Archetypal Heroes
Every now and then I like to look back at old writing craft books that I purchased in the past and have kept. Heroes and Heroines by Tami Cowden, Sue Viders, and Caro Lafever is one such book.You can find more about these sixteen archetypes at Tami Cowden's website.
Mostly to amuse myself but also to remind myself about these archetypes I've put up pics of actors who, through the roles they've played, seemed to exemplify the heroic types described in the book.
Maybe sometime down the line I'll do the same for the heroines. I can't reprint the descriptions of the archeyptes so I'll only mention the labels and the name of the character or actor I think illustrates that archtype. You can read the descriptions at Tami's website.
The Warrior - Leonidas (Gerard Butler) - 300
The Chief - Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) - Star Trek
The Swashbucker - Zorro - (Antonio Banderas) - The Mask of Zorro
The Professor - Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) Stargate SG-1
The Charmer - Will Smith - He's often played the Charmer archetype in a number of roles.
The Best Friend - Tom Hanks - Like Will Smith, he's often played the archetypal Best Friend character.
The Bad Boy - James Dean - In just about every role he played in his tragically short life.
The Lost Soul - Vincent - (Ron Perlman) - Beauty and the Beast
Some of these actors or characters blend over into archetypes. Leonidas, for example, as King of Sparta is both Warrior and Chief. Captain Kirk is both Chief and Warrior. Will Smith sometimes plays Best Friend roles. James Dean's roles were a combination of Bad Boy and Lost Soul.
I think it's interesting to see how often certain kinds of archetypal heroes show up in movies and books, what their roles are in those narratives, and how many actors, for example, have made a career out of playing a certain archetype.
Also, there are a number of romance writers who seem to favor a certain archetype as their heroes.
So, what is your favorite archetypal hero? The Bad Boy? The Warrior? The Best Friend?
Can you name any other actors or characters, whether from books or movies, who epitomize these archetypes?
I'd be interested in hearing your comments.
Labels: Characters
posted by Anna Black at
5:55 PM
"In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost."
-- Dante Alghieri
4 Comments:
I'd have to say the Warrior or the Lost Soul would be my favorite. What about Aragon?
Aragorn is, I'm thinking, a combination of archetypes like the Lost Soul, the Warrior and the Chief.
What's interesting about Aragorn is he goes through this major character arc and he also shifts through the archetypes during the course of the quest.
He starts out more like a Lost Soul, in his Ranger persona, but he also quickly displays aspects of the Warrior and the Chief.
Then we see him progress from Lost Soul to Warrior, especially at Helm's Deep in The Two Towers and then he becomes the King of Men (The Chief) in the aptly named Return of the King
I think that's what makes him such a great character. The way he arcs through more than one archetype and also grows as he assumes more and more of his destiny as king.
Wonderful, Anna, I love seeing the pictures along with the archetype! Personally, I like the contradictions and complexity in character when they're a mix of archetypes. As you say, Aragorn is so compelling because he's both Lost Soul and Warrior. He's reluctant, yet he's the leader, too.
I totally agree, Joely. I think using a "pure" archetype is fine for, let's say, secondary characters, but when thinking about primary characters it's better to either have a blend of archetypes or to have the character arc from one archetype to another.
And, of course, this method isn't for eveyone, but I find it useful at the beginning stages of my character creation to at least help me get a snapshot as to what kind of charater I'm working with.
Then, as I work more with the character, he or she will become more complex (I hope!) than the archetype(s) I started out with and become (I hope!) a flesh and blood character.
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