Jung Archetypes Powerpoint
- 1. Jung’s Archetypes ENG 305
- 2. A note of apology This lecture presents a rough synthesis of some complex ideas. Obviously, I can’t get into each of these concepts in detail especially in this limited forum. I encourage everyone to email questions and expand on these ideas in our online discussions. Much of the content herein has been extracted from Hall & Nordby’s A Primer of Jungian Psychology (1973)
- 3. Collective Unconscious Everyone has their own unique Personal Unconscious made up of suppressed and forgotten memories, traumas, etc. The Collective Unconscious is universal. It predates the individual. It is the repository of all the religious, spiritual, and mythological symbols and experiences. Its primary structures Jung called “Archetypes” In Plato’s day, this term referred to the spiritual forms which are the pre-existent prototypes of the things of the material world. Interpreting this idea psychologically, Jung stated that these archetypes were the “conceptual matrixes or patterns behind all our religious and mythological concepts, and indeed, our thinking processes in general.”
- 4. Collective Unconscious If this concept is correct, if there are archetypal ideas that are “wired into” us, it becomes easier to explain why there are so many similarities between stories over time. Jung does have his critics and we’ll look at more of them in due time (Barthes was one critic who disagrees with these notions) But what are these archetypes? How do they manifest themselves?
- 5. Three types of archetypes Characters Hero, scapegoat, outcast, devil, woman, star-crossed lovers Situations Quest, task, initiation, journey, fall, death/rebirth Symbols/associations Light-darkness, water-desert, heaven-hell I’ll describe each in turn on the following slides
- 6. Character Archetypes The hero Joseph Campbell has argued that this archetype is so well defined that the life of the protagonist can be clearly divided into a series of well-marked adventures, which strongly suggest a ritualistic pattern. Characters who exemplify this archetype to a greater or lesser extent are Oedipus, Theseus, Romulus, Perseus, Jason, Dionysos, Joseph, Moses, Elijah, Jesus Christ, Siegfried, Arthur, Robin Hood, Watu Gunung (Javanese), and Llew Llawgyffes (Celtic).
- 7. Character Archetypes The Scapegoat An animal or more usually a human whose death in a public ceremony expiates some taint or sin that has been visited upon a community (e.g., Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"). The Outcast A figure who is banished from a social group for some crime against his fellow man. The outcast is usually destined to become a wanderer from place to place (e.g., Cain, the Wandering Jew, the Ancient Mariner). The Devil Figure Evil incarnate, this character offers worldly goods, fame, or knowledge to the protagonist in exchange for possession of his soul (e.g., Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Satan, the Faust legend).
- 8. Character Archetypes The Woman Figure has four subtypes The Earthmother – Symbolic of fruition, abundance and fertility, this character traditionally offers spiritual and emotional nourishment to those with whom she comes in contact (e.g., Mother Nature, Mother Country, alma mater). The Temptress – Characterized by sensuous beauty, this woman is one to whom the protagonist is physically attracted and who ultimately brings about his downfall (e.g., Delilah, the Sirens, Cleopatra). The Platonic Ideal – This woman is a source of inspiration and a spiritual ideal, for whom the protagonist or author has an intellectual rather than a physical attraction (e.g., Dante's Beatrice, Petrarch's Laura, most Shelleyan heroines).
- 9. Continued… 4. The Unfaithful Wife – A woman, married to a man she sees as dull unimaginative, is physically attracted to a more virile and desirable man (e.g., Guinevere, Madame Bovary, Marge Simpson in the “ Harpooned Heart ” episode) And the final character archetype: The Star-Crossed lovers A young man and woman enter an ill-fated love affair which ends tragically in the death of either or both of the lovers (e.g., Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, Tristan and Isolde, Tidus and Yuna from Final Fantasy X).
- 10. Situation Archetypes The Quest This motif describes the search for someone or some talisman which, when found and brought back, will restore fertility to a wasted land, the desolation of which is mirrored by a leader's illness and disability. Jessie L. Weston's From Ritual to Romance traces one facet of this archetype through the quests for the Holy Grail.
- 11. Situations The Task To save the kingdom, to win the fair lady, to identify himself so that he may reassume his rightful position, the Hero must perform some nearly superhuman deed e.g., Odysseus must string the bow, Arthur must pull the sword from the stone, Beowulf must slay Grendel, Link must save Zelda.
- 12. Situations The Initiation This usually takes the form of an initiation into life, that is, the depiction of an adolescent coming into maturity and adulthood with all the attendant problems and responsibilities that this process involves. An awakening, awareness, or an increased perception of the world and the people in it usually forms the climax of this archetypal situation (e.g., Holden Caulfield of Catcher in the Rye , Huckleberry Finn, Stephen Dedalus of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ).
- 13. Situations The Journey Usually combined with any or all of the foregoing situational archetypes, the journey is used to send the Hero in search of information or some intellectual truth. A common employment of the journey archetype is the descent into hell (e.g., Odyssey, Aeneid, Inferno, Joyce's Ulysses ). A second use of this pattern is the depiction of a limited number of travelers on an airplane flight, sea voyage, bus ride, or walking trip for the purpose of isolating them and using them as a microcosm of society (e.g., The Canterbury Tales , Snakes on a Plane ).
- 14. Situations The Fall This archetype describes a descent from a higher to a lower being. The experience involves spiritual defilement and/or a loss of innocence and bliss. The Fall is also usually accompanied by expulsion from a kind of paradise as penalty for disobedience and moral transgression (e.g., Paradise Lost).
- 15. Situations Death and Rebirth The most common of all situational archetypes, this motif grows out of the parallel between the cycle of nature and the cycle of life. morning and springtime represent birth, youth, or rebirth; evening and winter suggest old age or death, etc, etc. Anthropologists believe that fertility rites and vegetative rituals usually took place in the spring because this is the time of physical regeneration of Nature, an appropriate time to enact ritualistic statements of spiritual rebirth and resurrection.
- 16. Symbols and Associations The collective unconscious makes certain associates between the outside world and psychic experiences. These associations become enduring and are passed from one generation to the next. Some of the more common archetypal associations (granted, there are many more) are as follows …
- 17. Light-Darkness Light-Darkness Light usually suggests hope, renewal or intellectual illumination; darkness implies the unknown, ignorance, or despair Star Wars does this well Racist propaganda (think of how slave-holders viewed their “ possessions ” are mere cattle) took this analogy to an extreme … see Morrison ’ s Beloved
- 18. Water-desert Because water is necessary to life and growth, it commonly appears as a birth or rebirth symbol. It is archetypally significant, anthropologists believe, that water is used in baptismal services, which solemnize spiritual birth. Similarly, the appearance of rain in a work of literature can suggest a character's regeneration or rebirth (e.g., The Rime of the Ancient Mariner). Conversely, the aridity of the desert is often associated with spiritual sterility and desiccation (e.g., Eliot ’ s The Waste Land).
- 19. Heaven-Hell Man has traditionally associated parts of the universe not accessible to him with the dwelling places of the primordial forces that govern his world. The skies and mountain tops house his gods; the bowels of the earth contain the diabolic forces that inhabit his universe e.g., Mount Olympus, the Underworld, Milton ’ s Paradise Lost, Dante ’ s The Divine Comedy.
- 20. Conclusion We’ll be returning to these ideas throughout the semester, and Joseph Campbell makes heavy reference to them in The Power of Myth . As with any theory, although not perfect, it gives us a toolkit and a vocabulary for discussion our ancient tales.