A Myth-archetypal Analysis Of Doris Lessing’s The Cleft

Doris Lessing enjoys high prestige not only in Britain but all over the world because of her changeable styles in literary creation. She was awarded2007Nobel Prize in Literature when she was88years old. The Cleft (2007), is an amazing imagination about the genesis of human origin and critics paid close heed to it immediately after its publication. So far, The Cleft has been studied from various perspectives. However, Myth-archetypal Criticism, the theory rarely employed in analyzing this novel to date, is what this thesis adopts in analyzing The Cleft mainly based on Northrop Frye’s theory.After a general introduction to Doris Lessing, her literary achievements, her novel The Cleft, and the critical responses the novel has received, the major notions, development of Myth-archetypal Criticism and Frye’s theory are illustrated. The thesis develops from four aspects, namely, archetypal imagery, archetypal characters, archetypal narrative pattern, and archetypal motif so as to figure out the relations of those archetypes with ancient myths and biblical stories.Firstly, highly symbolic images like the garden, water, and the cleft are studied. Then archetypal characters Maire and Ashre are analyzed in terms of the myth of Artemis for they play the same roles of protecting young women in trouble; while Horsa and Marrona are thought to be Dionysus and Demeter respectively. On the archetypal narrative pattern, the U-shaped narrative pattern is believed to be an imitation to that of the Bible. On the archetypal motif, Horsa’s quest for a better dwelling place is compared to Odysseus’s quest for home and the creation theme in the novel is analyzed in comparison to the Genesis in the Bible.Based on the above analysis, the paper draws the conclusion that through reviewing ancient Greek myths and biblical stories from brand-new perspectives and subversively rewriting the myth of human origin, Lessing reminds her readers that it does not matter much whether man or woman came to this world first. She suggests that the key to a healthy gender relationship should be harmonious coexistence, caring and forgiveness. Man and woman can not treat their counterpart as "the other".Accepting the difference, making joint efforts, they would be well on their way to happiness.