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Archetypes: Archetypal Motifs and Patterns 1. Creation: perhaps the most fundamental of all archetypal motifs -- virtually every mythology is built on some account of how the Cosmos, Nature, and Man were brought into existence. 2. Immortality: another fundamental archetype, generally taking one of two basic forms: a. Escape from time: "Return to Paradise," the state of perfect, timeless bliss enjoyed by man before his tragic Fall into corruption and mortality b. Mystical submersion into cyclical time: the theme of endless death and r egeneration: man achieves a kind of immortality by submitting to the vast, mysterious rhythm of Nature's eternal cycle, particularly the cycle of the seasons. 3. Hero archetypes (archetypes of transformation and redemption): a. The Quest: the hero (savior, deliverer) undertakes some long journey during which he must perform impossible tasks, battle with monsters, solve unanswerable riddles, and overcome insurmountable obstacles in order to save the kingdom and perhaps marry the princess. b. Initiation: the hero undergoes a series of excruciating ordeals in passing from ignorance and immaturity to social and spiritual adulthood, that is, in achieving maturity and becoming a full-fledged member of his social group. The initiation most commonly consists of three distinct phases: (1) separation; (2) transformation, and (3) return. Like the quest, this is a variation of the death- and -rebirth archetype. c. The sacrificial scapegoat: the hero, with whom the welfare of the tribe or nation is identified, must die to atone for the people's sins and restore the land to fruitfulness. Certain cultures involved themselves in what is now called the "killing of the Divine King." Among many primitive peoples, it was believed that the ruler was a divine or semi-divine being whose life was identified with the life cycle in nature and in human existence. Because of this identification, the safety of the people and even of the world was felt to depend upon the life of the god-king. A vigorous, healthy ruler would ensure natural and human productivity; on the other hand, a sick or maimed course of nature is dependent on the man-god's life, what catastrophes may not be expected from the gradual enfeeblement of his powers and their final extinction in death? There is only one way of averting these dangers. The man-god must be killed as soon as he shows symptoms that his powers are beginning to fail, and his soul must be transferred to a vigorous successor before it has seriously impaired by threatened decay. Among some peoples the kings were put to death at regular intervals to ensure the welfare of the tribe; later, however, substitutes [frequently children] were killed in place of the kings themselves, or the sacrifices became purely symbolic rather than literal. Corollary to the rite of sacrifice was the "scapegoat" archetype. This motif centered in the belief that, by transferring the corruptions of the tribe to a sacred man or animal, then by killing (and in some instances eating) this scapegoat, the tribe could achieve the cleansing and atonement thought necessary for natural and spiritual rebirth. A third influence prominent in myth criticism, especially in the interpretation of American literature is that of the "American Dream." The results of such analysis indicate that the major works produced by American writers possess a certain uniqueness and that this uniqueness can be attributed largely to the influence, both positive and negative, of the American Dream. The central facet of this cluster is the Myth of Edenic Possibilities, which reflects the hope of creating a second Paradise, not in the next world and not outside time, but in the bright New World of the American continent. From the time of its first settlement, America was seen from European eyes as a land of boundless opportunity, a place where man, after centuries of poverty, misery, and corruption, could have a second chance to fulfill, in reality, his mythic yearnings for a return to paradise. The English novelist D. H. Lawrence was the first among the modern critics to perceive the "dark suspense" hidden in the American Dream. As early as 1923, he pointed out the paradox of the American character in his works. "America has never been easy," he wrote, "and it is not easy today. Americans have always been at a certain tension. Their liberty is a thing of sheer will, sheer tension: A liberty of THOU SHALL NOT. And it has been so from the first." He saw us, a people, determined to slough off the old skin of European tradition and evil, but constricted even more tightly by the New World heritage of Puritan conscience and inhibition. ARCHETYPES Archetypes are concepts and ways of behaving which seem to be common to most of the human race. They can therefore be seen to be 'Human Instincts', maybe hard-wired into our nervous systems. For instance, all cultures have a concept of beauty or evil, so these are archetypes. In behavioural terms, all humans have the capacity for mothering a child, being a courageous explorer, feeling a victim, teaching others or falling in love. These behaviours are therefore archetypes which may be called 'The Mother', 'The Hero', 'The Victim', 'The Teacher', 'The Lover'. Certain archetypes are more acceptable than others in a certain period of history. For instance, the Amazon (the female soldier) was not acceptable in many cultures until recently so women had difficulty in expressing their aggressive instincts. In the view of Jung and other philosophers who explored archetypes, an archetype that cound not be expressed because it was unacceptable to the family or the culture in which a person lived still had vitality but that energy was divorced from the person's sense of self causing compulsive behaviour and neurosis. Most therapies dealing with archetypes attempt to make connections between the divorced archetypes and the person's sense of self, often through art, drama or the understanding of dreams (where the repressed archetypes often find expression). |
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