A Biblical Archetypal Study Of Patrick White's The Tree Of Man

Patrick White (1912-1990) is the only Australian writer to have been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1973. Swedish Academy awards the prize to White for the reason that he has introduced a new continent into literature by applying an epic and psychological narrative art. Patrick White and his works attract more and more attention both in China and abroad. Among the studies, The Tree of Man is one of the focal points. However, most studies dwell on the writing technique, character analysis, themes and mysticism in this novel. There are few theses analyzing the relationship between The Tree of Man and the Bible by applying archetypal criticism.The Bible is the origin of western literature which breeds most famous writers and their works. Also, Patrick White is influenced by the Bible deeply. It is a commonsense in literature circle that discussing the biblical element is a must in exploring the deep meaning of literary works. Meanwhile, as a special approach, archetypal criticism has the same status with Marxist criticism and psychoanalysis criticism. Therefore, by applying Northrop Frye's archetypal criticism to make the contrastive analysis between The Tree of Man and the Bible, the thesis'author analyzes the biblical archetypes to explore the Bible's influence on this novel and White's understandings on Christianity from characters, themes and structures of the novel. It is beneficial for readers to comprehend the novel more clearly.