Question: What’s the deal with character archetypes?

A reader question from Lalithra Fernando:

I notice you using words like ATTRACTOR and NEMESIS when describing characters. Where is this from? I would like to read/ learn more about this.

For several years, I have been working on a theory that most mainstream movies have five character archetypes present as primary characters: Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, Trickster. Here is a summary of the basic principles to this approach:

If a screenplay is unique as a blueprint to make a movie, then I would argue that it is also unique in that the characters create a psychological ‘map’ of the story, each character playing a core narrative function what we can call an archetype.

Simply put, an archetype is an ideal example of a character which has a specific narrative function. Generally, it’s possible to assess the characters in a screenplay and ‘assign’ an archetype to them. There are literally hundreds of archetypes in stories and literature, but I contend there are five primary character archetypes that appear in most movies:

Protagonist

Nemesis

Attractor

Mentor

Trickster

At first blush, you may think these are artificial categories; however, I contend that they are natural extensions from a story’s central character: the Protagonist. How? By asking seven basic questions tied directly to the Protagonist:

* Who is the story’s Protagonist? 
The first, most basic question of any story.

* What does the Protagonist want?
This is the Protagonist’s External World goal and is tied to the Plotline’s end point.

* What does the Protagonist need?
This is the Protagonist’s Internal World goal and is tied to their transformation end point.

* Who is trying to keep the Protagonist from their goal? 
This is the story’s Nemesis who functions in opposition to the Protagonist.

* Who is connected to the Protagonist’s emotional growth?
This is the story’s Attractor who functions in connection with the Protagonist’s ‘heart.’

* Who is connected to the Protagonist’s intellectual growth?
This is the story’s Mentor who functions in connection with the Protagonist’s ‘head.’

* Who tests the Protagonist to prepare them for the Final Struggle?
This is the story’s Trickster who functions sometimes as P’s ally, sometimes as P’s enemy.

These five are the primary character archetypes present in most movies and they function as integral parts, both in the plot and in the Protagonist’s psychological journey.’

This represents a different way to develop and write a screenplay, not your typical linear three-act or eight-sequence structural paradigm, but a character-based approach. And I’m confident in its value to writers for three reasons:

* The material is inspired by the work of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung.

* I have analyzed over 100 movies whose screenplays were nominated for a WGA and/or Academy Award — from classics like The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, and The Apartment to contemporary movies like The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, and Juno — and found these archetypes at work in all of them.

* I have taught this material several times in the last few years — in fact, I’m in the middle of a character archetypes course at UNC-Chapel Hill this semester — and the response I’ve gotten from students every time I’ve taught the material is overwhelmingly positive.

You can go here and here to see my analysis of The Wizard of Oz using character archetypes.

For years, students pressed me to write a book about screenwriting, based on my approach to story structure — Narrative Throughline paradigm. But I refused because (A) there are already so many books on the market that focus on structure and (B) Narrative Throughline is just another variation on those same themes.

The character archetype model is different. I definitely feel like it’s worth adding to the ‘conversation’ about the craft of screenwriting.

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