The Mother Archetype Of James Joyce s Dubliners - 1202 Words

The Mother Archetype in James Joyce’s Dubliners An archetype is an instantly recognizable, fundamental theme, character, or symbol. According to Carl Jung, archetypes are part of the collective unconscious, an inherent, species-wide knowledge base that is embedded in our natural and cultural identity (Boeree, Webspace). One example of a Jungian archetype is the mother. In the stories â€Å"The Boarding House† and â€Å"A Mother† from Dubliners, James Joyce explores the two aspects of the mother archetype and how they manifest themselves in the ways Mrs. Mooney and Mrs. Kearney protect and control their daughters. The mother archetype comprises two potential manifestations. Jung describes â€Å"the loving and the terrible mother:† The qualities†¦show more content†¦She â€Å"was a big imposing woman† who â€Å"dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals with meat† (47, 49). Her manipulativeness would seem to condemn her as a terrible mother who merely wishes to foist her daughter onto some poor, unsuspecting sap. â€Å"She thought of some mothers she knew who could not get their daughters off their hands† (50). However there is evidence that Mrs. Mooney does truly care for her daughter and wants the best for her. â€Å"Some mothers would be content to patch up such an affair for a sum of money; she had known cases of it. But she would not do so. For her, only one reparation could make up for the loss of her daughter’s honour: marriage.† She is balanced between the loving and terrible mother, simultaneously embodying both aspects of the archetype. â€Å"To begin with she had all the weight of social opinion on her side: she was an outraged mother† (Joyce 50). Mrs. Mooney is able to maintain the moral high ground and secure society’s approval despite her questionable conduct because she is fulfilling her archetypal role. In contrast, Mrs. Kearney is unable to achieve the archetypal balance, and fails in her maternal role. The title of the story is ironic, because Mrs. Kearney fails as â€Å"a mother.† She starts off well, trying to take advantage of the Irish Revival to benefit her daughter. When the Irish Revival began to be appreciable Mrs. Kearney determined to take advantage of her daughter s nameShow MoreRelatedANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesturning point of the narrative actually occurs. Nor is there any special reason that the crisis should occur at or near the middle of the plot. It can, in fact, occur at any moment. In James Joyce’s â€Å"Araby† and in a number of the other companion stories in â€Å"Dubliners† the crisis – in the form of a sudden illumination that Joyce called an epiphany – occurs at the very end of the story, and the falling action and the resolution are dispensed with altogether. Exposition and complication can also be omitted