The History of Heroic Archetypes

Beginning activity--List all of the qualities that YOU think a literary hero should have:

A brief history of the History of Heroic Archetypes:

I taught English (as a sub, tutor, or classroom teacher) for eighteen years, fourteen of
them at a high school where I developed the curriculum
BUT I had a state college education. I didnt know what an archetype was until I was
given the textbook definition.
I was not satisfied with the textbook definition. (Who is shocked?)
The textbooks I used (and its been seven years since Ive seen themHarcourt, Brace,
and Jovonovichthats my citation) talked about heroic archetypes sporadicallybut
after a couple of years of explaining to kids what an archetype was, and why archetypes
mattered, I started to develop my own theories on archetypes.
Because I was talking to kids, I came up with the Superhero Pantheon of Heroic
Archetypes. Note: I am NOT a comic book professor. Im sure these heroic
applications can be defined and redefined as DC and Marvel heroes matured and
progressed. Which brings us to the definition of an archetypal hero:

The archetypal hero appears in all religions, mythologies, and epics of the world. He is an
expression of our personal and collective unconscious, as theorized by Carl Jung and Joseph
Campbell. All archetypal heroes share certain characteristics.

Davis, Bryan M. "The Archetypal Hero in Literature, Religion, Movies, and Popular Culture." 11
Oct 1997. Stephen F. Austin University. (Day Mon Year accessed go
here).http://www.tatsbox.com/hero

A hero is who the world needs him to be at the time he is written-- Robin McKinley

Epicness: What You Folks Need is A Hero

Qualities of an Epic Hero:

Establishes himself in battle of some sort

Becomes a hero first in his native land
Crosses geographical boundaries to be a hero to other people
Capable of deeds of great strength and courage (some might say supernatural strength
and courage, and therefore, he faces supernatural foes)
Fights for universal themesgood vs. evil, inclusion vs. exclusion, order vs. chaos
Fights the good fight without need of a reward or recognition
 Has social heft

Agenda of an Epic Hero

I've come
To kill your monster
Save your townspeople

Beowulf
Superman
Luke Skywalker

List some other fictional heroes you think might be epic--

** A Brief Discussion of Social Heft

When you read a description of most heroic archetypes, you will see scholars put things like
supernatural gifts, superior strength, noble birth, extraordinary gifts, royal blood, innate nobility
and a variety of other names on the list. When we get to the American/British split, they use
terms like respect.

I boiled down all these terms and created an Amy-ism known as Social Heft.

It means special power or importance given to a hero through a variety of means. Its the
reason people listen when he speaks and have faith when he actsfor some of these archetypes
its built into his personality, and for others its given to him by the gods, but every hero has an
extra heavy-duty specific personal gravity and the rest of humanity are the spare electrons pulled
into his orbit.

--Calling it Social Heft makes it applicable to both American and European heroes.

--Using the idea of Social Heft helps explain the upswing of Paranormal Romance, Urban
Fantasy, and female heroes. (This is an entire other discussion. For reals.)

Romantic Hero: Lets Talk About Arthur, Shall We?

Qualities of a European Romantic HeroArthurian style:

Special note here: Sometimes, if you look up the Romantic Hero archetype you will
ALSO get the American Romantic hero, and the Romantic Poetic hero. Well
discuss both of these, but THIS particular archetype is the one that was introduced
to Europe with the Arthurian tales with Eleanor of Aquitaine. So, historically, it
comes an entire archetype before the other two. But this one is important hes
where the whole hero thing changed.
 Social Heft
Idealism
Like the epic hero has a quest or an impossible task or great battle
Like the epic hero he does whats right not for recognition but because its rightBUT
takes this one step further.
Unlike the epic hero, he does whats morally right, not necessarily whats lawful
Which means that UNlike the epic hero, the Romantic Hero gives precedence to his own
personal feelings.
This leads to conflict with society, falling in love, being human, having a heart, and
sometimes doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. It also leads to wandering the
wilds away from people because people are complicated and his young pure heart is often
at odds with the complicated people and would rather pine for the woman he cant have.
(No. Theres no bitter irony dripping from that definition AT ALL.)
So the CENTRAL difference between the Epic and the Romantic hero is another Amy-
ism, the Personal Agenda.
One of the Romantic Heros MOST CONSTANT CONFLICTS is weighing the welfare
of the people he serves with the welfare of his own heart.

Examples of European Romantic Heroes:

Arthur and Lancelot
Spiderman

Romantic Hero Agenda:

I've come to
Kill your monster
Save your townspeople
Flirt with your daughter or son
Hope that doesn't interfere with this hero thing.

List some other fictional heroes you think might be Romantic

And the Tragedy of RomanceWhen Individuality Goes Too Far

Qualities of the Tragic Hero

The Tragic Hero often sports many or all of the qualities of the epic and romantic heroes
 He has social heft
He has the potential to do great good
He has a personal agenda
Its the personal agenda that gets him into troubleit leaves him open for weakness, and
then we get the cue evil music TRAGIC FLAW
The Tragic Flaw is a part of the heros personality from the very beginning. He SEES
HIMSELF making this mistake, but its so much a part of him that HE CANNOT STOP
HIMSELF.
The Tragic Flaw can be seen as the Personal Agenda Gone Wild
In Tragedies, the Tragic Hero can only redeem himself with sacrifice and/or deathhis
flaw is SO GREAT it causes a tremendous RIFT IN THE UNIVERSE and only his death
will create the reckoning that will FIX THE UNIVERSAL SHIT.
FTR? Usually in romances, we dont do the full Tragic Hero Monty. For obvious reasons.
But romance DOES indulge in the tragic backstory where we see the hero fall, and then
the romance is about his redemption.

Examples of the Tragic Hero

Gawain
Hamlet/Macbeth/Othello/King Lear/Faust
The Hulk
Thor

Tragic Hero Agenda

I've come to

Kill your monster

Save your townspeople
Screw up because my tragic flaw dictated that should be so
Let people die because I'm off getting laid (or finding out who killed my father or
pursuing my ambition or being too proud or whatever)
Forsake love out of guilt
Redeem myself in death
Until I die, I shall be one sexy tormented bastard

List some other fictional heroes you think might be tragicor who WOULD be tragic if we
didnt want to see them get laid before the end:
Which Leads us to The REDEEMABLE Tragic Hero, or the

BYRONIC GOTHIC HERO

Social Heft
General redeeming heroic qualitiescan work for public good, can cross great distances,
go on quests, work for the public good, is intelligent, imaginative, etc.
Has many of the qualities of the Romantic Herodislikes crowds, is idealistic, wants to
be a hero in fact
HE HAS A HEROIC AGENDA IS SO PREVALENT HE CEASES TO BE HUMAN
The Gothic hero, in fact, is SO heroic, and SO hefty, that HE RISES ABOVE
HUMANITY
Not being a part of the rest of us? Thats a flaw. He suffers the heros fall.
In fact, he falls so far, he punches a hole through the concrete and drags anyone near him
in to hell.
The principle difference between a Gothic Hero and the Romantic Hero is that the Gothic
Hero FAILS the test where he chooses the Heroic Agenda over the Personal Agenda and
he FALLS.
The principle difference between a Gothic Hero and an Epic Hero is the Gothic Hero
rejects humanity and humility and falls from his heroic status.
The principle difference between a Gothic Hero and a Tragic Hero is that the Gothic Hero
usually LIVES to see his redemption take place.

Gothic Heroes

Childe Harold
Victor Frankenstein
BATMAN
Sam Winchester
--List some other fictional heroes you think might be Gothic

--Now, for EXTRA fun, lets talk about VILLAINS that were, in truth, Gothic heroes!

Gothic Hero Agenda

I've come to:

Kill your monster
Save your townspeople
Accidentally build another monster that's WORSE than the first one
HE kills everyone I love
 I redeem myself by fixing my fuckup
If I succeed I will be a brooding hero that everyone wants to bang
i.e. One sexy tormented bastard!

And Now Lets Talk About the Split

This is where social heft comes in.

America splits with England and with the change of times, there comes a change in heroes

Discussion QuestionWhat things about the previous heroic archetypes do YOU think
would be incompatible with the American Ideal.

And now

THE AMERICAN ROMANTIC HERO this hero became fully fleshed around the time of
the Romantic Poetic Heroin fact, he has as much in common with THAT archetype than
the Arthurian Romantic hero, so were just going to combine the two for this.

Youth and Idealism

Like the epic hero has a quest or an impossible task or great battle
Like the epic hero he does whats right not for recognition but because its rightBUT
takes this one step further.
Unlike the epic hero, he does whats morally right, not necessarily whats lawfulin fact,
the American Romantic Hero usually works BELOW THE RADAR of traditional
authority structures. (Gee, Amywhy would this appeal to you? Amy has no idea)
Social HeftNOT GIVEN HIM by birth or education. The ARH is not traditionally
schooled and is usually born to average folk. The ARHs Heft comes from common sense
and the balls to back it up.
Until recently, he was a very rural bunny. There has been some experimentation with the
urban landscape as a place of innocence, but traditionally, hes a small town guy.
UNlike the epic hero, the Romantic Hero gives precedence to his own personal feelings
BUT he has a problem with women. 0.0 LETS TALK ABOUT THIS PROBLEM
WITH WOMEN, SHALL WE? If we change this to difficulty with romantic
entanglements why is it part of the ARHs makeup?
And he has the usual conflicts society, falling in love, being human, having a heart, and
sometimes doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. It also leads to wandering the
wilds away from people because people are complicated and his young pure heart is often
at odds with the complicated people and he doesnt mind solitude.
Like the European Romantic hero, this guy has the Personal Agenda.
Unlike the European Romantic heroyou dont always know which way his Heroic
Agenda is going to point.
 One of the Romantic Heros MOST CONSTANT CONFLICTS is doing what HE SEES
IS RIGHT versus what SOCIETY THINKS IS RIGHT.

Some examples of the American Romantic Hero

Omg CAPTAIN AMERICA

Dean Winchester
Hawkeye from Last of the Mohicans
Hawkeye from The Avengers (must be the name!)
Jack Reacher
Edgar Rice Burroughs heroes: Tarzan, John Carter (of Mars)

Can you think of any others?

American Romantic Hero Agenda

I've come to:
Kill your monster
Save your townspeople
Possibly piss off law enforcement
Break some laws myself
Inflict collateral damage
Flirt badly with the object of my affection
Drive off into the sunset after maybe getting laid
Pine for the one I left behind and be one sexy tormented bastard!

Dark Romanticismand the American Gothic Hero

This section is all PURE AMY CONJECTURElooking up a specific American Gothic Hero
archetype yields nothing. He wasnt in the textbooks Ive studied. American Gothic literature is
literature that takes us into the remote corners of our country, where higher education very rarely
touches and uses the superstition and isolation found there to create grotesque and often
horrifying characters and situations. (Theres even a Netflix Show called American Gothic
which pretty much does this with every episode.) Essentially, American Gothic literature asks,
What twisted humanity lurks in the shadowsand when does it cease to be human?

To ME, American Gothic HAS heroesbut often, they either look like villains, or we dont see
their heroic qualities until they redeem themselvesoften in death.

American Gothic literatureas exemplified by Edgar Allen Poe and Flannery OConnor
takes the idea of the American Romantic Hero and asks but how do we know hes
right?
Often American Gothic heroes are neutered by self-doubt
But sometimes theyre energized by a false sense of whats real
 The American Gothic hero is often an ARH corrupted by education and fancy ideas,
while, at the same time, so immersed in the native lore and soil of his small corner of the
universe that the education is twisted to terrible purposes.
One of the most common traits of an American Gothic hero is The ends justify the
meanseven if the means is simple inaction against evil.
Like with all heroes (and this is huge) you dont always know what kind of hero he is
until HE DIES. (And if its Gothic or paranormal, often you dont know until afterwards!)

Some American Gothic heroes:

Norman Bates
The nameless narrators in Poes work
The Misfit from A Good Man is Hard to Find
Lovecrafts protagonists: Randolph Carter, Francis Wayland Thurston, William Dyer,
Wilbur Whateley, Robert Olmstead

An American Gothic Hero Agenda:

Ive come to:
Be the monster

THE SATIRIC HERO

Satiric heroes are often staples of romantic comedy and satire

A satiric hero (a romantic one, anyway) is often nave and confused by society and social
mores
We view the world through HIS eyes, and see the imperfections of societys rules and
social mores
His job is to show us the difference between the world as we want it to be, and the world
as it actually isin that friction we see humor
Satiric heroes are sometimes marked by having a Heroic Agenda, but no heroic qualities
with which to implement it
Sometimes he has a Personal Agenda but is hopeless at personal interaction
His attempts to change the worldeither heroically or personallyare usually marked
by only partial success
If hes done right, we see his humanityand some grace in humanityin his failures.

Examples of Satiric Heroes:

Homer Simpson
Deadpool
Hal from Malcom in the Middle
Al Bundy
Archie Bunker

Satiric Hero Agenda

Ive come to:
 Get drunk and laugh at politics but I hit something big and hairy with my F150. Was that
a monster?

EXTRA FUN DISCUSSIONtrying to classify a character archetype isnt always easy. I went
back into my notes about Marvel characters based on the movies, and realized that the characters
presented there had changed with the character developmentand boom! So had their
relationships. This happens a LOTand most characters arent clear cut. For shits and giggles,
choose some of the characters from this listor your ownand try to decide where these
characters belong in the continuum of character archetypes:

Maximus from Gladiator

ANY character from the Buffy-verse
The ENTIRE CREW of Firefly (even the villain in Serenity!)
The kids in Stranger Things
The characters in American Gothic (Cause, not all gothic!)
The Winchesters in any given season (and yesI can give a lecture about this too!)
Roger Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter
Jay Gatsby
John Proctor
Will Thatcher from A Knights Tale
Starlord from Guardians of the Galaxy
Any character from The Magnificent Seven
John Wick
Eric McCormick from Travelers
Mr. Darcy
The President from Independence Day
Indiana Jones
The entire pantheon of Marvel characters
Any hero, male OR FEMALE that catches your eye
ALL the X-Men

REASONS ARCHETYPES ARE IMPORTANT TO WRITERS

Archetypes are a bare bones place to start with character development. Ask yourself,
WHAT IS THIS PERSONS AGENDA? Is it bigger than he is? Is it smaller? Is it TOO
BIG AND SELF IMPORTANT? Is it so tiny as to be twisted and superstitious? Is he the
educated guy manipulating the system? The uneducated guy under the radar? Where does
he get his social heft? If he doesnt have any, how does he earn it? THESE are questions
you need to ask when developing a character, and theyre built solidly into the skeleton
frames of the heroes who have come before.
Archetypes provide a NATURAL STORY ARC. If your guy starts out too perfect, hes
Superman. You want to complicate him, give him a personal agendaand hes
Spiderman. You want to make him flawed, watch him almost flush his life away and the
 lives of everyone he cares aboutand hes heroic. Is he redeeming himself? Hes Gothic.
Does he care more about his own creed than the law? Hes American Romantic. The way
a character deals with personal complications is not only defined by who he is in the
beginning, it is also a blueprint for who he needs to be at the end. How does this
particular archetype grow? THATS what your character needs to do by the end of the
story.
Archetypes provide a framework for what actions and behaviors are in character
and out of character.
Archetypes are so imprinted on your readers consciousness that there are some
actions your characters either can NOT do or absolutely MUST do in order to be
well received by your audience.
Archetypes provide a source of natural character conflictFUN WITH CHARTS
HERE!

Lets build a conflict chart!

1. Look at your lists of character examples for each archetype

2. Choose 2one for each type
3. Line up a list of character traits for one character and a list of corresponding traits
for the other. THEY MAY NOT ALWAYS CLASH.
4. Decide whether or not these two characters would generate enough conflict to create
a viable romantic pairing

Example: Batman Superman

Regular human Supernaturally enhanced being

American nobility
Usually confined to one area
Well educated
Raises self above the crowd
Works alone
Uses intellect and cleverness to fight
Bruce Wayne has a sense of humor
Batman does not
American heartland
Crosses Geographical boundaries
Well educated
Tries hard to mingle with the crowd
Organizes the Justice League
Uses main strength to fight
Clark Kent has no sense of humor
Superman does

Based on these conflicts and qualities, would this be an exciting romantic pair?

(Based on the amount of SuperBat fanfiction Ive written, Amy says yes!)

SOME NOTES ON FANFICTION

Pluses and minuses to fanfictiona discussion for another day, of course.

Minuses include: Accidental plagiarizing of material which is BAD
Can incite sloppiness of setting creation, plot development, and character description
Is episodic in nature and can hamper the ability to create multiple plots in one larger work

BUTOne of the pluses: If you approach fanfiction from an archetypal hero perspective,
identifying the archetypes that appeal to you to write when you are interested in fanfiction
can help you identify the archetypes you are best at creating when you are writing original
fiction.

ALSO-- if youd like to stretch your wings with different types and different characters,
identify archetypes outside your comfort zone, and play with them before creating your
original work.

ONE FINAL NOTE:

ALL ARCHETYPES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

When I went to put this together, I consulted some of my previous writing. I realized that I had
categorized the Avengers COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY in 2012 than I had for this piece.

What happened between 2012 and now?

Their stories progressed in more movies.

A heros full story determines his archetype.

We dont know his full story until he dies.

And sometimes, if its paranormal romance or science fiction, we dont know until afterwards.