Archetypal Imagery: A Look at Robert Frost

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Archetypal Imagery A Look at Robert Frost

• By Roxanne Orpin

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Definition of Archetype

• Self-portraits of the instincts.
• Archetypal images are symbols through which
  instinctive things show themselves in dreams.
• Occur in mythology, fairytales, and religions.
• Universal symbols that are available to us even
  though we have no knowledge of them.
• Common psychic structures that parallel the
  common human physical structure.
• Common form of literary analysis.
• Can fall into two major categories characters,
  situations/symbols.

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Definition continued

• Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung believed that
  archetypes were the result of a collective
  unconscious
• Primordial archetypal images ingrained in us
  before we are born
• Universal found all over world, throughout
  history. Manifestation of the idea may be
  different, but idea itself is the same.

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Examples of Archetypes

• Hero saving the day
• Outcast cast out of society Christ figure
• The quest characters searching consciously or
  unconsciously actions, thoughts, and feelings
  center around goal
• Water life, cleansing, and rebirth
• Setting sun death
• Red blood, passion disorder
• White light, innocence, purity

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Robert Frosts After Apple-Picking

• My long two-pointed ladders sticking through a
  tree
• Toward heaven still,
• And theres a barrel that I didnt fill
• Beside it, and there may be two or three
• Apples I didnt pick upon some bough.
• But I am done with apple-picking now.
• Essence of winter sleep on the night,
• The scent of apples I am drowsing off.
• I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
• I got from looking through a pane of glass
• I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
• And held against the world of hoary grass.
• It melted, and I let it fall and break.
• But I was well
• Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
• And I could tell
• What form my dreaming was about to take.
• Magnified apples appear and disappear,
• Stem end and blossom end,

• It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
• I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
• And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
• The rumbling sound
• Of load on load of apples coming in.
• For I have had too much
• Of apple-picking I am overtired
• Of the great harvest I myself desired.
• There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
• Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
• For all
• That struck the earth,
• No matter it not bruised or spiked with stubble,
• Went surely to the cider-apple heap
• As of no worth.
• One can see what will trouble
• This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
• Were he not gone,
• The woodchuck could say whether its like his

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Understanding of After Apple-Picking and Symbols

• Main symbol is derived from nature.
• Presents the consequences of mans condemnation
  to earning his bread in the sweat of his
  brow-madness
• Could also represent the morbidly acute sense of
  mortality, of death in life.

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Examples from Poem

• a barrel that I didnt fill / Beside it, and
  there may be two or three / Apples I didnt pick
  upon some bough. ( lines 3-5)
• Part of life Frost missed out on or some
  experience that passed him by.

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Examples continued

• Magnified apples appear and disappear (line 18)
• Opportunities that come and go. Not quite full
  barrel best representation of life not complete,
  but not really missing anything.

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Stillmore examples

• For I have had too much / Of apple-picking I am
  overtired / Of the great harvest I myself
  desired. (lines 27-29)
• One can see what trouble / This sleep of mine,
  whatever sleep it is. / Were he not gone, / The
  woodchuck could say whether its like his / long
  sleep, as I describe its coming on, / Or just
  some human sleep. (lines 37-42)
• Here it is almost obvious that the poet is
  talking about something more than just
  apple-picking.
• Nature of mans life and work and possibly death.

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Yesmore examples

• My long two-pointed ladders sticking through a
  tree / Toward heaven still, (lines 1 2)
• Mention of heaven sets the focus set at the top
  of the tree relation between mans labor and the
  surcease from it, between earthly life and a
  possible afterlife.
• Although it is less obvious than most other
  poems, the tree is a means of climbing toward
  heaven at least momentarily.

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YAYmore examples

• Essence of winter sleep is on the night, / The
  scent of apples (lines 7 8)
• The scent is obviously not a literal perfume, but
  the essential qualities of winter sleep, the post
  harvest state of mind.

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Conclusion

• Archetypal imagery is a form of literary
  analysis. It is a type of character or event that
  can occur in everyday life. They are universal
  symbols that are all around us even though we
  have no knowledge of them. Carl Jungs beliefs in
  archetypes were of a collective unconscious and
  his two archetypes that he focused on were
  Primordial and Universal. Robert Frosts poem
  After Apple-Picking had various archetypal
  imagery such as water representing the window as
  a barrier an revealer to the world, the top of
  the tree as a ladder towards heaven, and sleep as
  a strong representation for death.

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Works Cited

• http//mcqesq.wordpress.com/robert-frost/
• http//www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/archetype.html
• http//www.planetpapers.com/Assets/Print/3892.php
• Bagby, George F. Frost and the Book of Nature.
  The University of Tennessee Press/ Knoxville.
  1993. Pages 42, 43
• Harris, Kathryn Gibbs. Robert Frost Studies of
  the Poetry. G.K. Hall Co. Boston, Mass. 1979.
• Lentricchia, Frank. Robert Frost Modern Poetics
  and the Landscapes of Self. Duke University
  Press. Durham, N.C. 1975.
• Nitchie, George W. Human Values in the Poetry of
  Robert Frost. Duke University Press. Durham, N.C.
  1960. Page 92.
• Potter, James. Robert Frost Handbook. The
  Pennsylvania State University Press. 1980. Pages
  64, 65, 70, 86, 87, 137, 155, 160.