Archetype is an original model that is emulated or copied by others. It is a typical or the conservative ideal from which all others imitate or duplicate. According to Jung’s theory of neurosis, the archetype is a basic conceptual image hereditary from the most primitive human dynasties and thought to be existing in the collective unconscious. These two meanings create an image of a prototype that is used as an example by the rest of the creations as the ideal shape, size, and the appearance.
A perfect example of archetype can be seen in Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. Victor Frankenstein was striving to give life to dead bodies with the hope of creating his own person. This makes human being to an archetype to Victor. It forms the original model that he is emulating to try and produce a similar being. In the event when it didn’t work to his expectations, he decided to abandon the creature since it didn’t resemble the archetype. He was heard lamenting by saying “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!-Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; “(Shelley 83).
The only word in the glossary that is almost related to archetype is Doppelgänger. According to Merriam-Webster.com, doppelgänger means a ghostly counterpart of a living person. It might not be clear in Frankenstein, but if Victor would succeed in making a normal human being it would form a Doppelgänger. This word is perfectly clear in the novel “Never let me go”, where we see clones moving about in town looking for their lookalike human beings.
Work cited
“archetype”. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 9 May. 2018. <Dictionary.com http://www.dictionary.com/browse/archetype>.
“Doppelgänger.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 9 May 2018.
Shelly, Percy Bysshe. “Mont Blanc.” Frankenstein: the 1818 Text, Contexts, Criticism. J. Paul Hunter. 2nd ed. W.W. Norton & Co., 2012.295-9
