This week: Classic Story Character Types Edited by: NaNoNette  
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Classic Story Character Types
Carl Jung: "All the most powerful ideas in history go back to archetypes."
In literature, archetypes are used to create characters that represent a typical example of person. In some cases, the archetype can also be used as a model for an object. Stories that we now call "classics" have formed a number of archetypes for us. Or readers and critics have distilled the characters from those classics into archetypal categories. The archetype shows a character who presents a deep cultural motif through an idea or theme that is created consciously or unconsciously. An easily recognizable archetype is the leader who is an active driver of the story, leads the charge, and is the main decision maker above the other characters.
Forest Whitaker: "Stereotypes do exist, but we have to walk through them."
At face value, stereotypes and archetypes could appear to be similar, but they are completely different.
A stereotype is a concept that is deliberately fabricated to press a group of people into a generalized idea or theme. It is overly simplified and mostly derogatory. An example from fantasy could be orks who are always depicted as gnarly brutes with a horde mentality and who smell bad.
Lisa Simpson: "They call her 'The Cat Lady.' People say she's crazy just because she has a few dozen cats."
The stock character is always a person. A stock character makes a good witness or other character who is needed for a scene, but does not carry the plot. This character is predictable and easily recognizable across many narratives. One typical stock character is the cat lady that lives at the corner. She keeps herself surrounded by dozens of purring protectors. Although we never get really up close to her, we feel that we know her. She can enter and exit the narrative at any moment without needing and introduction nor a send-off.
Stephen Fry: “It is a cliché that most clichés are true, but then like most clichés, that cliché is untrue.”
The cliché can be represented by a type of character, but it is more often a phrase or idea that has lost its original meaning from overuse. One that you have probably come across is "All that glitters isn't gold." The cliché should not be entirely discounted as it does express a widespread or common way of thinking within a culture. The phrase "cliché but true" can be used by fiction writers to establish something in their world that might be new to the reader, but old and worn out to the characters within the story.
Is there a stereotypical cliché that you like to use in your stories? |
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Short Stories: May 31, 2023 Issue [#11989]
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