Of Vampires and Horcruxes: Quest for Immortality

Now here's one tough (and maybe even, crazy) question for the Twilight and Harry Potter series junkies: What do Bella Swan and Lord Voldemort (Tom Marvolo Riddle) have in common?


You might ask, "What would Meyer's clumsy, compassionate 18-year-old girl-next-door living in an obscure town called Forks share in common with Rowling's scheming, evil, criminally-insane dark wizard of the wizarding world?"

I have just started reading "Breaking Dawn," the final book of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga, and saw the final installment of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Book series onscreen, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which concluded a decade of epic young adult literature of the 21st century. Incidentally, we took up Archetypal Criticism Approach in our Literary Criticism class. This critical approach "gets its impetus from psychologist Carl Jung, who postulated that humankind has a 'collective unconscious,' a kind of universal psyche, which is manifested in dreams and myths and which harbors themes and images that we all inherit. Literature, therefore, imitates not the world but rather the 'total dream of humankind."' (Walker, p. 17)

"Archetypes are the unknowable basic forms personified or concretized in recurring images, symbols, or patterns which may include motifs such as the quest or the heavenly ascent, recognizable character types such as the trickster or the hero, symbols such as the apple or snake, or images such as crucifixion (as in King Kong, or Bride of Frankenstein)--all laden with meaning already when employed in a particular work. " (Walker, 2002)

Archetypal critics search for archetypal patterns in literary works (e.g.,character types, story lines, settings, symbols). According to Jung, these patterns are embedded deep in the "collective unconscious" and involve "racial memories" of situations, events, relationships from time immemorial. (Murfin and Ray, p.23)

If this is starting to sound interesting to you, then you have chosen the right career path-- that of a future literature teacher. Knowledge and understanding of the critical approaches will also improve you as a reader. You will become a "critical" reader, not the passive swallow-everything-hook-line-and-sinker kind. Now, back to the question I posed earlier:

In the light of the Jungian or Archetypal Criticism, what's the common denominator between Bella Swan and Voldemort?

What archetypal patterns (in character types, story line, setting, etc.) can you spot and point out?

To those who have not experienced these phenomenal works of pop literature, you may cite at least two works of short fiction or two novels, at least, and share your analysis. But I strongly encourage you, soon-to-be teachers of literature, to expand your horizon and include in your reading repertoire books that define the generation that you'll be shaping.

Carpe diem!