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The Islamia University of Bahawalpur Library Monomyths of Individuation: A Study of George Macdonald‘s Phantastes and Lilith Researcher Supervisor Durr-e Nazeem Asst. Prof. Mirza Khurram Naseem Baig Roll No. 08 IN THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH LITERATURE Session: 2011-2013 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH The Islamia University of Bahawalpur Thesis: Monomyths of Individuation. A study of George Macdonald's Phantastes and Lilith ABSTRACT George MacDonald's stories for adults incorporate a common moralising theme which emphasizes the individual's need for self-discovery. Two of his most renowned works Phantastes and Lilith were both written for adults. According to his philosophy one can discover one's true identity through conscious exploration of the symbolic order. MacDonald‘s perception of the symbolic coincides with Carl Jung's ideas of the elements of the collective unconscious. Jung‘s theory of the unconscious and its archetypes is arranged into a successive order as in a journey by Joseph Campbell which he called the monomyth, in which various archetypes are encountered along the way as a hero travels. The aim of this research is to study the narrative pattern of the monomyth as proposed by Joseph Campbell, with relation to the novels Lilith and Phantastes, and to relate the hero's journey as a metaphor to the process of transcendent individuation. Relevant symbolism is mentioned in this dissertation wherever the key ideas of this study are emphasized in the texts. The male protagonists are invited to supernatural worlds, where they discover archetypal aspects of themselves that are demanding recognition, in order to be integrated within the psyche. The hero's journey is through a symbolic world that represents his unconscious, and all the elements that appear to him represent his unconscious urges, instincts, fears and secrets. The main roles and manifestations of the archetypes of the monomyth are analysed with regard to the archetypes of the process of individuation. Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter One: Literature Review 12 1.1 Introduction 12 1.1.1 Individuation 12 1.1.2 Archetypes 13 1.1.3 Monomyth 14 1.2 Literature Review 15 Chapter Two: The Monomyth in Phantastes 31 2.1 Departure 31 2.1.1 The Call to Adventure 32 2.1.2 Supernatural Aid 33 2.1.3 The Crossing of the First Threshold 35 2.1.4 Belly of the Whale 37 2.2 Initiation 39 2.2.1 The Meeting with the Goddess 39 2.2.2 Woman as Temptress 42 2.2.3 The Road of Trials 45 2.2.4 Atonement with the Father 56 2.2.5 The Ultimate Boon 64 2.3 Return 65 2.3.1 Refusal of the Return 65 2.3.2 The Magic Flight 67 2.3.3 Rescue from Without 68 2.3.4 The Crossing of the Return Threshold 69 2.3.5 Master of Two Worlds 70 2.3.6 Freedom to Live 71 Chapter Three: The Monomyth in Lilith 73 3.1 Departure 73 3.1.1 The Call to Adventure 73 3.1.2 Refusal of the Call 75 3.1.3 Supernatural Aid 77 3.1.4 The Crossing of the First Threshold 78 3.1.5 The Belly of the Whale 80 3.2 Initiation 84 3.2.1 The Road of Trials 84 3.2.2 The Meeting with the Goddess 90 3.2.3 Woman as the Temptress 94 3.2.4 Atonement With the Father 99 3.2.5 Apotheosis 103 3.2.6 The Ultimate Boon 107 3.3 Return 109 3.3.1 Refusal of the Return 109 3.3.2 Rescue from Without 111 3.3.3 The Crossing of the Return Threshold 112 3.3.4 Master of the Two Worlds 112 3.3.5 Freedom to Live 113 Chapter Four: The Transcendent Journey to Individuation 115 Conclusion 140 Bibliography 147 1 INTRODUCTION The hero‘s journey is the central idea of every story since the beginning of time. Every protagonist begins a journey and encounters the adversary, friends and love interest. The journey can be of mythic proportions as that of Hercules and Perseus, or it can be realistically simple like that of Oliver Twist. Regardless of the magnitude of the grandiosity of the story, the hero starts the story with nothing to his name and by the end has gained quite a lot, sometimes by losing something as well. Joseph Campbell managed to categorise this journey into its various stages and linked the characters to the archetypes proposed in Jungian depth psychology. It is the aim of this dissertation to find this pattern in the novels Lilith and Phantastes by George MacDonald. A brief biography of George MacDonald is necessary in order to become acquainted with this little-known yet significant writer. George MacDonald was born in 1824 in Scotland, the son of a poor farmer and his wife Helen Mackay, who died when MacDonald was eight. The death of his mother was an incident that influenced his personal doctrine, ethical philosophy and his belief in the sanctity of death. Raised in a Calvinist household, he later rejected its doctrine of predestination and adjudicated that even heathens stood a chance at redemption, an idea that is reflected throughout his works. This philosophy of his occasionally got him into trouble with religious authorities. Yet he preached it whenever he had the chance even when he was appointed as the pastor of a church. He was well acquainted with Gaelic and Celtic folklore, as well as with Greek and Roman mythology which helped develop his mythopoeic art. MacDonald‘s career encompasses many genres and included fifty-two books. Of these fifty-two, twenty-five were novels, several children's fairy tales, allegories, sermons and critical 2 essays on literature. During his life he remained unknown to the masses, and didn't earn much from his writing. He was mostly supported by patrons who funded his modest living until he died in 1905. His literary circle included the likes of C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, G. K. Chesterton and Walt Whitman as his closest companions who shared his interests, and some of whom he actually influenced with regard to their work. Critical responses to his vast amount of work have been divergent. Where some have been calling him the father of fantasy fiction, others emphasise the incoherence of the structure of his stories and their meanings. Two of his most notable works that are still widely acclaimed are Phantastes and Lilith. Phantastes was one of his earliest fictional novels written in 1858, whereas Lilith was written years later in 1895. This time gap determined much of the differences in both novels. The novels Phantastes and Lilith were two of his greatest fantasy works that were greatly influenced by myths and fairy tales. Although he considered even his fairy tales to be for both children and adults, he considered Phantastes a fairytale for adults. It was the novel that helped him win C.S. Lewis's admiration and friendship. Compared to Phantastes, Lilith is more along the lines of mysticism. In Lilith he portrays his ideology of how the heathen may finally be redeemed and will not be excluded from Paradise. In the novel Phantastes the enthusiastic young hero Anodos finds the way into Fairy Land after he finds a fairy in his father's secretary. There he finds a fantastic world which is completely different from the real world that he leaves behind. It is a world that represents the symbolic realm of the unconscious where man's inner thoughts are projected outwards. On his way he finds many people who either turn out to be sinister or helpful and who lead him to his final end. At first his journey seems to be exploratory 3 excursion but when he falls into trouble he realises that he must turn this trip of his through unknown worlds into a quest for something meaningful, after which it becomes a quest for his identity. Similarly in Lilith, the hero Vane sets off without a quest or purpose and with only an urge to explore, but only after he overcomes his fear of entering the unknown. It then becomes a journey of observation and understanding. Characters of all types help or impede the hero's journey. Like the former novel, this story also deals with the discovery and understanding of the symbolic realm. The symbolic order and archetypes emerge from the collective unconscious which is the part of the unconscious that is shared by all mankind. When ideas, images, feelings and situations emerge from this deep abyss of the unconscious to enter the conscious, they transform to become coded and are perceived as symbols and archetypes. By their very nature they are neutral. Myths and fairy tales are replete with such archetypes and are great reference guides for comparisons. Macdonald's works exhibit his vast knowledge of Roman and Greek mythology, fairy tales and folklore. As myths are based on archetypal models, stories inspired by them are also likely to follow the same pattern. Many writers and analysts have tried to trace this archetypal framework of a story based on the common patterns, to create templates or patterns of narrative structure. This template serves as a universal model for creating stories of mythical proportions. The narrative structure is not only based on the sequence of events, but also on the sequence of manifestation of characters. The first of this universal pattern is the archetypal hero and his journey, because every story is about a hero and his quest to attain something he does not have or something that would give him a distinct advantage over others in the world.
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