in the UHS
Library)
The Northrop Frye International Literary Festival: http://www.northropfrye.com/home.htm
Northrop Frye, Bedford/St. Martin's: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/critical/frye.htm
Northrop Frye, The Literary Encyclopedia:http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1648
Northrop Frye Collection, Victoria University Library:http://library.vicu.utoronto.ca/special/fryeintro.htm
Anatomy of Criticism, Book Review:http://pages.prodigy.net/aesir/aoc.htm
Wikipedia Links
Northrop Frye: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Frye
Anatomy of Criticism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_Criticism
General Interest
Northrop Frye, Simulation, and the Creation of a "Human World": http://www.transparencynow.com/introfry2.htm
[1]Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of sign processes (semiosis), or signification and
communication, signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. It includes the study of
how meaning is constructed and understood.Syntactics is the branch of semiotics that deals with the formal properties
of signs and symbols
[2] In rhetoric, metonymy (IPA: /mɨˈtɒnɨmi/) is the use of a word for a concept with which the original concept behind this word is
associated. Metonymy may be instructively contrasted with metaphor. Both figures involve the substitution of one term for another.
While in metaphor, this substitution is based on similarity, in metonymy the substitution is based on contiguity. Metaphor - The ship
plowed through the sea. Metonymy - The sails crossed the ocean. In cognitive linguistics, metonymy refers to the use of a single
characteristic to identify a more complex entity and is one of the basic characteristics of cognition. It is common for people to take one
well-understood or easy-to-perceive aspect of something and use that aspect to stand either for the thing as a whole or for some other
aspect or part of it. A few commonly used examples of metonymy are: Sweat = perspiration = hard work(metonymical); lend me thy
ear.
[3] In Greek mythology, Circe or Kírkē (Greek Κίρκη, falcon), was a Queen goddess (or sometimesnymph or sorceress) living on
the island of Aeaea. Circe transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals through the use of
magical potions. She was renowned for her knowledge of drugs and herbs.
[4]Frye's four essays between a "Polemical Introduction" and a "Tentative Conclusion." The four essays are titled
"Historical Criticism: A Theory of Modes," "Ethical Criticism: a Theory of Symbols," "Archetypal Criticism: A Theory
of myths," and "Rhetorical Criticism: A Theory of Genres."
[5] A femme fatale (plural: femmes fatales) is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare
her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly
situations. She is an archetypal character of literature and art.
[i]http://www.readprint.com/article-3
Northrop Frye's Archetype of Literature from Dilip Barad
Tasks:

Give your responses to these questions in the minimum possible
words in the COMMENT below this blog-post:
1.
What is Archetypal Criticism? What does the archetypal critic do?
2.
What is Frye trying prove by giving an analogy of ' Physics to Nature' and 'Criticism to
Literature'?
3.
Share your views of Criticism as an organised body of knowledge. Mention relation of
literature with history and philosophy.
4.
Briefly explain inductive method with illustration of Shakespeare's Hamlet's Grave
Digger's scene.
5.
Briefly explain deductive method with reference to an analogy to Music, Painting, rhythm
and pattern. Give examples of the outcome of deductive method.
6.
Refer to the Indian seasonal grid (below). If you can, please read small Gujarati or Hindi
or English poem from the archetypal approach and apply Indian seasonal grid in the
interpretation.

Quiz: Click here to open the quiz on Northrop Frye's The
Archetypes of Literature
Indian Seasons