Archetypes

Archetypes are all over the place; in the movies, on TV, in books. People need archetypes. They need to define a person and put a label on them so that hey can better understand who they are and what they do. If someone is labeled as the villain in the story, you can’t bring yourself to admit that maybe s/he has other character traits than just being evil. Whatever that person does, s/he will never be seen in the same light as a hero. Even if a villain tries to do the right thing, the motives for doing so will be immoral; while the hero can do whatever s/he pleases. Once someone is labeled, that label will never completely fade.

Archetypes are a human reaction to a chaotic world. People need something constant; something that never changes. If someone is put in a box and tied up, then the world becomes a little less chaotic, and life becomes a little more secure. The problem is, no one ever fits an archetype completely. People are multifaceted; they have more than one character trait. The truth is, people are chaotic creations in a chaotic world, an we desperately want to change that.

So you see archetypes everywhere; they are an attempt to put some order back into the world- if there ever was any, that is.

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