The Archetypes: Hero and Mentor

In The Archetypes, Vogler builds on Carl Jung's theory of archetypes, defined as "ancient patterns of personality that are the shared heritage of the human race." (pg.23) Basically archetypes are created from universal personalities and incorporated into every story unconciously because it is what is known and familiar, and is developed from everyday life. An archetype is not neccesarily a permanent trait of a character, but rather a function, which can be gained or lost during a characters growth throughout the story. The eight archetypes that are used most frequently are the hero, mentor, threshold guardian, herald, shapshifter, shawdow, ally, and trickster. A character can posses all, many, or one of these archetypes, which will define his/her personality. Specially focusing on the hero and mentor, Vogler notes that there are many ways in which these characters portray their roles, but all serve to further the audience-character connection. Among the many traits within these two archetypes, the essence of the archetype is always present. For example, the hero always overcomes or tries to overcome an obstacle, and the mentor always serves as a fuction that contributes to the hero's ultimate success. Essentially archetypes allow the audience to connect with teh characters, and in turn grasp the plot or meaning of the work.

Vogler's explanation of archetypes is very straighforward and fundamental to understanding the way in which an audience percieves a story and can connect with it. It makes perfect sense that characters would share recurring archetypes because these archetypes are how we make sense of life and play to the many ways in which we deal with obstacles and confrontation. As Vogler made quite clear in his lengthy explanantions of the many different kinds of heros and mentors, there is a type of hero or mentor for every type of personality. All people posses unique personalities and therefore go about their journey in their own way. This gives way to the many depictions of a hero or mentor. The specific ones Vogler mentions are probably the most common ways that people would act, so they would be the most popular because a connection can be easily made.

I found it very interesting that the key words that define the most popular and sensational characters are overcome, growth, and teach. Vogler uses these to describe the hero and mentor very frequently. Since these types of characters are most popular and most commonly used, I believe it says something about the way society interprets entertainment. It allows the audience to feel feelings that they felt maybe when they dealt with a simliar obstacle or teaches them something about the way they interpret their own ordeals. Since most stories end with the hero overcoming their dilemma, I can understand why they would be so popular. People always want to overcome their dilemma's too, and thats what makes the audience root for the hero. Another thing I noticed was the contrast of Joseph Campbell's outline of "The Keys" and the archetypes. I believe that the archetypes can first and created the mold of the 12 stages. Personality develops through stages, but the stages are created through the choices (personality) of the characters.

Questions:

1. Is it the stages or archetypes that come first in the creation of a story?

2. How can a character be defined as a mentor or hero since so many of the qualities are the same between them and they put on different "masks" throughout the story?

3. It seems from Vogler's explanantion of hero's it would be possible for everyone to be a hero. Do you think this is true?