A Study Of Robert Frost’s Poems From The Perspective Of Archetypal Criticism

Robert Frost is one of the most prominent figures in the American literaturepanorama. His poems are often written in simple languages, but at the same time, theyconvey profound meanings. He achieves numerous prizes in his life and enjoys greatpopularity both at home and abroad.Archetypes are the reflections of human beings’ physical and spiritualexperiences accumulated hundreds of thousands years ago. C. G. Jung holds that thecontent of collective unconscious is archetype and archetype is an embodiment of thecollective unconscious. Northrop Frye states that literature is the displacement ofmythology. This thesis mainly applies C. G. Jung’s and Northrop Frye’s archetypaltheories to analyze Robert Frost’s poems. By analyzing the vegetative archetypes,animal archetypes, nature archetypes and the archetypal processes of life, death andrebirth in his poems, this thesis reveals the profound meaning of his poem.Robert Frost suffers a lot in his lifetime, but the pains also give him a newvision of life. His poems are a reflection of his vision toward people’s life, nature andsociety. By analyzing Robert Frost’s poems from the perspective of archetypalcriticism, we have a deeper understanding of life and death. Life and death are a kindof circle, because death is not an end, but a new beginning of life.The thesis consists of four chapters. The first chapter gives a brief introductionto Robert Frost and his poems, including his life experiences, the effects of theseexperiences on him and the main features of his poems. Then it gives the definition of archetype and explains Carl Jung’s and Northrop Frye’s archetypal ideas respectively.The second chapter focuses on the archetypes in Robert Frost’s poems, includingvegetable archetypes (tree archetypes, flower archetypes, leaf archetypes, and applearchetypes), animal archetypes (bird archetypes and fish archetypes), and naturearchetypes (sun archetype, night archetype, fire archetype and snow archetype). Thischapter interprets the deep meanings of these archetypes and analyzes how they areembodied in Frost’s poems. The third chapter is about the archetypal processes inRobert Frost’s poem. In this chapter, the process towards death and the processtowards rebirth are analyzed. The last chapter makes an exact and brief conclusion ofthe whole thesis.