Archetypes In The Siren Song

Archetypes are the foundation, walls, and roof to a good story. They build on each other to explain a story in a way the reader can relate to. Beowulf was originally composed in Old English in the 6th century; although there is no known author, the more modern version was translated by Burton Rafel. This story has three main archetypes as such: The Journey, The Task, and The Battle Between Good and Evil.

Archetypes are defined as “a typical character, an action or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of human nature.” (“Archetype”) The short story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien is about the internal struggle and the journey he faces after he is drafted to serve the army. The classical hero’s journey archetype is similar to Tim O’Brien’s journey in his short story, “On the Rainy River,” with the exception of the arc length and depth of transformation.

An archetype is a type of character found across multiple books and or movies. John Steinbeck wrote the novel Of Mice and Men. Within this novel, there is a character named Lennie Smalls. Lennie is a unique character because of his mental disability. Lennie has a best friend named George, who promises Lennie’s Aunt Clara that he would take care of Lennie when she passes away. Lennie is very strong and throughout the book it is shown how his disability and strength are used against him. Steinbeck’s character from Of Mice and Men, Lenny, is the typical example of an innocent archetype.

An archetype is defined as an image, story-pattern, character, setting, symbol, or situation that recurs frequently in literature and in life. It demonstrates universal human experiences and associates strongly with readers through a subconscious understanding. In the Epic of Gilgamesh the main character, Gilgamesh, is an example of a superheroic archetypal hero. He took on an epic quest for everlasting life by following the archetypal steps of a hero’s journey. Through suffering due to tragedy, realizing the nature of his quest, seeking help from a mentor, experiencing failure, and returning home with a companion, Gilgamesh’s story followed the situational archetype of a hero’s journey.

Half woman half bird, the sirens perch themselves along mountain tops in the sea, singing an enchanting song to innocent voyagers that pass by, captivating them to jump of their boats and descend to their death. These sirens however are portrayed in many different ways. In Fagles’ The Odyssey, Fagles portrays the sirens as merciless killing machines. However in Margaret Atwood’s poem “Siren Song,” the sirens are portrayed as the victims and that they are the ones that need help from their never ending torture.

In the novels The Odyssey by Homer and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, there are characters that can be defined by their traits as certain archetypes. All novels and films contain archetypes that allow their audience to understand and relate more to the character's personality and journey. Telemachus, Poseidon, and Penelope are characters from The Odyssey that can be classified as fitting into the bildungsroman, vengeance villain, and matron archetypes. Santiago and Melchizedek are characters from The Alchemist that can be identified as a flawed hero/seeker and a sage archetype. There are numerous archetype possibilities for characters to have, and throughout a character’s journey, those possibilities are slowly eliminated.

Both Homer’s Odyssey and Margaret Atwood’s poem “Siren Song” present mysterious sirens who lure men by singing a song. Homer and Atwood both demonstrate the enticing nature of sirens and their melody by incorporating tone and diction. Both Atwood and Homer display an enticing tone when describing the sirens, which demonstrates that they are enchanting, yet dangerous creatures. For example, Homer writes, “thrilling song ‘come closer famous Odysseus…moor your ship on our coast so you can hear our song!” The quote demonstrates an enchanting and enticing tone, which emulates the characteristics of the sirens.

Character archetypes are present in almost all fairytales, fables, novels, poems, and folktales. An archetype is a character or situation that repeats universally throughout stories. In Perseus, King Acrisius learns that his daughter, Danae, is going to have a son that will kill him. He fears what the gods will do to him if he kills his daughter, so he imprisons Danae.

In Gerald K. Gresseth's essay “The Homeric Sirens”6 he speaks of the musical element of the sirens as dominating the episode in which they appear. A comparison can be made between the musical aspects of these sea creatures and the singing of the women in Ulysses. He suggests that “magic singing was the central characteristic of the Sirens”.7 This can certainly be seen to be the case in Ulysses where the singing of the barmaids is such a

While both poems of the sirens portray the creatures as enticing, admitting to the deadliness of the song they sing (PrPP), Atwood’s rendition, with its perspective entirely from that of a siren herself, paints the sirens as more deceitful in their malevolent (SAT Vocab) coaxing of men, while the sirens of Homer’s classic tale rely more on their beauty and “ravishing voices,” (Homer, 19) utilizing rhetorical appeals to attract sailors (PrPP Parallel Structure).

Like Homer, the Sirens are depicted in the “Siren Song as cunning and seductive, manipulating their listeners in order to lure them into their trap. Atwood uses first person point of view to evoke a sense of sympathy for the Sirens. This prompts the listeners to feel as if the sirens are personally speaking to them. Phrases such as, “help me” and “I don’t enjoy it here” tempts the men, causing them to act like the hero. This contradicts the methods used in the excerpt from the Odyssey, which was the use of their mesmeric femininity to lure the listeners. In addition, the tone of the poem is portrayed as alluring and hypnotic. This draws the man into the Sirens trap. The Sirens are characterized as one in need of saving. The repetition of the word “you” in the poem makes the listeners feel unique.

What is an archetype? An archetype is a universal symbol, may be a character, a theme, a symbol or even a setting. (Literary Devices, 2016). Archetypes can be used to describe different types of people. People can be any type of archetype good or bad.

There are different ways of how sirens are described in "Book 12 Of The Odyssey" and the poem. The way sirens are described in the poem is very different from Book 12, In the poem the sirens are actually cursed women. The sirens don't like to be in their bird suit and have to sing to kill men! One of the sirens don't even like the other sirens just because she doesn't want to be a siren.

Also known as the three sea nymphs. What the sirens did no one could ever forget, they were known for one thing and one thing only. “These were marvelous singers whose voices would make a man forget alleles, and at least there song would steal his life away” (Hamilton 234). So people would say. These women were very beautiful and appealing. “They would give knowledge to each man who came to them, they said, ripe wisdom and quickening of the spirit. We shall here alter upon the earth’ (hamilton 235). I don't really know why they would do this. I guess that was just there power that they had. “The sirens lived on an island. They has enchanting voices and their singing lured sailors to there death.It was not known what they looked like, for no one who saw the never returned” (hamilton

Circe is not the only strong women in The Odyssey; the Sirens are a set of sisters that are also strong in this book. The Sirens are two sisters with beautiful voices that draw men to them. Once a man hears their voices, he is unable escape, if he hears their voice he will be drawn to them, doing whatever it takes to get to the island they are living on. Once a man reaches the island of the sisters, they take the bones of the men and use then to make drums, which are a part of their music. These two sisters have the faces of young girls, but the bodies of birds. Because the Sirens are so powerful, if any man hears their voices all the men will be dragged to their island. To prevent this Ulysses plugs his men’s ears with beeswax. Ulysses, however keeps his own ears unplugged to be able to hear the sound going on around him, Ulysses has his men tie him to the mast so he is unable to escape. Because of the beautiful voices he is bloody from trying to get to the women; his men cannot fathom as to