Jungian Principles in Three Folktales
One of the folktales chosen is Nathaniel Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown. This story talks about the transformation he undergoes as he takes a journey into a forest. The second story is from China titled, The Fisherman and His Wife. This story presents Chinese beliefs about extraordinary elements that co-exist with humans. The third story is titled, The Farmer and the Goddess, a story that reflects Wiccan tradition. These three stories strongly present Jungian principles of the process of individuation, archetypal symbols, and motifs.
The three stories illustrate Campbellian monomyth form, though stages to the journey are limited. The heroes of the story all take a journey into the unknown realm and later experience individuation. Young Goodman Brown closely adheres to the stages of the heros journey that Campbell (1948) posits. The main character identified as Young Goodman Brown is the hero of the story. In the beginning, he bids his wife goodbye as he takes on a journey into the forest. This illustrates the call to adventure. Young Goodman does not reveal to his wife where he is going, and why he must leave her. All he says is that his journey must needs be done twixt now and sunrise. This implies the mystery and secrecy of his affair. Once the journey is started, Young Goodmans journey unravels different stages as Campbell proposes, including supernatural aid and the initiation. The evil creature that accompanies him bears a staff which bore the likeness of a great black snake. reflects his evilness and power. The image of the snake is an archetypal symbol which suggests the snake in the Garden of Eden, hence the evil that lured Eve to commit sin. This element foreshadows the tragedy that the hero submits to. Next, Young Goodman undergoes the three-stage initiation process. First is the road of trials where he sees the pillars of the Church on their way to the evil ritual. He is very disappointed to see that the very people he and the community trusted are actually the leaders of the cult. The second stage, the meeting with the goddess, is when he sees his wife Faith in the ritual. Particularly, seeing his wife submitting to the ritual of the cult makes him feel defeated. Faith, who is the symbol of all that is positive in Young Goodmans life is also taken, thus connoting the heros defeat.
The end of the story deviates from Campbells idea of a victorious hero but submits to one that fails. As Campbell claims, an initiation hero can be slain by an opponent and descend in death (17). The idea of death, which is another mythological theme, is not physical dying in Young Goodman Brown. Rather, it is spiritual death, one that disallows a person to continue with his life with certainty and freedom. The Fisherman and His Wifeual death that Goodman suffers from causes him to fail in attaining the ultimate boon and the freedom to live and love. This is basically caused by his disappointment with the high clergymen of his town, and could be attributed to his youth (which is why he is called Young Goodman).
In the Chinese folklore, The Fisherman and His Wife, the hero, a fisherman, undergoes the similar process of initiation. He encounters a dwarf called Little Three who serves as his supernatural guide to the initiation process. Like Young Goodman, he undergoes the road of trials, where he needs to control his breathing, swim with the dwarf, and keep the secret to himself. Likewise, he experiences meeting with the goddess, and in his case, it is also his wife. This is where the fisherman fails. He does not anticipate what his wife wants, and after telling her the truth, the process of initiation stops, disallowing the hero to fulfill his mission of living in prosperity.
In the Wiccan story, The Farmer and the Goddess, the hero is able to fulfill his mission. Like Young Goodman and the fisherman, he too undergoes the process of initiation and meeting with the goddess. The farmer is troubled by the drought that his country experiences. He expresses grief, saying, Yes, the corn which I had helped to birth - that which I had loved so dearly - was gone. Dried up. Dead. This reflects the tribulation that he undergoes as part of the initiation. In his dire position, he encounters a goddess. This time the goddess is a fairy who dances in his cornfield to produce rain. The gracefulness of the goddess helps him attain atonement. Experiencing beauty, he stops crying over his cornfields and later achieves the ultimate boon.
The three stories also subscribe to Jungs idea of archetypal symbols. Basically, the stories use things found in nature to elaborate the themes. Young Goodman Brown uses the forest as the place for the initiation. The forest, with its trees, nocturnal animals, darkness, and fog, symbolizes the mystery of the journey and even the evilness of the ritual that Goodman intends to attend. Interestingly, The Fisherman and His Wife makes use of the sea and the fishes that represent the prosperity and reward that one can get by keeping secrets and doing things as told. In The Farmer and the Goddess, the author also uses the cornfield, the big tree, and the rain as archetypal symbols to represent abundance in nature. These symbols help produce an atmosphere of authenticity and cultural tradition. They embody the agricultural life from where the stories originate. With such symbols, readers gain impression of the simple life in the countryside. The elements of nature which serve as the peoples main sources of living signify either famine or bountythe common aspects of peoples lives.
One archetype that deserves much attention is the use of the night. In particular, the initiation process that the heroes undergo happens during nighttime. This brings us to question, What is it in the night that makes fiction authors use it to unravel a heros journey or trial According to Jung, (1999), the night symbolizes evil, mystery, darkness or death. In common sense, the events that take place in the stories are supposed to happen in secrecy, thus it is important to have them occur during nighttime. Mystery is achieved in this sense but apart from mystery, the night also suggests the weakness of the protagonist, considering that it is more difficult to see things in darkness than in light. In line with this weakness is the foreshadowing of death or failure or an unexpected victory. Furthermore, the night is used to signify the evilness of purpose in Young Goodman Brown. The cult cannot do its ritual in broad daylight because doing so will destroy the reputation of the churchs leaders. In contrast, in The Fisherman and His Wife and The Farmer and the Goddess, the night is used not for evilness of purpose but for pure secrecy. The husband needs to keep the secret from his wife to remain in good faith with The Fisherman and His Wife while in the other story, the fairy will not show herself to the people other than the sobbing farmer. Overall, the use of the night makes the story more interesting and mystery-laden.
Other archetypal symbols add to the mystery of the stories. In Young Goodman Brown, the evil guide with the big staff suggests the angel of death. His presence in the story implies a warning to Young Goodman of the terrible fate that awaits him. In The Fisherman and His Wife, the dwarf or unknown spirit also adds to the mystery and makes the readers shiver with both fear and interest. Likewise, in The Farmer and the Goddess, the fairy makes the heros experience mythical and strange.
The similar motifs that the archetypal symbols represent illustrate Bastians concept of the psychic unity of mankind. With the symbols from nature, the stories similarly relate human exploration of nature. Young Goodman enters the forest, the fisherman unseen in the deep sea, catches some fish, while the farmer hides under the big tree to witness a strange occurrence. The similar use of nature to bring out the mystery reflects the psychic unity that people feel towards nature. Although the stories come from different parts of the world (U.S., China and England, respectively), they reflect a similar treatment of nature. They show how people see nature with mystery, challenge, abundance or danger.
Another universal theme that reflects psychic unity is related to the use of the night. As discussed above, people regardless of their origin, see the night as a time associated with a persons initiation. The heroes initiations happen overnight. Although the first two stories show inability to attain the boon while the third one ends in the heros success, all three stories present an overnight experience that leads the characters to realize some truths about life. Everything happens in the middle of the night Young Goodman Brown learns about the hypocrisy of the churchs leaders, the fisherman sees the value of keeping a secret, and the farmer learns to trust and thank nature for its goodness.
The similar idea that people go through a process of initiation to achieve a good end is likewise illustrated as another psychic unity true at least in the three cultures represented. Although there are some similarities in stages, the three cultures support the truth regarding the road of trials, the meeting with the goddess, and the desire to achieve the ultimate boon. Likewise, the stories also reveal the universal desire of the people to achieve freedom. In Young Goodman Brown, Hawthorne reflects the desire to live in truth and love, while the Chinese and the Wiccan story, the authors long for freedom from hunger and worry.
Reading stories from different cultures is a good way to understand different people. More than this however, a good grasp of Jungs archetypes can help further recognize cultural details, and the writers underlying thoughts and images. In particular, the common use of natural elements and of the night suggests the way people regard the elements around them while the common theme of heros initiation implies the way people perceive the occurrences that they go through in life.
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