Comparative Archetypal Analysis of Love Stories in Iran (Samak-e-Ayyar) and France (Tristan and Iseult)

One goal of comparative studies of literature is to search for the human “truth” that has appeared as archetypes in the literature of all nations and all times. In this paper, the author draws an archetypal comparison of romantic love in the French story of "Tristan and Iseult" and the Iranian epic romance "Samak-e-‘Ayyar". It starts with explaining the Jungian concepts of mother and father archetypes, anima and animus, conscious and unconscious, as well as collective conscious and unconscious. Since individuation process in the Jungian psychology has to do with the connection between the conscious and unconscious, the tale romantic love could be seen as individuation process in which each lover seeks to connect to his/her anima (feminine unconscious) and animus (masculine unconscious), based on his/her gender. After providing a synopsis of each story, the author explains the archetypal roles and symbolic meanings of kings, queens, heroes, witches, and princesses in each story using Marie-Louise Von Franz’s methodology for the interpretations of fairy tales. It then compares romantic love in each story by analyzing its characters, functions, and events, and explaining its similarities and differences. Since archetypal literary analysis reveals the attitude, outlook, and behaviors of the people that the myths are originated among them, this comparative study aims to answer to a rather broad question: How is it that in the French story of the 12th century, romantic love ends with death and tragedy; however, in the pre-Islamic Iranian tale, it ends with the :union: of lovers?