I define archetypal structure as “the bones upon which a story hangs.” It is a set of patterns and images within the human collective unconscious, which are roadmaps for the universal transformations of life.
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Every person inherits these archetypes and their patterns of behavior. How a person experiences them and brings them to life is what makes each life unique and interesting.
Kim Hudson, The Virgin’s Promise: Writing Stories of Feminine Creative, Spiritual and Sexual Awakening (2010, p. 146)
If you grasp the function of the archetype which a particular character is expressing, it can help you determine if the character is pulling her full weight in the story. The archetypes are part of the universal language of storytelling, and a command of their energy is as essential to the writer as breathing.
Christopher Vogler, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (2020, p. 26)
[A story] doesn’t have to be a strictly archetypal pattern of selfless hero versus selfish villain. [For example] in the opening sequences of the Grapes of Wrath we feel outraged not about a human, but a terrible drought that drives the noble, hardworking Joad family out on the perilous road. It’s not fair that this is happening to them. We root for them as they battle on towards California. We crave the natural justice of their safety.
Will Storr, The Science of Storytelling (2020, p. 141)
A tool for illuminating the archetypal essence of each character is to juxtapose opposites: feminine to masculine, shadow to light.
Kim Hudson, The Virgin’s Promise: Writing Stories of Feminine Creative, Spiritual and Sexual Awakening (2010, p. xxi)
Like female characters in the Hero’s Journey, male characters in the Heroine’s Journey…are often undeveloped archetypes of masculinity.
Gail Carriger, The Heroine’s Journey (2020, p. 95)
…in the folktale, character is a function of a highly constrained plot, the chief role of a character being to play out a plot role as hero, false, hero, helper, villain, and so on.
Jerome Bruner, Actual Minds, Possible Worlds (1986, p. 20)
We cooperate with heroes, assist victims, fight villains, and avoid minions.
James M. Jasper, Michael P. Young, and Elke Zuern, Public Characters: The Politics of Reputation and Blame (2020, p. 78)
I began to understand that, if there really was an archetype, it had to apply not just to screenwriting, but to all narrative structures.
John Yorke, Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them (2013, p. xvii)
Archetypes are a very rich and fascinating area. They touch what is universal and meaningful in us. In your hands you have the bones for writing stories that awaken our feminine potential through creative, spiritual and sexual being.
Kim Hudson, The Virgin’s Promise: Writing Stories of Feminine Creative, Spiritual and Sexual Awakening (2010, p. xxi)