Ask the Expert ... Character Archetypes

By Jeffrey Alan Schechter

August 6, 2009

Question: "What are the essential screenplay character archetypes?"

Answer: I am a huge fan of a book by Carol S. Pearson entitled The Hero Within, which explores the six archetypes that real-life people live by: innocent, orphan, magician, wanderer, martyr, and warrior. Ms. Pearson's theory is that people make certain choices about how to live their lives and how to respond to various issues based on their defining archetype.

One of the more stunning realizations about storytelling I’ve ever been party to was that in every successful film, the main character moves through four of the six archetypes from opening moment to final fade like clockwork. These four archetypes are: orphan, wanderer, warrior, and martyr.

ORPHAN – In Act 1, the main character is already an orphan or is about to become one. Sometimes a real orphan; sometimes a figurative one. Luke Skywalker is really an orphan, as is Peter Parker. In E.T., Elliot’s father has abandoned him and the family in favor of a younger woman. Forrest Gump's father is long gone, and Forrest is an outcast because of his low I.Q. Woody becomes orphaned from his social group after the arrival of Buzz Lightyear.

And then towards the end of Act 1, a crisis happens to your hero that throws his or her life out of balance and sends your hero on a journey to answer the Central Question, which is the question that, once it is answered definitively “yes” or “no,” the film is over. Will Luke save the Princess? Will Brody kill the shark? Will Marty go back to the future? Once the Central Question is clearly known, your hero is no longer an orphan, but must now become a...

WANDERER – It’s now the first half of Act 2, and your hero becomes a wanderer in order to answer the Central Question. He or she goes hither and yon looking for clues, meeting helpers, running into opponents, overcoming obstacles. It’s the learning phase where your hero picks up the skills and tools he or she thinks is needed to answer the Central Question.

Look at Star Wars: Luke goes to Mos Eisley space port, gets past the Stormtroopers, has an altercation in the bar, meets Han Solo, gets to Han’s ship, blasts out of the space port, jumps into hyperspace, practices the force, comes out of hyperspace, chases down a Tie-Fighter, gets sucked into the Death Star, hides with everyone in the cargo compartments, disguises himself and Han as Stormtroopers, blasts his way into the control room, and discovers through R2D2 that Princess Leia is being held in a detention cell. Whew, that’s a lot of wandering! But look what Luke has accomplished by wandering: Luke has begun to learn the Force, picked up Han Solo and Chewbacca, learned where the Princess is being held, and is now as ready as he thinks he needs to be to become a...

WARRIOR – At the mid-point of the story, page 55 or so, your hero has acquired most of the helpers and all of the skills and items he needs in order to resolve the Central Question in a way favorable to his desire. Or maybe time is just running out. Either way, it’s now time to act. It is time to become a warrior.
Luke actively fights to get to the Princess and save her. Brody goes out on the boat to fight and kill the shark. Jack Dawson and Rose are in love but must now fight to get away from Cal and off the Titanic which just struck an iceberg. Fight, fight, fight! One step forward, two steps back. Things are looking up. Things are looking down.

Until near the end of the Act 2, when everything goes to hell in a handbasket and your hero realizes that something’s been missing from the fight: his or her own willingness to sacrifice all. This is what forces the hero to switch from being a warrior into becoming a...

MARTYR – Act 3 is all about the hero’s willingness to lose it all in order to win it all. Only by giving up what the hero thought he or she wanted can the hero be rewarded with what’s needed.

Luke has to be willing to fly into the Death Star and shut off his targeting computer, showing that he truly believes in the Force. Ripley, in Aliens, has to be willing to venture into the alien nest in order to save Newt. Oscar Schindler has to use the money he so desperately coveted in order to buy the lives of 1,200 Jews.

Orphan. Wanderer. Warrior. Martyr. It works in dramas (Titanic), it works in comedies (Home Alone), it works in action films (Iron Man), it works in science fiction (Star Wars), it works in thrillers (The Sixth Sense), it works in animation (The Lion King).