Symbolism in English Literature

Archetypal gauges impersonate in Chaucers The Millers tale By Jose Luis Guerrero Cervantes According to Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, an pilot film is a exemplary formula that begins to work wherever there are no sure ideas present. They are innate universal psychic dispositions that form the substrate from which the elementary themes of human flavour emerge1. The exemplar is experienced in projections, powerful come to images, symbols, moods, and carriage patterns much(prenominal) as rituals, ceremonials and have a go at it. Jung2 compared the archetype, the pre-formed tendency to create images, to a run dry river bed.Rain gives form and direction to the flow, we name the river, just now it is never a thing located in any place, it is a form but never the same, it is al miens changing but it is still a river. future(a) this analogy, the archetype would be the dry river bed that motivates and modifies our conscious understanding of ourselves and the founding (the wat er of the river) from which emotions, attitudes and ideas arise. It is possible to track the use of archetypes in universal lit, concord to Joseph Campbell3, from the origins of human civilization.Archetypes help Chaucer to his main purpose when writing The Canterbury Tales to reflect on the own(prenominal) c oncerns and solutions of the evolving medieval society of his time. Characters with strong prototypic features has an automatic all(prenominal)y and unconscious mindly effect in the endorsers mind, allowing his mind to have it off experiences, emotions, and portionistic patterns of behavior, establishing a dialog or unconscious link between the reader and the text. The purpose of the present essay will be to position such archetypal characters and situations and their impact in the readers psyche. 4It is possible to recognize in Nicholas behavior elements that match with the archetype of the Trickster. In mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a bearded darnel is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic puppet that plays wiles or, otherwise, disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior5. In modern literature, the classical figure of the trickster die hards as a character not necessarily supernatural or divine, but as a clever, mischievous man or creature, who tries to survive the dangers and challenges of the creation using trickery and deceit as defense.For example, many true fairy tales present kings who want to find the best man for his little girl by setting a trial to obtain the hand of his daughter. hardy knights are not adequate to(p) to overcome the trial until a ridiculous and simple peasant comes. Armed only with his wits and cleverness, instead of fighting, he evades or fools the obstacles between him and the desired object. This way, the most unlikely candidate passes the trials and receives the reward. matchless example of this character in English Literature is Shakespeares Bassanio in The M erchant of Venice who, in order to marry Portia, must pass a trial set by Portias father.In this case, Nicholas is described likewise to this archetype This lad was known as Nicholas the Gallant, And qualification love in secluded was his talent, For he was very close and sly, and took Advantage of his meek and young look6. Nicholas is characterized as somebody whose main attributes are not physical potential or economic power, but cleverness in managing the weak points of tidy sum for his own benefit (expressed in the al-Qurans talent, sly, took service) hidden under a humble figure (expressed in the word meek).Here it is possible to identify the breaking of conventional behavior that it is proper of the classical tradition when it is said that Nicholas makes love in secret. In addition, in order to gain Alison, he must figure out a trick, otherwise, both might die if caught together. Alisons behavior, on the other hand, shows characteristics that matches with the Anima arc hetype developed at the direct of Eve. The Anima and animosity, in Carl Jungs school of analytical psychology, are the unconscious or true intimate self of an individual, as opposed to the outer aspect of personality.In the unconscious part of mens mind, it finds expression in a maidenlike inner personality. Anima, in contrast, is in the unconscious of women and it is expressed as a manlike inner personality. It can be identified as the centre of the unconscious feminine psychological qualities that a male possesses or the masculine ones possessed by the female. The positive anima qualities of a man are tenderness, patience, con expressionration, benignancy and compassion then the negative anima qualities of a man are vanity, moodiness, bitchiness, and advantageously hurt feelings7.Jung believed anima development has four distinct levels, which he named Eve, Helen, Mary, and Sophia. Eve level is named for the Genesis account of Adam and Eve. It deals with the emergence of a m ales object of desire, in so far simultaneously generalizes all females as evil and powerless. This means that when an object of desires arises, the archetype shows an opposite behavior from that she had shown previously8. In the preliminary description of Alison, Chaucer describes Alison (with ecstasy and accuracy) this way She was a fair young wife, her body as slenderAs any weasels, and as soft and tender She used to wear a girdle of striped silk Her apron was as white as sunup milk Over her loins, all gusseted and pleated. White was her smock ornamentation repeated Its pattern on the collar, front and back, Inside and out it was of silk, and black. The tapes and ribbons of her off-white mutch Were made to march her collar to a touch She wore a spacious silk fillet, rather high, And reliablely she had a lec attack aircraftus eye. And she had plucked her eyebrows into bows, Slenderly bowlegged they were, and black as sloes And a more truly blissful jalopy to seeShe as than blossom on a cherry-tree, Her mouth was gentle as mead or honey say A hoard of apples assembly in the hay. Skittish she was, and jolly as a colt, Tall as a mast and upright as a bolt Out of bow. She was a daisy, O a lollypop For any nobleman to take to bed Or some good man of yeoman stock to wed. 9 Everything in her is lovely. Chaucer centers his oversight on the physical description and little is said about her character. However, the adjectives recalcitrant, jolly, tall and upright describe her as soul unimpeachable in any sense.After she falls in love with Alison, all the marvelous image of Alison disappears when she decides to play a cruel jocularity to Absalon Absalon started wiping his mounth dry. unrelenting was the night as pitch, as black as coal, And at the window out she put her hole, And Absalon, so fortune framed the farce, Put up his mouth and kissed her naked arse Most savorously before he knew of this. 10 As it can be keepd, Alisons attitude changes dram atically later confrontation Nicholas (the object of desire).This desire unleashes those feelings that are the negative counterpart of the male Animus. Eve development of Anima helps to generalize all women as evil, and Alison attitude towards Absalon reinforces this belief. tail end represents the archetypal of The Child in the developed degree of The abandoned. In Jungian psychology, it refers to an instinctual pattern of scene or symbolic imagery derived from the outgoing collective experience (Jung referred to this as the collective unconscious), and present in the individual unconscious.We were all children at one time and we can flirt with the freedom of being a child, the unconditional love we received from our parents, the self-generated laughter, how we innocently accepted things as they were and let our imaginations run wild. All those experiences left(p) a clams in the unconscious and arise under certain conditions. In this case, the condition is the fear of losi ng Alison what makes this feeling to arise11. The Abandoned (Orphaned) Child archetype can easily be seen in characters like Dorothy in the sense impression of Oz or Oliver in Oliver Twist.The fear of losing a caretaker and the feeling of vulnerability makes the character to proceed in a blind, precipitously way. Jealous he was and kept her in the henhouse, For he was old and she was wild and young He thought himself quite likely to be stung. It is possible to notice here that fast ones fear for losing Alison makes him to keep her out of the sight of the rest, in the cage. Nicholas takes advantage of this fear and uses it to deceive him in a childish way. This world he said, in just about and hour, Shall all be drowned, its such a hideous shower,And all mankind, with total loss of life. The carpenter exclaimed, Alas, my wife My little Alison Is she to drown? And in his grief he very near fell down. As it was explained before, innocence is a mark of our puerility, and here innoce nce is incarnated by John. Absalon represents the archetype of the Shadow. In Jungian psychology, the shadow or shadow aspect is a part of the unconscious mind consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts. It is a link to the most primitive savage instincts, which are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind.According to Jung, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational, is prone to project turning a personal inferiority into a perceived moral deficiency in someone else. It is the link to the most primitive animal instincts that are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind, like the survival instinct. Absalon plans his vengeance for the cruel joke played on him and reacts in a even more barbaric way than his aggressors Said Absalon, all set to make a launch, Speak, middling bird, I know not where thou art This Nicholas at once let fly a fart As loud as if it were a thunder-clap.He was near blinded by the blast, poor chap, sim ply his iron was ready with a thump He mote him in the middle of the rump. This way, Absalon fulfills his vengeance by recalling his most instinctive, irrational feelings. In the situations present in the tale it is also possible to identify two archetypal situations The Task and The love Triangle. The Task is that situation in which a character is required to perform a task that will remediate balance. It is commonly found n literature in the situations like to retain a kingdom, to win the fair lady, the identification of the hero so he may reassume his rightful position, etc12.Examples of this archetypal situation in English literature are when Arthur pulls Excalibur from the stone or when Beowulf slays Grendel. In this case, the task set for Nicholas is to consider his union with Alison using his cleverness to deceive his husband who has her in a cage. The reader is not told about the plan, so the reader and the fooled characters go hand-in-hand in the discovery and the develo pment of the plan, holding the attention of the reader. The love trilateral works in a similar way than The task, barely the task appeals to the logos of the reader, while the love triangle appeals to the ethos.In addition, the love triangle works as the counterpart of the Requited Love, which is used to farm the nobler feelings of human nature sacrifice, loyalty, friendship, fidelity, etc. The love triangle enhances rivalry, fight, deceit, infidelity, etc13. It is possible to observe how the love triangle made Nicholas to figure out an ingenious trick to have sex with the Johns wife (infidelity), the showing of the darkest side of pure Alison, the wrath of easygoing Absalon, and the showing of the dumbest side of John.It is possible to conclude, after all this analysis that The Millers Tale, as the upstanding Canterbury Tales, explores the nature of human being life and behavior of the people of his time, making the reader to do an introspective view of his own life. The charac ters of The Millers tale are very likely to common people, functioning as a mirror in which society can see itself. The empathy that Chaucer is able to establish between the characters, their situations and the readers is possible because he appeals to those universal characteristics that human beings take care to share beyond race, distance, culture and time.These pre-figured behavior, or archetype, causes an unconscious reaction on the reader, putting them in the same, Jung would say, psychogenetic frequency. Therefore, it possible to explain why the Canterbury Tales is a universal piece of work because it will never lose validity. It appeals to value and characteristics that do not seem to change in time, since it is possible to identify them in the universal literature of all times. BIBLIOGRAPHY Brunel, Pierre. Companion to Literary Myths, Heroes and Archetypes. advanced York. Routledge. 1992. Chaucer, Geoffrey.The Canterbury Tales. Translated by Nevill Coghill. Penguin. capit al of the United Kingdom. Penguin. 2003. Franz, Marie-Louise von. Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales. Toronto. Inner City. 1997. Herz, Sarah K. , and Donald R. Gallo. From Hinton to Hamlet building Bridges Between Young Adult Literature and the Classics. 2nd ed. Westport. Greenwood. 2005. Holman, C. Hugh, and William Harmon. A handbook to Literature. 6th ed. New York. Macmillan. 1992. Johnson, Terry D. , and Daphne R. Louis. Bringing It All Together. Portsmouth. Heinemann. 1997. Joseph Campbell. The hero with a thousand faces.California. New populace Library. 2003. Jung, C. G. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Princeton. Bollingen. 1981. Jung, C. G. Phenomenology of the Self in The Portable Jung. New York. Penguin. 1976. Stevens, Anthony. The archetypes in The Handbook of Jungian Psychology. Renos. Papadopoulos. 2006. 1 Anthony Stevens. The archetypes in The Handbook of Jungian Psychology. Renos. Papadopoulos. 2006. p. 20. 2 C. G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collec tive Unconscious. , Princeton. Bollingen. 1981. p. 9. 3 Joseph Campbell.The hero with a thousand faces. California. New World Library. 2003. p. 23. 4 C. G. Jung. Phenomenology of the Self in The Portable Jung. New York. Penguin. 1976. p. 147 5 C. G. Jung. Op. cit. p. 18 6Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales. Translated by Nevill Coghill. Penguin. London Penguin. 2003. p. 89. 7 C. G. Jung. Op. cit. 19. 8. Idem. p. 20. 9 Geoffrey Chaucer. Op. cit. 90. 10 Ibid. p. 103. 11 C. G. Jung. Op. cit. p. 29. 12 Marie-Louise von Franz. Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales. Toronto Inner City, 1997. p. 107. 13 Ibid. p. 89.