Jungian Archetypes and Oedipus the King
The play Oedipus the King by Sophocles has multiple examples of collective unconscious archetypes from the theories of Carl G. Jung. In general Jung's theories say that there are archetypes that define the world, its people, and why people participate or commit certain activities. Jung explains that these archetypes are harbored in the collective unconscious of every person's mind. The archetype of the hero is one of them. The middle of Oedipus the King shows the character Oedipus as the Jungian archetypal hero and sacrificial scapegoat.
In order to understand Jung's theory of archetypes, the reader must first have an understanding of the reasoning behind them. Carl G. Jung explains the conscious mind by dividing it into three different psyches: the ego, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious. The ego is simply Jung's interpretation of the conscious mind. The personal unconscious is anything that is not presently conscious, but can be. The collective unconscious is a reservoir of human experiences that is passed from generation to generation. It includes the archetypes of self, which are archetypes for different kinds of people or characters in literature (Jung 67). They can be described as things such as déjà vu, or love at first sight. It is the feeling that what is being felt or experienced has been felt or experienced before.
Jung describes the hero as an "archetype of transformation and redemption," (Guerin 163). The character of Oedipus is a concrete example of Jung's hero archetype. Jung says that the hero archetype first goes through the "quest" to become a hero. The "quest" of the hero in Jungian theory is described as a "long journey in which ...
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...t the final step to being a sacrificial scapegoat.
Oedipus finds out that he is the killer of King Laius and will become the archetypal sacrificial scapegoat for the city of Thebes. Throughout this passage from the play, Oedipus is continually gathering incriminating evidence against himself from the source of his own wife and mother, Jocasta. He discovers through her attempted reassurance that his quest from Corinth set his fate to be the killer of his biological father and the sacrificial scapegoat for the welfare of the people and land of Thebes.
Works Cited
Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle G. Labor, Lee Morgan. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. 2nd Edition. Oxford, 1979. 162-165.
Jung, Carl G. Man and his Symbols. New York: Dell, 1968. 110-127.
Sophocles. Oedipus Tyrannus. Norton Critical Ed. New York: Norton, 1970. 15-21.
Guerin, Wilfred L. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Harper & Row,
Guerin, Wilfred L., et al., eds. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. Toronto: Oxford UP, 1992.
Jung believed that archetypes existed within the collective unconscious, and suggested that these models are universal, hereditary and innate. Archetypes are unlearned, and serve to organize one's experiences.
The archetype of the hero is an expression of our imagination as well as a reflection of our experience. Carl Jung develops this idea in his essa...
Celie, growing up in a hostile environment, becomes all too familiar with the habits of men. In her teen years, Celie is raped by who she believes is her father. Celie indirectly admits that her father raped her saying, “He never had a kine
An archetype is a human experience or symbol that is universally known and accepted. Archetypes can be images or stories passed on through history. Carl Jung, a prominent psychiatrist in the early 1900’s, used archetypes in his theory about the human psyche and how humans can recognize these symbols because they reside in the collective human subconscious. Some common examples of archetypes are The Hero, The Mentor, The Mother, The Villain and many more. Archetypes like these can be seen in everyday things like books, tv or movies. In The Complete Stories by Zora Neale Hurston there are many different archetypes in each story but three prominent ones are The Trickster, The Devil or Evil, and The Hero. In the novel The Trickster archetype
Celie's stepfather mistreated her in such a way that an accurate depiction was made. When Celie's mother became ill and unable to satisfy her husband, he told Celie to fulfill her mother's job. When Celie cried because of the pain, her stepfather said, "you better shut up and git used to it"(3). To assure himself that no one would find out about his secret he told Celie "you better not never tell nobody but God it'd kill your mammy"(1) and told Mr._____ "she tell lies"(9). As a result, when Celie's mother passed away, she felt that she killed her mother, when in fact her mother was terminally ill. After two pregnancies, Celie was unable to produce anymore children because her father injured her reproductive system. The children Celie had, her stepfather took them away from her, while in her heart she yearned to find them even years later. Celie's stepfather degraded her and always wanted to keep her self-esteem low by constantly telling her "she is a bad influence on my other girls...she ugly don't even look like she kin to Nettie...she aint smart either"(9).
Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reeseman, and John R. Willingham. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, and John R. Willingham. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 125-156.
Guerin, Wilford L. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1979.
The Color Purple is focused on a young fourteen-year-old girl named Celie who grown up fast in the South. Celie was raped by her father and gave birth to two children of her own. Celie was told her children died in childbirth. Her mother died leaving her and her siblings living with her father. Her father pushed her into marriage to a widower, which made her a stepmother to his children at a young age. She was abused physically and mentally, but not spiritually because her faith was in God. She addresses God in her letters. She had challenges in her life with her family and marriage. She became stronger and overcame different obstacles in her life with the help of her faith in God, sister Nettie who helped her learn how to read and write, before Celie's husband tried to attack, and rape her.
Jung’s theories of personality are closely related to the Freudian theories. He divided the human psyche into three categories; the ego, or the conscious mind, the personal unconscious which holds memories and such, and the collective unconscious which is the connection that all humans share. According to Jung, the collective unconscious is made up of archetypes. An archetype is the “unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way”#. There are an innumerable amount of archetypes, which all organize experiences or materialize thoughts in their own way.
Growing up, Celie learns to be quite. She learns to hide in the shadows and do only what is asked of her. To understand why, you must know her childhood home life. Celie grew up in fear of men. She always wrote to God about her problems because she does not have anyone else to confide in. The novel starts off with her father saying "You better not never tell nobody but God. It'd kill your mammy" (p1). Celie writing to God is the first sign of strength or growth presented in the book. Her father, who she later learned is her step dad, Alphonso rapes Celie on multiple occasions and Celie has two children by him. Her father raping her is what Celie should never tell to her “mammy” because it would “kill” her. In reference to her children after she birthed her second child, Celie says
Celie is at most 14 when Mr.____ marries her. She does no talk about "making love" but instead refers to sex as "he gets on top of me and does his business". That shows how little Celie believes on herself as she thinks that Mr.____ could do sex without her. Then the story changes direction and the discrimination against Celie starts to be present. When Mr.____ beats her she does not try to fight back, but instead she remains passive to what is happening. On the other hand, Celie continues to work as the perfecto maid of the children and keeps the house perfectly clean and tidy. This shows that indirectly she does not like being beaten (obviously) but she does not say anything because of the fear she feels for men, she instead reacts to it in a way which shows the big heart Celie has.
1.According to Carl G. Jung (1875-1961), a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Archetypes are highly developed elements of the unconscious human mind. An easier way of explaining this, is that every person who lives on this planet shares a universal unconscious idea or pattern of thought, or a blueprint. Archetypes are all around us and have been for many years; they are not just found in people, but also in characters in books and movies, gods and goddesses, as well in the animal kingdom. Archetypes are important in social psychology in that they not only give psychologists a proper way of deducing a patient; but in that it give us as humans an idea of who we are as an individual, a culture, and as a human race.