This thesis explores Jane Smiley’s revision and reclamation of female archetypes in her novel A Thousand Acres, a contemporary adaptation of King Lear. The novel explores the opposing myths of female trauma and female monstrosity, which have been used throughout the literary tradition to define narratives about women. Smiley shows that women have had little sayin the portrayal of their narratives, recognizing the way women’s experience is subordinated to the male perspective in King Lear. Smiley revises and reclaims the narrative of Lear’s cruel daughter Goneril through Ginny Cook, who must encounter and overcome the trauma of sexual abuse and the restriction of myth imposed on her by patriarchy. This thesis explores the reclamation by using Freud’s early ideas on trauma and considering them in conjunction withSimone de Beauvoir’s critique of the destructive power of myth of woman. In contrast to Goneril, who inflicts trauma and is given a simple role to follow, Ginny reclaims the female narrative by functioning as a combination of complex female archetypes and emerging with her own unique ending; Ginny is the sole character in A Thousand Acres to break from the trauma and myths imposed on her and define her own story.