Shakespearean Archetypes in Storytelling

Let’s explore the Shakespearean archetypes.

William Shakespeare, often hailed as the greatest play­wright in the English lan­guage, mas­ter­fully craf­ted char­ac­ters that con­tin­ue to res­on­ate with audi­ences cen­tur­ies after their cre­ation. ¹William Shakespeare. (2024, February 18). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​W​i​l​l​i​a​m​_​S​h​a​k​e​s​p​e​are

Here we go:

Shakespearean Archetypes

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Shakespearean Archetypes

There isn’t a fixed num­ber of Shakespearean arche­types, as they can vary depend­ing on inter­pret­a­tion and ana­lys­is. However, sev­er­al recur­ring arche­types com­monly appear through­out Shakespeare’s works. 

Shakespeare’s char­ac­ters are not mere indi­vidu­als but archetyp­al rep­res­ent­a­tions of uni­ver­sal human traits and experiences. 

“Archetypes, developed through evol­u­tion­ary dynam­ics and per­son­al exper­i­ence, serve as adapt­ive responses to social prob­lems and can be used to enhance under­stand­ing of nar­rat­ive pro­cesses and lit­er­at­ure.“
Source: Psychological Inquiry ²Green, M., Fitzgerald, K., & Moore, M. (2019). Archetypes and Narrative Processes. Psychological Inquiry, 30, 102 – 99. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​8​0​/​1​0​4​7​8​4​0​X​.​2​0​1​9​.​1​6​1​4​808

Some of the most prom­in­ent Shakespearean arche­types include:

• The Big Lunk. He is a romantic hero type but lacks some­thing, so he is not entirely hero­ic – for instance, he can be inde­cis­ive, unin­tel­li­gent or eas­ily misled. He is always a young man. Examples: Romeo, Hamlet, Troilus, Claudio, Orsino, Orlando, Lysander, Demetrius, Ferdinand, and Leonatus.
• The Innocent Babe. The babe is often a tra­gic char­ac­ter, a vic­tim of malig­nancy, wheth­er this causes — or, in com­edy, seems to cause— death. She is young — often very young. Examples: Ophelia, Desdemona, Imogen, Hero, and Cordelia.
• The Flawed Ruler. Generally found in tragedy, this power­ful man with a flaw which causes ‑or nearly causes, in com­edy — his down­fall. He is usu­ally an older char­ac­ter. Examples: Oberon, Prospero, Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, Cymbeline, Anthony, and Brutus.
• The Bright Young Thing. This girl takes mat­ters into her own hands to get what she wants — they gen­er­ally resolve com­ed­ies. They are (obvi­ously) young, though often older than the babes. Examples: Helena, Portia, Viola & Olivia, Rosalind, Kate, Beatrice, and Miranda.
• The Malign Influence: A char­ac­ter who causes trouble out of hatred, jeal­ousy or tem­per. He act­ively wishes oth­ers ill and works toward that. He can be any age. Examples: Iago, Don John, Cloten, Claudius, Tybalt, Cassius, and Hecate.
• The Sidekick/​The Clever Servant. The friend or ser­vant of either the Big Lunk, the Innocent Babe or the Bright Young Thing who helps them sort out their prob­lems. They are often older but are not neces­sar­ily so. Where they are friend rather than ser­vants, they often share the fate of the hero/​heroine, either dying or mar­ry­ing, depend­ing on the genre of the play. Examples: Benvolio, Maria, Benedick, Diana Capilet, Celia, and Odysseus.
• The Imp of Mischief. A mis­lead­ing char­ac­ter, often super­nat­ur­al, who mis­leads and deceives people, makes fun of them and sets cats among pigeons for amuse­ment’s sake but is not act­ively malign. Their age is irrel­ev­ant, and they may be male or female. Examples: Puck, Ariel, Parolles, Sir Toby Belch, Mercutio, and The Witches (Macbeth).
• The Mistreated Villain. A char­ac­ter who does things the audi­ence per­ceives as wicked, but only because he has been driv­en to them by how he has been treated. The age of these char­ac­ters is irrel­ev­ant, but they are often older and long-suf­fer­ing. Examples: Caliban, and Shylock.
• The Powerful Woman. Often seen as malign, this woman has abso­lute power over the fate of oth­ers and her­self and is, there­fore, someone to fear. In tra­gedies, she always dies, and in com­ed­ies, she usu­ally some­how comes under the influ­ence of a male char­ac­ter. She is gen­er­ally mature. Examples: Lady Macbeth, Goneril and Regan, Cleopatra, Titania, and Cymbeline’s Queen.
• The Figure of Fun. This char­ac­ter is pretty much present purely to be laughed at. He (and it is gen­er­ally a man) often pre­tends to be more intel­li­gent than he is and gen­er­ally gets his pom­pos­ity punc­tured. The age of this char­ac­ter does­n’t mat­ter. Examples: Dogberry, Malvolio, Polonius, and Nick Bottom.
• The Wise Fool. In this con­text, “fool” is a pos­i­tion­al denota­tion rather than an intel­lec­tu­al one. Often quite sharp and slick, the wise fool is a char­ac­ter who is allowed to tell unpal­at­able truths to rulers without being pun­ished under their pos­i­tion. Examples: Lear’s Fool, Jaques, and Lavatch.
• The Comic Relief. A Servant/​Friend who helps the lead(s) but is gen­er­ally not too intel­li­gent. They usu­ally have no par­tic­u­lar pre­ten­sions to intel­li­gence, and while they are often made gentle fun of, they don’t suf­fer for it. Examples: Nurse (Romeo and Juliet), Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Verges, and The Mechanicals.
• Tragedy’s Minion. This is a char­ac­ter whom the Malign Influence manip­u­lates into act­ing in his favour and against one of the leads, though they are gen­er­ally inno­cent of any malign intent. Examples: Margaret and Emelia.
• The Narrator/​Chorus: This char­ac­ter fills in the story and may influ­ence it sig­ni­fic­antly, but more in passing than by intent. Example: Prince (Romeo and Juliet).

Shakespeare employed these arche­types as found­a­tion­al char­ac­ter types to explore vari­ous themes and con­flicts with­in his plays. While these are some of the more recog­nis­able arche­types, Shakespeare’s char­ac­ters are rich and com­plex, often embody­ing mul­tiple archetyp­al traits simultaneously.

Learn more: Shakespearean Archetypes in Storytelling

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About William Shakespeare

Shakespeare had three chil­dren with his wife Anne Hathaway: Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died at the age of 11. Shakespeare mar­ried Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and she was 26. The age dif­fer­ence between them has been a sub­ject of curi­os­ity among his­tor­i­ans. ³William Shakespeare. (2024, February 18). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​W​i​l​l​i​a​m​_​S​h​a​k​e​s​p​e​are

In 1596, Shakespeare’s fath­er, John Shakespeare, applied for a coat of arms for the fam­ily, which William Shakespeare later inher­ited. This grant of arms solid­i­fied his fam­ily’s status as gentry.

While there is no defin­it­ive evid­ence of Shakespeare’s form­al edu­ca­tion, it is believed that he atten­ded the King’s New School in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he would have received a clas­sic­al edu­ca­tion focused on Latin and rhetoric.

There is a gap in Shakespeare’s bio­graphy, known as the “Lost Years,” from approx­im­ately 1585 to 1592, where there is little to no inform­a­tion about his life. This peri­od has sparked much spec­u­la­tion and debate among scholars.

Shakespeare is best known for his solo-authored plays, but he col­lab­or­ated with oth­er play­wrights on sev­er­al works. These col­lab­or­a­tions include “Henry VIII” with John Fletcher and “Titus Andronicus” with George Peele. Besides being a play­wright, Shakespeare was also an act­or and likely per­formed in many of his plays. Evidence sug­gests that he played roles such as the Ghost in “Hamlet” and Adam in “As You Like It.”

Shakespeare was not only suc­cess­ful as a play­wright but also as a busi­ness­man. He inves­ted in real estate in Stratford-upon-Avon and London, con­trib­ut­ing to his wealth. Shakespeare was a share­hold­er in the Globe Theatre, one of the most fam­ous theatres of his time. The Globe was des­troyed by fire in 1613 dur­ing a “Henry VIII” per­form­ance but was later rebuilt.

Shakespeare’s influ­ence extends bey­ond lit­er­at­ure to lan­guage, with many words and phrases he coined still in use today. Examples include “eye­ball,” “bed­room,” and “wild-goose chase.”

Only six known examples of Shakespeare’s sig­na­ture exist, and they all vary in spelling and style, sug­gest­ing that he may have been incon­sist­ent in sign­ing his name. ⁴William Shakespeare’s name appears in vari­ous spellings, includ­ing “Shakespere,” “Shaksper,” and “Shaxberd.” His time had stand­ard­ised spelling, so his name was spelt dif­fer­ently in dif­fer­ent … Continue read­ing

Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, at 52, in his homet­own of Stratford-upon-Avon. The cause of his death remains unknown, and there are vari­ous the­or­ies, includ­ing ill­ness or fever. He was bur­ied in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, where his grave remains a pop­u­lar pil­grim­age site for lit­er­ary enthusiasts.

Shakespeare’s epi­taph, carved on his grave­stone, is said to con­tain a curse warn­ing against mov­ing his bones. It reads, “Good friend for Jesus’ sake for­bear, /​ To dig the dust enclosed here. /​ Blessed be the man that spares these stones, /​ And cursed be he that moves my bones.”

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