1 of 5

Write now Article Tools

Archetypal Symbolism and "The Scarlet Letter"

Humankind's search for meaning has lead humanity to the gateways of science and religion to worship at the feet of rationality and Nature; however, humanity's search has not uncovered convincing answers to the questions of why we are here and where we are going. Despite humanity's intellectual prowess, one place, which holds all the knowledge, power, and training gathered by our species, has not been disturbed.

Carl Jung called this place, this reservoir of knowledge, the "collective unconscious" (de Laszlo 300), which exposes itself by seeping through our dreams, influencing our attitudes, and providing meaning to our everyday lives. Alexander Eliot in The Timeless Myths modifies Jung's concept of the "collective unconscious" and applies his modification to ideas generated by the mind.

Eliot writes: "The vast continuum of whispers, songs, thunderheads, bright sunshine, deities, . . . and astonishing discoveries upon which "Mind" dependsdoes all this nestle inside my skull?" He answers this question by writing that a person's mind can not contain all knowledge but that the mind accesses an area he calls the "mythosphere" (28). Whether described as the "mythosphere" or the "collective unconscious," this place inside each of us holds humanity's collective hopes and fears.

When a piece of literature such as Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter resonates across time and cultures, the literature awakens archetypal elements which manipulate an individual's unconscious, thereby reaching his or hers most primitive structures. A study of mythology and religion reveals that many of these structures are common across cultures and appear in literature. What are these archetypal structures hidden within the Mind? In The Power of Myth Joseph Campbell states that archetypes are "elementary ideas" that are unconscious "manifestations of the organs of the body and their powers" (60). He continues:

"For instance, the art of tilling the soil goes forth from the area in which it is first developed, and along with it goes a mythology that has to do with fertilizing the earth, with planting and bringing up the food plantssome such myth as that just described, of killing a deity, cutting it up, burying its members, and having the food plants grow. Such a myth will accompany an agricultural or planting tradition. (61)

In other words archetypal structures are not just about what humans are, but what humans do. For instance, a powerful idea in modern

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Literary analysis: Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne?
We want to hear your view. Write now!