Goethe's Archetype and the romantic concept of the self

This paper attempts to illuminate Goethe's concept of an archetype by setting it alongside the concept of the self that was being articulated at the same time, also by writers of the Romantic movement. The Romantic concept of the self expresses a new concept of the self as a 'core' plus an expression of the core: and it is the same 'core plus expression' idea that is embodied in the Goethean archetype. Goethe's archetype is not simply a 'plan'. It is a kind of agent at the heart of a thing, striving for self expression, and to this end driving the thing's development. Both Romantic self and archetype reflect the wider attempt to reinstate the concept of action in our understanding of things and happenings in general. The root idea of there being at the heart of a living thing an agent pursuing a goal remains in the modern concept of the organism.