The term first comes from Carl Jung, a 20th century psychoanalyst who studied dreams and the unconscious. Jung found that there were reoccurring images and themes running through the dreams of his patients that were so similar that they could not come from individual conflicts. He believed that this images originated in the collective unconscious of all people, and he called these images archetypes.

Hero

Hero
the character through which the story is told

The Four Base Archetypes


Jung identified four main archetypes which serve as attributes common to every individual: the self, the shadow, the male, and the female. These base archetypes would manifest themselves in other forms: the female part of the psyche might be the great mother, or the temptress, or the virgin; the male part of the psyche might show up as the eternal child, or the wise old man, or the magician. These were the different ways in which people see themselves.

In the stories of feature films, we find the same thing. There are archetypes that form the basis of nearly all the characters in the movies we watch. Chris Vogler, in his book, A Writer's Journey, identifies seven archetypal characters found in most feature films.


Shadow

Shadow
this is the villain or major protagonist

Threshold Guardian

Threshold Guardian
the character, passageway, or guardian that the hero must get past in order to proceed on the quest

Archetype ≠ Stereotype


It is important to note that an archetype is not a stereotype. A stereotype is a simplified generalization about a specific group pf people (e.g., all elderly people have blue hair, dementia, and arthritis).

An archetype, on the other hand, is a character attribute that can manifest itself in any human (animation, nonhuman) body and that is a recognizable icon by the audience. For example, in Ice Age, Manfred becomes the great mother--of both the Indian child and the 'herd."
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