Table Of ContentARCHETYPAL IMAGINATION IN MARK TWAIN’S WORKS:
ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, A CONNCETICUT YANKEE IN KING
ARTHUR’S COURT, AND THE TRAGEDY OF PUDD’NHEAD WILSON
A Dissertation Submitted to
The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of
Tribhuvan University in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in
ENGLISH
By
PRAMILA RAI
Ph.D Regd. 2068
T. U. Regd. No. 4/ 045
Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu
November, 2014
LrTf ER OF REcm.tMENIM TION
We cni } t Ilhi (II, ati n entil'ed "Archt'tlPllllmal!inution in Mark
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C~'"rt.n I rudd'"hrad " 7bon" \\. pH'p3n:d I,) r'rami'a Rai under our
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( fu 'Tlllltt tlf I uh~ of ' lum ilic nnd ~ociol Sci 'n C'i. Tribhuw:m Univcr~ilY for
nf nr '/ OR OF 1'1/1/ )\'( IN n in F Il~ 1i <h.
Dis crtalioll Commillce
Prof. Dr. Shrcedhar P. Lohani
Supervisor
Dr. Anand Sharma
Expert
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R,j No.: ................... .
API)ROVAL LEITER
1l1i~ di <crtlltion entitled ArrhetYJ1:11 ImaJ;!ination In Mark Twain's Works:
AJ"rntllrcl' (I/lll1cJ.lt·bl'rry Fillll, A CmmecllclIl YUllkee III KIIII: Arlllur's COllrt,
and Til .. TrlIRed)' O/I'//f!tl'IIIIl'ud Wilfllll was submitted by I'rumila Rai for final
examination to the I{c.carch Committee of the Faculty of Ilumanities and Social
Science . Tribhuvan University. in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of
Uoetor of I'hllosollhy in EnJ:lish. I herehy certify that the Research Committee of the
Faculty has found this dissertation satisfactory in scope and quality and has therefore
accepted it for the degree.
Prof. Chinta Mani Pokhare • PhD
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, 2/t( Dean and Chairman
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Research Committee
Date: \
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TU Central Administrative Building. Kirtipur. Kathmandu. NEPAL Tel.: +(977-1)4-330358.4-333980
Fax: + (977-1) 4-335104. E-mail: [email protected]
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Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to my supervisor, Professor
Dr. Shreedhar Prashad Lohani, for his guidance and support in carrying out this
dissertation. He has always been a source of inspiration to me.
I am much obliged to Dr. Ananda Sharma, Associate Professor of English, Ratna
Rajya Campus who as Expert in the Dissertation Committee, was always accessible and
gave scholarly comments and guidance in the process of writing this dissertation. I also
would like to thank Dr. Susmita Talukdar, Associate Professor of English at Padmakanya
Multiple Campus who helped me with her valuable suggestions. I also express my words
of gratitude to Professor Dr. Chintamani Pokhartel, Dean, and Professor Dr. Tarakant
Pandeya, Assistant Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Tribhuvan
University, for providing this opportunity of conducting Ph.D research. Similarly, I
would like to thank the Chief Librarian of American Library, Mr. Prakash Thapa for his
help in procuring research journals.
I am thankful to USIS, Nepal for granting me an opportunity to attend Seminar-
Workshop on Mark Twain at Elmira College, New York, under National Endowment for
Humanities Program in 1994 and also facilitating my visits to The Indo–American Center
for International Studies (former American Studies Research Center) as Research
Scholar. I would also like to remember with deep respect Late Professor Dr. Isaac
Sequeira, the former Academic Fellow at The Indo –American Center for International
Studies, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India, for his keen interest in my work and for
his profound suggestions to me in the initial stage of my work.
v
Similarly, I would like to express my thanks to Padma Kanya Multiple Campus,
Baghbazar for facilitating study leave to conduct my Ph.D. I also would like to give
sincere thanks to Professor Dr. Gajab Kumari Timilsinha who assisted me in re-
registration process, and inspired and encouraged me to complete my dissertation.
Finally, I am much indebted to my husband, Mr. Rajendra K. Rai for his patience,
encouragement, and providing a favorable environment to carry out my research works. I
would also like to express my thanks to my daughters and sons-in-law, Rudriksha Rai
Parajuli and Gopi Parajuli for their support in computer works, Ruprama Rai Chand and
Amar Chand deserve special thanks for words of encouragement, and my sons, Pragyajan
Yalamber Rai and P. Skandhar Rai for believing in me to complete my dissertation.
vi
ABSTRACT
This dissertation titled “Archetypal Imagination in Mark Twain’s Works:
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's England, and
Puddn’head Wilson” is an approach to study Mark Twain’s novels from the archetypal
perspective. The concept of psychological archetypes is derived from the studies made by
Carl G. Jung, and the hero archetype by Joseph Campbell. In The Archetypes and the
Collective Unconscious, Jung defines the archetype as universal and recurring image,
pattern or motif representing typical human experiences which are the result of countless
experiences of our ancestors and they are the psychic residue of numberless experiences
of lived life from primordial times. Similarly, Joseph Campbell says that the heroes are
essentially social constructions and they are not real. Every society has similar hero
stories and they express a deep psychological aspect of human existence. They can be
seen as metaphor for man's quest of self-knowledge. In other words, the hero shows the
path to our own consciousness through his actions.
Jung has called the process of forming a consciousness "individuation."
Therefore, through individuation process man is able to reconcile the
conscious/unconscious aspects of the psyche. In the process of the journey of life, the
hero encounters many dangers. So, in myths when he kills a monster or defeats an enemy,
he is not literally killing it in the real world, but facing the negative aspects of his
unconscious, such as lust or rage, anger, hatred etc. to control that negative side of his
being. Therefore, the hero stories are like road maps for the successful assimilation of the
conscious, rational mind with the unconscious, animal mind. Such stories are both a
record of primitive encounters with the unconscious as well as a prompt for individuals to
vii
enter into a struggle in order to attain higher consciousness.
The quest theme in archetypal imagination implies an individual’s search for
freedom to attain higher consciousness and enlightenment. Quest means a journey of
search, or a pursuit of the unknown. The route that the hero must follow is dangerous, full
of hurdles and his ultimate quest is the attainment of Truth. In the quest narrative the hero
follows three distinct stages: departure, initiation and the return. Therefore, he is
essentially alone in his quest and he makes his heroic undertaking, a celebratory journey
of self realization and self discovery. Then the quest becomes a metaphor for the inward
search of self discovery.
This dissertation explores the journeys of Huck Finn, Hank Morgan and David
Wilson to realize the Truth, or higher consciousness and enlightenment. It is divided into
six chapters. The first chapter opens with an introduction to myth making process in
Mark Twain's works. The second chapter deals with myth theories from primordial past
to the present, and the model for the hero cycle is based on Carl Jung’s psychological
archetypes in The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, and the cyclical hero
patterns in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. It also provides the keys
to hero cycle pattern, which the protagonists follow in their heroic quests.
The third chapter is on Mark Twain’s mythic model in Huckleberry Finn, A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson. The
fourth and fifth chapters are the textual analysis of the three books to trace the heroic
quests of the protagonists. These heroes are not presented as classical heroes but they are
representatives of modern men in the world. The final chapter ends with the tragedy and
viii
triumph of the common man because the heroic quest of the protagonist is the victory of
the common man and this is the meaning of Mark Twain's triumph.
The working of Mark Twain’s archetypal imagination in his novels presents a
macro-cosmic world which accounts for a vast subject of human existence. The mythic
theme of birth, death, and rebirth is like a thread of human lives from the primitive past
through the cycle of changes to the modern crisis and the potentiality of the future. The
stories of Huck Finn, Hank Morgan and David Wilson explore the tragedy of the
common man and the common man's heroism is his concentrated self-awareness of
humanity.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION ii
APPROVAL LETTER iii
DECLARATION iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v
ABSTRACT vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS x
Chapter 1: Myth Making Process in Mark Twain 1
Background 1
Twain's Mythopoeic Imagination 2
Archetypal Imagination in Twain 4
Twain's Myth Making Process 9
Statement of Problem 13
Hypothesis 13
Rationale 13
Significance of Study 14
Definition of Terms 15
Delimitations 16
Research Methodology 16
Tentative Chapter Division 17
Review of Literature on Mark Twain's Works 17
Chapter 2: Developing an Archetypal Framework 22
Myths and Archetypes 22
x
