Literary Archetypes and Symbols Flashcards
What are Archetypes?
They are repeated patterns that recur in the literature of every age. Type of symbol. Universal symbols that evoke deep and sometimes unconscious responses in a reader.
Symbols Come From
- Inherited or invented.
- Most familiar symbols have been inherited, meaning, they have been handed down over time.
Carl Jung
Swiss psychologist/psychiatrist whose study of the human mind resulted in two basic concepts. Collective unconsciousness and archetypes.
The Star-Crossed Lovers
A young couple joined by love but parted by fate.
Unfaithful Wife
Married to a man she sees as a dull and unimaginative. She is physically attracted to a more desirable man.
Hero
The main character leaves his or her community to go on an adventure, performing deeds that bring honor to the community.
Devil Figure
Offers worldly goods, fame, offers knowledge to the protagonist in exchange for possession of his soul.
Villian
A cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime (usually the antagonist).
Scapegoat
The scapegoat figure is one who gets blamed for everything regardless of whether he/she is actually at fault.
Outcast
A figure who is banished from a social group for some crime against his fellow man. Destined to become a wanderer.
Trickster
Crosses physical and social boundaries-traveler breaks social rules, blurs the lines between right and wrong.
The Innocent
Child/youth or inexperienced adult.
The Great Teacher/Mentor
Wise old man represents knowledge, wisdom, spirituality of the soul, insight, protector or helps the main character when he or she faces challenges.
Earth Mother
Symbolic of fruition and abundance as well as fertility.
The Shrew
The nagging, bothersome wife always battering her husband with verbal abuse.
Enchantress/Tenderness
Characterized by sensuous beauty usually involved in the downfall of hero or protagonist.
The Loss of Innocence
Loss of innocence through unpleasant experience, violence, or any other means.
The Initiation
The character is brought into another sphere of influence, usually into adulthood.
Quest
Searching for something, whether consciously or unconsciously. Actions, thoughts, and feelings center around completing the quest.
Task
A situation in which a character, or group of characters, is driven to complete some duty often of monstrous proportion.
Death and Rebirth
A parallel between the cycle of nature and the cycle of life.
Father/Son Conflict
Tension is built due to separation from childhood or some other source when two meet as men.
Fall From Grace
Describes a decent, usually of a hero, from a higher to a lower state of being.
Night Journey
Decent into earth followed by a return to the light. Usually, knowledge has been gained through experience.
Water
- Symbol of life, cleansing, and rebirth. Represents the mystery of creation.
- Sea: Spiritual mystery and infinite
- River: Death/Rebirth (baptism), flowing of time into eternity.
Sun
- Represents energy, creativity, thinking, enlightenment, wisdom, spiritual vision, the passing of time, life
- Rising Sun: Birth and Creation
- Setting Sun: Death
Snake
Evil corruption, destruction, wisdom, temptation.
Dark-colored bird
Death, hate, corruption.
Light-colored bird
Peace, love, life.
Garden
Paradise, innocence, unspoiled feminine beauty.
Desert
Lack of spirituality, death, hopelessness.
Mountains and Peaks
- Highest peak is a place to ‘see’
- Gain great insight
Caves and Tunnels
- Character delves into self
- Goes when invisible or inactive
- May signify death at the extreme
Forest
- Fertility, vegetation, and animals flourish in the ‘green world’
- Shelter/Protection
- Danger: Those who enter often lose direction or ration outlooks
- Chaos: Not ordered like villages, towns, or cities.
