Psychological Criticism
defense mechanisms—ways of avoiding the painful recognition of undesirable thoughts and feelings displacement—when unconscious desires and thoughts are seen in conscious thoughts or dreams through an association with something that symbolically represents another person or event ego—the rational part of the psyche that operates on the reality principle id—the part of the psyche that contains instincts and desires, often unconscious, that motivate human behavior according to the pleasure principle; it encourages us to instantly gratify our impulses
Electra complex—the strong attachment of a daughter to her father, such that she is willing to do anything for his affection; counterpart to the Oedipus complex
Oedipus complex—the strong attachment of a son to his mother, such that he is willing to do anything for her affection; counterpart to the Electra complex phallic symbol—an image that represents a penis projection—the perception in other people of unacknowledged negative feelings about oneself repressed—blocked from conscious thought but retained in the subconscious sublimation—the transformation of feelings into something more acceptable superego—the part of the psyche that stores information about the dictates and values first of our parents and later of the society in which we live; the conscience transference—the shifting of uncomfortable feelings and emotions about one person, such as a parent, to another, less authoritative figure, such as a co-worker or a therapist yonic symbol—an image that represents a vagina
I. Psychological Criticism
History and Development
Psychological criticism examines the inner workings of the human mind and applies psychological theories to the interpretation of literature, specifically in the analysis of authors and their characters. This approach draws from the theories of several prominent experts, but most often those of Sigmund Freud (1846–1939). Freud is considered the founder of psychoanalysis, a treatment that requires patients to talk about their dreams, events from their childhoods, and their relationships with their parents in an effort to bring repressed memories and feelings out into the open. Freud had a major impact on our understanding of how the mind works, especially concerning the power the unconscious mind has over our conscious thoughts and actions.
As a student, the first thing you need to understand about applying psychological theory to literature is that you do not need to be a psychologist to use the approach. What you do need is a basic understanding of some of the key components of Freudian theory.
Freud was a leading neurologist and psychotherapist in Vienna during the latter part of the nineteenth century. His interest in his patients ' dysfunctional behaviors inspired him to study the formation, organization, and disorders of the human psyche. His theories in these areas, collected and published in works such as Studies in Hysteria (1895), The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), and The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901), dominated the field of psychotherapy during the first half of the twentieth century. Despite its technical title, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life is one of Freud 's most popular and accessible books, exploring superstition, memory lapses, slips of the tongue (known as "Freudian slips"), and other verbal and physical mistakes.
Other important psychoanalysts, including Alfred Adler, Otto Rank, and Carl Jung, built on Freud 's work in their own studies of the pathology of the human mind. In this module, we will discuss Freud 's basic tenets first, and then we will look at Jung 's theories, especially his ideas concerning archetypes, myths, and the collective unconscious.
Principles of Psychological Criticism
A psychological approach encourages a deeper understanding of the intricate inner workings of the human mind and clarifies the motivations and actions of literary characters. These insights provide readers with a better understanding of how character analyses reveal both theme and aspects of the author 's psyche.
Psychological criticism often focuses on one or more of three major Freudian ideas: * the power of the unconscious mind; * the symbolic expression of the unconscious mind through actions, images, and figurative language; and/or * the impact sexual desire has on human behavior.
Some psychoanalytic critics examine literature as a source of insight into the author of a text. In this type of analysis, which requires extensive biographical research, characters ' actions become symbolic representations of the author 's own subconscious. One example is Marie Bonaparte 's The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation (1949), in which the author argues that Poe 's characters are expressions of his own troubled psyche.
Other critics analyze fictional characters, bringing Freudian insights about human behavior into the study of how the characters act, helping readers better understand individual actions as well as social and family dynamics. These critics explore character motivations, conflicts, desires, and inclinations through textual psychological clues, especially symbolic representations of the unconscious.
Some Basic Tenets of Freudian Psychology
The Id, the Ego, and the Superego
One of Freud 's most important theories is that the mind is divided into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id contains instincts and desires, often unconscious, that motivate human behavior according to the pleasure principle, which encourages us to instantly gratify our impulses, including the strongest—the desire for sex. This part of the mind never considers the logical or ethical nature or possible effects of its impulses. The more rational part of the mind, the ego, operates on the reality principle, recognizing the sometimes-destructive consequences of the pleasure principle. In his paper "The Ego and the Id" (1923), Freud explains that the ego tries to bring in the external world through the reality principle to help control the pleasure principle that governs the id. In this sense, then, the ego acts as a mediator between the inner world of the subconscious and the outer world where the individual must interact with others. The superego, which stores information about the dictates and values first of our parents and later of the society in which we live, helps the ego control the id. The superego becomes our conscience—our sense of what is morally and ethically correct behavior. In a healthy mind, all three parts work together to maintain a balance among instant gratification, self-denial, and social dictates.
Defense Mechanisms
In addition to theories of the conscious mind, Freud developed theories about ways the subconscious mind can repress one 's desires and instincts. Freud believed defense mechanisms offer ways to avoid the painful recognition of undesirable thoughts and feelings. Defense mechanisms include the following: * Sublimation is the transformation of feelings into something more acceptable. For instance, a person might sublimate his or her feelings concerning an unresolved conflict or a past event. According to Freud, sexual desire can be sublimated into intense religious experiences. * Transference is the shifting of uncomfortable feelings and emotions about one person, such as a parent, to another, less authoritative figure, such as a co-worker or a therapist. * Projection is the perception in other people of unacknowledged negative feelings about oneself. * Displacement occurs when unconscious desires and thoughts are seen in conscious thoughts or dreams through an association with something that symbolically represents another person or event.
Freud 's Literary Theory
Freud believed that literature reflects our unconscious life through the repressed desires of the author and sometimes the characters. He was one of the first psychological critics, often applying the techniques he developed for dream interpretation to literary texts. Freud 's studies helped illuminate how literature reflects the complexities of the human mind. His critical analyses included studies of Dostoevsky 's The Brothers Karamazov (1880) and several of William Shakespeare 's plays such as A Midsummer Night 's Dream (1600), King Lear (1608), and Hamlet (1603). In a particularly famous example in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Freud determines that Hamlet is incapable of
[taking] vengeance on the man who did away with his father and took that father 's place with his mother, the man who shows him the repressed wishes of his own childhood realized. Thus the loathing which should drive him on to revenge is replaced in his by self-reproaches, by scruples of conscience, which remind him that he himself is literally no better than the sinner he is to punish. (Freud 367)
Other Concepts in Psychological Criticism
In addition to the emergence of repressed desires through defense mechanisms discussed above, a psychological approach might center on the Oedipus complex or the Electra complex, two controversial theories about children 's feelings toward their parents. Freud and Jung, who developed these theories, insist that all children exhibit these complexes at some point in their childhood but those that experience healthy psychological development are able to repress their feelings before they reach puberty. According to Freud and Jung, these complexes occur when a child is so attached to the parent of the opposite sex that he or she is willing to do anything for the affections of that opposite sex parent, including (if it were possible) killing the same-sex parent.
The failure to repress these desires can result in tragic consequences for the child and for others. For example, in Sophocles 's Oedipus Rex (from which the theory derives its name) Oedipus, who is abandoned by his parents at birth, is unaware of his relationship to them. Ultimately, he kills his father and marries and begets children with his mother.
The Oedipus complex was used by Freud and Jung to explain a young man 's feelings of anger and competition toward his father. Carl Jung developed a similar theory called the Electra Complex to explain the hostility some young women exhibited toward their mothers. He named the complex after the Greek myth of Electra, who encouraged her brother, Orestes, to kill their mother, Clytemnestra, in order to avenge the death of their father, Agamemnon. According to Jung, a young girl exhibits the Electra Complex when she desires a penis so she can be like her father; she then blames her mother for castrating her. To complicate matters even more, she seeks to regain her penis, she believes by becoming pregnant by her father. In the meantime, her hostility toward her mother intensifies. Later, when the girl reaches puberty, she aligns herself with her mother and internalizes her mother 's mannerisms and behavior.
Freud 's and Jung 's theories on childhood sexuality have been challenged in recent decades. Nonetheless, their attention to unusual relationships between parents and children has provided fruitful tools for exploring these relationships in literature.
In contemporary literature, unlike in Greek tragedy, readers do not expect to find an actual marriage to the mother or the literal murder of a parent by the child. Contemporary literature may, however, depict unusually strong feelings between a male character and his mother or a female character and her father. For example, in The Once and Future King: The Queen of Air and Darkness (1939), by T. H. White, Morgause 's son Agravaine clearly has an unusual if not an unhealthy relationship with his mother. A psychological critic might conclude that Agravaine never got past the Oedipus complex in his childhood and so was attempting to fulfill his desire to make love to his mother. Agravaine defends her the way a lover would defend his loved one; he even kills a unicorn to please her.
Another example occurs in D. H. Lawrence 's "The Rocking Horse Winner" (1926), when young Paul becomes obsessed with betting on horse races to win money for his mother. His need to provide for her suggests an Oedipal desire to take his father 's place in her affections.
Symbolic expressions of the unconscious mind can be revealed through the characters ' actions and through images and figurative language. For example, Hamlet 's response to his mother in the bedroom in Act 3, Scene 4 when he confronts her about her hasty marriage to his uncle is full of sexual imagery. He shows an unusual interest in his mother 's sexuality during this exchange when he chastises her for marrying her husband 's brother (Hamlet 3.4.91–94):
…but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew 'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty,—
A text can also contain phallic and yonic symbols expressed by images that look like a penis or vagina. Phallic images include the swords, lances, and pikes of knights and soldiers; yonic references include boxes (perhaps the origins of the myth of Pandora), tunnels, closed rooms, the envelope of a love letter, flowers given to a loved one, or even, in Dan Brown 's The Da Vinci Code (2003), the letter V. A psychological application could consider phallic imagery as a sign of dominance over the female characters, while yonic imagery could demonstrate a woman 's struggle to gain power.
Key Components of Psychological Criticism * The author 's or characters ' unconscious should be recognized as distinct from their conscious mind. As a result, the psychological critic will pay close attention to the author 's or characters ' unconscious motives and feelings. * The unconscious motives are privileged, because they are what the text is really about. The psychological critic will apply Freudian terminology to these motives and feelings. * The literary text is interpreted within a psychological context and disregards social or historical context that focuses on social or class conflict.
Application Examples
In the following short essay on Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein (1818), a student applies Freud 's theories of the id, the ego, and superego to the novel 's main character, Victor Frankenstein.
A Freudian Reading of Frankenstein
Psychological criticism examines the complexity of the human psyche in a consideration of the behaviors of literary characters. Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein is a rich literary depiction of the human psyche. Approaching this text critically, readers would discover that the application of psychological theories, particularly those proposed by Sigmund Freud, is worthwhile.
Freud divides the human mind into three interdependent parts. The id, ego, and superego are composed of one 's passions, reason, and conscience, respectively. According to Freud, the reasoning abilities of the ego and the morality encompassed in the superego are intended to balance the potentially overwhelming desires of the id.
Shelley 's main character, Victor Frankenstein, presents an example of what happens when these three elements do not work together harmoniously. Frankenstein 's desires and reason are often dichotomous elements that war against each other rather than strike a healthy balance.
Despite his realization that human passion is derived from emotions that he describes as transitory (Shelley 59), Victor Frankenstein does not yield to reason but continues his task of creating a living mortal. He is even disgusted with his efforts but his id is in control, fed by an overwhelming desire for power and glory unchecked by logic. His ego is unable to suppress these desires. At its completion, the creature is described as "the living monument of presumption and rash ignorance" (Shelley 78). Victor is a slave to his own passions, unable to control his desire to play God, even at the near expense of his sanity and ultimately the safety of all those he loves. The creature is Victor 's unchecked passions in the flesh, which become even more powerful and able to destroy. Victor then becomes a slave to the creature as well, forever bound to his passions and their results.
Victor 's desire for a successful end to the pain one suffers after the loss of a loved one is noble in itself. However, the desires of the id require the balance provided by the ego. According to author Ann B. Dobie, the ego 's "function is to make the id 's energies nondestructive by postponing them or diverting them into socially acceptable actions" (53). The creation of a being without foreknowledge of its disposition or any intention of attending to its needs is neither socially acceptable nor responsible. Victor 's id overrides all reason presented by his ego. When his ego supposes that "passion disrupts peace," his id insists that passions "are necessary to pursue in order to accomplish something" (Dobie 59). Even while acknowledging that his passions are poorly chosen and directed, Victor still pursues them at his and mankind 's expense.
While most of the novel focuses on the obvious struggle between the ego and the id, the superego is also present. The superego is the conscience and forms the foundation for the reasoning and logic expressed by the ego. Unfortunately for Victor, his conscience appears too late, emerging only during his season of loss.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley creates a literary masterpiece of human anguish and inner turmoil. Victor Frankenstein 's battles with his id, ego, and superego lend themselves easily to a psychoanalytical approach, providing new insight into the intricacies of the human mind.
Works Cited
Dobie, Ann B. Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism. 2nd ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1831. 2nd ed. Ed. Johanna M. Smith. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 2000. Print.
The following student essay takes a Freudian approach to Tennessee Williams 's play The Glass Menagerie (1941). As you read the essay, note the student 's thorough analysis of Amanda Wingfield 's extensive use of defense mechanisms.
Psychological Analysis of Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie
Amanda Wingfield is "a little woman of great but confused vitality clinging frantically to another time and place" (Williams 287). She is a dedicated, if often misguided, mother. She has been dealt some hard blows in life and as a result clings to the glory days of her past while displacing her feelings, hopes, and dreams onto her children.
Throughout the play, Amanda displaces her loneliness, disappointment, and sense of betrayal onto her son, Tom. This is evidenced by her constant nagging of him. Amanda continually criticizes Tom for his lack of manners when he eats, his smoking, and his frequent absences at night. Amanda does not trust Tom when he tells her that he goes to the movies. She is convinced that he is up to no good, insisting, "Nobody in their right mind goes to the movies as often as you pretend to" (Williams 301). Amanda constantly compares Tom to her absent husband, arguing that Tom is "taking after his ways! Staying out late" and drinking (Williams 307). She orders him to "overcome selfishness," telling him, "Self, self, self is all that you ever think of!" (Williams 309). Amanda refuses to recognize that Tom has sacrificed his own dreams as he works to support their family. She cannot accept Tom as an individual. Instead, she sees him as a reflection of her absent husband and pushes him away with her criticizing.
Amanda places many of her old hopes and dreams onto Laura. Amanda has many fond memories of being an eligible bachelorette receiving gentlemen callers and priding herself on her art of conversation exclaiming, "It wasn 't enough to be possessed of a pretty face and a graceful figure—although I wasn 't slighted in either respect" (Williams 292). She remembers all of the prestigious callers that she once received and dreams of the type of life she would have had if she had married one of them. Amanda sees her second chance at success in Laura, projecting her dreams on her to the point that she sees them as the same person. This is evident when she says, "We won 't have a business career—we 've given that up because it gave us nervous indigestion!" (Williams 297). She refuses, however, to recognize Laura 's limited opportunities, brushing aside Laura 's physical defect as if it is of no consequence even though it is the main cause of Laura 's crippling insecurities. Amanda insists, "When people have some slight disadvantage like that, they cultivate other things to make up for it—develop charm—and vivacity—and—charm!" (Williams 298). She wants Laura to be able to flirt and find herself a husband the way she was able to do in her youth, refusing to recognize her daughter 's social awkwardness. When Jim, the gentleman caller, comes to the house to visit, Amanda puts on a dress from her past, an inappropriate relic from her youth. The evening does not turn out as she had expected, however, and after being confronted with the reality of Laura 's insecurities, Amanda 's dreams begin to fade.
Throughout the play, Amanda sugar coats the reality of her situation and tries to mold her children into who she thinks they should be. Speaking to Tom she says, "Try and you will succeed! Why you—you 're just full of natural endowments! Both of my children—they 're unusual children! Don 't you think I know it? I 'm so—proud!" (Williams 306). These words make her sound like an understanding and supportive mother, but in the same conversation she scolds Tom for not finding satisfaction with his lot in life.
At the end of the play, all of her frustration culminates in a moment of clear-sightedness concerning her and Laura 's situation, but she continues to blame her son for their troubles, telling him, "Go to the movies, go! Don 't think about us, a mother deserted, an unmarried sister who 's crippled and has no job! Don 't let anything interfere with your selfish pleasure!" (Williams 346). Amanda can no longer hide behind her old dreams and must face a hard dose of reality.
Amanda Wingfield has a difficult life. She married a man who abandoned her and their two children. She had to raise them on her own and live a life that she never expected. She found comfort in the memories of the past and tried to pass on those hopes to her children. Unfortunately, this made her cruel at times when her children could not measure up to her expectations. If Amanda had been able to deal with her feelings of disappointment in a different way, life in that house could have been very different. Instead of leaving the portrait of her husband up like some sort of twisted idol, perhaps she should have buried him with the memories of what could have been and lived the life that she had been given.
Work Cited
Williams, Tennessee. "The Glass Menagerie." 1944. Drama: A Pocket Anthology. 4th ed. R. S. Gwynn. New York: Pearson, 2009. 287–347. Print.
A Psychological Toolbox: How You Can Apply Psychological Theory to Literature
Psychological applications work best with novels, plays, and short stories, and in poems that contain substantive character development or conflict between characters. They can also be used with poems that contain phallic or yonic symbols.
The first step in applying psychological theory is to carefully read the text. Then, during a second reading, begin to ask questions about the characters ' actions and motivations and notice any symbols or figurative language: * What conflicts does the main character face? * What is the character 's response to these conflicts? * What motivates these responses? * What psychological theories can help us understand the character 's actions and motivations? * What are the dominant images? * What figurative language is used? * Can the words and images be regarded as symbols related to psychological theory?
As you answer these questions, think about the effect these elements have on the meaning of the text.
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II. Archetypal/Mythological Criticism
History and Development
Archetypal criticism, also referred to as mythological criticism, focuses on recurrent, universal patterns in literature that reveal our common humanity. The school developed from the psychological theories of Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961), a student of Freud. Jung, like Freud, believed in the power of the unconscious to influence behavior. Also like Freud, Jung proposed that the human psyche has three main components, but Jung 's components were markedly different: the personal conscious, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious. He broke from his mentor 's insistence on the individuality of each human 's unconscious mind in his Psychology of the Unconscious (1912). He determined that we share elements of this part of our psyche with each other, a characteristic he called the collective unconscious.
The personal conscious is aware of the present world, but when the present becomes the past, the memory is then stored in the personal unconscious. On a deeper level the collective unconscious contains universal, ancestral human memories. Jung explains in his essay "The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious" (1959) that "in contrast to the personal psyche, [the collective unconscious] has contents and modes of behaviour that are more or less the same everywhere and in all individuals" (pp. 3–4).
These collective memories take the form of archetypes (recurring patterns and figures) and myths that are passed down through generations. These patterns, figures, and stories become recognizable symbols in the subconscious mind. For example, darkness is often perceived as a symbol of evil, most likely because we are diurnal animals who see very poorly at night. The woods are classically seen as evil for much the same reason—the lions, tigers, and bears that live in those woods are capable of killing us. There are also universal characters that appear in the human story, such as the hero, the princess, the warrior, the temptress, the innocent, and the nightmare creature.
Jung recognized that these archetypes inevitably appear in literature. In his essay "On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry" (1922) he argues, "The archetype is a figure—be it a demon, a human being, or a process—that constantly recurs in the course of history and appears wherever creative fantasy is freely expressed" (80).
Jung determined that the most powerful archetypes that reside in our psyche, and that also are represented in literature, are the shadow, the anima, and the persona.
The shadow represents our darker side, which we fear and try to repress. This element of our personality becomes the main focus of Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness (1902), as it depicts the devastating effects of colonialism on both the colonized and the colonizers. The shadow is transformed into one part of a split personality in Robert Louis Stevenson 's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), a supernatural tale of a man who drinks a potion that transforms him temporarily into a devilish creature.
The anima is our life-force or soul, which contains both masculine and feminine qualities. Shakespeare illustrated this duality in his play As You Like It (1623) through one of the main characters, Rosalind, who spends much of the play disguised as a young man with a masculine appearance yet, on occasion, feminine displays of emotion. Virginia Woolf also created a character with both masculine and feminine qualities in her novel Orlando (1928): its title character transforms inexplicably from a man into a woman.
The final part, the persona, is the face we display to the world. This "face" can sometimes be a mask that hides our true self. Masks become an important element of Edgar Allan Poe 's "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846) when, during a carnival, the main character 's outward display hides his murderous intentions.
All three parts have both collective and personal elements. For example, often a man 's feminine qualities are not acknowledged by his conscious mind, and we don 't always recognize how we present ourselves to others. Like Freud, Jung insisted that to maintain a healthy mental state, all the parts of the psyche must be balanced, a state Jung called individuation.
Jung 's theories on archetypes were later promoted and expanded by the preeminent literary critic Northrup Frye (1912–1991) and cultural scholar Joseph Campbell (1904–1987), whose writings helped endorse archetypal criticism as an important literary school. In his famous study Anatomy of Criticism (1957), Frye insists that all literature contains the archetypes of human experiences and desires. In The Critical Path: An Essay on the Social Context of Literary Criticism (1971), Frye defines a literary archetype as "the recurring use of certain images or image clusters" (23). He claims that archetypical criticism helps readers see the underlying structure of a literary work, as archetypes form organizing patterns that lead to theme and meaning. These patterns resonate with readers because they reflect universal human concerns.
Joseph Campbell took the idea of archetypes one step further with his theory of the monomyth, or "one myth"—the hero 's journey. After testing Jung 's theories on archetypes by exploring numerous cultures and their myths and literatures, Campbell discovered that similar stories with similar structures are handed down within every culture and so contain fundamental truths about human nature and experience. Among these stories are the creation and the flood myths, but the most prominent is the journey of the hero, also called "the epic hero." In the introduction to his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Campbell writes, "a hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won; the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man" (30). A cinematic example of this hero is Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (1977). Here, Luke travels on a magic flight using only the Force to attack the Death Star and achieves victory when he destroys it, but needs rescue from without (Han Solo flying in at the last minute to drive off Darth Vader). Luke gains control over the Force, which he previously failed to do, achieving his "ultimate boon."
Sometimes the boon is knowledge gained by the hero and then passed on to others. For example, Arthur, in the film Excalibur (1981), accomplishes a boon by recognizing the Christian God 's power over mankind. Dorothy 's boon in The Wizard of Oz (1939) is her recognition of the importance of home. Most often men become epic heroes, although there are some exceptions, such as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).
Key Components of Archetypal Criticism * The archetypal critic will pay close attention to any recurring patterns or figures in a story or poem and will determine if they represent archetypes. * The archetypal critic will then examine how these archetypes help create the story or poem 's structure. * The relationship between archetypal elements and universal themes will be explored.
Application Examples
The hero, along with other types of main characters, can experience various archetypal situations, including the quest, the initiation and transformation, the fall from innocence, and death and rebirth. Many of the heroes in Greek mythology, such as Hercules, Theseus, and Jason follow this archetypal pattern.
In a modern retelling of the hero myth, Harry Potter undergoes many initiations in his first year as a student in Hogwarts, such as having to ride in a rowboat across the lake rather than take carriages like upperclassmen do and having the sorting hat decide which house he will live in. Throughout the series, Harry finds himself on numerous quests to accomplish various goals, such as identifying the Prisoner of Azkaban and locating the sorcerer 's stone. As Harry grows older, we see him progress from the innocence of childhood and first-year wizardry into the more worldly teenage years and mastering of magic, encompassing both a fall from innocence and a transformation. Harry symbolically dies on several occasions—often signified by his entrance to an underworld or subterranean setting—followed by a return to the surface, such as when the phoenix swoops into the underground world and rescues Harry from certain death in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003).
The character of Sarty Snopes in William Faulkner 's short story "Barn Burning" (1938), tries to convince his father not to burn down a barn, but then loses his innocence when he warns the barn 's owner, and his father is shot as a result. At the end of the story, he must face alone the consequences of his actions.
Death and rebirth become one of the focal points of Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798). After the title character shoots an albatross, his ship is becalmed in a deathlike state until he experiences a spiritual rebirth, which brings the winds back to fill up the sails.
Archetypal images in the plot often take the form of polarities, such as good versus evil, as in Luke Skywalker 's battle with Darth Vader. Images of light versus darkness appear whenever the classic good guy wears a white hat while the bad guy wears a black one. Water versus desert become dominant archetypes in the post-apocalyptic movie The Book of Eli (2010), in which Eli travels through the desert filled with evil people to arrive at Alcatraz—an island—where the remaining intelligent people reside. Heights versus depths become the polarities in mythology that includes tensions between Mount Olympus, the home of the gods, and human earth.
The student essay that follows explores the processes of initiation and transformation. The author applies archetypal criticism to three short stories: the Grimm brothers ' "Little Red Cap" (1812), Stephen King 's "The Man in the Black Suit" (1995), and Nathaniel Hawthorne 's "Young Goodman Brown" (1835).
Initiation and Transformation: From Faith to the Fall
Throughout the ages, man has grappled with the concept of good and evil. Since western society developed from a Judeo-Christian influence, most of what we read in our literature is based upon the concepts that these religious faiths propagate. Way back in the fourteenth century, Dante 's classic work The Inferno (c. 1308) defined a dominant view of God, the devil, and how mankind can be either redeemed or damned by his faith—or lack thereof—in God and in his adherence to the moral and ethical teachings of the Christian Bible. Some literature has presented allegorical religious transformations, such as Pilgrim 's Progress (1678) by John Bunyan. Other works that deal with this subject focus on a believer who falls away from faith and into sin. Often these texts present a struggle to define sin or evil itself.
Many religions promote the idea that good people are religious and those who stray from faith are evil. The stories analyzed in this essay question this definition by way of an archetypal plot referred to as "initiation and transformation." This plot may be explained in the following way: "The hero undergoes a hazing to pass from ignorance and immaturity to social and spiritual adulthood. It usually occurs in three stages: separation, transformation, and return and thusly may include the fall and death/rebirth" (Roden 1). The hero in these stories follows a path of innocent belief to a realm of knowledge that puts his or her faith in jeopardy. Knowledge, it seems, is the end result of the process of maturation, and this knowledge leads not to enlightenment and spiritual peace but to doubt.
The tale of "Little Red Cap" as told by the Grimm Brothers in 1812, typifies the young innocent who leaves home on an errand for her mother. Her mother, an archetype of the Good Mother, represents Red Cap 's spiritual foundation, or faith. She gives her daughter instruction and warnings to carry with her on her journey. She says, "Mind your manners and give [grandmother] my greetings. Behave yourself on the way, and do not leave the path, or you might fall down and break the glass" (Grimm 2). Unfortunately, the Good Mother fails to warn her about the dangers of evil, and Red Cap is unprepared for the encounter she has with the wolf along the path to her grandmother 's house.
Centuries later, Gary, a young farm boy begins a similar journey in Stephen King 's "The Man in the Black Suit." Gary 's mother makes him promise "not to go any further than where [the river] forks" (King 49). The mother is concerned because she has already lost a son due to an allergic reaction to a bee. The boy notes that his mother refuses to return to church because she cannot deal with the manner of her son 's death, resulting in a loss of faith that affects Gary profoundly (King 47). Perhaps his mother would have typified the boy 's faith had she continued to be faithful on her own, but the real archetype of faith is the small Scottie dog, Candy Bill, who "was standing by alertly beside [his mother 's] feet," representing the innocent faith the nine-year-old still clung to (King 48). Unfortunately, Candy Bill refuses to come along on Gary 's fishing trip, and though he is reluctant to leave without the dog, he nonetheless leaves faith behind in pursuit of independence and a desire to prove his transition to adulthood. He thereby takes the archetypal path to his destination with apprehension.
This concept of faith left behind is mirrored in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's story "Young Goodman Brown." The young believer who embarks one night on a journey into the forest knows he is headed for a path of greater knowledge, though he perceives it to be evil, and he truly dreads the thought of leaving his wife, Faith, behind as he says, "Well, she 's a blessed angel on earth, and after this one night I 'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven" (Hawthorne 292). He desperately fears that the knowledge he is about to gain will ultimately pollute his faith yet he feels compelled to continue. The path into the woods confirms his fears and is wrought with the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude. (Hawthorne 292)
Goodman Brown realizes that by leaving faith behind, he has become vulnerable to the evil he thought he could conquer in his pursuit of knowledge.
The heroes in each of these stories meet with the ultimate adversary—the devil—after a moment of distraction when they leave faith behind and drop their guard. Though the outward appearance is somewhat different, we recognize the devil from several archetypal symbols. Each antagonist is dressed in disguise: the wolf, a man in a black suit, and a companion in the image of Goodman Brown 's grandfather. Goodman Brown 's devil is known by his serpent staff, in King 's story by his bright red eyes and foul stench, and in the Grimm fairy tale by his wickedness.
In each archetypal initiation there is a moment of truth when the hero discovers knowledge, loses his or her innocence, or in the case of the three stories mentioned, loses his faith. Red Cap recognizes her loss when she sees that who she thought was her grandmother is really the wolf in disguise. Her mother never warns her of this trickster, and she is left to fend for herself. The devil tries to destroy Gary 's faith in his mother completely when he tells him, "It was your mother who passed that fatal weakness on to your brother Dan; you got some of it, but you also got a protection from your father that poor Dan somehow missed" (King 57). Since his mother typifies faith on the verge of being lost, Gary 's hope of immunity from the evil is lost with her if she dies. The devil gives the final blow when he says, "do you know what Candy Bill did? That little rascal licked away her tears. First on one side … and then on the other" (King 57). He is in essence saying that Gary 's last remnant of hope has been wiped away, so what recourse has Gary but to give into the belief that his mother is dead—which the devil attempts to convince Gary has already happened, claiming she lies dying on the kitchen floor as they speak—and he is about to be consumed by evil. Goodman Brown 's faith is destroyed when his wife, Faith, is led into the woods to complete the evil ritual with all the other people he thought to be pious. Her pink ribbon, which is a mixture of white for purity and red for evil, falling and getting caught on a tree branch (296) symbolizes his last hope falling. In that pivotal moment he resolves to face the evil on his own when he cries out, "My Faith is gone!… There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given" (Hawthorne 296).
The pivotal moment is past, and now our heroes must decide how to react. With faith in their religious foundation lost, will they give up and let the evil take them, or will some other out present itself? Will they come back to faith, or will their faith be utterly lost? In "Red Cap" and "The Man in the Black Suit," the heroes are sent help. For Red Cap it is the huntsman who comes and cuts her out of the wolf 's belly. For Gary, it is his father. Both of these characters represent the savior archetype. The narrator in King 's story alludes to this archetype when he writes that "in his [the father 's] other hand he had his creel, the one with the ribbon my mother had woven through the handle back when Dan was still alive [before she lost faith]. DEDICATED TO JESUS, that ribbon said" (King 61). Gary 's faith is shaken, but not totally lost.
Young Goodman Brown turns to the only place he has left as he says, "look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one" (Hawthorne 299). The narrator relates that all those wicked proceedings disappear, but Goodman Brown is unsure whether he has dreamed the whole affair, or whether he truly saw his faith and foundation disappear in the throes of some hellish ritual. Therefore, he is forever scarred by his night in the woods and never fully recovers his faith in religion or in the people he once deemed pious.
The archetypal plot of these three stories is embedded in a culture influenced by religious and biblical symbolism. The story that they tell reaches out to the boundary of the imagination and seeks to defy the concept that religion is the answer to combating evil in this world. The hero in each comes to the conclusion that, at best, faith in organized religion does not save you, and at worst, perhaps evil defies even the most worthy attempt to live a good moral life. In "The Man in the Black Suit," Gary looks back on his experience with fear that perhaps he has no real protection from evil despite any good he has done in his life. He says,
I tell myself that I need not fear the Devil—that I have lived a good, kindly life, and I need not fear the Devil.… [H]owever, these thoughts have no power to ease or comfort. In the dark comes a voice which whispers that the nine-year-old boy I was had done nothing for which he might legitimately fear the devil either … and yet the Devil came. (King 69)
So the archetypal hero never truly returns to his faith, but only lives in the doubt produced by his journey from innocence to knowing.
Works Cited
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. "Little Red Cap." Ed. D. L. Ashliman. Little Red Riding Hood and other tales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 333. 1999–2008. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." Ed. Ann B. Dobie. Theory into Practice. 2nd ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. 291–300. Print.
King, Stephen. "The Man in the Black Suit." Everything 's Eventual. New York: Scribner, 2002. 45–70. Print.
Roden, Chris. "Archetypes and Archetypal Criticism." 24 September 2008. Lebanon R-3 School District. 30 October 2009. http://www.lebanon.k12.mo.us/lhs/departments/langarts/roden/archetypes%20and%20archetypal%20criticism.html#Archetypal_plot_patterns. Online.
An Archetypal Toolbox: How You Can Apply Archetypal Theory to Literature
Archetypal applications work best with literature that contains substantive character development or conflict between characters. They can also be used with poems that contain archetypal symbols.
The first step in applying archetypal theory is to carefully read the text. Then, during a second reading, begin to ask questions about its structure and plot development: * Are there any patterns and figures that recur in the text? * Can these elements be linked to character and plot archetypes? * How do these elements contribute to the structure of the work? * Does the main character display individuation? If not, what part of his/her psyche is out of balance? * What figurative language is used that can be considered archetypal? * How do these archetypal elements produce universal themes?
F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1922, "Winter Dreams," found on page 166 of Literature: A Portable Anthology. Read the story carefully first just as a story. Then, proceed to the next thread, where you will be asked to analyze the story using psychological criticism
You should also look at the brief by thorough summary of "Psychological Theories" on page 1292 of Literature: A Portable Anthology.
Cited: Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. "Little Red Cap." Ed. D. L. Ashliman. Little Red Riding Hood and other tales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 333. 1999–2008. Print. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." Ed. Ann B. Dobie. Theory into Practice. 2nd ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. 291–300. Print. King, Stephen. "The Man in the Black Suit." Everything 's Eventual. New York: Scribner, 2002. 45–70. Print.
Electra complex—the strong attachment of a daughter to her father, such that she is willing to do anything for his affection; counterpart to the Oedipus complex
Oedipus complex—the strong attachment of a son to his mother, such that he is willing to do anything for her affection; counterpart to the Electra complex phallic symbol—an image that represents a penis projection—the perception in other people of unacknowledged negative feelings about oneself repressed—blocked from conscious thought but retained in the subconscious sublimation—the transformation of feelings into something more acceptable superego—the part of the psyche that stores information about the dictates and values first of our parents and later of the society in which we live; the conscience transference—the shifting of uncomfortable feelings and emotions about one person, such as a parent, to another, less authoritative figure, such as a co-worker or a therapist yonic symbol—an image that represents a vagina
I. Psychological Criticism
History and Development
Psychological criticism examines the inner workings of the human mind and applies psychological theories to the interpretation of literature, specifically in the analysis of authors and their characters. This approach draws from the theories of several prominent experts, but most often those of Sigmund Freud (1846–1939). Freud is considered the founder of psychoanalysis, a treatment that requires patients to talk about their dreams, events from their childhoods, and their relationships with their parents in an effort to bring repressed memories and feelings out into the open. Freud had a major impact on our understanding of how the mind works, especially concerning the power the unconscious mind has over our conscious thoughts and actions.
As a student, the first thing you need to understand about applying psychological theory to literature is that you do not need to be a psychologist to use the approach. What you do need is a basic understanding of some of the key components of Freudian theory.
Freud was a leading neurologist and psychotherapist in Vienna during the latter part of the nineteenth century. His interest in his patients ' dysfunctional behaviors inspired him to study the formation, organization, and disorders of the human psyche. His theories in these areas, collected and published in works such as Studies in Hysteria (1895), The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), and The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901), dominated the field of psychotherapy during the first half of the twentieth century. Despite its technical title, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life is one of Freud 's most popular and accessible books, exploring superstition, memory lapses, slips of the tongue (known as "Freudian slips"), and other verbal and physical mistakes.
Other important psychoanalysts, including Alfred Adler, Otto Rank, and Carl Jung, built on Freud 's work in their own studies of the pathology of the human mind. In this module, we will discuss Freud 's basic tenets first, and then we will look at Jung 's theories, especially his ideas concerning archetypes, myths, and the collective unconscious.
Principles of Psychological Criticism
A psychological approach encourages a deeper understanding of the intricate inner workings of the human mind and clarifies the motivations and actions of literary characters. These insights provide readers with a better understanding of how character analyses reveal both theme and aspects of the author 's psyche.
Psychological criticism often focuses on one or more of three major Freudian ideas: * the power of the unconscious mind; * the symbolic expression of the unconscious mind through actions, images, and figurative language; and/or * the impact sexual desire has on human behavior.
Some psychoanalytic critics examine literature as a source of insight into the author of a text. In this type of analysis, which requires extensive biographical research, characters ' actions become symbolic representations of the author 's own subconscious. One example is Marie Bonaparte 's The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation (1949), in which the author argues that Poe 's characters are expressions of his own troubled psyche.
Other critics analyze fictional characters, bringing Freudian insights about human behavior into the study of how the characters act, helping readers better understand individual actions as well as social and family dynamics. These critics explore character motivations, conflicts, desires, and inclinations through textual psychological clues, especially symbolic representations of the unconscious.
Some Basic Tenets of Freudian Psychology
The Id, the Ego, and the Superego
One of Freud 's most important theories is that the mind is divided into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id contains instincts and desires, often unconscious, that motivate human behavior according to the pleasure principle, which encourages us to instantly gratify our impulses, including the strongest—the desire for sex. This part of the mind never considers the logical or ethical nature or possible effects of its impulses. The more rational part of the mind, the ego, operates on the reality principle, recognizing the sometimes-destructive consequences of the pleasure principle. In his paper "The Ego and the Id" (1923), Freud explains that the ego tries to bring in the external world through the reality principle to help control the pleasure principle that governs the id. In this sense, then, the ego acts as a mediator between the inner world of the subconscious and the outer world where the individual must interact with others. The superego, which stores information about the dictates and values first of our parents and later of the society in which we live, helps the ego control the id. The superego becomes our conscience—our sense of what is morally and ethically correct behavior. In a healthy mind, all three parts work together to maintain a balance among instant gratification, self-denial, and social dictates.
Defense Mechanisms
In addition to theories of the conscious mind, Freud developed theories about ways the subconscious mind can repress one 's desires and instincts. Freud believed defense mechanisms offer ways to avoid the painful recognition of undesirable thoughts and feelings. Defense mechanisms include the following: * Sublimation is the transformation of feelings into something more acceptable. For instance, a person might sublimate his or her feelings concerning an unresolved conflict or a past event. According to Freud, sexual desire can be sublimated into intense religious experiences. * Transference is the shifting of uncomfortable feelings and emotions about one person, such as a parent, to another, less authoritative figure, such as a co-worker or a therapist. * Projection is the perception in other people of unacknowledged negative feelings about oneself. * Displacement occurs when unconscious desires and thoughts are seen in conscious thoughts or dreams through an association with something that symbolically represents another person or event.
Freud 's Literary Theory
Freud believed that literature reflects our unconscious life through the repressed desires of the author and sometimes the characters. He was one of the first psychological critics, often applying the techniques he developed for dream interpretation to literary texts. Freud 's studies helped illuminate how literature reflects the complexities of the human mind. His critical analyses included studies of Dostoevsky 's The Brothers Karamazov (1880) and several of William Shakespeare 's plays such as A Midsummer Night 's Dream (1600), King Lear (1608), and Hamlet (1603). In a particularly famous example in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Freud determines that Hamlet is incapable of
[taking] vengeance on the man who did away with his father and took that father 's place with his mother, the man who shows him the repressed wishes of his own childhood realized. Thus the loathing which should drive him on to revenge is replaced in his by self-reproaches, by scruples of conscience, which remind him that he himself is literally no better than the sinner he is to punish. (Freud 367)
Other Concepts in Psychological Criticism
In addition to the emergence of repressed desires through defense mechanisms discussed above, a psychological approach might center on the Oedipus complex or the Electra complex, two controversial theories about children 's feelings toward their parents. Freud and Jung, who developed these theories, insist that all children exhibit these complexes at some point in their childhood but those that experience healthy psychological development are able to repress their feelings before they reach puberty. According to Freud and Jung, these complexes occur when a child is so attached to the parent of the opposite sex that he or she is willing to do anything for the affections of that opposite sex parent, including (if it were possible) killing the same-sex parent.
The failure to repress these desires can result in tragic consequences for the child and for others. For example, in Sophocles 's Oedipus Rex (from which the theory derives its name) Oedipus, who is abandoned by his parents at birth, is unaware of his relationship to them. Ultimately, he kills his father and marries and begets children with his mother.
The Oedipus complex was used by Freud and Jung to explain a young man 's feelings of anger and competition toward his father. Carl Jung developed a similar theory called the Electra Complex to explain the hostility some young women exhibited toward their mothers. He named the complex after the Greek myth of Electra, who encouraged her brother, Orestes, to kill their mother, Clytemnestra, in order to avenge the death of their father, Agamemnon. According to Jung, a young girl exhibits the Electra Complex when she desires a penis so she can be like her father; she then blames her mother for castrating her. To complicate matters even more, she seeks to regain her penis, she believes by becoming pregnant by her father. In the meantime, her hostility toward her mother intensifies. Later, when the girl reaches puberty, she aligns herself with her mother and internalizes her mother 's mannerisms and behavior.
Freud 's and Jung 's theories on childhood sexuality have been challenged in recent decades. Nonetheless, their attention to unusual relationships between parents and children has provided fruitful tools for exploring these relationships in literature.
In contemporary literature, unlike in Greek tragedy, readers do not expect to find an actual marriage to the mother or the literal murder of a parent by the child. Contemporary literature may, however, depict unusually strong feelings between a male character and his mother or a female character and her father. For example, in The Once and Future King: The Queen of Air and Darkness (1939), by T. H. White, Morgause 's son Agravaine clearly has an unusual if not an unhealthy relationship with his mother. A psychological critic might conclude that Agravaine never got past the Oedipus complex in his childhood and so was attempting to fulfill his desire to make love to his mother. Agravaine defends her the way a lover would defend his loved one; he even kills a unicorn to please her.
Another example occurs in D. H. Lawrence 's "The Rocking Horse Winner" (1926), when young Paul becomes obsessed with betting on horse races to win money for his mother. His need to provide for her suggests an Oedipal desire to take his father 's place in her affections.
Symbolic expressions of the unconscious mind can be revealed through the characters ' actions and through images and figurative language. For example, Hamlet 's response to his mother in the bedroom in Act 3, Scene 4 when he confronts her about her hasty marriage to his uncle is full of sexual imagery. He shows an unusual interest in his mother 's sexuality during this exchange when he chastises her for marrying her husband 's brother (Hamlet 3.4.91–94):
…but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew 'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty,—
A text can also contain phallic and yonic symbols expressed by images that look like a penis or vagina. Phallic images include the swords, lances, and pikes of knights and soldiers; yonic references include boxes (perhaps the origins of the myth of Pandora), tunnels, closed rooms, the envelope of a love letter, flowers given to a loved one, or even, in Dan Brown 's The Da Vinci Code (2003), the letter V. A psychological application could consider phallic imagery as a sign of dominance over the female characters, while yonic imagery could demonstrate a woman 's struggle to gain power.
Key Components of Psychological Criticism * The author 's or characters ' unconscious should be recognized as distinct from their conscious mind. As a result, the psychological critic will pay close attention to the author 's or characters ' unconscious motives and feelings. * The unconscious motives are privileged, because they are what the text is really about. The psychological critic will apply Freudian terminology to these motives and feelings. * The literary text is interpreted within a psychological context and disregards social or historical context that focuses on social or class conflict.
Application Examples
In the following short essay on Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein (1818), a student applies Freud 's theories of the id, the ego, and superego to the novel 's main character, Victor Frankenstein.
A Freudian Reading of Frankenstein
Psychological criticism examines the complexity of the human psyche in a consideration of the behaviors of literary characters. Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein is a rich literary depiction of the human psyche. Approaching this text critically, readers would discover that the application of psychological theories, particularly those proposed by Sigmund Freud, is worthwhile.
Freud divides the human mind into three interdependent parts. The id, ego, and superego are composed of one 's passions, reason, and conscience, respectively. According to Freud, the reasoning abilities of the ego and the morality encompassed in the superego are intended to balance the potentially overwhelming desires of the id.
Shelley 's main character, Victor Frankenstein, presents an example of what happens when these three elements do not work together harmoniously. Frankenstein 's desires and reason are often dichotomous elements that war against each other rather than strike a healthy balance.
Despite his realization that human passion is derived from emotions that he describes as transitory (Shelley 59), Victor Frankenstein does not yield to reason but continues his task of creating a living mortal. He is even disgusted with his efforts but his id is in control, fed by an overwhelming desire for power and glory unchecked by logic. His ego is unable to suppress these desires. At its completion, the creature is described as "the living monument of presumption and rash ignorance" (Shelley 78). Victor is a slave to his own passions, unable to control his desire to play God, even at the near expense of his sanity and ultimately the safety of all those he loves. The creature is Victor 's unchecked passions in the flesh, which become even more powerful and able to destroy. Victor then becomes a slave to the creature as well, forever bound to his passions and their results.
Victor 's desire for a successful end to the pain one suffers after the loss of a loved one is noble in itself. However, the desires of the id require the balance provided by the ego. According to author Ann B. Dobie, the ego 's "function is to make the id 's energies nondestructive by postponing them or diverting them into socially acceptable actions" (53). The creation of a being without foreknowledge of its disposition or any intention of attending to its needs is neither socially acceptable nor responsible. Victor 's id overrides all reason presented by his ego. When his ego supposes that "passion disrupts peace," his id insists that passions "are necessary to pursue in order to accomplish something" (Dobie 59). Even while acknowledging that his passions are poorly chosen and directed, Victor still pursues them at his and mankind 's expense.
While most of the novel focuses on the obvious struggle between the ego and the id, the superego is also present. The superego is the conscience and forms the foundation for the reasoning and logic expressed by the ego. Unfortunately for Victor, his conscience appears too late, emerging only during his season of loss.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley creates a literary masterpiece of human anguish and inner turmoil. Victor Frankenstein 's battles with his id, ego, and superego lend themselves easily to a psychoanalytical approach, providing new insight into the intricacies of the human mind.
Works Cited
Dobie, Ann B. Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism. 2nd ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1831. 2nd ed. Ed. Johanna M. Smith. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 2000. Print.
The following student essay takes a Freudian approach to Tennessee Williams 's play The Glass Menagerie (1941). As you read the essay, note the student 's thorough analysis of Amanda Wingfield 's extensive use of defense mechanisms.
Psychological Analysis of Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie
Amanda Wingfield is "a little woman of great but confused vitality clinging frantically to another time and place" (Williams 287). She is a dedicated, if often misguided, mother. She has been dealt some hard blows in life and as a result clings to the glory days of her past while displacing her feelings, hopes, and dreams onto her children.
Throughout the play, Amanda displaces her loneliness, disappointment, and sense of betrayal onto her son, Tom. This is evidenced by her constant nagging of him. Amanda continually criticizes Tom for his lack of manners when he eats, his smoking, and his frequent absences at night. Amanda does not trust Tom when he tells her that he goes to the movies. She is convinced that he is up to no good, insisting, "Nobody in their right mind goes to the movies as often as you pretend to" (Williams 301). Amanda constantly compares Tom to her absent husband, arguing that Tom is "taking after his ways! Staying out late" and drinking (Williams 307). She orders him to "overcome selfishness," telling him, "Self, self, self is all that you ever think of!" (Williams 309). Amanda refuses to recognize that Tom has sacrificed his own dreams as he works to support their family. She cannot accept Tom as an individual. Instead, she sees him as a reflection of her absent husband and pushes him away with her criticizing.
Amanda places many of her old hopes and dreams onto Laura. Amanda has many fond memories of being an eligible bachelorette receiving gentlemen callers and priding herself on her art of conversation exclaiming, "It wasn 't enough to be possessed of a pretty face and a graceful figure—although I wasn 't slighted in either respect" (Williams 292). She remembers all of the prestigious callers that she once received and dreams of the type of life she would have had if she had married one of them. Amanda sees her second chance at success in Laura, projecting her dreams on her to the point that she sees them as the same person. This is evident when she says, "We won 't have a business career—we 've given that up because it gave us nervous indigestion!" (Williams 297). She refuses, however, to recognize Laura 's limited opportunities, brushing aside Laura 's physical defect as if it is of no consequence even though it is the main cause of Laura 's crippling insecurities. Amanda insists, "When people have some slight disadvantage like that, they cultivate other things to make up for it—develop charm—and vivacity—and—charm!" (Williams 298). She wants Laura to be able to flirt and find herself a husband the way she was able to do in her youth, refusing to recognize her daughter 's social awkwardness. When Jim, the gentleman caller, comes to the house to visit, Amanda puts on a dress from her past, an inappropriate relic from her youth. The evening does not turn out as she had expected, however, and after being confronted with the reality of Laura 's insecurities, Amanda 's dreams begin to fade.
Throughout the play, Amanda sugar coats the reality of her situation and tries to mold her children into who she thinks they should be. Speaking to Tom she says, "Try and you will succeed! Why you—you 're just full of natural endowments! Both of my children—they 're unusual children! Don 't you think I know it? I 'm so—proud!" (Williams 306). These words make her sound like an understanding and supportive mother, but in the same conversation she scolds Tom for not finding satisfaction with his lot in life.
At the end of the play, all of her frustration culminates in a moment of clear-sightedness concerning her and Laura 's situation, but she continues to blame her son for their troubles, telling him, "Go to the movies, go! Don 't think about us, a mother deserted, an unmarried sister who 's crippled and has no job! Don 't let anything interfere with your selfish pleasure!" (Williams 346). Amanda can no longer hide behind her old dreams and must face a hard dose of reality.
Amanda Wingfield has a difficult life. She married a man who abandoned her and their two children. She had to raise them on her own and live a life that she never expected. She found comfort in the memories of the past and tried to pass on those hopes to her children. Unfortunately, this made her cruel at times when her children could not measure up to her expectations. If Amanda had been able to deal with her feelings of disappointment in a different way, life in that house could have been very different. Instead of leaving the portrait of her husband up like some sort of twisted idol, perhaps she should have buried him with the memories of what could have been and lived the life that she had been given.
Work Cited
Williams, Tennessee. "The Glass Menagerie." 1944. Drama: A Pocket Anthology. 4th ed. R. S. Gwynn. New York: Pearson, 2009. 287–347. Print.
A Psychological Toolbox: How You Can Apply Psychological Theory to Literature
Psychological applications work best with novels, plays, and short stories, and in poems that contain substantive character development or conflict between characters. They can also be used with poems that contain phallic or yonic symbols.
The first step in applying psychological theory is to carefully read the text. Then, during a second reading, begin to ask questions about the characters ' actions and motivations and notice any symbols or figurative language: * What conflicts does the main character face? * What is the character 's response to these conflicts? * What motivates these responses? * What psychological theories can help us understand the character 's actions and motivations? * What are the dominant images? * What figurative language is used? * Can the words and images be regarded as symbols related to psychological theory?
As you answer these questions, think about the effect these elements have on the meaning of the text.
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II. Archetypal/Mythological Criticism
History and Development
Archetypal criticism, also referred to as mythological criticism, focuses on recurrent, universal patterns in literature that reveal our common humanity. The school developed from the psychological theories of Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961), a student of Freud. Jung, like Freud, believed in the power of the unconscious to influence behavior. Also like Freud, Jung proposed that the human psyche has three main components, but Jung 's components were markedly different: the personal conscious, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious. He broke from his mentor 's insistence on the individuality of each human 's unconscious mind in his Psychology of the Unconscious (1912). He determined that we share elements of this part of our psyche with each other, a characteristic he called the collective unconscious.
The personal conscious is aware of the present world, but when the present becomes the past, the memory is then stored in the personal unconscious. On a deeper level the collective unconscious contains universal, ancestral human memories. Jung explains in his essay "The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious" (1959) that "in contrast to the personal psyche, [the collective unconscious] has contents and modes of behaviour that are more or less the same everywhere and in all individuals" (pp. 3–4).
These collective memories take the form of archetypes (recurring patterns and figures) and myths that are passed down through generations. These patterns, figures, and stories become recognizable symbols in the subconscious mind. For example, darkness is often perceived as a symbol of evil, most likely because we are diurnal animals who see very poorly at night. The woods are classically seen as evil for much the same reason—the lions, tigers, and bears that live in those woods are capable of killing us. There are also universal characters that appear in the human story, such as the hero, the princess, the warrior, the temptress, the innocent, and the nightmare creature.
Jung recognized that these archetypes inevitably appear in literature. In his essay "On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry" (1922) he argues, "The archetype is a figure—be it a demon, a human being, or a process—that constantly recurs in the course of history and appears wherever creative fantasy is freely expressed" (80).
Jung determined that the most powerful archetypes that reside in our psyche, and that also are represented in literature, are the shadow, the anima, and the persona.
The shadow represents our darker side, which we fear and try to repress. This element of our personality becomes the main focus of Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness (1902), as it depicts the devastating effects of colonialism on both the colonized and the colonizers. The shadow is transformed into one part of a split personality in Robert Louis Stevenson 's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), a supernatural tale of a man who drinks a potion that transforms him temporarily into a devilish creature.
The anima is our life-force or soul, which contains both masculine and feminine qualities. Shakespeare illustrated this duality in his play As You Like It (1623) through one of the main characters, Rosalind, who spends much of the play disguised as a young man with a masculine appearance yet, on occasion, feminine displays of emotion. Virginia Woolf also created a character with both masculine and feminine qualities in her novel Orlando (1928): its title character transforms inexplicably from a man into a woman.
The final part, the persona, is the face we display to the world. This "face" can sometimes be a mask that hides our true self. Masks become an important element of Edgar Allan Poe 's "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846) when, during a carnival, the main character 's outward display hides his murderous intentions.
All three parts have both collective and personal elements. For example, often a man 's feminine qualities are not acknowledged by his conscious mind, and we don 't always recognize how we present ourselves to others. Like Freud, Jung insisted that to maintain a healthy mental state, all the parts of the psyche must be balanced, a state Jung called individuation.
Jung 's theories on archetypes were later promoted and expanded by the preeminent literary critic Northrup Frye (1912–1991) and cultural scholar Joseph Campbell (1904–1987), whose writings helped endorse archetypal criticism as an important literary school. In his famous study Anatomy of Criticism (1957), Frye insists that all literature contains the archetypes of human experiences and desires. In The Critical Path: An Essay on the Social Context of Literary Criticism (1971), Frye defines a literary archetype as "the recurring use of certain images or image clusters" (23). He claims that archetypical criticism helps readers see the underlying structure of a literary work, as archetypes form organizing patterns that lead to theme and meaning. These patterns resonate with readers because they reflect universal human concerns.
Joseph Campbell took the idea of archetypes one step further with his theory of the monomyth, or "one myth"—the hero 's journey. After testing Jung 's theories on archetypes by exploring numerous cultures and their myths and literatures, Campbell discovered that similar stories with similar structures are handed down within every culture and so contain fundamental truths about human nature and experience. Among these stories are the creation and the flood myths, but the most prominent is the journey of the hero, also called "the epic hero." In the introduction to his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Campbell writes, "a hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won; the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man" (30). A cinematic example of this hero is Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (1977). Here, Luke travels on a magic flight using only the Force to attack the Death Star and achieves victory when he destroys it, but needs rescue from without (Han Solo flying in at the last minute to drive off Darth Vader). Luke gains control over the Force, which he previously failed to do, achieving his "ultimate boon."
Sometimes the boon is knowledge gained by the hero and then passed on to others. For example, Arthur, in the film Excalibur (1981), accomplishes a boon by recognizing the Christian God 's power over mankind. Dorothy 's boon in The Wizard of Oz (1939) is her recognition of the importance of home. Most often men become epic heroes, although there are some exceptions, such as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).
Key Components of Archetypal Criticism * The archetypal critic will pay close attention to any recurring patterns or figures in a story or poem and will determine if they represent archetypes. * The archetypal critic will then examine how these archetypes help create the story or poem 's structure. * The relationship between archetypal elements and universal themes will be explored.
Application Examples
The hero, along with other types of main characters, can experience various archetypal situations, including the quest, the initiation and transformation, the fall from innocence, and death and rebirth. Many of the heroes in Greek mythology, such as Hercules, Theseus, and Jason follow this archetypal pattern.
In a modern retelling of the hero myth, Harry Potter undergoes many initiations in his first year as a student in Hogwarts, such as having to ride in a rowboat across the lake rather than take carriages like upperclassmen do and having the sorting hat decide which house he will live in. Throughout the series, Harry finds himself on numerous quests to accomplish various goals, such as identifying the Prisoner of Azkaban and locating the sorcerer 's stone. As Harry grows older, we see him progress from the innocence of childhood and first-year wizardry into the more worldly teenage years and mastering of magic, encompassing both a fall from innocence and a transformation. Harry symbolically dies on several occasions—often signified by his entrance to an underworld or subterranean setting—followed by a return to the surface, such as when the phoenix swoops into the underground world and rescues Harry from certain death in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003).
The character of Sarty Snopes in William Faulkner 's short story "Barn Burning" (1938), tries to convince his father not to burn down a barn, but then loses his innocence when he warns the barn 's owner, and his father is shot as a result. At the end of the story, he must face alone the consequences of his actions.
Death and rebirth become one of the focal points of Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798). After the title character shoots an albatross, his ship is becalmed in a deathlike state until he experiences a spiritual rebirth, which brings the winds back to fill up the sails.
Archetypal images in the plot often take the form of polarities, such as good versus evil, as in Luke Skywalker 's battle with Darth Vader. Images of light versus darkness appear whenever the classic good guy wears a white hat while the bad guy wears a black one. Water versus desert become dominant archetypes in the post-apocalyptic movie The Book of Eli (2010), in which Eli travels through the desert filled with evil people to arrive at Alcatraz—an island—where the remaining intelligent people reside. Heights versus depths become the polarities in mythology that includes tensions between Mount Olympus, the home of the gods, and human earth.
The student essay that follows explores the processes of initiation and transformation. The author applies archetypal criticism to three short stories: the Grimm brothers ' "Little Red Cap" (1812), Stephen King 's "The Man in the Black Suit" (1995), and Nathaniel Hawthorne 's "Young Goodman Brown" (1835).
Initiation and Transformation: From Faith to the Fall
Throughout the ages, man has grappled with the concept of good and evil. Since western society developed from a Judeo-Christian influence, most of what we read in our literature is based upon the concepts that these religious faiths propagate. Way back in the fourteenth century, Dante 's classic work The Inferno (c. 1308) defined a dominant view of God, the devil, and how mankind can be either redeemed or damned by his faith—or lack thereof—in God and in his adherence to the moral and ethical teachings of the Christian Bible. Some literature has presented allegorical religious transformations, such as Pilgrim 's Progress (1678) by John Bunyan. Other works that deal with this subject focus on a believer who falls away from faith and into sin. Often these texts present a struggle to define sin or evil itself.
Many religions promote the idea that good people are religious and those who stray from faith are evil. The stories analyzed in this essay question this definition by way of an archetypal plot referred to as "initiation and transformation." This plot may be explained in the following way: "The hero undergoes a hazing to pass from ignorance and immaturity to social and spiritual adulthood. It usually occurs in three stages: separation, transformation, and return and thusly may include the fall and death/rebirth" (Roden 1). The hero in these stories follows a path of innocent belief to a realm of knowledge that puts his or her faith in jeopardy. Knowledge, it seems, is the end result of the process of maturation, and this knowledge leads not to enlightenment and spiritual peace but to doubt.
The tale of "Little Red Cap" as told by the Grimm Brothers in 1812, typifies the young innocent who leaves home on an errand for her mother. Her mother, an archetype of the Good Mother, represents Red Cap 's spiritual foundation, or faith. She gives her daughter instruction and warnings to carry with her on her journey. She says, "Mind your manners and give [grandmother] my greetings. Behave yourself on the way, and do not leave the path, or you might fall down and break the glass" (Grimm 2). Unfortunately, the Good Mother fails to warn her about the dangers of evil, and Red Cap is unprepared for the encounter she has with the wolf along the path to her grandmother 's house.
Centuries later, Gary, a young farm boy begins a similar journey in Stephen King 's "The Man in the Black Suit." Gary 's mother makes him promise "not to go any further than where [the river] forks" (King 49). The mother is concerned because she has already lost a son due to an allergic reaction to a bee. The boy notes that his mother refuses to return to church because she cannot deal with the manner of her son 's death, resulting in a loss of faith that affects Gary profoundly (King 47). Perhaps his mother would have typified the boy 's faith had she continued to be faithful on her own, but the real archetype of faith is the small Scottie dog, Candy Bill, who "was standing by alertly beside [his mother 's] feet," representing the innocent faith the nine-year-old still clung to (King 48). Unfortunately, Candy Bill refuses to come along on Gary 's fishing trip, and though he is reluctant to leave without the dog, he nonetheless leaves faith behind in pursuit of independence and a desire to prove his transition to adulthood. He thereby takes the archetypal path to his destination with apprehension.
This concept of faith left behind is mirrored in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's story "Young Goodman Brown." The young believer who embarks one night on a journey into the forest knows he is headed for a path of greater knowledge, though he perceives it to be evil, and he truly dreads the thought of leaving his wife, Faith, behind as he says, "Well, she 's a blessed angel on earth, and after this one night I 'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven" (Hawthorne 292). He desperately fears that the knowledge he is about to gain will ultimately pollute his faith yet he feels compelled to continue. The path into the woods confirms his fears and is wrought with the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude. (Hawthorne 292)
Goodman Brown realizes that by leaving faith behind, he has become vulnerable to the evil he thought he could conquer in his pursuit of knowledge.
The heroes in each of these stories meet with the ultimate adversary—the devil—after a moment of distraction when they leave faith behind and drop their guard. Though the outward appearance is somewhat different, we recognize the devil from several archetypal symbols. Each antagonist is dressed in disguise: the wolf, a man in a black suit, and a companion in the image of Goodman Brown 's grandfather. Goodman Brown 's devil is known by his serpent staff, in King 's story by his bright red eyes and foul stench, and in the Grimm fairy tale by his wickedness.
In each archetypal initiation there is a moment of truth when the hero discovers knowledge, loses his or her innocence, or in the case of the three stories mentioned, loses his faith. Red Cap recognizes her loss when she sees that who she thought was her grandmother is really the wolf in disguise. Her mother never warns her of this trickster, and she is left to fend for herself. The devil tries to destroy Gary 's faith in his mother completely when he tells him, "It was your mother who passed that fatal weakness on to your brother Dan; you got some of it, but you also got a protection from your father that poor Dan somehow missed" (King 57). Since his mother typifies faith on the verge of being lost, Gary 's hope of immunity from the evil is lost with her if she dies. The devil gives the final blow when he says, "do you know what Candy Bill did? That little rascal licked away her tears. First on one side … and then on the other" (King 57). He is in essence saying that Gary 's last remnant of hope has been wiped away, so what recourse has Gary but to give into the belief that his mother is dead—which the devil attempts to convince Gary has already happened, claiming she lies dying on the kitchen floor as they speak—and he is about to be consumed by evil. Goodman Brown 's faith is destroyed when his wife, Faith, is led into the woods to complete the evil ritual with all the other people he thought to be pious. Her pink ribbon, which is a mixture of white for purity and red for evil, falling and getting caught on a tree branch (296) symbolizes his last hope falling. In that pivotal moment he resolves to face the evil on his own when he cries out, "My Faith is gone!… There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given" (Hawthorne 296).
The pivotal moment is past, and now our heroes must decide how to react. With faith in their religious foundation lost, will they give up and let the evil take them, or will some other out present itself? Will they come back to faith, or will their faith be utterly lost? In "Red Cap" and "The Man in the Black Suit," the heroes are sent help. For Red Cap it is the huntsman who comes and cuts her out of the wolf 's belly. For Gary, it is his father. Both of these characters represent the savior archetype. The narrator in King 's story alludes to this archetype when he writes that "in his [the father 's] other hand he had his creel, the one with the ribbon my mother had woven through the handle back when Dan was still alive [before she lost faith]. DEDICATED TO JESUS, that ribbon said" (King 61). Gary 's faith is shaken, but not totally lost.
Young Goodman Brown turns to the only place he has left as he says, "look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one" (Hawthorne 299). The narrator relates that all those wicked proceedings disappear, but Goodman Brown is unsure whether he has dreamed the whole affair, or whether he truly saw his faith and foundation disappear in the throes of some hellish ritual. Therefore, he is forever scarred by his night in the woods and never fully recovers his faith in religion or in the people he once deemed pious.
The archetypal plot of these three stories is embedded in a culture influenced by religious and biblical symbolism. The story that they tell reaches out to the boundary of the imagination and seeks to defy the concept that religion is the answer to combating evil in this world. The hero in each comes to the conclusion that, at best, faith in organized religion does not save you, and at worst, perhaps evil defies even the most worthy attempt to live a good moral life. In "The Man in the Black Suit," Gary looks back on his experience with fear that perhaps he has no real protection from evil despite any good he has done in his life. He says,
I tell myself that I need not fear the Devil—that I have lived a good, kindly life, and I need not fear the Devil.… [H]owever, these thoughts have no power to ease or comfort. In the dark comes a voice which whispers that the nine-year-old boy I was had done nothing for which he might legitimately fear the devil either … and yet the Devil came. (King 69)
So the archetypal hero never truly returns to his faith, but only lives in the doubt produced by his journey from innocence to knowing.
Works Cited
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. "Little Red Cap." Ed. D. L. Ashliman. Little Red Riding Hood and other tales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 333. 1999–2008. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." Ed. Ann B. Dobie. Theory into Practice. 2nd ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. 291–300. Print.
King, Stephen. "The Man in the Black Suit." Everything 's Eventual. New York: Scribner, 2002. 45–70. Print.
Roden, Chris. "Archetypes and Archetypal Criticism." 24 September 2008. Lebanon R-3 School District. 30 October 2009. http://www.lebanon.k12.mo.us/lhs/departments/langarts/roden/archetypes%20and%20archetypal%20criticism.html#Archetypal_plot_patterns. Online.
An Archetypal Toolbox: How You Can Apply Archetypal Theory to Literature
Archetypal applications work best with literature that contains substantive character development or conflict between characters. They can also be used with poems that contain archetypal symbols.
The first step in applying archetypal theory is to carefully read the text. Then, during a second reading, begin to ask questions about its structure and plot development: * Are there any patterns and figures that recur in the text? * Can these elements be linked to character and plot archetypes? * How do these elements contribute to the structure of the work? * Does the main character display individuation? If not, what part of his/her psyche is out of balance? * What figurative language is used that can be considered archetypal? * How do these archetypal elements produce universal themes?
F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1922, "Winter Dreams," found on page 166 of Literature: A Portable Anthology. Read the story carefully first just as a story. Then, proceed to the next thread, where you will be asked to analyze the story using psychological criticism
You should also look at the brief by thorough summary of "Psychological Theories" on page 1292 of Literature: A Portable Anthology.
Cited: Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. "Little Red Cap." Ed. D. L. Ashliman. Little Red Riding Hood and other tales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 333. 1999–2008. Print. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." Ed. Ann B. Dobie. Theory into Practice. 2nd ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. 291–300. Print. King, Stephen. "The Man in the Black Suit." Everything 's Eventual. New York: Scribner, 2002. 45–70. Print.
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