Why learn about archetypes?
Understanding Human Nature
Along with instincts, archetypes are the elements of human nature. Learning about archetypes means learning about ourselves and our place in society and the world.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau claimed that human nature was virtuous but for the corrupting influence of society. Hobbes claimed the contrary:society is all that restrains a human nature that’s selfish and violent. They were both partly right and partly wrong. These apparent contradictions can be easily reconciled by placing them within the holistic framework of Jungian archetypes, which provides a more sophisticated and nuanced model of human nature.
If we consider the child and maiden archetypes, we can see where Rousseau’s perspective comes from. And Hobbes’s assertion aligns with the father archetype. The archetypal labels provide a way to identify various threads of human nature. And the underlying framework shows us how these threads are woven together, along with others from different philosophical dispositions, into a rich and complex tapestry.
As we make sense of our lives through the stories we tell and consume, archetypal patterns are at the heart of many of our most popular and persistent narratives. With the insights provided by C. G. Jung, Joseph Campbell, and others, writers today use archetypal patterns to craft new stories that resonate with audiences on a deep, psychological level.
Archetypes as Tools for Writers
Knowledge of archetypes can help writers create compelling characters, memorable plots, and vibrant story worlds. Perhaps most importantly, it gives writers a way to conceptualize how characters see themselves and their place in the world and how they relate to other people.
This framework is a general tool. It doesn’t provide simple solutions to any particular problems that writers encounter. Instead, it brings various dimensions of craft together into a holistic perspective. And unlike more tightly structured frameworks, it never limits the number or quality of options available when working through a question or challenge.
Archetypal insights can help with:
- Designing balanced character webs composed of compelling, dynamic figures.
- Conceptualizing conflict and resolution according to a dynamic framework.
- Guiding character choices and growth, providing direction without resorting to simplistic formulas or other tools that limit options.
Balancing character webs
Generally speaking, a story’s character web should reflect a diversity of perspectives and values. This allows the story to show how different views and motivations set the preconditions for both conflict and cooperation.
If you’re writing a story centered on an archetypal hero, you might think in terms of archetypes when designing the hero’s allies and adversaries. The hero’s individualistic perspective and focus on achievement might be thematically compared to an archetypal mother’s tribalistic point of view or an archetypal father’s insistence on the importance of order and stability.
What’s great about this character framework is that it can still work even without archetypal characters. For example, an individualistic character and a more tribalistic or collectivistic character will balance each other in a character web like a hero and a mother, even if those two characters don’t really embody those respective archetypes.
Conceptualizing conflict and resolution
Different people approach problems, obstacles, arguments, and conflict in different ways. Some people attack problems directly with relentless energy, while others look for points of leverage. Some strategize, while others take a trial-and-error approach.
Different character archetypes are associated with different approaches to problem-solving. Tricksters tend to be improvisational and tactical when confronting problems. This means they’re not easily outmaneuvered. Heroes tend to be strategists who plan ahead and try to anticipate the outcomes of certain decisions. So, when a writer puts a hero and trickster in direct competition, they might have the hero win by virtue of a strong but flexible strategy. Or they might have the trickster win by exploiting a tactical advantage that the hero didn’t plan for.
By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches and by understanding how they play out against one another, writers can more easily and reliably orchestrate conflict, escalation, and resolution in their stories.
Charting character growth
Each character archetype is rooted in a general orientation to the self, to others, and to the environment. And each orientation comes with its own respective blind spots. These blind spots provide a writer a starting point for considering the sorts of obstacles a character might encounter in their story. Likewise, the writer can start looking for revelations and opportunities for growth for that character by having them, in the end, come to see what was outside the perspective in that archetypal orientation.
For example, heroes are oriented toward goals and achievements. Their character arcs often involve learning the value of family after leaving friends and relatives behind to accomplish their missions. Conversely, maidens are oriented toward other people and personal relationships. Their character arcs, therefore, often involve turning inward and learning to follow their own idiosyncratic passions or to rely on their own judgment and abilities. These are not the only typical character arcs for heroes and maidens. But being familiar with these patterns can provide a direction for your story without forcing you down any particular path. And understanding why these patterns have emerged in the first place can give you insight into why and how character arcs work.
Useful constraints and infinite possibilities
The archetype framework is structured enough to point your creativity in a promising direction, but it will never box you in. There are no rules or limitations, just observations that you can choose to apply as you see fit. Archetypal patterns can be joined in any configuration you can imagine, each with infinite possible permutations. And you can always choose to ignore the framework when and where it’s not helpful.