Unleash the Magic of Character Archetypes: From Ancient Myths to Modern Narratives
Unleash the Magic of Character Archetypes: From Ancient Myths to Modern Narratives
Despite its many flaws, I am a huge Star Wars fan. I have been since I was a child, so I am committed now. I can’t remember the very first time I saw a Star Wars film—back in the ‘90s, on a Friday, my siblings and I would rent the original trilogy in rotation and on repeat. I can remember the feeling I would get when Darth Vader would appear on screen for the first time. The music, the costume, the voice, the actions, and even the reactions of those around him, the thumb in my chest… all combined to unequivocally scream: VILLAIN.
Darth Vader (Vader to his friends), is perhaps the most quintessential of all villainous archetypes. The term archetype comes from the Greek term archetypos, which translates as “original pattern.” What we think of as archetypes are patterns that have their roots in ancient myth and legend. Archetypes can be themes, images and symbols, situations, and characters. For example, when we look at plot through prism of archetypes we can read generic conventions as archetypal features.
The Intuitive Understanding of Archetypes: How Stories Shape Our Perception
Today we are familiar with many instantly recognisable archetypes even without any formal training in cultural studies and literary criticism. How is that? As a child, how did I know Vader was to be feared and not revered even before he did anything? Because from when we are very young, we have repeated exposure to stories, and we intuitively begin to categorise the elements that make up those stories into groupings. For example, we sort the characters we meet into groups based on recurring traits, roles, and functions.
Formal literary training might offer us the tools to better understand, unpack, and develop our initial intuitive assessment, but I believe that from repeated exposure over time, most of us become adept at unconsciously reading patterns in character traits. From the very first fairy tales, board books, and cartoons we consume as small kids, we are being subconsciously trained in storytelling and we learn by observing repetitions and patterns in various combinations and permutations.[1]
The Analytical Superpower of Archetypes
For that reason, I used to love teaching literary archetypes. The knowledge of how to decode archetypes is already there. Showing students how to join the dots was a powerful analytical tool and it constantly amazed me to see how students would put this critical superpower to use.
The significance of archetypes extends beyond the literary world to film, tv and gaming. But it is also harnessed to great effect in business, marketing, and brand development. The common connection is the power of storytelling, so it stands to reason then that a greater understanding of character archetypes is an essential writing craft tool.
Jungian Insights: Deciphering Universal Repetitions in the Collective Unconscious
You can’t talk about archetypes without mentioning the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875-1961), who is credited as being one of the first to map out archetypes. He identified archetypes as universal repetitions often manifested in recurring patterns of situation, character, or symbol.
Jung’s idea of archetypes is linked to his idea of “the collective unconscious.” The collective unconscious refers to a latent sense of human connectedness or shared history that transcends differences in culture. For Jung, this helped explain why different cultures can have folk stories that share similar characteristics and resonances. And it is this collective unconscious that allows Jung to tap into archetypes because he argues that they are “universal images that have existed since the remotest times.”[2] Since Jung, the idea of archetypes has been developed and expanded, as evidenced, for example, by the popularity of archetypes in marketing and brand development.
Twelve Literary Archetypes: Illuminating Character Roles and Shadows
Though the original Jungian archetypes don’t neatly map onto literary characters, the core principles have clearly influenced the development of character types in a multitude of forms and media.
The appeal of character archetypes is that we can quickly identify and understand character role, function, motivations, and emotions. Perhaps the model we are most familiar with model comprises of 12 broad categories: Hero, Rebel, Magician, Ruler, Caregiver, Creator, Innocent, Sage, Explorer, Lover, Jester, and Everyperson.
12 frequently evidenced character archetypesLike The Force, archetypes contain character traits that are both light and shadow. For Jung, the dark side, or the shadow, is a crucial part of the whole psyche. The shadow is often taboo, but acknowledging the shadows is a part of true self-acceptance. Similarly, well-rounded, believable characters are a blend of light and shadow traits, the balance of which depends of their function your story… are they the hero or the villain?
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Archetypes vs. Tropes: Navigating Depth and Derivation in Storytelling
Jung’s idea of the collective unconscious gives us a clue to the key difference between archetypes and tropes. Tropes are, like archetypes, recurring motifs and devices that are used, arguably overused, in storytelling. Like archetypes they can be a shorthand to convey a deeper meaning, many tropes have their origins in archetypes. However, they more often lapse into cliché and stereotype leading to derivative, predictable, and uninspiring stories. (When I’m bored by a film or tv programme, it’s often because I find it “a bit tropey.” I feel like I have seen this story before and it’s failing to capture my imagination. Next time you’re watching something, ask yourself: Is this a well-executed archetype or a tiresome trope?)
Vader vs princess (vader credit Piotr Makowski)Worse than being boring, tropes can be actively damaging. Many tropes are grounded in sexist and racist stereotypes. For example, one of the tropes that we see over and over and over again is that of the damsel in distress. The frequent recurrence of sexist and racist tropes in literature and popular culture undoubtedly plays a part in consciously and subconsciously naturalizing damaging systems of oppression.[3]
Though not immune to stereotype and cliché, archetypes appeal more to the emotions evoked by human experience that operate across culturally and historically specific manifestations.
The Power of Archetypes: Why They Resonate with Writers and Readers Alike
1. Broad Appeal: Archetypes are rich in symbolic meaning and allegorical significance, allowing you to use them like a shorthand to convey deeper layers of meaning. Recognizable archetypes can resonate with readers across cultures and time periods, tapping into universal themes and motifs that speak to common human experiences and emotions. In other words, selective, well-judged use of archetypes can elevate your writing by infusing it with emotional gravitas that transcends difference.
2. Character Depth: Archetypes provide a clear and easily recognizable framework for character development. They can serve as a foundation from which you can build out complex and multi-dimensional characters, helping you to explore various facets of human nature and experience. Drawing on archetypes for the base premise or starting point for your characters, can make it easier to develop compelling character journeys as you progress with your story.
3. Narrative Structure: Archetypes help to structure narratives by providing familiar roles and patterns that guide the development of characters, conflicts, themes, and overall plots. This, in turn, provides a sense of comfort from which individuality and uniqueness can be layered in.
Avoiding Trope Traps: Strategies to Keep Archetypes Fresh
1. Damaging Stereotypes: Archetypes can potentially reinforce damaging stereotypes and clichés, leading to, at best, one-dimensional characters and, at worst, insensitive and offensive representations that reproduce structures of oppression.
2. Unoriginal Storytelling: Overreliance on archetypes can result in your writing becoming too formulaic, repetitive, and tiresome which, in turn, weakens the overall quality of your storytelling and diminishes its impact on readers.
3. Limitations in Characterization: While archetypes provide a useful starting point, they may not fully capture the complexity and uniqueness of human experience, leading to superficial portrayals and characters that don’t feel real.
Harnessing Archetypes: Tips for Dynamic Character Development
1. A starting point, NOT an End point: Archetypes can give you a useful place to start with character development, but remember archetypal features won’t give you the full picture or a well-rounded, complex character or even story. Use archetypes as your starting point, but dig deeper into their motivations, flaws, and inner conflicts to create more nuanced, realistic portrayals.
2. Be Creative: It might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how often socialization takes over and dampens our creative impulses. We have all been socialized to view archetypes as “natural” rather than constructed. Counter this by consciously combining archetypal elements with original and imaginative character traits. Striking a balance between familiarity and originality to create a fresh take on a classic will draw your in readers and keep them engaged.
3. Write out the backstory: Pick a character, set a timer, and free write. Imagine the character’s backstory and how they would respond in a variety of different situations. These exercises might not make it into your final draft but can be very helpful in moving beyond archetypal depictions. And an added bonus is exercises like these can help you to find each character’s distinct voice and tone making your characters feel even more real and well-rounded.
4. Do your research: Familiarize yourself with the cultural, historical, and literary contexts in which your archetypes operate. Investigate the symbolic meanings, associations, and connotations and how they have changed over time. Remember what might have gone unchecked in a story 20 years ago will not pass muster today. Pay particular attention to instances that can cause archetypes to reproduce thoughtless and damaging representations.[4] And remember to always, always, always, always delink character traits from physical appearance.
5. Be mindful of your own unconscious bias: We all have biases. Some we are conscious of and others we are not. Our biases aren’t necessarily moral failings, but often a consequence of social conditioning over time. Questioning yourself can be challenging, but it can also be liberating. In the context of writing, it can bring a dynamism, depth, and nuance to your writing.
6. Subvert Expectations: Knowing about archetypes and the expectations they set up allows you to play with subverting roles and conventions, challenging stereotypes, and exploring unconventional interpretations of familiar themes, which let’s face it is always fun!
Embrace the Transformative Journey of Storytelling
Ready to harness the transformative power of character archetypes in your writing journey? Take the next step by implementing these tips and insights into your creative process and watch as your writing takes on new dimensions of meaning and resonance.
Get your Archetypes for Character Development Cheat Sheet here.
Notes:
[1] The branch of literary theory called Narratology is chiefly concerned with observing these patterns and trying to organize and systematise them. Theorists you might encounter when studying narratology include, Aristotle, Vladimir Propp, and Gérard Genette.
[2] Jung, Carl G., and R.F.C. Hull, editor. The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious. 2nd ed., Collected Works of C.G. Jung, vol. 9, part 1, Princeton University Press, 1981, p.5.
[3] For more on tropes, I love The Take’s series on tropes in popular culture.
[4] Check out Writing the Other by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward (Seattle: Aqueduct, 2005).
