Assignment: Paper- E-C- 203. Literary Criticism: Western & Indian Poetics-2

Topic: Northrop Frye’s Archetypal Criticism.

Student’ name: Payal G Patel

Roll no: 18

M.A.Sem- II

Batch:  2010- ‘11

Submitted to – Prof. Dilip Barad.

Department of English

Bhavnagar University

Bhavnagar.

 Northrop Frye’s Archetypal Criticism

First, the question may rise what is Archetypal Criticism? And the answer of this is in literary criticism the term archetype suggests narrative designs, patterns of action, character types  themes and images which are known to a wide variety of works of literature also to myths, dreams , and even social rituals. Carl G. Jung (1875-1961) says it the “collective unconsciousness “of the human race and are expressed in myths, religion, dreams also in works of literature. Thus in literature it becomes an archetypal criticism.

It is generally said that there are many practitioners of various types of archetypal criticism like G.Wilson Knight, Robert Graves, Philip Wheelwright, Richard Chase, Leslie Fiedler and Joseph Campbell. They have emphasized on the events of mythical patterns in literature. They believe that myths are closest to the archetypal literature rather than the writers who write only for the sake of their fame.

Northrop Frye’s Contribution to the archetypal criticism:

 Frye has written “The Archetypes of Literature “in 1951 and then “Anatomy of Criticism “in 1957 which is his on e of the well- renowned works. In his book “Anatomy of Criticism “Frye has covered most of the archetypal approaches in the theory of literature and the practice of literary criticism.

In his “ Archetypes of Literature” Frye outlines a theory of the arts in general and literature in particular which would be developed more fully in his celebrated “ Anatomy of Criticism”.

Frye’s project is to identify and classify the archetypes of literature. The four ‘mythoi’ that we are dealing with like, comedy, romance, tragedy and irony or satire.

Frye uses the season in his archetypal schema. Each season is attached with a literary genre, for example; comedy with spring, romance with summer, tragedy with autumn, and satire or irony with winter.

The information of season how they deal with these literary genres is as under;

(1)   Comedy:

                       It is aligned with spring because comedy suggests the birth of the hero, revival and resurrection. It also suggests the new creation as well as the power over the darkness. Similarly spring symbolizes the defeat of winter and darkness. In spring also there is the new creation in trees which symbolizes the similarities between comedy and spring.

(2)    Romance:

                  It is aligned with summer because summer is the culmination of life in the seasonal calendar, the western countries. Similarly romance, the genre, culminates with some sort of triumph, especially in a marriage.

(3)    Autumn:

                 It is aligned with tragedy. As autumn is the dying stage in the seasonal calendar, similarly the genre, tragedy symbolizes the ‘fall of hero or heroine or protagonist.  Autumn itself symbolizes the fall and which is considered to be melancholic.

(4)   Satire :

            Satire or Irony is paralleled to winter as they symbolize the ‘dark’ genres. Satire is one type of mocking act. It is noted for its darkness, dissolution, and the return of chaos and the defeat of the heroic figure. Like satire, sometimes, the winter is very cruel in western countries as they are similar by work.

Now Frye gives the context of a genre determines how a symbol an image is to be interpreted. He gives five different views of different fields like human, animal, vegetation, mineral, and water.

(1) Human:

             The comedic human world is representative of wish –fulfillment. In its contrast, the tragic human world is of isolation, tyranny, and the fallen hero. Thus, in different world, the roles of different humans do not change.

(2) Animals

              The comedic animal world suggest the docile and pastoral animals (for example cow, sheep etc.) whereas in the tragic animal world they are like hunters, predatory (for example wolves, leopard etc.)

(3) Vegetation :

                     The comedic realm of vegetation is pastoral as well as gardens, parks also symbolizes roses and lotuses. And the tragic realm of vegetation is like a wild forest or sometime a sterile or barren place.

(4) Mineral:

              The comedic mineral realm represents cities, temples or precious stones. The tragic mineral realm represents desert, ruined places.

(5) Water:

              At last, the comedic realm of water is represented by rivers. And in tragic realm by seas, especially by floods. Thus from all these, we may say that structure approach is based on archetypes (for example flood, sea etc.)

There are two ways to proceed: (1) inductive

                                                               (2) Deductive

The word inductive suggests looking for patterns, or, making educated guesses.

The word deductive means to look for consequences look for coherence and try to categories.

So, in this way, this section deals with deductive way.

 Archetypal Criticism as “a new poetics”

                                                                 For Frye, this, ‘New Poetics’ is to be found in the principle of the mythological framework, which as come to be known as “archetypal Criticism”. Essentially: “what criticism can do? According to Frye “is awaken students to successive levels of awareness of the mythology that lies behind the ideology in which their society indoctrinates them.”  (Stingle 4)

Unlike Freud’s concepts, myths are collective and communal and so bring a sense of wholeness and togetherness to social life. People and the whole civilized have their own mythologies, but there may be the common Jung called ‘archetypes’.

The mythology of the classical world provided themes for some of the world’s greatest drama, and similar themes can be found in Renaissance literature through to modern Poetry. For example; Hamlet, is often seen as the reluctant hero who must sacrifice himself to purify a Denmark which is made diseased, impious by the murder of its king. In our Indian myth, we have also a character like Hamlet named ‘Arjuna’ in “Mahabharata” who feels the same hesitation to fight with his relatives, thus, the myth is carried on by the skillful writers. Even Yeats, Pound and Eliot employ the myths of history, rebirth and fulfillment through sacrifice, as other do.

There are Frye’s four essays titled,

(1) “Historical Criticism”- A Theory of Modes.

(2) “Ethical Criticism” – A Theory of Symbols.

(3) “ Archetypal Criticism” – A Theory of Myths and

(4) “Rhetorical Criticism” – A Theory of Genres.

From all these we are concerned with Frye’s “Archetypal Criticism” which suggest a theory of myths. This third essay has possibility been Frye’s most identifying the four seasons with four main plots or ‘mythoi’ as we have seen earlier.

Archetypes fall into two categories: Characters and Situation / symbols. With examples these categories will become easier to understand. There are some common archetypes in each category of the characters which are as under;

Characters:

(1)    The Hero:

             The courageous figure, good character than the villain. For example Hamlet, Macbeth, Tom Jones, etc.

(2)    The outcast:

                He or she has been out casted from society. For example in Indian myths there are characters like Pandvas, Ram- Sita- Laxman, Sugreev, Vibhishan etc.

(3)    The Scapegoat :

                        The scapegoat figure is the one who gets blamed for every thing.  No one try to understand whether he or she is really at fault or nor. For example Tom Jones, Ophelia in “Hamlet”, etc.

(4)    The Star-Crossed Lovers:

                               This is a young couple joined by love but unexpectedly parted by fate. For example Romeo and Juliet, Heer and Ranjha, Heathcliff and Catherine from “Wuthering Heights”, etc.

(5)    Femme Fatale:

              A female character type who brings upon disastrous events. For example, Eve in “Paradise Lost” , Sita in “ Ramayana”  also Surparnakha, Draupadi in “ Mahabharata”, Catherine in “ Wuthering Heights”, etc.

(6)    The Shrew :

             This is that nagging, bothersome wife always battering her husband with verbal abuse. For example; Lizzy’s mother in “Pride and Prejudice” , Lady Macbeth in “ Macbeth”, Mrs. Bumble in “ Oliver Twist”, etc

(7)    The Journey :

        A narrative archetype where the protagonist must overcome a series of obstacles before reaching his or her goal. For example; Oliver Twist, Tom Jones, Rama, etc.

 Now, the category is of situation or symbols. There are many archetypal symbols than the characters and which are deep rooted in a culture’s mythology, such as a forbidden fruit in “Paradise Lost”, similarly the poison apple in “Snow White”. There are many others like,

(1)    The Task:

         There is a situation in which a character or characters have to complete some duties. For example; the task to bring Helen back from Troy, Kurukshetra Battle for Arjun, Savitri’s desire to get back Satyakam’s life etc.

(2)    The quest :

        The characters search for something whether consciously or unconsciously. Their action, thoughts, feelings are centered around the goal of completing this quest. For example Rama’s search  for Sita, Nal- Damyanti’s search for each other,  Savitri’s search for Satyakam’s life, etc.

(3)    Water :

         It is symbol of life as well as death also rebirth. It is also strong life force. Symbolizes creation, purification and redemption also fertility and growth.

(4)    Sea/ Ocean :

           It symbolizes death or rebirth, timelessness and eternity.

(5)     Sun :

    It symbolizes creative energy like fire, thinking, enlightenment, wisdom, spiritual wisdom, piousness, dawn etc.

Rising sun symbolizes birth, creation, enlightenment.

While setting sun symbolizes death.

(6)     Colors :

(a)  Red : Symbolizes sacrifice, passion, disorder

(b) Green: symbolizes growth, hope, fertility.

(c)  Blue: symbolizes highly positive, secure, tranquil, spiritual purity.

(d) Black: symbolizes darkness, chaos, mystery, the unknown, melancholy, death, evil, danger.

(e) White: symbolizes light, purity innocence, in negative sense symbolizes death, terror, supernatural.

(f)   Yellow: symbolizes enlightenment, wisdom.

The characters like snake symbolizes energy and pure force, evil, corruption, destruction

Numbers like 3 symbolizes light, spiritual awareness, unity (the Holy Trinity)

‘4’ number symbolizes four seasons, earth, nature, life cycle etc.

‘7’ number symbolizes religious things perfect order, union of three and four etc.

Wise old Man: symbolizes savior, redeemer, guru, represents knowledge, wisdom, insight and morality. Even in “Doctor Faustus” there is the appearance of an Old man. In Indian myth Bhishm “Mahabharata” as an old wise man.

Garden:  Symbolizes paradise, innocence, unspoiled beauty.

Trees: Symbolizes life, growth, immortality etc.

Desert: Symbolizes death, hopelessness.

Season: we have already seen the symbols of the seasons before.

Thus, these are the archetypal symbols. One thing we may add is there may be different cultures and myths. For example, we hare, have different symbolic meanings in Indian culture 13 number is considered to be unfortunate and with some bad impact upon the person. Similarly red color symbolizes piousness foe example red Swastika.

Archetypes in Indian Literature.

                                    The concept of Indian literature is both old as well as new. It is as old as Bharata and it is as modern as Tagore. And it is better to see Indian literature not as a process.

 Dr. K. Chellappan writes,

“The myth is the central information power that gives archetypal significant to the rituals and archetypal narrative to the oracle.”

In the Indian tradition also there is the quest myth as an archetype, through there are significant differences. For example Rama’s quest for his wife Sita is parallel to the quest of Adam for Eve and finally it symbolizes the quest of Christ God for man. Rama was both a hero and a God, but the emphasis changes. In Valmiki he is more a hero than a God. In Tulsidas, on the other hand we see more of a God in Rama.

In a sense, Rama is self and Ravana, the ego and Sita is the Jeevatma represents the yearning of the soul for the greater soul, just as all the devotees represent the same division and longing for union at him has noble qualities; but after a sage he becomes frozen beyond redemption like Dr. Faustus and Victor Frankenstein.

In all modern versions of the “Ramayana” and the “Mahabharata” the myth we find Panchali (Draupadi) and Sita are protesting against the male tyranny.

Arjun in “the Mahabharata” is the archetype of the hero unable to act because of attachments and in Karma, we see the tragic hero seeking identity and dying a heroic death because of his very generosity. Arjuna’s situation is some like of Hamlet’s. Thus, the archetypes are the same, through the realizations are different.

Even in the poem “The Voice of a Poet”, written by Praveen Gadhvi, there is the concept of ‘Drinking’ to which we can relate with the myth of creation. For example, in the “Ramayana’s Baalkanda, in canto 45, written by Valmiki, there is the incident of “ Samuda Manthan” which says after churning of the Ocean both nector (amrita) and venom (Vish) erupted. Gods (devtas), enjoyed nector and Shiva consumed the poison. Which significantly suggests, in modern time, the poet can digest the things like Shiva, another possible interpretation is that after churning of life we can get different troubles, sufferings etc. But only few people can digest the things. Thus, these are the possible interpretation of the Indian myth with the archetypal criticism.

 Conclusion:

                 To sun up, Richter explains that for Frye:

“Each generation rewrites the stories of the past in ways that make sense for it, recycling a vast tradition over the ages.” (641)

 About mythology, as it is the third theory of the essay ‘Archetypal Criticism’, Frye points out there are only a few species of myth though there are an infinite numbers of individual myths. For example, these species or archetypes of myths include “myths of creation, of fall, of exodus and migration of the destruction, of the human race in the past or the future, and of redemption,” (23).