Unearthing common unconscious through drama: an archetypal reading of Tracie Chima Utoh’s <i>Couldron of Death</i>

Abstract

The recurrence of similar characters and thought in play texts written by diverse playwrights who lived at different times and spaces motivated this research. Although these play texts are written by varied authors, they apparently appear to share significant similarities in terms of character-type and thoughts. It thus becomes imperative to investigate the factors and situations that inform the creation of play texts that seem to be archetypal in theme, thought, character and narrative. Using Carl Jung’s ideas of psychoanalysis, the researcher investigated the essence of archetypes and “collective unconscious” in Tracie Chima Utoh’s Cauldron of Death. The researcher discovered that the archetypes found in Utoh’s Cauldron of Death exist in the “collective unconscious” of the playwright. Coincidently, these archetypes have proved to be innate, hereditary and universal. The researcher therefore, concludes that the archetypal characters found in Cauldron of Death are models of real people who exist in all places at all times among peoples from all over the world. They serve as the basic foundation and impulse for the playwright’s creation of the play.