An Exploration Of Wanderers’ Spiritual World-Biblical Archetypes In Housekeeping

Marilynne Robinson is a famous contemporary American female writer.Her debut novel Housekeeping（1980）is a picaresque novel.Many images,symbols,characters,plots and metaphors in Housekeeping come from the Bible.And based on the archetypes,Robinson displaces and expands it,and discusses the relationship between wanderers and nature,wanderers and others,wanderers and God,and wanderers and society in details,reflects the textual relationship between the novel and the Bible.Based on the Bible,this thesis uses Frye’s archetypal criticism theory to analyze Housekeeping from archetypal characters,archetypal images and archetypal motifs,and explore the spirits of wanderers.First,the thesis mainly aims to analyze the corresponding characters in the novel and in the Bible,and explores the relevant relationship between the two kinds of wanders,and the inheritance and development of the spirit of the former.It can be discovered that Robinson emphasizes the meaning of love during wanderers’ life journey.Second,the author discusses Bible-related images in the novel,and explores the deeper meaning of images.Robinson thinks that nature plays an important role in the construction of wanderers’ identity and the communication between wanderers and God.Last,the author analyzes the themes in the novel from two parts: the circular return of life,loneliness and redemption.It not only shows wanderers’ different perspectives on things,but also highlights wanderers’ insistence on their own individual spiritual world.By analyzing the biblical archetypes in the novel of Marilynne Robinson,It can be found that wanderers in Robinson’s Housekeeping inherit the characteristics of the archetypes in the Bible.At the same time,Robinson demonstrates her religious views in Housekeeping that people ought to return to nature,cherish the love they have,pay more attention to the importance of their spiritual world in life.