Beowulf's Archetypical Lens Criticism

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Before examining Beowulf through the archetypical lens criticism, it must be explained exactly what an archetype implies and how it affects the work being examined. An archetype is a concept that was first defined by Carl Jung, a swiss psychologist who attempted to relate recurring themes in literary works to a collective unconscious that all humans have. Jung theorized that this phenomena of recurring themes of heroes, mentors, heralds, shapeshifters, and so on in literary works could be contributed to the idea that there was a collective set of innate emotions and ideas that resided in all humans. This theory has been able to account for several literary works analyzed through the archetypical lens criticism. Joseph Campbell, an American

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