A Study Of Sons And Lovers From The Perspective Of Archetypal Criticism

David Herbert Lawrence is one of the most creative and most controversialBritish writers in the literary world. He is bold and innovative. His novels portray thebeauty of nature and primitiveness by his personal and original style and explore thepower of human instinct by psychological analysis. Sons and Lovers, Lawrence’srepresentative work, won the enthusiastic approval of his readers and is highlythought of by the critics. Since the book was published, Sons and Lovers has beenreviewed by numerous critics who have analyzed this novel from differentperspectives and with various methods. Sons and Lovers is a semi-autobiographicalstory of Lawrence himself which reflects Lawrence attitude towards life and throughwhich different kinds of archetypes can be found. Lawrence likes to express himselfby various images, symbols and literary allusions so that readers can understandLawrence’s inner world and his view of religion and belief better.Archetypal criticism is one of the most important western literary critical schoolsin the20th century created by Northrop Frye, a Canadian literary critic who isinfluenced deeply by James G Frazer and Carl Gustav Jung. In consideration of thecomplexity and deeper connotation of the archetype, and the main characters ofLawrence works itself, this thesis mainly analyzes the character archetype and thescene archetype in his representative novels Sons and Lovers.The thesis contains six chapters. The introduction summarizes the history and thecurrent situation of the Lawrence’s study at home and abroad. And in foundation ofreference materials that has been researched, it illuminates study methods and topicssignificances.Chapter one gives a brief introduction to the author and the novel. It mainlyincludes D.H. Lawrence’s life and literature status and the main contents of this novel. Chapter two puts emphasis on the archetypal criticism. It mainly illuminates thedifferent contributions of Frazer, Jung and Frye to this literary theory. And it intendsto explore the reasons for Lawrence’s imbibing biblical archetypes with reference tothe Bible’s great influence and the deep influence by the family and society.Chapter three casts some light on the archetypes of the characters in Sons andLovers. By comparing the texts, the article attempts to find the similarities betweenPaul and Jesus, and the archetypes of female images in the novel. The description ofdifferent kinds of females reflects the writer’s attitude towards females. Analyzing thenovel from the perspective of archetypal criticism, the readers could understandLawrence’s writing intention and personality development of characters deeply fromevery side.Chapter four researches on the archetypes of the scenes in the Lawrence’s novelby analyzing the sacrifice scene, the son preference scene, and Paradise Scene.Lawrence analogized the sacrifice scene to enhance the mysteriousness of his works,and foil the character’s characteristics. The analogy of son preference scene enhancedexpressive force of the works as well as reflecting from the reverse side the miserablereality that the ancient harmonious relations in the family were dissimilated gradually.The analogy of the paradise scene expressed Lawrence’s pursuit of the heaven ofpeace and happiness.Finally, it summed up the viewpoint of the thesis. The Lawrence’s works havelinks with the Bible and western culture inextricably. By adducing and comparing thetexts, the thesis tries to explore the connotative meaning of Lawrence’s novels fromthe new point of view and acquires a better understanding of Lawrence’s religiousculture connotation, attitude towards the females, hatred for industrialization, desirefor freedom and bright future, and unveils the inheriting of Lawrence to the Bibleculture and the western literature history.