Screenwriting with Jungian Archetypes and Symbolism
“All the most powerful ideas in history go back to archetypes. This is particularly true of religious ideas, but the central concepts of science, philosophy, and ethics are no exception to this rule. In their present form they are variants of archetypal ideas created by consciously applying and adapting these ideas to reality. For it is the function of consciousness not only to recognize and assimilate the external world through the gateway of the senses, but to translate into visible reality the world within us.” -Carl Jung
Archetypes are universal symbols, the most basic representations of behavior and personality. Think of them as prototypes, primal forms from which all characters are derived. How are they useful to a storyteller or screenwriter? Archetypes help us understand a character’s role in terms of his or her placement in relation to the story.
Psychiatrist Carl Jung and mythologist Joseph Campbell were two of the most notable intellects in the discussion of archetypes in the mytho-cultural sense. They described archetypes as essential in the understanding of who we are.
“Jungian Archetypes” on Wikipedia:
Jung described archetypal events: birth, death, separation from parents, initiation, marriage, the union of opposites etc.; archetypal figures: great mother, father, child, devil, God, wise old man, wise old woman, Apollo, trickster, hero - not to mention “Oedipus … the first archetype Freud discovered” or “number … an archetype of order”; and archetypal motifs: the Apocalypse, the Deluge, the Creation, etc. Although the number of archetypes is limitless, there are a few particularly notable, recurring archetypal images, “the chief among them being” (according to Jung) “the shadow, the Wise Old Man, the child (including the child hero), the mother … and her counterpart, the maiden, and lastly the anima in man and the animus in woman”. Alternately he would speak of “the emergence of certain definite archetypes … the shadow, the animal, the wise old man, the anima, the animus, the mother, the child”.
Five main archetypes are sometimes enumerated:
The Self, the regulating center of the psyche and facilitator of individuation - the representative of “that wholeness which the introspective philosophy of all times and climes has characterized with an inexhaustible variety of symbols, names and concepts”.
The Shadow, the opposite of the ego image, often containing qualities that the ego does not identify with but possesses nonetheless
The Anima, the feminine image in a man’s psyche; or:
The Animus, the masculine image in a woman’s psyche
The Persona, to Jung a mere “functional complex … by no means identical to the individuality”, the way we present to the world - a mask which protects the Ego from negative images, and which by post-Jungians is sometimes considered an “archetype … as a dynamic/structural component of the psyche”.
For a storyteller, the archetypes inherent in the characters of a narrative give them deeper appeal. These characters serve as manifestations of our psyches while still retaining the personality traits that make them unique.
Take, for example, the “Wise Old Man.” This archetype is readily found in stories like Star Wars (Obi-Wan), Harry Potter (Dumbledore) and Superman (Jor-El). The symbol is a universal representation of wisdom and guidance, though presented with variation in each story.
Take a second to discover if any of your characters connect with the archetypes Jung described above. And, if they do, consider how they compare to characters of similar symbolism in other stories. In doing so, we humanize our characters in a deeper, more profound way.
At Deluxis Entertainment, we are devoted to the art of storytelling. Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. When we launch, you’ll be the first to know.
