Mythological and Archetypal

Approaches
In this lesson, you will be able to:

1. Define and identify misconceptions on

archetypes
2. Draw differences and connections between
archetypal criticism and psychological
criticism.
3. Process the film Lion King 1 using
mythological Archetypal Approach
Definitions and Misconceptions
 Themyth critics study the
so-called archetypes or
archetypal patterns. They
wish to reveal about the
people’s mind and
character.
 Myth is the symbolic
projection of the people’s
hopes, values, fears, and The illustration is Pandora’s Box.
aspirations. According to mythology, Pandora’s
Box is the source of all misfortune
but also hope.
Comparisons between these two approaches

Both mythological
criticism and the
psychological
approach are
concerned with the
motives that underlie
human behavior.
Psychology tends to be
experimental and
diagnostic; it is related to
biological science.
Mythology tends to be
speculative and
philosophical; its affinities
are with religion,
anthropology, and cultural
history.
Examples of Archetypes: Images
1. Water:
a. The sea
b. Rivers (cf. The
Mississippi River
in Huckleberry
Finn)
2. Sun
a. Rising sun
b. Setting sun
Archetypes are universal symbol.
This is Ouroboros.
3. Colors
4. Circle: wholeness,
unity
a. Mandala
b. Egg (oval)
c. Yin-Yang
Mandala
d. Ouroboros
5. Serpent (snake,
worm)
6. Numbers
Yang-yin
7. The archetypal woman
a. The Good Mother (cf. The Widow Douglas in Huckleberry
Finn)
b. The Terrible Mother (cf. Miss Watson in Huckleberry
Finn)
c. The Soul Mate (cf. Mary Jane Wilks in Huckleberry Finn)
8. The demon lover (cf.
Blake’s “The Sick Rose”
and the Jungian animus)
9. The Wise Old Man (cf. Jim
in Huckleberry Finn)
10. The Trickster (“con
man”—King and Duke in
Huckleberry Finn)
11. Garden
12. Tree
13. Desert
14. Mountain
B. Archetypal Motifs or Patterns
1. Creation: perhaps the most
fundamental of all archetypal
motifs
2. Immortality (cf. “To His Coy
Mistress”)
a. Escape from time
b. Mystical submersion into cyclical
time

Andrew Marvell
 3. Hero archetypes
a. The quest (cf.
Oedipus)
b. Initiation (cf.
The dueling match in Hamlet is
a pattern of sacrifice- Huck)
atonement-Catharsis
c. The sacrificial
scapegoat (cf.
Oedipus and
Oedipus the Rex Hamlet)
C. Archetypes as Genres
Northrop Frye, in his
Anatomy of Criticism,
indicates the correspondent
genres for the four seasons:
1. Spring: comedy
2. Summer: romance
3. Fall: tragedy (cf.
Hamlet)
4. Winter: irony Louis Bouwmeester (1842-
1925) as Oedipus
B. Jungian Psychology
C.G. Jung’s “myth forming” elements are in
the unconscious psyche; he refers them as
“motifs,” “primordial images,” or
“archetypes.” He also detected the
relationship between dreams, myths, and art
through which archetypes come into
consciousness.

Carl Gustav Jung is known

as one of the foremost
psychological thinkers of
the 20th century.
INDIVIDUATION
 Individuation: Shadows, Persona, and Anima

Individuation, to Jung, was the

quest for wholeness that the
human psyche invariably
undertakes, the journey to
become conscious of his or
herself as a unique human
being, but unique only in the
same sense that we all are, not
more or less so than others.
Shadow
The shadow is the darker aspects of
our unconscious self, the inferior and
less pleasing aspects of the
personality, which we wish to
suppress. (cf. Shakespeare’s Iago,
Milton’s Satan, Goethe’s
Mephistopheles, and Conrad’s Kurtz)
Those traits that we dislike, or would rather ignore,
come together to form what Jung called the
Shadow. This part of the psyche, which is also
influenced heavily by the collective unconscious, is a
form of complex, and is generally the complex most
accessible by the conscious mind.
 Without a well-developed shadow side, a person
can easily become shallow and extremely
preoccupied with the opinions of others, a walking
Persona.

Just as conflict is necessary to advancing the plot of

any good novel, light and dark are necessary to our
personal growth.
Anima and Animus
 Anima/Animus

 According to Jung, the anima and animus are the

contra-sexual archetypes of the psyche, with the
anima being in a man and animus in a woman.
 These are built from feminine and masculine
archetypes the individual experiences, as well as
experience with members of the opposite sex
(beginning with a parent), and seek to balance out
one’s otherwise possible one-sided experience of
gender. 
PERSONA
 Persona
Persona is an element of the personality which arises “for reasons of
adaptation or personal convenience.” If you have certain “masks” you
put on in various situations (such as the side of yourself you present at
work, or to family), that is a persona.
Jungian Quest:
 Assumes that the monomyth of the Quest or
Journey underlies archetypal images
 Hero forced to leave comfortable surroundings and
venture in an unfamiliar, new world filled with new
challenges
 Meet wise old man who helps out with guidance and
advice
 Barrier tests the fledgling hero (tends to separate
familiar world from unfamiliar)
Jungian Criticism:
 Related works and links about mythological
approaches

 Jung, Carl Gustav. Four Archetypes: Mother, Rebirth, Spirit, Trickster. Trans. R. F. C. Hull.
London: Routledge,1969.
 ---. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Trans. R.F.C. Hull. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton U P,1980.
 Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1957.
 Grazer, James G. The Golden Bough. Abridged ed. New York: Macmillan, 1992.
 Introduction to Individuation. http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/persona.html
 Personality and Consciousness– Major Archetypes and Individuation.
http://pandc.ca/?cat=car_jung&page=major_archetypes_and_individuation
 The Individuation Process
http://www.soul-guidance.com/houseofthesun/individuationprocess.htm