Myth and Ritual in Liam O'Flaherty's Short Story "Spring Sowing"

aim of this article is to read short story Spring Sowing (1924), written by renowned Irish writer Liam O'Flaherty, in context of psychology as well as myth and ritual. In process, it will become apparent that story depicts not only annual agricultural rites performed by man for centuries in honor of cosmic forces that bring renewal to earth, but also inner workings of characters. selection of particular short story is two-pronged: First, it provides a wide range of themes that are found in writer's work; and second, it reflects most successfully author's vision. It is my contention that O'Flaherty's attempt to help modern man gain insight into basic forces that underline human psyche led him to borrow from Carl Jung concept of masculine/feminine principles. Furthermore, in order to concretize his viewpoint he employed principles as psychic structures, and fused them with myth and ritual, thus rendering his story universal in its appeal and involving both male and female readers. Finally, it should be noted that a handful of critics have written on O'Flaherty's work but no one has dealt with particular story, an oversight that present contribution intends to amend. In story, protagonist, Martin, represents masculine principle that includes logic and reason while Mary, his wife, stands for feminine principle that suggests imagination, creativity, and intuition. (1) O'Flaherty, however, convinced that it not enough to provide a psychological/archetypal framework for his story, and to define psychic structures only. He needed more than just concepts derived from Jung. This realization drove him to recur to ritualistic constructs with which to blend Jungian ideas, to strengthen story's framework, and most importantly, to convey complexity of his vision. Thus, Martin stands for and Mary for earth. Heaven and declares Mircea Eliade, form Androgeny, which is an archaic and universal formula for expression of wholeness, co-existence of contraries or coincidentia oppositorum. It symbolizes perfection of a primordial non-conditioned state. (2) Eliade argues that separation of from earth manifests itself in human forms of man and woman. (3) He also postulates that rituals connected with Terra Mater reveal the mystery of how Life born from a seed hidden in an undifferentiated whole. In addition, these rituals also show how life was produced in consequence of hierogamy between and Earth, and how it sprang from a violent death, in most cases voluntary. (4) In rituals that relate to Terra Mater and goddess of telluric fecundity where goddesses of vegetation and of agriculture are present, woman plays a significant role. Therefore, one cannot miss symbolic assimilation of woman with land and of sexual act with agricultural labor. The woman is field and male is bestower of seed, writes Indian poet Narada. (5) In this light, author obliged to use notion of duality to delineate breakdown that occurs between characters. By using analogies like day and night as well as a bright day-world (the events in field) and a dark night-world (the episode in barn), writer projects conscious and unconscious as well as and Earth. As article will show, O'Flaherty shares in Jung's belief that suppression of feminine principle is an act that results in conflict and imbalance. He proceeds to objectify this belief by expounding idea that youth and age, birth and death are part of a perpetual universal myth that focuses on man's intrinsic bond to earth. All along, artist stresses fact that modern man refuses to accept power of earth and nature, hence bringing about discord and sorrow. O'Flaherty, like William Wordsworth before him, believes that nature is a teacher, a guide, and a source of spirituality. …

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