Litform Discussion Proper:

Midsummer by Manuel E. Arguilla

Prepared by: Dianne Siriban

In the past, I have always gone through a close reading and formal textual analysis before
introducing the mythological-archetypal literary approach to the class. Of course, the class had
appreciated the text more with the application of the critical approach, but resistance to some of the
elements of the short story Midsummer had always been apparent.

This time, however, more for experimental purposes than any other reason, the idea of archetypes
and mythological symbols found in texts will first be introduced to the class for their own exploration
and, later on, application to their reading of the assigned text. After familiarizing themselves with some of
the most predominant archetypal images, themes and symbols they shall engage in preliminary analysis of
texts that they are already familiar with (films, TV programs, novels and stories they have read before,
celebrities and other popular public figures, events in history, religion, and their own individual
experiences).

What are archetypes? How does the mythical/archetypal approach work?

The common dictionary defines an archetype as “an original pattern or model; ideal, example or
prototype” (Webster’s Student Dictionary). The term derives from Greek terms “arche” meaning “first,”
and “typos” meaning “stamp.” But for purposes of discussing the term in light of literary criticism, I think
it best to cite an anecdote from Joseph Campbell, an anthropologist and comparative mythologist know to
be the first to use animal behavior to explain how archetypes work on the human consciousness.

Newly hatched chicks, even without the guidance of a mother hen, will run for cover when
a hawk flies overhead [frightened by the predator’s passing shadow]. When tested with a wooden
model of a hawk suspended on thin wire and pulled by string to move over the young chicks they
would scramble clumsily looking for a place to hide. But if the same wooden hawk was made to
glide backwards, there would be no response from the animals. The shadow of the hawk moving
backwards does not trigger any inherent understanding in them. But the flying hawk, and anything
that resembles it strikes a deep chord. (Campbell in Guerin, 147)

In a strikingly similar way some works of art use images and symbols that strike a deep chord
within us. It seems like we are born with an innate understanding of these images and symbols, like they
are somehow ingrained or hardwired into our consciousness. This might be the reason why some works of
art become classics (no matter how ancient they are); because of the existence of these “wooden hawks”
in literature and art.
The mythological/archetypal approach deals with this occurrence. Psychoanalyst—and student of
the renowned Sigmund Freud—Carl Gustav Jung has propounded in his theories on the human psyche
that a group of people, or people from a common culture have a common set of values, beliefs grounded
on what he terms “collective consciousness” formed by centuries upon centuries of common experience.
If, for Freud, dreams reflect the unconscious desires and anxieties of the individual then, for Jung, myths
are “collective dreams” or symbolic representations of a certain culture’s hopes, values, fears, aspirations
and instinctual life.
Myths are collective and communal; they bind a tribe or nation together in common psychological
and spiritual activities. For example, during the ancient warring periods in Europe, even long before the
medieval days, people were brought up on myths that extol the virtues of the warrior, soldier and subject
of the king. One is considered a hero when one follows his king’s orders and is willing to die in war. In
fact, there is no other glorious way to die but in war, so that it is almost shameful when one comes home
alive from a battle that has been lost. Why? Because was has been their way of life, a necessity during
those times when tribes in Europe had to fight over land, territory, resources, etc.
 If myths are the narratives, the archetypes are the elements that make up the narrative. Archetypal
patterns may also be seen as motifs or recurring themes in these myths. Campbell notes that there are a lot
of common archetypes and motifs among myths from different cultures meant to evoke or elicit consistent
psychological responses from people of different backgrounds.
Here are some of the most common archetypes, symbols and motifs found in art and literature:

1. Water (and bodies of water like the sea, the river, etc.): the mystery of creation; eternity and
timelessness; birth-death-resurrection; purification and redemption; fertility and growth.
According to Jung, water is also the most common symbol for the unconscious. The river
specifically symbolizes death and rebirth as in baptism; incarnation of deities and transitional
phases of the life cycle.
2. Sun: (fire and sky are closely related): creative energy; law in nature; consciousness (thinking,
enlightenment, wisdom, spiritual vision); father principle (moon and earth are associated with the
female principle); passage of time and life (i.e., rising sun = birth, creation, hope; setting
sun=death, sorrow).
3. Colors:
a. Red: blood, sacrifice, violent passion, disorder.
b. Green: growth, sensation, hope, fertility; in negative contexts may be associated with death
and decay.
c. Blue: usually positive, associated with truth, religious feeling, security, spiritual purity (the
color of the Great Mother or Holy Mother).
d. Black (darkness): chaos, mystery, the unknown; death; primal wisdom, the unconscious;
evil; melancholy.
e. White: highly multivalent, signifying, in its positive aspects, light, purity, innocence, and
timelessness. In its negative aspects, death, terror, the supernatural, and the blinding truth
of mystery.
4. Circle (sphere): wholeness, unity (i.e., the Yin-Yang symbolizes the oneness of opposite forces),
the eternal cycle of life and death.
5. Serpent (snake, worm): symbol of energy, pure force; evil, corruption, sensuality; destruction;
mystery, wisdom; the unconscious.
6. Numbers:
a. Three: light, spiritual awareness and unity (i.e., the Holy Trinity); the male principle.
b. Four: associated with the circle, life cycle, four seasons; female principle, earth, nature,
four elements (earth, air, fire, water).
c. Seven: the most potent of all symbolic numbers—signifying the union of three and four,
the completion of the cycle, perfect order.
7. The Archetypal Woman: (Great Mother—the mysteries of life, death, transformation)
a. The Good Mother (positive aspects of the Earth Mother): associated with the life principle
birth, warmth, nourishment, protection, fertility, growth, abundance (for example, Demeter,
Ceres).
b. The Terrible Mother (including the negative aspects of the Earth Mother): the witch,
sorceress, siren, whore, femme fatale—associated with sensuality, sexual orgies, fear,
danger, darkness, dismemberment, emasculation, death; the unconscious in its terrifying
aspects.
c. The Soul Mate: the Sophia figure, Holy Mother, the princess or “beautiful lady”—
incarnation of inspiration and spiritual fulfillment (i.e., Jungian anima).
8. The Wise Old Man (savior, redeemer, guru): personification of the spiritual principle,
representing knowledge, reflection, insight, wisdom, cleverness, and intuition on the one hand, and
on the other, moral qualities such as goodwill and readiness to help, which make his ‘spiritual’
character sufficiently plain. Also known for his moral qualities, and the way he even tests the
 moral qualities of others and makes gifts dependent on this test. The old man always appears when
the hero is in a hopeless and desperate situation from which only profound reflection or a lucky
idea can extricate him (the wise old man sometimes appear in personified thought).
9. Garden: paradise, innocence; unspoiled beauty (especially feminine); fertility.
10. Tree: life of the cosmos, inexhaustible life and even immortality because of its consistence,
growth, proliferation, generative and regenerative processes (i.e., the depiction of the cross of
redemption as the tree of life in Christian iconography)
11. Desert: spiritual aridity; death; nihilism, hopelessness.

Archetypal Motifs or Patterns

12. Creation: perhaps the most fundamental of all archetypal motifs—virtually every mythology is
built on some account of how the cosmos, nature, and humankind were brought into existence by
some supernatural Being or beings.
13. Immortality: another fundamental archetype. Generally taking one of the two basic narrative
structures:
a. Escape from time: “return to paradise,” the state of perfect, timeless bliss enjoyed by man
and woman before their tragic Fall into corruption and mortality.
b. Mystical submersion into cyclical time: the theme of endless death and regeneration—
human beings achieve a kind of immortality by submitting to the vast, mysterious rhythms
or Nature’s eternal cycle, particularly the cycle of the seasons.
14. Hero Archetypes (archetypes of transformation and redemption):
a. The quest: the hero (savior, deliverer) undertakes some long journey during which he or
she must perform impossible tasks, battle with monster, solve unanswerable riddles, and
overcome insurmountable obstacles in order to save the kingdom (or an equivalent).
b. Initiation: the hero undergoes a series of excruciating ordeals in passing from ignorance
and immaturity to social and spiritual adulthood, that is, in achieving maturity and
becoming a full-fledged member of his or her social group. The initiation most commonly
consists of three distinct phases (1) separation, (2) transformation, and (3) return. Like the
quest, this is variation of the death-and-rebirth archetype.
c. The sacrificial scapegoat: the hero, with whom the welfare of the tribe or nation is
identified, must die to atone for the people’s sins and restore the land to fruitfulness.

15. Archetypes as Genres (archetypes are also found in complex combinations as genres or types of
literature that conform with the major phases of the seasonal cycle).
a. The mythos of spring: comedy
b. The mythos of summer: romance
c. The mythos of fall: tragedy
d. The mythos of winter: irony

“Mythology as a whole provides a kind of diagram or blueprint of what literature [and art] as whole is
about, an imaginative survey of the human situation from the beginning to the end, from the height to the
depth, of what is imaginatively conceivable.” –Northrop Frye (102, 1970).

Reference:
1. Frye, Northrop (1957). Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton UP
2. Campbell, Joseph (1969). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Rev. ed. Princeton: Princeton UP
3. Jung, C.G. (1968). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Vol. 9, part 1 of the Collected Works. Trans.
R.F.C. Hull. 2d ed. Princeton: Princeton UP
4. Guerin. Wilfred, et.al. (1992). A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, 3rd ed. NY: Oxford UP.