Research On The Biblical Archetypes In The Thorn Birds

The Thorn Birds is the most popular novel by the famous modern writer Colleen McCullough in Australia and she is also one of the most popular work in the world.This famous work was created in 1977 and since then was translated into more than twenty languages and was published and welcomed by readers around the world.Since the emergence of Christianity,the religious belief and the religious work Bible have a profound influence on the spirit of western world.In the meanwhile,Christianity and Bible plays an irreplaceable role in the history of western literature and it provides a reference example for the western literary works in the form of writing,narrative pattern and the profound meaning or the theme.From Dante's Divine Comedy to many of Shakespeare's works,the biblical elements can be found easily from the western literary works of the renaissance,romanticism,and realism.Even in the period of rise and prosperity of postmodernism modernism,factors about Bible was common and was found and analyzed.In addition,Northrop Frye's myth archetypal criticism theory thought that myth is one of the oldest literary works,it is the basis of the archetypes in literary works.The Bible is the original form of a series of literary works,which provides the most essential content,structure,and theme for almost all literary creation.Therefore,in order to get a better understanding of the western literature and its profound meaning,it is an important step to understand and study the Bible.It is a good way to learn more about the novel and to open a new perspective by analyzing The Thorn Birds from the perspective of religion and the Bible.Many scholars at home and abroad have studied this work from different aspects,including the themes of feminism,the struggle between humanity and divinity under the influence of religion.The research on The Thorn Bird is increasing as time went on in China,but the analysis from the aspect of the archetypes in Bible still did not have a complete system.This thesis analyzes the Biblical archetypes in environment background,narrative structure,characters and theme on the basis of Frye's Myth archetypal criticism theory so as to show Colleen McCullough religious point of view.This thesis is divided into three parts: introduction,main body,and conclusion.The first part is the introduction.First,the introduction discusses the influence and significance of the Bible on western literature,and puts forward the view that manyliterary works take the Bible as the background and cultural origin of a work.The introduction proposes to use Frye's myth archetypal criticism theory as the theoretical basis to study the prototype factors.The end of the introduction analyzes and summarizes the present situation of the research on The Thorn Birds.On the basis of former analysis,this thesis puts forward the idea of archetypal criticism theory,its purpose and significance.It helps the reader to see this work from new perspective and to understand and analyze western literature.The second part is the main part and it has four chapters.The first chapter is the analysis of the environmental background created in The Thorn Birds and its biblical archetypes.The background of the environment is divided into the archetypes of biblical Garden of Eden and the hell.In the vast expanse of private land in Drogheda,Meggie and Ralph met each other and experienced the happiest period of their lives.In the meanwhile,their love became the modern ‘forbidden fruit'.Thus Drogheda can be seen as the modern Eden.However,The Biblical archetype of hell can also be seen in Drogheda.Hard life,water,and fire and image like this shows that Drogheda is also a hell.The second chapter discusses the reference and application of the archetypes of characters in The Thorn Birds.This thesis,through the analysis of the character,the living environment and the life course,compares Eve,Adam,Satan,scapegoat,Saul and David with Meggie,Ralph,Mary,Dane,Frank and Paddy in order to show the Archetypes in Character.The third chapter studies the extensive application of the narrative structure in the Bible,including the U-shaped narrative pattern in this whole work,inverted U-shaped pattern in some plot,U-shaped pattern in Religious outlook and the ‘seven' pattern in Bible.The fourth chapter summarizes the reference to the biblical archetypes of the theme which includes original sin,redemption and rebirth in The Thorn Birds and describes the author's meditation on theme under the modern background.The third part is the conclusion.First,it concludes the close relationship between Bible and western literature.The Thorn Birds is such a work with obvious religious features.The characters,structures and themes were greatly influenced by the Bible.Then,conclude the research on the archetypes of settings,characters,structures,and themes according to the theory of myth archetypal criticism.The author also pointed her new idea of the religious theme that natural,harmonious and equal relationship is a newpath for rebirth.In another words,it is only in the balance that the world may keep peace and the happiness can be sustained.In modern world,the profound connotation of The Thorn Birds and the Bible deserve further and continuous exploration and interpenetration.