The Six Main Archetypes of Literature

Published by Cloudydays, October 31, 2010

A list of the six main literary archetypes, explanations of them and examples.

An archetype is a pattern; a way of seeing; a recurring theme in literature and even in culture. Carl Jung contends that all humans, regardless of time or place, recognize these archetypal patterns. Archetypes are types of literature that most people are familiar with and are taught about during their lifetimes. These 6 archetypes are:

1. Golden Age

This archetype is generally about a time when everything was beautiful, peaceful, no sin existed, plentiful food, no conflicts, no need for shelter (because you did not need to protect yourself), and no need for work (you didn’t have to). Usually when coming across this archetype, the story tells about how things were much better back then and now humanity has basically screwed everything up and we want to go back to the good ole’ days.

2. God/Teacher

The God/Teacher archetype describes a role model who provides lessons on how to act, what’s important, survival, knowledge, love, etc. This archetype is generally used in stories where you have someone quite experienced in some field teaching, helping, or instructing someone younger than them and inexperienced. Examples of this archetype include the story of Prometheus and how he gave fire to humans or perhaps you could speak a bit more religiously and say that the Bible is also an example of the God/Teacher archetype due to the Bible teaching people lessons of life.

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3. Loss of Innocence

While the definition of this archetype is broad, it’s effects are more narrow. The loss of innocence literary archetype generally describes learning something knew or experiencing something new that completely changes you forever. A prime example of this archetype is the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, for which an archetype study can be found here. Another one would be the book The Count of Monte Cristo. There are 2 types of Loss of innocence. The first one is Personal which is recognizing the harshness of the world and the recognition of one’s limitations. The second kind is Society loss of innocence. This is when evil is introduced into society.

4. Flood

The Flood archetype is one archetype that is very common nowadays considering the multiple apocalyptic movies and books and songs that are being made with each coming year. The Flood archetype is simple to understand – it’s the end of the world. Examples of this archetype include the movie I am Legend, and the song How far we’ve come by Matchbox Twenty.

5. Metamorphosis

Also another simple and easy to understand archetype, the Metamorphosis archetype is about changing from one thing to another and with a reason. Either it’s a change that happens and occurs from within or it’s being changed by something outside – something external or something internal. Examples would include The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer.

6. Cycles

Fancy word there, Cycles, but this is still an easy concept to remember. Anything like being a baby to being an adult to becoming an old person and then repeating with the next generation is a cycle. Another easy one is the phases of the moon.

(essay)

by Demeter

Thu Nov 11 2010 at 22:19:53

Recently, the theatrical group I belong to decided to devise a play, with its foundations in Shakespeare, in which a Puck-like character rebels against his master. This project, with the working title "Oberon Must Die", arose from a suggestion by one member of the group, who wanted to conflate certain Shakespearean characters together to create new ones. However, as the project proceeded, it became clear that some of the suggested conflations weren't working and that other characters seemed to form natural clumps. Eventually, we identified fourteen key archetypes (though there are, of course, numerous other incidental characters that "serve to swell a progress or two") which we named rather whimsically. Although it is rare in Shakespeare for all of them to be present in any one play every play will have at least six or seven of them present - our own, obviously, ended up incorporating all fourteen.

These archetypes are:

1. The Big Lunk: A romantic hero type, but lacking something, so not entirely heroic - for instance he can be indecisive, unintelligent or easily misled. He is always a young man. In Shakespeare, he is represented in characters such as Romeo, Hamlet, Troilus, Claudio (Much Ado About Nothing), Orsino (Twelfth Night), Orlando (As You Like It) Lysander, Demetrius (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Ferdinand (The Tempest) and Leonatus (Cymbeline).
2. The Innocent Babe: The babe is often a tragic character , a victim of malignancy, whether this causes - or, in comedy, seems to cause - death. She is young - often very young and is personified in Shakespeare in Ophelia (Hamlet), Desdemona (Othello), Imogen (Cymbeline), Hero (Much Ado About Nothing), Cordelia (King Lear).
3. The Flawed Ruler: Generally found in tragedy, this powerful man with a flaw which causes -or nearly causes, in comedy - his downfall. He is usually an older character. Examples: Oberon (A Midsummer Night's Dream) Prospero (The Tempest), Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, Cymbeline, Anthony, Brutus (Julius Caesar).
4. The Bright Young Thing: This is a girl who takes matters into her own hands to get what she wants - BYTs are generally those who bring about the resolution of comedies. They are (obviously) young, though often older than the babes. BYTs include: Helena (All's Well That Ends Well), Portia (The Merchant of Venice), Viola & Olivia (Twelfth Night), Rosalind (As You Like It), Kate (Taming of the Shrew), Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing), Miranda (The Tempest).
5. The Malign Influence: A character who causes trouble out of hatred, jealousy or temper. He actively wishes others ill and works toward that. He can be any age. Some Malign Influences are Iago (Othello), Don John (Much Ado About Nothing), Cloten (Cymbeline), Claudius (Hamlet), Tybalt (Romeo and Juliet), Cassius (Julius Caesar). Hecate (Macbeth).
6. The Sidekick/The Clever Servant. The friend or servant of either the Big Lunk, the Innocent Babe or the Bright Young thing who helps them sort out their problems. They are often older, but are not necessarily so. Where they are friend rather than servant they often share the fate of the hero/heroine, either dying or marrying depending on the genre of the play. Examples include Benvolio (Romeo and Juliet), Maria (Twelfth Night), Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing) Diana Capilet (All's Well That Ends Well), Celia (As You Like It), Odysseus (Troilus and Cressida).
7. The Imp of Mischief: A misleading character, often supernatural, who misleads and deceives people, makes fun of them, sets cats among pigeons for amusement's sake, but is not actively malign. Their age is irrelevant, and they may be male or female. Examples: Puck (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Ariel(The Tempest), Parolles (All's Well That Ends Well), Sir Toby Belch(Twelfth Night), Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet), The Witches (Macbeth).
8. The Mistreated Villain: A character who does things which the audience perceives as wicked, but only because he has been driven to them by the way he has been treated. The age of this character is irrelevant, but they are often older and long-suffering. Examples: Caliban (The Tempest), Shylock (The Merchant of Venice).
9. The Powerful Woman: Often seen as malign, this is a woman who has real power over the fate of other people as well as herself, and is therefore someone to fear. In tragedies, she always dies, and in comedies she will usually come under the influence of a male character in some way. She is generally mature. Some powerful women from Shakespeare are: Lady Macbeth, Goneril and Regan (King Lear), Cleopatra, Titania (Midsummer Night's Dream) Cymbeline's Queen.
10. The Figure of Fun: This character is pretty much present purely to be laughed at. He (and it is generally a man) often pretends to more intelligence than he has, and generally gets his pomposity punctured. The age of this character doesn't matter. Some examples are: Dogberry (Much Ado About Nothing), Malvolio (Twelfth Night), Polonius (Hamlet), Nick Bottom (A Midsummer Night's Dream).
11. The Wise Fool: The word "fool" in this context is a positional denotation, rather than an intellectual one. Often quite sharp and shrewd, the wise fool is character who is allowed to tell unpalatable truths to rulers without being punished, by virtue of their position. Examples: Lear's Fool, Jaques (As You Like It), Lavatch (All's Well That Ends Well).
12. The Comic Relief: A Servant/Friend who helps the lead(s) but is generally not too intelligent. They generally have no particular pretentions to intelligenceand while they are often made gentle fun of they don't suffer for it. Some examples include Nurse (Romeo and Juliet), Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Twefth Night), Verges (Much Ado About Nothing), The Mechanicals (Midsummer Night's Dream).
13. Tragedy's Minion: This is a character who is manipulated by the Malign Influence into acting in his favor and against one of the leads, though they are generally innocent in themselves of any malign intent. For instance: Margaret (Much Ado About Nothing), Emelia (Othello).
14. The Narrator/Chorus: This is a character who fills in the story, and may influence it significantly, but more in passing than by intent. Example: Prince in Romeo and Juliet

The mixture of these archetypes within a play will determine the tone of it, as much as the genre will determine the final outcome: tragedies liberally laced with the lighter characters (The Imp, The Figure of Fun, The Comic Relief) such as Romeo and Juliet will be more shocking in their tragic elements than a because of the contrast with the lighter-hearted elements, where a tragedy which lacks these figures, like Macbeth will be more tense and brooding.

Why You Need a Media Plan

Sunday November 7, 2010

A media plan is not an option, it's a necessity. It doesn't matter whether you do all of the public relations yourself or you are just part of a big organization. The biggest mistake when it comes to a media plan is that we tend to focus on internal aspects, processes and technical details. While these things are important, it's not the core of a successful media plan.

A media plan can help you in not only identifying who you are trying to reach, but also what you want your audience to do when they hear your message.

Take some time to learn why a media plan is important to your organization. Once you've done that learn how to develop a specific media plan for earned media as well as a media plan for social media and understand why they are different. You'll be glad you did.