Archetypes of lifeFrom Personal Experience to quest literature and Back again

Respond in your notes:

What patterns of life (situations, thoughts, emotions) do all humans experience?

Give specific examples and explain why all people experience them.

How do they fit on here?

How about Here?

What is an archetype?

Archetypos (Gr) = “original pattern”

In literature: A recurring image, character, or pattern of circumstances that is thought to be universal.

(in other words = a universal motif)

“First-Molded” (Greek)

Genesis 2:7: God made Adam out of “dust from the ground.”

Humans = “in God’s image”

Plato = Ideal Forms

ἀρχέτυπος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus

Plato’s allegory of the cave

We are prisoners chained in a cave, looking at a wall

Everything we see = just shadow of the true (original) FORM

Archetype = IDEAL FORM

What is Beauty?

Plato: Everything “beautiful” that we see is a SHADOW of the IDEAL FORM of Beauty…

Back to dreams

Jung’s “Collective Unconsciousness” = dream/memory/instinct part of mind that ALL people share

Reflects common ARCHETYPES: universal Images / ideas

Example: Arthur’s Dream

Archetypal characters?

Situational Archetype = quest

Quest = search/pursuit

In Arthurian romance: search/expedition to achieve a goal

Goal has deeper moral significance

Archetypes within the quest archetypeQuest

-Call to Adventure

-Crossing the Threshold (Departure)

- Trails

-Trails by 3 (Bedivere, St. Peter)

-Tempted away from Quest (Circe)

-Death & Rebirth (Crisis)

-Atonement (New Life)

In your notes, write a modern-day scenario for one of these stages

1: Call to Adventure

2: Crossing the Threshold (Departure)

3: Help along the Way

4: Temptation

5: Death & Rebirth (Crisis)

6: Atonement (New Life)

Group Scenarios

- With your group, prepare to act out a scenario (~2 minutes)

- Not everyone needs to talk, but everyone should act out a part

- Connect scenario to Hero’s Journey

- Draw on every day experience (Be creative!)

Roles

MC: Intro/Conclusion

Set Manager: Setting and Staging

Script Writer: Script

Narrator: Premise / Characters

Turn in 4 written parts at end of class

**All Group Members Act**

Reflection

How do archetypes help us better understand our lives?