This presentation deals with theory of archetypes as propounded by Northrop Frye

1. NORTHROP FRYE'S
THEORY OF ARCHETYPES
Compiled by
Dilip Barad
Dept. of English, M.K. Bhavnagar University (Gujarat – India)
dilipbarad@gmail.com
http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/dherring/ap/consider/frye/indexfryeov.htm

2. • In literary criticism, the term archetype denotes narrative designs,
patterns of action, character types, themes, and images which
recur in a wide variety of works of literature, as well as in myths,
dreams, and even social rituals.
• Such recurrent items are often claimed to be the result of
elemental and universal patterns in the human psyche, whose
effective embodiment in a literary work evokes a profound
response from the attentive reader because he or she shares the
psychic archetypes expressed by the author.

3. An important antecedent of the literary theory
of the archetype
• … was the treatment of myth by a group of comparative
anthropologists at Cambridge University, especially James G. Frazer,
whose The Golden Bough (1890-1915) identified elemental patterns
of myth and ritual that, claimed, recur in the legends and ceremonials
of diverse and far-flung cultures and religions.
• An even more important antecedent was the depth psychology of Carl
G. Jung(1875-1961), who applied the term “archetype” to what he
called “primordial images”, the “psychic residue” of repeated patterns
of experience in our very ancient ancestors which, he maintained,
survive in the “collective unconscious” of the human race and are
expressed in myths, religion, dreams, and private fantasies, as well as
in works of literature.

4. • Northrop Frye working in the field of
literature defined an archetype as a symbol,
usually an image, which recurs often enough
in literature to be recognizable as an element
of one’s literary experience as a whole.

5. • Another way of thinking about archetypes is to imagine that
in some way it is possible to plot the important aspects of a
story on to a graph.
• If enough points from several stories were plotted, a
pattern would start to appear.
• If one then drew a line that approximated the pattern that
emerged in the points, that best fit line would be an
archetype.

6. • No story perfectly matches the archetype, and
some stories will diverge from the archetype
more than others. Still, recognizing that a
pattern exists can be a powerful tool in
understanding and comparing literature.

7. • Northrop Frye asserts that all
narratives fall into one of four
mythos. Each mythos has six
phases, sharing three with the
preceding mythos and three
with the succeeding mythos.

8. Mythos Grid

9. Six phases of each mythos
• http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/dherring/ap/consider/frye/indexf
ryeov.htm

10. • Comedy is aligned with
spring because the genre of
comedy is characterized by
the birth of the hero, revival
and resurrection. Also, spring
symbolizes the defeat of
winter and darkness.

11. • Romance and summer are paired
together because summer is the
culmination of life in the seasonal
calendar, and the romance genre
culminates with some sort of
triumph, usually a marriage.

12. • Autumn is the dying stage of the
seasonal calendar, which parallels
the tragedy genre because it is,
(above all), known for the “fall”
or demise of the protagonist.

13. • Satire is metonymized with
winter on the grounds that satire
is a “dark” genre. Satire is a
disillusioned and mocking form of
the three other genres. It is noted
for its darkness, dissolution, the
return of chaos, and the defeat of
the heroic figure.

14. • The context of a genre
determines how a symbol or
image is to be interpreted.
Frye outlines five different
spheres in his schema: human,
animal, vegetation, mineral,
and water.

15. • The comedic human world is
representative of wish-
fulfillment and being
community centered. In
contrast, the tragic human
world is of isolation, tyranny,
and the fallen hero.

16. •Animals in the comedic
genres are docile and
pastoral (e.g. sheep), while
animals are predatory and
hunters in the tragic (e.g.
wolves).

17. • For the realm of vegetation,
the comedic is, again,
pastoral but also represented
by gardens, parks, roses and
lotuses. As for the tragic,
vegetation is of a wild forest,
or as being barren.

18. •Cities, temples, or precious
stones represent the
comedic mineral realm.
The tragic mineral realm is
noted for being a desert,
ruins, or “of sinister
geometrical images”

19. •Lastly, the water realm is
represented by rivers in the
comedic. With the tragic,
the seas, and especially
floods, signify the water
sphere.

20. Let us watch these movie clips to understand these archetypes
Trailers of The Golden Compass (based on young-adult fantasy novel by Philip Pullman

21. Let us watch these movie clips to understand these archetypes
Trailers of The Golden Compass (based on young-adult fantasy novel by Philip Pullman

22. Example from Hindi film Aakhari Raasta – Graveyard
Scene

23. Example from Hindi film Satyam Shivam Sundaram

24. Example from Hindi film Satyam Shivam Sundaram

25. His methodology:
• Inductive Method (from particular to general)
– Grave Digger Scene in ‘Hamlet’
• Deductive Method (from general to particular)
– Music & Painting
• Some arts move in time, like music; others are
presented in space, like painting. In both cases the
organizing principle is recurrence, which is called
rhythm when it is temporal and pattern when it is
spatial.
• Thus we speak of the rhythm of music and the
pattern of painting; but later, to show off our
sophistication, we may begin to speak of the rhythm
of painting and the pattern of music.

26. • Grave Digger Scene – Hamlet
– 1:11:15 time frame – 1:27:00 – 16 Minutes
– Puns to Soliloquy of Dance Macabre
– Rain of images of corruption and decay
– Psychological relationships (grave digger – prince;
Ophelia – Hamlet (first unequivocal declaration of
love), Laertes – sister – hamlet)
– Genre – Elizabethan play with sensational and
melodramatic scene
– Glimpse of an archetype – ‘liebstod’
(liebe = love; tod = death (German)) – the hero who is
ready to sacrifice life and embrace death for beloved.

27. Literature seems to be intermediate between
music and painting:
• Literature’s words form rhythms which
approach a musical sequence of sounds at
one of its boundaries, and from patterns
which approach the hieroglyphic or pictorial
image at the other.

28. • 1. The dawn, spring, and birth phase. Myths of the
birth of the hero, of revival and resurrection, of
creation and (because the four phases are a cycle)
of the defeat of the powers of darkness, winter
and death. Subordinate characters: the father and
the mother. The archetype of romance and of most
dithyrambic and rhapsodic poetry.
• 2. The zenith, summer, and marriage or triumph
phase. Myths of apotheosis, of the sacred
marriage, and of entering into Paradise.
Subordinate characters: the companion and the
bride. The archetype of comedy, pastoral, and idyll.
• 3. The sunset, autumn, and death phase. Myths of
fall, of the dying god, of violent death and sacrifice
and of the isolation of the hero.

29. Thank You!