Archetype Project: The Miser

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

Matthew 6:24

The Great Gatsby

Tom and Daisy Buchanan marry each other for money and social power. In the story, Gatsby makes the revelation that Daisy's voice is "full of money." Both she and Tom are obsessed with living a rich and fabulous life, and do not care who else is affected by their selfishness so long as they remain wealthy and influential.

Aesop's Fables: The Miser and His Gold

The Merchant of Venice

Shylock the Jewish Moneylender

• If thou will lend this money, lend it not

As to thy friends; for when did friendship take

A breed for barren metal of his friend? (1.3.8)

Once upon a time there was a Miser who used to hide his gold at the foot of a tree in his garden; but every week he used to go and dig it up and gloat over his gains. A robber, who had noticed this, went and dug up the gold and decamped with it. When the Miser next came to gloat over his treasures, he found nothing but the empty hole. He tore his hair, and raised such an outcry that all the neighbours came around him, and he told them how he used to come and visit his gold.

"Did you ever take any of it out?" asked one of them.

"Nay," said he, "I only came to look at it."

"Then come again and look at the hole," said a neighbour; "it will do you just as much good."

• 'My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!

Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!

Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter! (2.8.15)

• Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my

turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor:

I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys. (3.1.14)

Dante's Inferno: The Fourth Circle of Hell

" Useless giving, and useless keeping, has robbed them of the bright world, and set them to this struggle: what struggle it is, I do not amplify. But you, my son, can see now the vain mockery of the wealth controlled by Fortune, for which the human race fight with each other, since all the gold under the moon, that ever was, could not give peace to one of these weary souls.’"

Misers are generally presented as unhappy individuals that use their preoccupation with finances to deal with the conflicts they experience.

• A general theme that misers illustrate is "money cannot buy happiness." Misers replace relationships with other characters with their relationship with money.
• Misers sometimes occupy positions of power and use their monetary wealth to further elevate themselves
• Misers deprive themselves and those around them of comfort in an effort to become richer; they save all their wealth for the distant future, but inevitably never spend it.

A Christmas Carol

Money and Happiness

Crime and Punishment

One of the most well-known examples of this archetype is Ebenezer Scrooge, a sour old man who refuses to give money to any cause but his own. Scrooge's office is constantly freezing because he does not want to spend money on coal to heat it. He wastes neither time, money, nor pity on Tiny Tim or his impoverished family until spectral guides teach him to see the error of his ways.

I had a friend who had alot,

And very happy she was not.

Then she lost it all one day,

And now she morns her life away.

I have never had a lot,

And ofte' it's left me in a spot,

But I am sure with banking clout,

Wonderful happiness would find me out.

But in memories, it's the times without,

That warm my heart and stand right out.

Mayhaps happiness has more to do,

With the life you live, than what have you.

-Teresa Dearing

"There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt."

Ecclesiastes 5:13

Alyona Ivanovna is a miserly old woman who cheats Raskolnikov and other Russians who come to sell their posessions. She is also very controlling and abusive to her simple-minded sister, Lizaveta.

Works Cited/Referenced

mi·ser [mahy-zer]

noun

1. a person who lives in wretched circumstances in order to save and hoard money.

2. a stingy, avaricious person.

3. Obsolete. a wretched or unhappy person.

• Google Images: hundred dollar bill
• http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/miser?s=t
• www.taleswithmorals.com/aesop-fable-the-miser-and-his-gold.htm‎
• http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/teresa-dearing/money-and-happiness-2/
• http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/DantInf1to7.htm#_Toc64090936

• The Miser Archetype concerns a character who harbors an obsession with money or material wealth.
• Misers can be male or female, rich or poor; they spend their time creating plans to earn or save money.
• Misers often concern themselves so much with saving money for the future that they forget to live in the present.

Archetype Project: The Miser

Coins.

They burn holes in my pockets, and

I cannot use them.

I can't buy the sound of your laugh,

The laugh that harmonized with mine

As we compared worn boots and

Patches on our sleeves.

Nor can I buy the warmth of your hand,

Fingers woven with mine,

As our breath clouded the glass

And our mouths watered

And we marveled at expensive dinners

Together.

All this gold, this silver, this copper

Will never shine as bright

As you did.

I pinch and scavenge and save

These cold piles of ore

Knowing full well that they are worthless.

Coins will not bring you back.

Coins cannot buy your love.

All I have is metal.

All I crave is you.

I am older, and therefore wiser,

Or so it is said.

No longer am I a foolish youth,

Laughing at the holes in my shoes,

Counting the tears in my clothing,

Flaunting my empty pockets.

Now, I count coins.

If you were here, I would tell you

That I am wealthy, rich beyond

My youthful dreams.

I can afford the lavish meals

We envied through the windows

Of fine restaurants.

I can purchase the coat that

You adored from afar

In the department store window;

I can buy it in every color of the rainbow

And you can pick one for

Every day of the week.

But I don't know where you have gone,

Or if the weather where you are

Is cold enough for coats.

I can afford to search the earth for you.

Expense is not important now,

For I have more coins than I can count.