Morrison's Consolata And The Jungian Characteristics Of The Mother Archetype
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In this context, the portrayal of Morrison’s Consolata conforms to the Jungian characteristics of the “Mother Archetype.” As mentioned earlier, the women are given diabolic attributes as they incarnate the disobedient wife of Adam, Lilith. Bowden provides other specific features in relation to the “Mother Archetype” since it is not a universal concerned with all mothers, but only for those minorities of women who are able to carry this glorified name. According to him, “The mother archetype takes the form of a personal mother, grandmother….or governess. It can be fulfilled in the figurative mothers such as Mary Mother of God….or the mother who becomes a maiden…the positive aspect of the archetype is mother by love and warmth” (171).
Indeed, Consolata has shown up her skills in bringing up these women as both a true mother and a governess. Consolata is the woman who tolerates and embraces the women’s internal soreness. She succeeds in freeing them from the endless maze that they have fallen in through her wisdom and the natural gifts that she has been given. In his book, Four Archetypes, Carl Gustav Jung clarifies that the “Mother Archetype” is connected to “Maternal solicitude and sympathy: the magic authority of the female; the wisdom and spiritual exaltation that transcend reason; any helpful instinct or impulse…that fosters growth and fertility” (15). In many instances in Paradise, Consolata is depictedas that woman who possesses forces beyond human being’s