An Archetypal Criticism Of Gerald's Death In Women In Love

This thesis attempts to analyze the death of Gerald in Women in Love from the perspective of archetypal criticism and theory. Through an exploration of the various archetypes in Gerald's death, the purpose of the thesis is to induce the inevitability of Gerald's death, the reason for his inevitable death and the messages the author wanted to convey from Gerald's death. My employment of archetypal criticism is illustrative rather than theoretical and it is subordinate to the texture analysis.This thesis is made up of five chapters. Chapter I is a brief introduction to the author D.H Lawrence and the criticism that has been made on Women in Love and Gerald. Chapter II is a background study of archetypal criticism and its influence on Lawrence. This chapter is meant to prove the possibility of applying archetypal criticism and theory into analyzing Lawrence's works. What I arrive at in this chapter is that Lawrence was influenced to certain extent by Jung's theory of the"collective unconsciousness"in his creative process and his interests in myths, the archetype of all literature might guide his writing.Chapter III and Chapter IV is the main body of this thesis. In Chapter III, analysis is made on the three main characters in Gerald's death, Gerald, Gudrun and Birkin. By analyzing the affinities between Gerald and his archetype Cain, Section 3.1 attempts to analyze Gerald's tragic downward movement from his hamartia to his struggle and finally to his fall and collapse so as to induce the inevitability of his fall due to his tragic hamartia. In section 3.2, I try to explore the characteristics of Gudrun, whose archetype is the Great Mother in mythology, aiming at analyzing her dual loving but destructive forces and her fatal role in the fall and death of Gerald. Through the analysis of Gudrun, I further argue the infeasibility of Gerald's salvation, for the soul of the woman he mistakenly took for his life was rotten by the sinister knowledge. Section 3.3 is an analysis of the role of Birkin, whose archetype was the prophet in mythology. This section focuses on Birkin's helplessness in Gerald's death, holding that his role intensified the tragic atmosphere of Gerald's inevitable death. Chapter IV is an analysis of the environmental archetypes in Gerald's death. In the first section, I mean to argue that through Gerald's downward movement, water had circulated from the first stage of the water of life to the last stage of snow which turned out to be one of the participants of Gerald's condemnation. The next section is an analysis of another environmental archetype, the crucifix that appeared before Gerald's death. This section attempts to prove that this crucifix was one of the condemning forces of Gerald's final punishment. By making an analysis of the environmental archetypes, I try to further emphasize the inevitability of Gerald's death, for at the last stage of his life, even the inorganic elements participated in his murder.In chapter V, with an overview of the above analysis of the hamartia of Gerald, the destructive force of Gudrun, the helplessness of Birkin, and the mysterious and sinister elements in Gerald's death, I come to my conclusion. Gerald was condemned to be killed, not only...