The Biblical Archetypes In The Thorn Birds

As we know, the Christian culture is closely related to the western society, and almost all the western literary works are greatly influenced by the Holly Bible. Some literary materials and allusions which come from the Holly Bible have profound and permanent influences in the development of western literature. Biblical complex is still the original materials for the basic form of connotation for many works. The Thorn Birds is no exception.The Thorn Birds is a world-renowned family fiction, which attract much interest and attention from readers and researchers. Scholars of criticism, such as those of feminism, symbolism and moral theory have given a variety of readings to it. The author of this thesis, adopting archetypal criticism, attempts to have a detailed examination of the Biblical archetypes wrapped in the novel from the perspective of its characterization, narrative structure and environment background, then explores the author’s understanding of biblical archetypes in modern culture background.The thesis is structured into four chapters. Chapter Ⅰ is the introduction about the writer and works, literature review, the definition of Archetypal criticism and significance of the study. In Chapter Ⅱ, great efforts have been made to analyze the Holy Bible archetypes in characterization. This chapter is made up of three parts. First comes the archetypes of Adam and Eve. Ralph and Maggie are just the incarnation of Adam and Eve because they suffer their sin as they do, meanwhile their sin lead to their new knowledge. The second one is the archetype of Satan, to which Mary Carson belongs. Mary Carson and the devil Satan have great similarities. The way she behaves and her doom all reflect her devilishness. The third is the archetype of scapegoat. Dane belongs to the figure of the archetype due to the fact that he bears the sins of his ancestor and parents. Chapter Ⅲ delves into the Holy Bible archetypes from the perspectives of narrative structure and in setting background. This chapter consists of two parts. Part one introduces U-shaped narrative structure presented in the novel. To view the Holly Bible as a whole, the narrative structure follows the U-shape mode of "paradise—sin—punishment—onfession—salvation". First, by surveying the narrative thread of the entire novel, with Ralph and Maggie’s love as the mainline, the main plots of the fiction are developed similar to the U-shaped narrative structure in the Bible. Second, U-shaped narrative structure is presented in partial narration, which is another similarity to the Bible. To take Maggie’s mother---Fee as an example, the ups and downs of her life assumes a U-shaped structure. Part two, starting from the environment background, analyzes the corresponding relationship between Deluohaida pasture and the garden of Adam. Deluohaida pasture is a refurbished version of the garden of Adam. Chapter IV explores the author’s understanding to original sin subject, expiation subject and rebirth subject under modern culture background. The first section is the author’s comprehension on the original sin subject. Adam and Eve steal the forbidden fruit is the beginning of the Fall of Man, and similarly, original sin story in the Bible is reappeared in The Thorn Birds. On the one hand, it exhibits humanity’s weakness and evil, on the other hand, it reflects the understanding and concerns about human nature. The second section is the clarification of the expiation subject. The expiation subject in The Thorn Birds is not just accepting the tribulation in life causes by sin, but also facing the tribulation bravely and accepting the difficulties on one’s own initiative. The third section is the meditation on the rebirth subject. In the Holy Bible, if one is really repentant, he can gain rebirth in the end. Under the modern cultural context, the author believes that only when the equal and harmonious relationship between male and female is kept, can we seek the road of rebirth. At last, thesis ends in a conclusion. In The Thorn Birds, the Biblical archetypical stories are reproduced and they have been endowed with new connotations in new era. In addition, the author’s understanding to sin, expiation and rebirth have been illustrated, which makes the biblical stories sparkling with brilliant light of the age.