Archetypes
Character Archetypes
Character archetypes (a.k.a. archetypes of personality) correspond to enduring facts of the human condition, as opposed to event archetypes, which correspond to acute opportunities, challenges, and dangers.
There are nine primary character archetypes. This diagram shows the relationships between them.
Archetypes situated next to each other share certain commonalities. Those across from each other are opposites in some way.
Child
An orientation of vulnerability, dependence, and ignorance.
Primary concerns: Safety vs risk or danger, comfort vs difficulty, and curiosity
Variants: Apprentice | Divine Child | Eternal Child | Orphan | Victim
Hero
An agential orientation toward long-term goals.
Primary concerns: Achievement and integrity
Variants: Artist | Builder | Lover | Outlaw | Seeker | Warrior
Maiden
An orientation toward personal relationships and the self as a social agent.
Primary concerns: Compassion vs cruelty; adoration vs shame
Variants: Good Girl | Ice Queen | Virgin | Vixen
Trickster
A receptive and responsive orientation toward observation and subjective experience
Primary concerns: Beauty & pleasure vs ugliness; vibrance vs sterility
Variants: Fool | Jester | Mystic | Provocateur | Tempter
Mother
An orientation toward the cycles and interconnections that generate and support life.
Primary concerns: Survival & health vs disease & death; function vs dysfunction
Variants: Caregiver | Dragon | Earth Mother | Martyr | Queen | Terrible Mother
Father
An orientation toward abstraction and rules.
Primary concerns: Order vs chaos; legitimacy vs fraudulence
Variants: King | Scholar | Sky God | Tyrant | Votary
Shadow
An avoidant orientation toward certain aspects of the self.
Primary concerns: Denial and self-criticism
Variants: Beast | Demon | Golden Shadow
Animum (Animus / Anima)
An orientation toward the unexplored capacities of the self.
Primary concerns: Fascination and exploration
Variants: Bad Boy | Knight | Princess | Shapeshifter | Wild Woman
Magician
An orientation toward integration, wholeness, and transcendence.
Primary concerns: Integration & harmony vs discord; balance vs volatility
Variants: Eidolon | False Prophet | Godhead | Sage | Syzygy
Event Archetypes
Event archetypes (or archetypes of transformation) are grounded in orientations toward certain situations that all or most people will encounter in their lives but are not persistent factors. They serve to reorient us according to changes in our lives or our environment.
Event archetypes typically correspond to significant challenges and opportunities (e.g., disasters and epiphanies), to important moments in life (e.g., births and marriages), and to holidays (e.g., New Year’s Day, Easter, and the solstices). In narrative terms, event archetypes are frequently associated with the Hero’s Journey as popularized by Joseph Campbell.