A Study Of The Lord Of The Rings From The Perspective Of Archetypal Criticism

The Lord of the Rings, as the masterpiece of Tolkien, has been welcomed by itsreaders all over the world since its publication. The work has surpassed other fantasieswith its cultural richness, moral depth as well as Tolkien’s imagination and his talentof language. Its critical reputation and historical role increase with each passing day inEnglish literature.The characters are very simple, and the plots are not complicated in the work.But why can our hearts be touched so easily by it? Why do we cry for their tribulationand cheer for their final success? Why can it give a glitter of hope to the people livingin the modern society? This thesis attempts to find out the answers from archetypalcriticism. As one of the major literary criticisms, archetypal criticism has a greatinfluence on literary studies. The main representative scholars are Frye and Jung. ForFrye, literature origins from myth, and the archetype is a displacement of mythology.Different from Frye, Jung holds that archetypes are embodiments of the collectiveunconscious, the great physical and psychological experiences that repeated overmillions of years. Archetypes are universal, and shared by all humans in spite of theirgender, race, culture, education, economy and politics. This thesis is intended toanalyze the images and events in the work from the perspective of archetypalcriticism. There are totally four parts in this thesis.Chapter one introduces the basic information about The Lord of the Rings,Tolkien and archetypal criticism including the big events in Tolkien’s life, main features of archetypes and evaluation and analysis of this work at home and abroad.Chapter two analyzes the images in the work including characters that are aroundFrodo and natural objects that surround the Ring. All the archetypal characters touchthe deepest part of its readers and all the natural objects add a sense of myth to thisnovel.Chapter three explores the two events in the novel: the theme of quest and theU-shaped narrative structure. Quest is a permanent theme in romance. It is not onlythe process of the hero’s achievement of his task but also a course of his maturity ofpersonality. U-shaped narrative structure can be traced back to The Bible. A peacefulbeginning, a suffering process and a happy ending is the typical narrative pattern inmost literary works. U-shaped narrative structure is an indispensable part of a goodliterary work.Chapter four makes a conclusion of this thesis including the major findings,implication and limitation of the study, suggestions for further study.