An Archetypal Analysis Of Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is a novella written by Stephen King, a famous American contemporary popular fiction writer. The thesis attempts to use the archetypal criticism theories to analyze the biblical archetypes in this fiction, which includes its motifs, characters, structures and imagery. The thesis is made up of six parts.The first part introduces Stephen King's life career and literary reviews on his fictions. It also gives a brief introduction to Northrop Frye's archetypal criticism theory, which is the theoretical guideline in the thesis.From Chapter One to Chapter four the thesis gives a detailed analysis of the fiction by using archetypal criticism theory from different aspects. Chapter One is an analysis on the motifs. Four biblical motifs are analyzed in this chapter, which are separately redemption motif, sacrificial scapegoat motif, quest motif and rebirth motif. Chapter Two analyzes the archetypal characters in the fiction, the protagonist, Andy Dufresne and the serial Satan characters such as Samuel Norton and Stemmas. Chapter Three analyzes the archetypal structures from the Bible in this fiction. Three kinds of biblical structures are used in the fiction, which includes big-U shaped structure, small-u shaped structure and circular structure. Chapter Four is an analysis on archetypal imagery in the fiction. Shawshank is the imagery of hell while Zihuatanejo is the imagery of heaven. It also makes a short analysis of the symbol in this fiction.The last part is the conclusion of the thesis. Through the detailed analysis on the fiction's motifs, characters, structures and imagery, the thesis concludes that the fiction's literary archetype is the Bible. Besides, by perfectly making use of the biblical archetypes, Stephen King not only effectively conveys his original creative intention,deepens the cultural and social connotation , but also greatly intensifies the profundity and artistic quality, and the theme of the fiction is still meaningful to our real life. We should reevaluate Stephen King's works objectively.