The Psychology of the Serpent in D.H. Lawrences Snake Essay -- Lawren

The Psychology of the Serpent in D.H. Lawrences Snake Less than 17% of the creative activitys snakes are poisonous and less than half of these are dangerous to man. The risk of death as a result of snakebite is, in fact, lower than the risk of being struck by lightning (Pinney 138). Nonetheless, cross-culturally and throughout the world, the snake is an object of fascination, fear, and respect for humankind. The serpent is a etymon of symbolic speculation, as it appears in myth, dream, literature, and religion. In nature or otherwise, it is impossible to approach the creature innocently (Morgenson 3). As D.H. Lawrences poem, Snake, suggests, the snakes invoked power in not a result of any physiological aspect of the snakes chemistry, but rather a consequence of the psychological symbol that defines the snakes being. Like many of Lawrences nature poems, Barbara stout classifies Snake as anthropomorphic, composing the snake as a creature in itself, but through the contrives of hu man experience (43). Lawrences serpent is cautiously constructed with a sense of immediacy and harsh reality, but it is through the eyes and experience of the human narrator that the reader comes to watch the snake. More importantly, the reader comes to understand the pure necessity, and the pure immorality, of subconscious symbolism and judgement. The snake provokes both terror and respect. Aside from the reality of a mysterious, occasionally poisonous predator is the archetypal image of the serpent, latent with mythological, biblical, and historical symbols. Among the most common phobias is ophiaphobia, or fear of snakes, despite the unlikeliness of one to encounter a snake in the urban world (Rapoport 195). Lawrence, though ... ...s Cited Hardy, Barbara. D.H. Lawrences Self-Consciousness. D.H. Lawrence in the Modern World. Ed. Peter Preston and Peter Hoare. New York Cambridge UP, 1989. 27-46. Hobsbaum, Philip. A Readers Guide to D.H. Lawrence. London Thames and Hudson, 1981. L awrence, D.H. Snake. The Norton Anthology of English Literature Major Authors. 6th ed. Ed. M.H. Abrams, et al. New York W.W. Norton, 1996. 2452-54. McGuire, William et al, eds. The still Works of C.G. Jung. 5th vol. 2nd ed. Trans. R.F.C. Hull. Princeton Princeton UP, 1956. Morgenson, Greg. The Serpents Prayer The Psychology of an Image. N.D. On-line. Available http//www.cgjung.com/cgjung/articles/serpent.html. 22 February 1998. Pinney, Roy. The Snake Book. New York Doubleday, 1981. Rapoport, Judith L. The Boy Who Couldnt Stop Washing. New York NAL Penguin, 1989.