Chapter One Introduction to the Archetype Theory

The word “archetype”originates from “archetypo”, a greek word. It can be pided into two parts---“arche”, which means root or origin; and “type”, which means model or pattern. Plato is the first man who uses this concept in his work. In his opinion, only the archetype or the things in ideal world can be kept forever. On the contrary, things in reality are nothing and must decay one day. Now, the modern concept refers it to the recurring literary phenomena such as characters, motifs, narrative designs and so on. And this thesis would apply the archetype theory of Frye to analyze the archetypes of characters in Lord of the Flies.

    Frye Northrop (1912-1991), a Canadian literary critic, concentrates on Greek literature and sets up the myth-archetype criticism. This theory originates in literature itself rather than in rituals or heredity. People regard his work Anatomy of Criticism as the Bible of myth-archetype criticism. A literary work is the production of literary tradition instead of the creation of a genius according to Frye. And Frye also gives his own definition of the archetype as “the symbol in this phase is the communicable unit to which I give the name archetype; that is, a typical or recurring image. I mean an archetype a symbol which connects one poem with another and thereby helps to unify and integrate our literary experience”.(99)