Quest For Spiritual Immortality: An Archetypal Study Of William Butler Yeats’’s Poetry

William Butler Yeats is one of the greatest poets in the 20 th century. His poetry goes beyond cultural and racial boundaries and receives boundless affection and good reputation all over the world. Due to these, together with his unique and ever-changing poetic style, Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. His brilliance has kept the Yeatian studies in ascendant all the time, showing no sign of slowing down in the near future. Up till now new interpretations have been emerging, with Yeats having been studied from various perspectives, like symbolism, orientalism, nationalism, modernism, postmodernism, postcolonialism, etc. This thesis attempts to approach Yeats’ s poetry from the archetypal criticism.The thesis, mainly based on Northrop Frye’s and Carl Jung’s theories of archetypal criticism, attempts to make an analysis of Yeats’ s poetry. It will be done from three aspects. The first is an analysis of the ancient Irish and Greek mythological archetypes in his poetry, the second the Biblical archetypes, and the third the archetypes of Oriental culture. Through these analyses, the thesis finally draws a conclusion that these archetypes recurring in Yeats’ s poetry reveal his large-mindedness to rebuild the national identity on the one hand, and his deep concern about the ultimate fate of whole human race on the other hand through his endless quest for the spiritual paradise for mankind. These two themes go through many of Yeats’ s poems. It is hoped that this study will extend the Yeatsian studies and contribute to a better understanding of archetypal criticism.