Through Archetypal Criticism in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (Published)
This paper presents a brief overview of archetypal criticism, a literary theory that seeks to identify universal patterns and themes in literature rooted in the human psyche. It is based on the idea of archetypes, symbols and motifs in the collective unconscious of humanity, popularized by Carl Jung. As applied to literature, the theory of archetypal criticism involves exploring these universal themes and symbols in work and how they reflect the human condition. The paper aims to analyze William Shakespeare’s tragedy The Merchant of Venice through the lens of archetypal criticism to uncover deeper meanings in the literature. The play explores themes of justice, mercy, and true love through its complicated characters and dramatic plot. Through archetypal criticism, the play delves deeper into its universal meaning. It reveals psychological and emotional truths about the human condition, inviting reflection on beliefs and values that shape our experiences in the world. The paper explores the play by applying archetypal criticism. There are archetype characters of Shylock and Jessica that embody the outsider archetype as Jews in a predominantly Christian society and moneylenders. The archetypal criticism also explores different forms of love, including romantic love between Bassanio and Portia, the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, and the complex relationship between Shylock and Jessica. The theme of revenge is embodied by Shylock and depicts an archetype. The play features archetypal symbols, including the casket challenge, the green-eyed monster, the test of worthiness, and the trickster. Some situations in the play and the play’s ending are also significant from an archetypal perspective.
Keywords: Archetypal, Character, Theme, archetype, symbol, the merchant of Venice
Dylan Thomas’s 18 Poems and Auden’s Critique (Published)
Literary taste has its twists and turns, and it is no wonder that Dylan Thomas’s 18 Poems appeal to the poets of the thirties and the forties in different ways. The response of the Thomas circle is quick and unstinted. The Apocalyptic poets, Henry Treece, Vernon Watkins, G.S. Fraser, and Norman MacCaig become enthusiastic over Thomas’s poem, and they plan to bring out a book of verse based on 18 Poems. The critics have also expressed their warm appreciation. The poets of the thirties, Cecil Day Lewis, Stephen Spender, and Louis MacNeice, are equally effusive. The reaction of W.H. Auden is, on the other hand, quite adverse. In Look Stranger!, he says that 18 Poems recording a sceptical theme, stands “wild” in its structure. Auden’s critique on Thomas as articulated in Another Time, The New Year Letter, For the Time Being, The Age of Anxiety, and in Nones endorses, on the whole till the death of Thomas (1953), the opinions of the preceeding years. The obvious limitations of 18 Poems should not, however, make the readers ignore its real excellences, and the excellences are many and varied. Hence, a figurative study is undertaken to establish that the most remarkable advance in Thomas’s artistic discipline is marked in the defter handling of dramatic imagination and language. What really distinguishes the surrealistic mind of Thomas is a capacity for self-analysis, a capacity for objectifying, and subjecting to analytical scrutiny, his own experiences and feelings. This power of self-analysis is the highest manifestation of the sceptic poetic tradition of Thomas Hardy and W.B.Yeats.
Keywords: Archetypal, Critique, Irrational, Pathos, Skeptical., Touchstone, cohesion