an archetypal analysis of sons and lovers and women in love by dhlawrence

143 Pages·2008·0.69 MB·English

AN ARCHETYPAL ANALYSIS OF SONS AND LOVERS AND WOMEN

IN LOVE BY D.H.LAWRENCE

Pamukkale University
Social Sciences Institution
Master of Arts Thesis
The Department of English Language and Literature
_______________________________________

Meltem UZUNOĞLU ERTEN

Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Cumhur Yılmaz MADRAN

JUNE 2008
DENİZLİ

i

I hereby declare that all information in this document has been presented in
accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that as required by
these rules and conduct I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are
not original to this work.

Signature:

Name, Last Name: Meltem UZUNOĞLU ERTEN
ii

To my husband and my family
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I should like to express my sincerest gratitude and thanks to my supervisor Assist. Prof. Dr.
Cumhur Yılmaz MADRAN for his guidance and helpful suggestions for my study and my
teachers whose wisdom I have profited during my MA education; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ertuğrul
İŞLER, Assist. Prof. Dr. Turan PAKER and Assist. Prof. Dr. Meryem AYAN. I would also
like to express my thanks to the library staff, especially Hasan ATMACA and Ahmet
SARGIN who showed their helpfulness and goodness in providing the necessary material for
my thesis.

I am deeply indebted to my husband Research Assist. Hüseyin ERTEN and my parents
Asuman and Tevfik UZUNOĞLU for their endless support and patience.

My final thanks go to my friend Ayşegül KOÇAK SIĞINÇ with whom we turned the hardest
moments into joy during our education.
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ABSTRACT

AN ARCHETYPAL ANALYSIS OF SONS AND LOVERS AND WOMEN IN LOVE

BY D.H.LAWRENCE

Uzunoğlu Erten, Meltem
M.A. Thesis in English Literature
Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Cumhur Yılmaz MADRAN
June 2008, 135 pages

The mythical framework and the archetypes in D.H.Lawrence is the main topic
of this study which focuses upon Lawrence’s two novels, Sons and Lovers and Women in
Love. Lawrence’s purpose in using the myths, mythical patterns and archetypes in his
works is to reflect the alienation and isolation of man in modern world and the
corruption in modern society. Lawrence employs the archetypes of the individual and
more universal archetypes to deal with both the man alone and the society as a whole.
The method used in this study is archetypal criticism. Archetypal criticism deals
with the archetypes which are primordial images inherited through generations.
Archetypes constitute “the collective unconscious” which is a deeper layer and which is
inborn and universal for all mankind.
Chapter one identifies the main mythical approaches throughout the ages and the
developments in this field. Chapter two deals with Psychoanalytical Criticism
introduced by Sigmund Freud and C.G.Jung. Chapter three analyzes Modernism and
the period called the Modern Period. Chapter four and Chapter five attempt to
scrutinize Sons and Lovers and Women in Love in the light of Archetypal Criticism.
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze Lawrence’s use of myths, mythical
patterns and archetypes of the collective unconscious to reflect his world view. While his
archetypes are the archetypes of the individual in Sons and Lovers, they develop into
more universal archetypes in Women in Love. This study puts forward how Lawrence
communicates his developing vision about the mankind, the society and the world
through these developing archetypes.

Keywords: Mythology, Archetype, Jung, Lawrence
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ÖZET

D.H.LAWRENCE’IN OĞULLAR VE SEVGİLİLER VE AŞIK KADINLAR

ROMANLARININ ARKETİPSEL ANALİZİ

Uzunoğlu Erten, Meltem
Yüksek Lisans Tezi, İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı ABD
Tez Danışmanı: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Cumhur Yılmaz MADRAN

Haziran 2008, 135 sayfa

D.H.Lawrence’ın Oğullar ve Sevgililer ve Aşık Kadınlar isimli iki romanının
incelendiği bu çalışmanın ana konusu Lawrence’ın kullandığı mitsel çerçeve ve
arketiplerdir. Lawrence’ın eserlerinde mitleri, mitsel kalıpları ve arketipleri
kullanmaktaki amacı, insanın modern dünyadaki yalnızlığını ve çevresinden
soyutlanışını ve modern toplumun içinde bulunduğu çöküşü anlatmaktır. Hem tek
başına insan hem de toplumun tamamı için, Lawrence hem bireysel hem de evrensel
arketiplerden faydalanmıştır.
Bu çalışmada kullanılan metod arketipsel eleştiridir. Arketipsel eleştiri nesilden
nesile aktarılan ilk imgeler olarak açıklanabilecek arketipler ile ilgilenir. Arketipler,
tüm insanlık için evrensel olan ve doğuştan gelen derin bir tabaka olan “kolektif
bilinçaltını” nı oluştururlar.
Birinci bölüm, yüzyıllar boyu etkin olmuş belli başlı mitsel yaklaşımları ve bu
alandaki gelişimleri tanımlamaktadır. İkinci bölüm Sigmund Freud ve C.G.Jung
tarafından öne sürülmüş olan “Psikanalitik Eleştiri” üzerine odaklanmıştır. Üçüncü
bölüm Modernizmi ve Modern Dönem olarak adlandırılan dönemi incelemektedir.
Dördüncü ve beşinci bölümler ise Oğullar ve Sevgililer ve Aşık Kadınlar isimli
romanların Arketipsel Eleştiri yardımı ile analizini içermektedir.
Bu tezin amacı, Lawrence’ın kendi dünya görüşünü yansıtmak amacı ile mitleri,
mitsel kalıpları ve kolektif bilinçaltına ait arketipleri nasıl kullandığını incelemektir.
Oğullar ve Sevgililer romanında kullanmış olduğu arketipler bireye ait arketipler ile
sınırlıyken, bunlar Aşık Kadınlar’da daha evrensel arketiplere doğru gelişirler. Bu
çalışma, Lawrence’ın gelişme gösteren arketipler aracılığı ile insanlık, toplum ve dünya
ile ilgili ortaya koyduğu düşüncelerini nasıl ifade ettiğini ortaya koymaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Mitoloji, Arketip, Jung, Lawrence.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PLAGIARISM ............................................................................................................................ i
DEDICATION ........................................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. iv
ÖZET .......................................................................................................................................... v
TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................................... vi
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER ONE
THE MYTHICAL THOUGHT THROUGH AGES IN THE WESTERN MIND…………… 5
CHAPTER TWO
PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM……………………………………………………...…. 21
CHAPTER THREE
MODERNISM………………………………………………………………………………. 35
CHAPTER FOUR
LAWRENCE’S NOVEL AND SONS AND LOVERS .......................................................... 50
CHAPTER FIVE
WOMEN IN LOVE ................................................................................................................. 91
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 126
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 131
VITA ...................................................................................................................................... 135
1
INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this thesis is an analysis of myth, mythical patterns and
archetypes in D.H. Lawrence which he uses in order to express his world view. The
most appropriate method for the analysis of Lawrence’s works is the Archetypal
Method since his works are rich in myths and archetypes. The present study analyzes
which archetypes he employs to support his ideas, criticisms and suggestions as well as
how he makes use of these archetypes in creating a progress developing from
individuality to universality. The present study puts forward that Lawrence’s archetypes
evolve from the archetypes of the individual to the universal archetypes. His archetypes
which are limited to the world of the individual characters in Sons and Lovers change
into the larger archetypes of universality in Women in Love. This development
indicates that Lawrence first focuses on the individual as the smallest unit, and then
deals with the society as a whole.

In Sons and Lovers, Lawrence reflects the insecurity and rootlessness of modern
life, and especially man as the pitiful victim of a world of brute force who becomes
alienated from himself and nature. He dramatizes the complete loneliness which could
be caused by an emphasis upon the private world and the interior journey toward
personal understanding. In Sons and Lovers Lawrence is preoccupied with the
archetypes of the development of the individual. These are the different aspects of the
mother archetype and the character archetypes like the shadow, the animus and the
anima which function as the stages of individuation process. While the archetypes of
the individual are common in Sons and Lovers, the universal archetypes such as death
and rebirth take place in Women in Love. Even archetypes such as the Great Mother
and the Great Father become universal values in Women in Love in contrast to the
mother archetype in Sons and Lovers which is limited to the individual since these
archetypes stand for the earth and nature deities in Women in Love. Therefore,
Lawrence widens his scope from the corruption of the world of the individual to the
corruption of the society which is a necessary step of the process towards a rebirth in
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Lawrence’s view. Additionally, Lawrence never abandons the archetypes of nature
through which he handles the alienation of man both to his own nature and his
surroundings. The development in Lawrence’s usage of archetypes has been taken as a
basis in the analysis of his novels in order to witness his progress as a writer as well as
his identity as a twentieth century novelist.

Lawrence is a novelist who focuses upon the inner world of the individual as
opposed to his predecessors. He emphasizes the importance of characterization and the
psychological dimension of his characters unlike the realist writers of the nineteenth
century since he believes in the importance of the individual experience beneath the
social surface. His attempts are supported by the newly arising sciences of his period
such as psychology and psychoanalysis which emphasize the importance of the
unconscious. According to these newly discovered branches of science of the twentieth
century, mythological patterns and archetypes are regarded as the products of the
unconscious which the individual externalizes especially in literary works. Thus,
psychoanalytical, mythological and archetypal methods in literary criticism have
become popular as a way of scrutinizing the unconscious of both the writer and his
characters. Since Lawrence deals with the mythological patterns and archetypes, his
works are appropriate for the application of these methods.

The theoretical basis for this study is Jungian Archetypal Criticism, which deals
with mythological patterns and archetypes in literary works. Mythological patterns are
the recurrent motifs in myths. They reflect the timeless memory of mankind which
continuously repeats itself. Archetypes are mythic symbols which are deeply rooted in
the collective unconscious. The hypothesis of the collective unconscious was
introduced by C.G.Jung. The collective unconscious is a deeper layer which does not
rest upon the personal unconscious or which is not a personal acquisition, but which is
inborn and universal, and which has contents and modes of behaviour that are more or
less the same everywhere and in all individuals.

The archetypes employed by Lawrence will be analyzed according to the
Jungian Archetypal Criticism. Archetypes such as mother, hero, twins, anima, animus,
shadow and persona will be emphasized as well as more universal archetypes such as
equality, death and rebirth. Both novels will be examined with the same method and