| A. S. Byatt's Booker Prize winning book Possession is a postmodern masterpiece in literary history. In this novel, the author has presented a three-layered text in which the primitive mythic story, the nineteenth century love romance and the twentieth century academic quest are mixed together. Throughout the whole novel, the archetypal images and symbols are pervasive and impressive. This paper is intended to make a thorough and systematic analysis of the different archetypes and images appearing in the different temporal layers of the text so as to have a better understanding of A. S. Byatt's writing purpose and her unique and insightful thinking about history, society, love and marriage. In accordance with the three layers of the text, this paper is also divided into three parts to discuss respectively the three different periods.The first part of this paper is devoted to the primitive times in human history. In this chapter, the emphasis is put on the mythical stories involved in the author's writing and narrative. The mythical character Proserpina (or Proserpine, in Greek mythology, Persephone) appears in one poem of the fictive nineteenth century poet Randolph Henry Ash. Proserpina in Roman mythology was the queen of the underworld, who originally was an innocent and pure girl enjoying a carefree and happy life. The god of the underworld Pluto happened to see her and was attracted by her beauty. He then managed to abduct Proserpina to his underworld Tartarus. Her mother Ceres, goddess of earth and agriculture, looked for her all over the world. As she wandered in search of her lost daughter, the earth grew desolate. All vegetation died, and famine devastated the land. Finally she found her daughter. She went to Jupiter, father of the gods and told the story of her bereavement, imploring Jupiter to interfere to procure the restitution of her daughter. Jupiter consented on one condition, namely, that Proserpina should not during her stay in the lower world have taken any food; otherwise, the Fates forbade her release. Accordingly, Mercury was sent, accompanied by Spring, to demand Proserpina of Pluto. The wily monarch consented; but the maiden had taken a pomegranate which Pluto offered her, and had sucked the sweet pulp from a few of the seeds. This was enough to prevent her complete release; but a compromise was made, by which she was to pass half the time with her mother and the rest with her husband Pluto. After Ceres found her daughter, the earth restored the original fertility. Therefore, Proserpina became the goddess of the dead and the goddess of the fertility of the earth. And she is also the personification of the revival of nature in spring. From Ash's poem concerning with the story of Proserpina, we can find many archetypal images such as the paradise Eden, the serpent and Eve. In spite of the fact that the existence of the serpent foreshadows the loss of the paradise, the imaginary happy heaven constructed by the primitive people becomes the eternal symbol of Mankind's spiritual home. And the revival archetype of Proserpina is a reflection of Byatt's cycle theory about history and society, conveying modern people's wish of restoring the losing values and spirits so as to regain the original happy paradise. Another important myth in this novel is the story of Melusina (or Melusine), who can be viewed as the embodiment of the fictive nineteenth century poetess Christabel LaMotte. Melusina in French mythology was a goddess, who was bewitched so that every Saturday she would be transformed into a serpent. If she married a mortal man, she would regain her human body provided that she should not be seen bathing by her husband on Saturday. Then Melusina married a chevalier named Raymond and lived a period of happy life. During the period the goddess applied her supernatural power to the earth and thus brought prosperity and fertility to society and crops, representing the typical archetypal image of the goddess of fertility. Unfortunately, she was seen by Raymond when bathing... |
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