Classification of female archetypal images in a literary text

Liashenko Tatiana PhD in Philology Associate Professor of the Department of Foreign and Russian Languages at Moscow state academy of veterinary medicine and biotechnology named after K.I. Skryabin 109472, Russia, Moscow, Ac. Skryabin's str., 23 po-russki@list.ru Other publications by this author

Female archetypal images in literary works are extremely significant. Archetypes embody the collective experience of humanity, and it seems natural that images reflecting gender roles and their interaction in the work are often pivotal, serving the oppositional relations of "female" and "male", which are dialectical in nature.

In literary studies, the understanding of female archetypes is currently ambiguous and not always specific. The most famous and ancient classification can be considered the Virgo-Woman (Mother) triad-An old woman formed on the basis of obvious physiological changes and stages of a woman's life. The state of "Virgo" presupposes young spontaneity, lack of experience, inability and/or unwillingness to have children with a certain sexual attractiveness, a special romanticized view of the world, trust in people, moral purity.

A woman as an element of the triad embodies the age and social condition in which motherhood is possible – puberty, marriage. A distinctive feature of this stage is the responsibility for decisions that affect not only the fate of the woman herself, but also the prospects of her inner circle: husband, children. A woman has a more prominent social status, broader rights, greater significance. The boundary between the states of "Virgo" and "Woman" is the process of female initiation, which has already been considered from archetypal positions by the author of this article ^{[5; 112]}.

The image of an old woman is associated with the end of the fertility period, age-related changes, during which a woman loses her attractiveness as a sexual object, but acquires special qualities: wisdom, insight, the ability to use and transfer accumulated experience, significant social influence. "Life is given to everyone, and old age to the elect," is an aphoristic statement by actress Olga Aroseva perfectly characterizes the attitude to the last of the three stages of a woman's life. Since time from the point of view of the ancients was not linear, but cyclical, the state of the "Virgin" naturally coexisted in their ideas with the state of the "Old Woman", and the transition from one to the other was perceived as quite feasible and natural, which we can observe in folklore works and in literary texts based on folklore or inspired by it (for example, in N.V. Gogol's novella "Viy", a witch may, depending on the situation, look young or decrepit).

In the mythology and folklore of different peoples, the threefold perception of the feminine is manifested either in the images of three different characters performing common tasks, or in the form of one triune supernatural entity. So, Scandinavian myths tell about three Norns, who are usually represented by women in three age periods: young Skuld, mature Verdandi and decrepit Urd. Greek mythology, where the number three is very popular, gives the trinity to the goddess Hecate, the patroness of night, magic and everything mysterious, which can be a young girl according to the phases of the moon (a growing moon), a middle-aged woman (full moon) and an old woman (waning moon). In other words, European mythology and folklore, distinguishing three female hypostases, either personify each of them, or synthesize in a single image, and in this case the three phases replace each other in a special chronological sequence (in accordance with the phases of the moon, time of day, etc.).

Fiction develops mythopoetic ideas about the "three faces" of femininity, linking them, as a rule, with something mysterious, mystical. The word faierie used by Shakespeare in the comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream", denoting a supernatural being, goes back to the French faie (fairy), which in turn originates from the Latin word fata, denoting the three goddesses of fate (fat or moir). In the tragedy "Macbeth", the goddess Hecate is served by three witches-fortune-tellers ("prophetic sisters"), with the help of which the goddess of night intends to take possession of the hero's soul. "Prophetic sisters" also appear in the cycle of novels by the English writer Terry Prattchet, where we are talking about three witches from the fantastic state of Lancre and where the status of each of them is directly indicated: a Virgin, a Mother and an Old Hag; it is this combination that provides witches with power. When the youngest of the witches marries and becomes a mother, another character takes her place in the trinity.

The three age–related conditions described above serve, as you can see, a mystified perception of femininity, emphasize a woman's closeness to the mystery - first of all, of course, to the mystery of birth and death. Actually, the Slavic witch (from the verb to know – to know) is responsible in the mass consciousness for the rituals of transition, she stands between the world of the living and the world of the dead, performing priestly functions. This perception is due to the understanding of female physiology, the ability to give new life, bearing and giving birth to new people, as a special supernatural gift. There is a hypothesis that ancient communities could see the birth of a child as an exclusively female prerogative (which implied conception without the participation of a man – an idea partially preserved in later beliefs, in particular, in Christianity). On the one hand, it made a woman more influential than a man, more significant, gave her a special status, on the other – brought her closer to nature, eternally developing, renewing, possessing the property of self-reproduction. That is why folklore and mythological (and later literary) female "trinity" had a purely gender-oriented character, that is, they excluded the presence of a man in them. A man under no circumstances and in no capacity could find a place in this triple alliance; he could not "work" as moira or norna, had no chance to take over their functions even temporarily. If a supernatural male being managed to become the "leader" of the triad of witches, his position still remained unstable and risky (recall, for example, the plot of the film "Eastwick Witches", in the finale of which the three heroines, joining forces, brutally deal with the hero of Jack Nicholson). For the same reason, the image of a female witch, a female sorceress is much more popular and tenacious in folklore, literature and in general in the mass consciousness than the image of a male sorcerer, magus, magician. It is much easier to imagine a female witch living next door to you than a male sorcerer; it is much easier to endow in your imagination with superhuman traits, such as the ability to "jinx", "enchant", "whisper", a real acquaintance or relative - such properties are rarely attributed to men.

However, this classification is not the only one. Both in psychology and in literary studies, attempts have been repeatedly made to consider female archetypes based on the images of mythical female characters. As a rule, the images of the goddesses of the ancient Greek pantheon act as a mythological base; in particular, Gene Bohlen proposes to distinguish seven female archetypes (Demeter, Aphrodite, Persephone, Artemis, Athena, Hera, Hestia); in the classification of G.B. Bednenko, the eighth joins the seven types – Hecate ^[2]. The characteristics of the archetypes are naturally based on the plots of the myths of Ancient Greece: Demeter embodies the combined features of the image of the mother, Aphrodite – beloved, Persephone – daughter, Artemis – sister, Hera – wife, Athena – wise strategist, Hestia – keeper of the hearth, Hecate – matchmaker, mediator, sorceress. The researchers point to the age sequence of archetypes in a woman's personality, as well as the possibility of the influence of one or another archetype on a woman's behavior at any age or on the "dominant model of behavior" ("model of the psyche"), which can be interpreted as behavioral "stuck" within one archetype.

Also interesting is N.A. Hafizova's attempt to analyze the archetypal content of the main female images in F.M. Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot" – Nastasia Filippovna and Aglaya Epanchina. The interpretation of the characters is based on two cultural traditions: ancient and Judeo-Christian; from the first N.A. Hafizova extracts images of Aphrodite Urania and Aphrodite Pandemos to solve her research problems, from the second – images of Eve and Lilith. Both couples are considered from the point of view of the idea of contrasting the original femininity personified in the images of Aphrodite Urania and Lilith, and femininity integrated into being, or even more narrowly into patriarchal culture (the images of Aphrodite Pandemos and Eve).

According to Plato, the "elder" Aphrodite Urania was born without a mother, directly from her father, the god Uranus: she was born from drops of blood that fell to the ground during his castration. The birth of a female deity as a result of the emasculation of a male deity is in itself indicative: the feminine in this context is not a continuation or addition of the masculine, but its negation, destruction. Aphrodite Urania is also called "heavenly", which emphasizes her ideal, out-of-body status. It is associated with spiritual love, attraction of souls, perfection and creative impulses. The "younger" Aphrodite – the daughter of Dione and Zeus – was nicknamed Pandemos, meaning "common to all people", which is sometimes transmitted by the word "vulgar" in its outdated meaning – "known to everyone". Her sphere of influence is carnal pleasures for procreation. Aphrodite Urania can thus be understood as a noumenon, a Kantian "thing in itself", comprehended speculatively, and Aphrodite Pandemos as a "thing for us", represented in sensory experience.

Despite the fact that it would not be quite correct to identify Aphrodite Urania and Lilith, it is impossible not to note the common thing that can be traced in these two images. Lilith was also created directly by God the creator, without the participation of the feminine principle, but her purpose is somewhat different: she should become a partner to a man - Adam, who appeared in a similar way. In this form, the image of Lilith has been known since the Renaissance; in other traditions, demons of different scales bear the same name, but a common feature for them is a female appearance and a supernatural nature hostile to man. In Assyrian texts, there is a mention of an evil spirit named Lilith, harming women in labor, and another one called ardat lily, which obviously counteracts the well-being of a person: "A woman from the house of the storm takes up arms against a woman in the house; ardat lily, who is in the house, rushes against a man, ardat lily, to whom none of the men does not approach as a woman; ardat lily, who does not expose her charms in her husband's arms; ardat lily, who does not take off her robes in her husband's arms; ardat lily, whose virginity has not been violated by any lover; ardat lily, who has no milk in her breast..." ^{[7; 30]}. Ardat lily is described as a woman, but at the same time it is also an anti-woman, represented in images of denial: "does not expose", "does not remove", "did not violate", "no milk". Being outside, she "takes up arms against the woman in the house," being inside, harms the man. It is mentioned that this demon especially haunts men. So, Lilith's self-sufficiency turns her into an opponent, a competitor, all the more dangerous because she is armed with the forces of nature itself, because she comes "from the house of the storm."

The image of Eve is much more reminiscent of the "woman in the house", associated with ideas about caring, motherhood. Born from Adam's rib, she seems to make up for the lost part: the connection with her enriches a man, creates conditions for his self-actualization, that is, for the disclosure of the inclinations in him in their entirety. Eve is not an independent entity, she is both ontologically and functionally an "addition to a man". N.A. Hafizova correlates Eve not only with Aphrodite Pandemos, but also with the Hero, as well as with other characters of Greek myth and the archetype of the Great Mother, emphasizing that the images of Eve and Lilith are "two sides female souls entering into certain relationships that can be harmonious and disharmonious" ^{[9; 49]}. However, further research remains mainly within the framework of the phenomenological approach to archetypes:  static properties of images (egocentrism, jealousy, self-esteem, etc.) are listed, which rather contributes to a fair amount of semantic confusion, rather than clarifying the issue under study. Meanwhile, it is more expedient to consider the archetype not from the point of view of the manifestation of certain characterological traits, but rather in the dynamics of relationships; the archetype does not exist in isolation from the relationship, by itself or for itself.

 For the needs of literary analysis, classifications based on mythological images and similar ones do not seem quite suitable for a number of reasons. First of all, it is alarming that they are based on texts, that is, unlike the Virgo-Woman (Mother) triad-The old woman mentioned at the very beginning is extracted essentially from a secondary product. With the same success we could talk, for example, about "the archetype of Tatiana Larina" or "the archetype of Anna Karenina", referring to the commonality of storylines and character characteristics. In addition, the grounds on which female archetypes are distinguished in these classifications are fuzzy (if at all designated), and the list of types itself is not perceived as exhaustive. In this sense, binary classifications look much more reasonable, but in relation to them, the question arises about the terminological accuracy of the designation of the distinguished archetypes. 

Thus, the theory of female archetypes proposed by Tom Chetwynd largely corresponds to the tasks of analyzing a literary text ^[1]. This theory, in turn, develops C.G. Jung's theory of archetypes ^[10]. T. Chetwind's theory, which includes both female and male archetypes in its sphere of attention, can be represented as a circle, in the sectors of which there are four archetypes: the Divine Child, Power, Self and Wisdom. Each of the archetypes has a positive and negative side, described in everyday, common vocabulary, as well as in the terminology of myths and fairy tales.

The "Divine Child" archetype is represented by the images of a Prince/Princess (the light side of the archetype) and a Tramp /Trashy Girl (in the original – Seductress, "Seductress"; dark, shadow side). "Power" is embodied in the images of a Warrior, respectively/Hunters and Murderers/Amazons; "Self" – in the images of the Owner / Mistress (Mother) and Cannibal/Terrible mother; "Wisdom" – in the images of a Trickster /Priestess and a Black magician / Witch.

Based on the purpose of our research – the analysis of the functioning of female archetypal images in a literary work – we considered it appropriate to adapt this model of archetypes description to the tasks set, generalizing terminology and highlighting the grounds for classification. Since archetypal images in a literary text are not so much a set of static features as dynamic relationships within the plot, it is proposed to take as a starting point ("points of the coordinator" is the term of I.N. Kalinauskas ^{[4; 212]}) the image of the hero – a character who interacts with female characters. The reasons given below for identifying archetypes seem to be more relevant for the male hero, which is due to the research material. We emphasize that the described model as a whole seems to be the most applicable for analyzing the features of the coexistence of "male" and "female" in a work of art. This approach assumes that the masculine and feminine are complementary, are simultaneously in opposition and interaction and, by and large, are a condition for each other's existence: the masculine is manifested against the background of the feminine and vice versa. Thanks to this angle of consideration of the problem, we get the opportunity to observe the functioning of female archetypes most vividly and distinctly.

It seems appropriate to use the terminology of closely related relationships in the names of archetypes, since these lexemes reflect the basic concepts of human life in the conditions of the tribal system, namely, during this period, stable images of the collective unconscious were formed, recorded in myths and folklore. Thus, it is proposed to distinguish four archetypes: mother, wife (bride), sister, daughter, that is, mother corresponds to a certain extent to the Jungian Self, wife (bride) – Wisdom, sister – Power, daughter – the Divine Child archetype. From the point of view of interaction with the hero , the female archetype can be considered in a system of two criteria:

1) sexual objectification (mother, daughter – fiancee, sister): the perception of a mother and daughter as a sexual object is understood as a crime, marriage with them is condemned; the bride and sister can act as a sexual object (sexual partner);

2) existential identity (mother, sister – daughter, bride): mother and sister exist apart from the hero, independently of him, "before" him, they are a given for him; the bride (wife) and daughter exist as a result of the hero's act, choice, appear in his life by his own volitional effort.

It is important to understand that these terms (mother, sister, wife, daughter), emphasizing the peculiarities of the relationship of the female archetypal image with the hero, in no case limit the description of the archetype to formal kinship. A mother is essentially any woman of the older generation who has a psychological influence on the hero, on his life and worldview and is not in a sexual relationship with him. This can be a grandmother, a guardian or any other authoritative person. Thus, in M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin's novel "Gentlemen Golovlevs", the image of Arina Petrovna Golovleva reflects the multiplicity of aspects of the maternal archetype manifested in relationships not only with children, but also with grandchildren ^{[6, p. 111]}. The mother can become a source of strength for the hero, endow him with vitality, the ability to survive, to withstand trials, including taking care of his physical endurance. But in a negative aspect, it condemns the hero to impotence in the face of difficulties, weakens, makes him dependent.

The sister is a woman of the same age phase with the hero, existing independently of him. In a positive manifestation – a colleague, friend, colleague; in a negative – a rival, a competitor. The image of Lilith considered by us in the form in which it has existed in European culture since the Renaissance (that is, as the first wife of Adam, created by God from the same clay as the First Man), undoubtedly bears the features of the sister archetype: who else can a woman born together with the hero from one father? Adam does not participate in the birth of Lilith in any way, she exists as an original being, unlike Eve, who appeared in the world from Adam's bone. It is safe to assume that the features of the sister archetype are also endowed with Aglaya Epanchina in F.M. Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot", distinguished by an independent character. Her "sisterly" features in the novel are strengthened, tripled: behind her are the figures of two more sisters – Alexandra and Adelaide; their unity is called the "conclave of consent". All three Epanchina sisters are described as "healthy, blooming, tall young ladies, with amazing shoulders, with powerful breasts, with strong arms, almost like men" ^{[3; 39]}, that is, the possibility of competition with representatives of the opposite sex is emphasized, "almost equality".

The bride (wife) is a woman who contributes to the powerful moral transformation of the male hero, changing not so much his nominal status (the young man – husband) as the inner world, self-perception, relationships with the surrounding reality and other people. In the novel "Gentlemen Golovlevs", Anninka's own niece acts as a "wonderful bride" for the hero Porfiry Vladimirovich (Judushka) ^{[5; 121]}.

Finally, a daughter is a woman of the younger generation who needs guidance, guardianship, protection. This is how the Red Army soldier Sukhov perceives the young Gulchatai in the film "The White Sun of the Desert". A similar perception is reflected in the colloquial form of the elderly addressing an unfamiliar young woman – "daughter". This image reflects the idea of moral continuity: the status of a daughter presupposes the assimilation of the ideological values of the hero. Depending on how these values are assimilated and what consequences this leads to, the archetype of the daughter appears in the text from a positive or negative (shadow) side, which can be observed, for example, in Shakespeare's tragedy "King Lear".

The terminology used thus reflects the understanding of human ties inherited from the era of the tribal system: all members of the tribe were considered as relatives, united by one or another ties, standing in one or another relation to each other.

The classification we have proposed partly helps to better understand those features of the functioning of the character that seem contradictory and do not allow us to accurately correlate it with the archetype. So, in the model proposed by N.A. Hafizova, the heroines of F.M. Dostoevsky alternately show the features of one type, then another: "Due to the fact that N.F. is an infantile Lilith, from time to time Eve breaks through in her" ^{[9; 53]}. Such conclusions will be completely logical when understanding the archetype as a static model with a certain set of characteristics; any literary image will only partially correspond to these characteristics, which complicates the analysis and makes it difficult to isolate the archetypal in the text. If we perceive the archetype as a dynamic relationship within the text (namely, a relationship with the hero), then the ambiguity disappears by itself: the same woman cannot exist for the hero simultaneously as a mother and as a daughter, as a sister and as a bride. If suddenly such a transformation, a change of roles in the interaction of the same characters is carried out in a particular work, it can mean only one thing: the author comprehends the vicissitudes of falsely perceived relationships and connections in the artistic space. As a rule, mistakes of this kind for heroes end dramatically or even tragically, which is clearly represented in the myth of Oedipus: having married his mother (that is, having perceived his mother as a bride), Oedipus committed a fatal offense for himself, and the absence of malicious intent (any intent at all) does not ease his guilt before higher powers, does not exempt from punishment.

The same mistake, which essentially determines the development of the action, is made by Aglaya Epanchina, striving to become for Prince Myshkin not a sister, but a bride. Functioning in a hypostasis not intended for her, Aglaya experiences the collapse of personal hopes; her actions in the novel confuse the hero's relationship with Nastasia Filippovna, who, nevertheless, manages to play exactly her role and radically influence her "groom", finally ruining his mental health – the archetype of the bride always affects the hero extremely powerfully as in both positive and negative manifestations.

The description of female archetypes and their properties is an extensive scientific problem; within the framework of this article, we have only the opportunity to outline the main provisions, therefore, the functional features of archetypes are presented in the most general form in Table 1.

Table 1.

Literary creativity as a way of cognizing reality is aimed not only at fixing the phenomena of reality and describing the world as "what it is". Any literary work, even strictly following the realistic method, also contains ideas about the world "as it should be." From a human point of view, there are good and bad things in the world, so the author's value judgments are inevitable in a literary text, even if written in the most impartial manner. The archetypes presented in the work can manifest themselves from a positive or negative side, but they can also create the effect of ambivalence, when the same character carries both positive and negative archetypal traits. This observation, made by C.G. Jung ^[10], fully applies to both male and female archetypes that form the ideological basis of a literary text.

In general, the classification presented in this article meets the methodological requirements of the archetypal analysis of the texts of fiction: it is aimed at identifying the most ancient universal figurative systems of the collective unconscious present in the worldview of the author of a work and interpreted by him from the standpoint of personal experience. As you can see, archetypal images are present in the texts of various epochs and peoples, and the discovery of "common places" that provide a dialogue between the writer and readers of the widest range, taking the literary text beyond the limits of private history, cannot but arouse interest. At the same time, the archetype, which is a semantic universal, should be described in universal terms that are close and understandable to representatives of different cultures, and not only European. As already noted above, the terminology of kinship ties seems to be the most preferable in this regard, since it reflects those relations that are common in human society regardless of the cultural paradigm. We emphasize once again that the archetypal literary image is understood by us not as a set of static features, but as dynamic relationships within the plot, which implies the practical application of this approach when analyzing not a separate image, but the interaction of characters: being a mother, daughter, sister or fiancee is possible only in relationships.

In conclusion, we note that archetypal analysis, which has repeatedly confirmed its effectiveness, has not exhausted itself as a method and is unlikely to ever exhaust itself: the more we learn about the driving forces of creativity, the deeper we penetrate into the sphere of motives and sources of literary work, the more voluminous our perception of the works of "great literature", and the new meanings that open up to the researcher open up new directions of cognitive activity at the same time.  The nature of art is dialogical, and archetypal analysis is one of the tools by which the dialogue between writer and reader, author and researcher becomes more meaningful and productive.