To date, the British Journal of Analytical Psychology and the retitled American Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture are the best resources for archetypal criticism of literature and the arts even though only a small percentage of their published articles treat such topics. Othello was crafted at the dawn of the 17th century, shaped by complex social and geopolitical issues that new historicist critics, who seek to place literary works within a historical framework, have recently sought to unravel. After confronting Desdemona of her crimes he decides to carry out his overall plan to end his trues loves life. Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away Archetypal criticism ensures the efforts of all these concerned faculties to analyse of a text hence archetypal criticism is of immense significance. Eliot, Samuel Taylor) characterize themselves as realists, pragmatic, practical, eschewing the supporters of the so-called weaker Othello, who conversely tend to describe themselves as somehow morally elevated, more empathetic. Then must you speak Othello accused her of being unfaithful, when she never was. In Cinthios story, Alfiero, the scheming ensign, lusts after the Moors wife, named Disdemona, and after she spurns his advances, Alfiero seeks vengeance by accusing her of adultery with Cassio, the Moors lieutenant. Come, go with me apart. Frye, then, first misinterprets Jungian theory by insisting on a Lamarckian view of genetic transmission of archetypes, which Jung explicitly rejected, and later settles on a concept of archetype as a literary occurrence per se, an exclusively intertextual recurring phenomenon resembling a convention (99). Furthermore, they must also have a fatal flaw, that eventually leads to their downfall. The concept of the archetype is a venerable philosophical principle that came into new prominence and usage in the twentieth century with the development of archetypal literary criticism . In the essay Frye critically analyses literature against the backdrop of rituals and myths. This preview is partially blurred. By the end of the play, he has brought down his world around him with the relentless force that made him a great general turned inward, destroying both what he loved best in another and in himself. . Frye frequently acknowledged his debt to Jung, accepted some of Jungs specifically named archetypes persona and anima and counsellor and shadow and referred to his theory as Jungian criticism (Anatomy 291), a practice subsequently followed in some hand books of literary terms and histories of literary criticism, including one edited by Frye himself, which obscured crucial differences and contributed to the confusion in terminology reigning today. His demise was of his own doing. The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. Iago: My friend is dead. As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black. It is in Act 3 Scene 3 where Othello takes on a new persona, where his confidence and happiness is tragically replaced with jealousy and rage. Some of these include the downfall from high position Othello goes from being the general, to being convicted of being a murderer. Othello is decisive, confident, and secure in his identity, duty, and place in the world. Is Othello or Hamlet better? R. F. C. Hull, 2 vois., 1973-75). This explains his fascination with a text like Rider Haggards novel She: The History of an Adventure (1886-87), with its unmediated representation of the anima. As Jung himself noted: Literary products of highly dubious merit are often of the greatest interest to the psychologist (Collected 15:87-88). Posted on . As in a typical Shakespearean comedy, love, tested, triumphs over all opposition. However, the protagonist of the tragedy play only partially meets the definition of Aristotles tragic hero. As hells from heaven. Confirmation of this theory was Jungs reading of Faust: part 1 was psychological; part 2, visionary.. He carries out his own execution for a violation that threatens social and psychic order. What is a tragic hero and why is Othello considered one? To see you here before me. With some of its advocates supported through early publication of their work in the journal Spring, feminist archetypal theory and criticism of literature and the arts emerged fullblown in three texts: Annis Pratts Archetypal Patterns in Womens Fiction (1981), which self-consciously evoked and critiqued Maud Bodkins 1934 text; Estella Lauters Women as Mythmakers: Poetry and Visual Art by Twentieth Century Women (1984); and Estella Lauter and Carol Schreier Rupprechts Feminist Archetypal Theory: Interdisciplinary Re-Visions of Jungian Thought (1985). The tragic heros downfall, said Aristotle, was brought upon by some error of judgement. However, for Othello this is not the case. What bloody business ever. Othellos motivation in the play appears to be his love and concern for his wife Desdemona, which ironically, ends up being his downfall in the end. The dynamic of Othellos character significantly changes throughout the play. Archetypal criticism focuses on such things in a work. Northrop Frye, however, further developed this theory in his book Anatomy of Criticism and later in his essay 'The Archetypes in Literature . The first systematic application of Jungs ideas to literature was made in 1934 by Maud Bodkin in Archetypal Patterns in Poetry: An attempt is here made to bring psychological analysis and reflection to bear upon the imaginative experience communicated by great poetry, and to examine those forms or patterns in which the universal forces of our nature there find objectification (vii). The tragedy of Othello, written by William Shakespeare, presents the main character Othello, as a respectable, honorable, and dignified man, but because of his insecurities and good nature, he is easily taken advantage of and manipulated by his peers and alleged friends. (3.3.54) Ex. Analysis. Desdemona and Othello, therefore, face the usual challenges of the lovers in a Shakespearean comedy who must contend with the forces of authority, custom, and circumstances allied against their union. A tragic hero is a hero nonetheless, but it all comes down to how they hold themselves together in the face of. Peopleshow more content An outburst that othello has in a crowd of his peers causes people to start to question their noble leader. The traits of the tragic hero lead the audience to feel compassion for the helpless victim. If after every tempest come such calms, He seems to breathe an atmosphere as fateful as that of King Lear, but more confined and oppressive, the darkness not of night but of a close-shut murderous room. These patterns include persistent images, figures, and story patterns shared by people across diverse cultures. According to Aristotle, a tragic protagonist is a nobleman or person from high status, who contributes to his own demise and illustrates a flaw or weakness in judgment. And concomitantly, on which of these levels was the reader affected? His destruction is essentially precipitated by his own actions, as well as by the actions of the characters surrounding him. I do perceive here a divided duty: Unfortunately, this got the ball rolling for Othellos inevitable downfall. Desdemona replies that it was her fault: Nobody I myself. He had even gone as far as hitting her (4.1 134). Now art thou my lieutenant. . "Othello is essentially an noble character, flawed by insecurity and a nature that is naive and unsophisticated". Archetypes Archetypal criticism focuses on patterns in a literary work that commonly occur in other literary works. What hooks you? In the beginning of the play, Othello is seen as content with his new bride: For know, Iago, But that I love the gentle Desdemona (1.2.24-25). What makes Othello so unique structurally (and painful to witness) is that it is a tragedy built on a comic foundation. After the. An equal case can be made that Iago here completes his role as Vice, borrowed from the medieval morality plays, sealing the Faustian bargain for Othellos soul in this mock or black marriage scene. An archetypal critic would suggest that all human experience is linked through literature and that this experience is expressed again and again using the same patterns throughout time and space. From the moment when the temptation of the hero begins, the readers heart and mind are held in a vice, experiencing the extremes of pity and fear, sympathy and repulsion, sickening hope and dreadful expectation. Jung was also more preoccupied with dreams and fantasies, because he saw them as exclusively (purely) products of the unconscious, in contrast to literature, which he oddly believed, citing Joyces Ulysses as an example, was created in the full light of consciousness (15:123). The three fundamental qualities of an archetype are: An archetype is a preconscious, instinctual expression of man's basic nature. 1. while we are reading any of [Shakespeare's] great criminal characters - we think not so much of the crimes which they commit, as of the ambition, the aspiring spirit, the intellectual activity which prompts them to . the characters in Shakespeare's play Othello ever challenge the right of a husband to murder a wife accused of adultery. Evil is displayed before him, not indeed with the profusion found in King Lear, but forming, as it were, the soul of a single character, and united with an intellectual superiority so great that he watches its advance fascinated and appalled. For more information on choosing credible sources for your paper, check out this blog post. This juxtaposition between Othello's transparency and Iago's duality identifies him as a sympathetic character despite his actions. And will upon the instant put thee tot. Jung most frequently used myth (or mythologem) for the narrative expression, on the ethnological level (Collected 9, pt. Altho a tragic ending it may be, Othello couldn't stand being a such a fool to have believed such lies about his one and only love. She does not fight back nor call for help, Desdemona begs for her life asking to Kill me (Desdemona) tomorrow; let me live tonight! (V.ii.97). Thus archetype is recognized as the tendency to form and reform images in relation to certain kinds of repeated experience, which may vary in individual cultures, authors, and readers (Lauter and Rupprecht 13-14). Carl Jungs Contribution to Psychoanalytic Theory. If it were now to die That such a man should unravel so completely, ushered by jealousy and hatred into a bestial worldview that cancels any claims of human virtue and self-less devotion, shocks and horrifies. The Women of Othello There are only three female characters in Othello, and each plays a critical role in Shakespeare's artfully crafted plot of jealousy and retribution. O, farewell! (5. Joseph P. Strelka, 1976); Karin Barnaby and Pellegrino DAcerino, eds., C. G. Jung and the Humanities: Toward a Hermeneutics of Culture (1990); Martin Bickman, The Unsounded Centre: Jungian Studies in American Romanticism (1980); Maud Bodkin, Archetypal Patterns in Poetry: Psychological Studies in Imagination (1934); Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (1957); Albert Gelpi, The Tenth Muse: The Psyche of the American Poet (1975); Naomi Goldenberg, Archetypal Theory after Jung, Spring (1975); Julia Kristeva, Stabat Mater (1977, The Kristeva Reader, ed. "He is, in a sense, a 'self made man', the . Two publishing events at the beginning of the 1990s in the United States may signal the coming of age of this kind of archetypal criticism through its convergence with postmodern critical thought, along with a commensurate insistence on its roots in the depth psychology of Jung: the reissue of Morris Philipsons 1963 Outline of a Jungian Aesthetic and the appearance of Karin Barnaby and Pellegrino DAcerinos multidisciplinary, multicultural collection of essays, C. G. Jung and the Humanities: Toward a Hermeneutics of Culture. However, in William Shakespeare's Othello, Emilia's character portrays three completely different archetypes and they all come through in strategical places. In addition, Othello is far from being a perfect character - another quality that meets Aristotle's requirements. To protect the anonymity of contributors, we've removed their names and personal information from the essays. The character of Iago is so conducted, that he is from the first scene to the last hated and despised. In Shakespeare's, An outburst that othello has in a crowd of his peers causes people to start to question their noble leader. For Jung, archetype is an explanatory paraphrase of the Platonic eidos (9, pt. Othello is a train wreck that the audience horrifyingly witnesses, helpless to prevent or look away. Aristotles second requirement for a tragedy is that the tragic hero must have a reversal of fortune. Eventually, this leads to Othellos suicide. This article, then, treats the only form of literary theory and criticism consistent with and derived directly from the psychological principles advanced by Jung. This assignment is intended to encourage you, and require you . Seeing her dying, Emilia asks who would do this. The Shakespearean tragedy Othello contains a number of themes; their relative importance and priority is debated by literary critics. He suffers barbs and preconceived notions, yet Othello is esteemed and wins the love of the daughter of a nobleman. He is an individual of high stature who is destroyed by his surroundings, his own actions, and his fate. Shakespeare often focuses his plays on human nature as well as fate, which Othellos fate ended in the tragic ending due to his reversal of fortune once the claims against Desdemona begin. The term "archetype" can be traced to Plato (arche, "original"; typos, "form"), but the concept gained currency in twentieth-century literary theory and criticism through the work . Instead, they blame him for his own ultimate ruin. Iagos motivation is anything but explainable in conventional terms. archetypal criticism in othelloboone county wv obituaries.