Film Lecture Series #2 - Archetypes and Storytelling + Film Review.
Today we looked at archetypes and storytelling and how that then feeds into the types of characters we see on screen in films we watch.
What is an Archetype?
Archetype is example of a certain person or thing that typically describes their role in a cinematic. Originally derived from Carl Jung’s theory that states “the archetypes represent universal patterns and images that are part of the collective unconscious.” (Cherry, 2020) and he believed that these archetypes are ‘inherited’ in a similar ‘way [to how we] inherit instinctive patterns of behavior.’ (Cherry, 2020). Jung goes into depth about these archetypes in his book; The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, within this Jung explores the idea that “archetypes are patterns that repeat themselves in the collective unconscious of human beings. This could be in the form of dreams, stories, art, or even in myths” (Figueroba, n.d.) meaning that these archetypes are thought of in the persons collective unconscious (psyche) which ‘serves as a psychological inheritance’ that ‘contains knowledge and experiences that humans share as a species’ (Cherry, 2020).).
There was also this concept of Enantiodromia (the Psychology
of opposites) that falls under the major archetypes of the self-meaning the
unification of the unconsciousness and the consciousness through
‘individuation’. Theses being the Persona Vs Shadow, Anima (Female) Vs Animus
(Male) and the Wise Old Man (Father) Vs Earth Goddess (Mother).
Breakdown of the Enantiodromia:
Persona – How we present ourselves to the world (different
masks worn), the persona shields our ego from negative imagery. The persona is
also known as the ‘hero’ and in our dreams we are portrayed as the hero whilst
we test ourselves against the other archetypes.
Shadow – Is the part of the unconscious that
represents weakness, insecurities and desires, it is often also the darker side
of our psyche which is then portrayed on to others around us. In most cases the
shadow is perceived as the villain.
Anima (Female) – Is the image of the female in the male’s
psyche, often holds stereotypical male traits: physical strength,
courage/independence.
Animus (Male) – Is the image of the male in the female’s
psyche, often holds stereotypical male traits: love, emotional wisdom,
sensitivity/empathy. Anima and Animus are opposites, thus creating balance.
the Wise Old Man (Father) – is the role model/ father
figure/ mentor.
Earth Goddess (Mother) - is the role model/ mother
figure/ mentor.
These then feed into the list of archetypes below that coincide with the Hero's Journey.
Hero: Sarah.
Shadow: The Goblin King Jereth.
Herald: Goblin King Jereth.
Threshold Guardian: The Worm.
Trickster: Goblin King Jereth.
Mentor: the labyrinth book/Hoggle.
Allies: Ludo, Hoggle, Didymus and Ambrosius (dog).
Mother: Sarah's step mum.
Father: Sarah's dad.
Child: Toby/ Ludo.
Maiden:
Sarah.
Shape Shifter: Hoggle.
The mind-boggling world that is the Labyrinth was created in 1986 and was directed by Jim Henson. The Labyrinth (1986) takes the audience into a fantasy world full of literal and metaphorical twists and turns with challenges the lead protagonist Sarah has to face in order to retrieve her little brother Toby; meeting new creatures/characters along the way to try and get through the Labyrinth. (fig 1. see below)
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| Fig .1. The Labyrinth. (1986) [Film Poster, Advertisement]. |
Within the film you see our lead heroine Sarah (the hero) wish for the Goblin King (the Shadow) (fig 2. see below) to come take away her brother Toby (the 1st child) as he won’t stop crying, since she is left babysitting while her father (the father) and stepmother (the mother) go out. This alluding to the fact she doesn’t want to the responsibility of looking after him and would much rather being able play a character in her book named ‘The Labyrinth’ and remain in her naïve childish daydreams.
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| Fig .2. The Labyrinth: The Goblin King. (1986) [Film Still]. |
Sarah even wishes for the Goblin
King to come and take Toby away and when she is about to leave the room Toby
suddenly stops crying; making her pause and go back to check on him only to
find his cot empty. At this point Sarah is met with the Goblin King - the shadow/villain
of the story – who states that he has taken the child to be turned into one of
his goblins, Sarah argues that she didn’t mean what she said and asked for her
brother back. The Goblin King refutes this by encouraging her childish
fantasies, but Sarah is determined to get her bother back. So, the king (also
the Herald of the story) proposes that she take on his labyrinth and if she
gets to the castle before time runs out, she can have her brother back. At this
point in the story you see Sarah’s reality split, this being that she fully
indulges in this fantasy world she has spent so much of her time on try to
recreate; as seen at the beginning of the film where she is in the park
re-enacting the book (fig 3. see below). This suggesting that she has become so wrapped up in her
book she can’t differentiate what’s real and what’s fake anymore as scene when
she believes her brother is ‘gone’ and ‘goes’ in to her psyche to enact the
story of the Labyrinth’.
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| Fig .3. The Labyrinth: Sarah in the Park. (1986) [Film Still]. |
When Sarah is plunged in to this
‘new’ world she is first met with Hoggle (fig 4, see below) outside the Labyrinth and is then
shown the door into the labyrinth. When Sarah is confronted with two long
passage ways she is down founded and doesn’t know which way to turn and
complains, it is only when Hoggle interrupts saying ‘you take too many things
for granted, even if you make it to the center, you’ll never make it out again’
suggesting Sarah has been spoilt in reality and her collective unconscious
psyche is implying this to her, making her realize what is right in front of
her.
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| Fig .4. The Labyrinth: Sarah and Hoggle. (1986) [Film Still]. |
This then leads onto Sarah going
forward down the never-ending passageway and she becomes frustrated and
impatient that is just keeps going on and on. It isn’t until her frustrations
are interrupted by the Worm who points the way-out through wall optical illusion.
It could be argued that Hoggle is the threshold guardian but he doesn’t put up
much of a fight to stop Sarah from going into the labyrinth, it is only when
Sarah meets the Worm (Fig. 5. see below) that constantly asks Sarah to ‘come inside’ but at the
same time the worm encouraging Sarah to look for ways into the labyrinth as ‘thing
aren’t always what they seem, so you can’t take anything for granted.’. Sarah
finds a way in through the wall opposite, but is too excited to get to the
labyrinth that she doesn’t listen properly to the worm as she ends up going the
‘wrong way’ which evidently leads into the Labyrinth instead of to the castle.
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| Fig .5. The Labyrinth: The Worm. (1986) [Film Still]. |
Going forward Sarah draws arrows
on the floor to help with her direction; but it is always changing, much like
the unconscious psyche. Turning it into a maze that doesn’t make sense since it
is an aberration of her mind’s creation -so therefore doesn’t have to make
sense as it Is a dream world from a book Sarah is re-enacting from.
She soon realizes that her marks
are being changed and grows frustrated again stating that ‘it isn’t fair’ when
Sarah turns again, she is met with the red and blue door keepers. ‘One leads to
the castle and one leads to certain death’ she tries to make sense of the
keepers as it is said one always tells the truth and one always lies. She then
goes through a process of deduction to try and figure out which door to choose.
She ends up choosing blue which turns out to be wrong and ends up falling into
a trap door in the floor. Similar to Alice in wonderland, the idea of ‘falling
down the rabbit hole’ has just begun for Sarah as she now falls further in to
her unconscious psyche and delusions of this unreal storybook world. The
‘Helping hands’ help her decide whether or not to fall by giving her the option
of either moving ‘up or down’- up being to possible consciousness and down
being going further into her psyche. ‘she chose down’ ‘suggesting that Sarah
decides to delve further into her unconscious psyche; she even questions ‘was
that wrong?’ but is given the answer ‘too late now’ as she has fully submersed
herself into this fantasy world.
At the end of her fall, Sarah
encounters Hoggle once again in the oubliette -place to put people to forget
about them. Hoggle was going to lead her back to the beginning, but has a
change of heart. At first Sarah is too trusting of Hoggle and bribes him with a
plastic bracelet to get her out of the oubliette. This implying that Hoggle is
the Shapeshifter/Trickster within the story; but this soon changes when the Goblin
king – Jereth - intervenes (The Trickster as well as The Shadow) to make sure Hoggle
is taking her back to the beginning. Jereth also threatens him with the bog of
eternal stench to do so. He then turns to Sarah and asked how she is finding
his labyrinth; Sarah lies and says ‘it’s a piece of cake’. So, the Goblin King reduces
her time frame to get her brother back and throws in another challenge - the
cleaners – for her to overcome. This possibly another aberration in Sarah naïve
mind to scare her from what is really important; getting Toby back. From there
Sarah and Hoggle precedes to run away but are stopped in their tracks by a
locked gate, Sarah uses what the worm told her about ‘things not being as they
seem’ to push the flimsy bit of wall down to escape the cleaners, showing she
is learning not to take things for granted.
Hoggle takes Sarah back to the
Labyrinth above ground. Sarah is not happy with Hoggle as he now no longer
wishes to help Sarah. Sarah now outraged exclaims ‘you little cheat’ and then
proceeds to taunt him with his bag of jewels in order to get him to help.
Hoggle protests ‘it’s not fair’ and Sarah soon realizes and finishes ‘but
that’s the way it is’. She is coming to realize that situations in life aren’t
always fair and sometimes you have bribe and work your way around problems to
get what you want as Sarah main saying throughout, the film so far has been
‘it’s not fair’. In the far distance Sarah hears a beast roaring; causing
Hoggle to run away in cowardice, Sarah precedes to find out what the noise is.
Here we are met with a new character Ludo (fig 6, see below), who is being tormented by little
goblin knights with little creatures on sticks. Sarah helps Ludo be free of his
tormentors to do this she throws a rock after she wishes for something to throw
– alluding to this is a dream and she can just summon what she needs with just
a thought as after she threw the first rock another appears automatically for
her to throw at the tormentors.
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| Fig .6. The Labyrinth: Sarah Meets Ludo. (1986) [Film Still]. |
She helps Ludo down (The 2nd
Child/ 1st Allie) and one of the first things Ludo says to Sarah is ‘Sarah
friend’. Despite Ludo not being of much help to start with Sarah in getting to
the castle he is a trusty companion to aid Sarah in getting her brother back (1st
child). The Labyrinth ‘changes’ again to present two doors with two knockers,
Sarah doesn’t ask many questions to find out where the doors lead and choses
one with the knocker in his mouth. She and Ludo start walking through a foggy
Forrest. Ludo exclaims ‘Ludo scared’ and Sarah response is to say ‘there’s
nothing to be afraid of’ only to turn around and find Ludo is gone. Causing her
to panic and conjure up the Firies, which were red creatures that could
dismember themselves and mainly take off their heads. This suggesting she is
losing her mind to fear of being on her own and her collective unconscious is
going wild as Sarah feels she has lost all sense of direction once Ludo is gone
and loses her confidence she once had, calling out for Hoggle to help. Hoggel
was going to go help Sarah, when the Goblin King impedes him as gives him a
peach for the Sarah to eat, warning that if Sarah kisses him, he will find
himself in the bog of eternal stench. Eventually Hoggle comes to the rescues
that Sarah's fear of being alone is broken and Sarah is put back on track.
Hoggle and Sarah end up at the
bog of eternal stench (after Sarah kisses him on the cheek as a thank you for
saving her) and is united with Ludo, here they also encounter Sir Didymus and
Ambrosius (fig 7. fig 8. see below). Whose (Didymus) job at first is to stop them from crossing the
bridge to exit the bog of eternal stench. But after realizing he has the power
to grant access, he lets them through and proceeds to help Sarah in her quest (becoming
her second Allie). While Sarah is crossing the bridge, the bridge breaks
causing her to grab hold of a branch overhead, at this point Sir Didymus refers
the Sarah as ‘my lady’ and ‘fear not my fair maiden’ suggesting Sarah is not
only the hero in the story but the Maiden as well. Ludo then comes to Sarah’s
aid and calls for the rocks to act as stepping stone for them to walk across.
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| Fig .7. The Labyrinth: Sir Didymus (1986) [Film Still]. |
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| Fig .8. The Labyrinth: Ambrosius. (1986) [Film Still]. |
From there Sir Didymus and Ambrosius help lead Sarah to the castle, Sarah complains she is hungry and Hoggle just so happens to have the peach Jereth gave him to give to Sarah. When she bites into the peach, Sarah immediately notices something is wrong with the fruit. She says ‘everything’s dancing’ suggesting that she has been drugged and is now under the kings hold as he appears in her dream of what she thought she wanted in the beginning of the film thus begin transported further down the rabbit hole in to her psyche. Sarah realizes she’s in a ‘dream of the goblin king’s creation’ which introduces her to the adult world. Sarah is bewildered, and becomes overwhelmed and runs from the ‘dream’. The clock is a reminder that she has to get Toby back and that is what stirs her on to get out. (fig 9., see below)
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| Fig .9. The Labyrinth: Sarah at the Goblin Kings Ball. (1986) [Film Still]. |
She wakes in a scrap yard with no
recollection of the world around her; the junk lady then leads Sarah to what
she believes to be her bedroom but is all an illusion to trap her from getting
to toby. Once she is surround by her things, she is reminded that she has to
get to toby when she sees the Labyrinth book. She realizes all her things are
junk and the illusion is broken and Didymus and Ludo are there to help get
Sarah back on track.
Sarah and her allies make their
way to the castle, once there they are met with the city gate keeper and are
trying to get past, when Hoggle chooses that moment so stop fearing Jereth and
help Sarah by overcoming his cowardice and over throws the goblin in the gate
keeper suit by throwing him out. Thus, making Hoggle Sarah’s 3rd
Allie. Goblin king keeps throwing obstacles at Sarah - goblin knights raid the
city, creating utter chaos and Ludo calls the rocks to help defeat them. Sarah
is then able to make it to the castle and is met with M. C. Escher stairs to try and get Toby
back (fig 10, fig 11. see below), but every twist and turn is either met with nothing or Toby moves and is
gone again.
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| Fig .10. The Labyrinth: Toby on M.C Escher’s stairs. (1986) [Film Still]. |
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| Fig. 11. The Impossible World of M.C. Escher. (2014) [Lithograph Print] |
Sarah descried to take a leap of faith to reach Toby, this is the last fall in to her psyche and is met face to face with the goblin king with stairs in disarray, from here Sarah starts to recite lines from her book. The Giblin King tries to stop her from finishing her sentence and convince her to give up her responsibilities by saying ‘everything I have done I have done for you … I have turned the world upside down and I have done it all for you .. just let me rule you and you can everything you want’ suggesting that Sarah lets the story consume her unconsciousness and rule her life so Sarah never grows up and remains naïve. She refutes this by giving the final strike to the goblin king when she states ‘you have no power over me’ and the dream world/illusion of the labyrinth shatters and she ‘wakes’ in the real world and Toby is back in his crib.
Sarah starts to remove traces of the labyrinth from her room. but is remind of the characters she met in the labyrinth (the Allies) and will keep their memory with her. So, she is starting to let go of her childish moods, but is still reluctant to do so as she imagines the characters, she met along the way in her room at the end of the film. (fig 12. see below).
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| Fig .12 The Labyrinth: Sarah’s Allies. (1986) [Film Still]. |
The mentor in the labyrinth It
could be argued that Hoggle acts as Sarah Mentor in the labyrinth as he is a
reoccurring character that keeps popping up through out the film to help aid
Sarah when she is put in tough situations, despite usually either being the
cause of said situations or feels that he has to help her because he cares/
feel responsible for her. Alternatively, the mentor could be the book Sarah was
reading – the labyrinth – which basically details the happenings of the film
from where Toby was taken to when she got Toby back and defeated the Goblin
King. Thus playing into how her psyche came up and imagined these characters
since she had already encountered them once in the book and her collective
unconsciousness was simply reimagining to revolve around her (Sarah).
Bibliography:
Cherry, K.. (2020) The 4 Major Jungian Archetypes. At: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-jungs-4-major-archetypes-2795439#:~:text=Archetypes%20are%20universal%2C%20inborn%20models%20of%20people%2C%20behaviors%2C,knowledge%20passed%20down%20from%20our%20ancestors.%20%EF%BB%BF%20%EF%BB%BF (Accessed 03/11/2020) in-text citation: (Cherry, 2020).
Figueroba, A. (n.d.) Carl Jung's Archetypes: A Definition
And 25 Examples. At: https://healthywaymag.com/psychology/carl-jung-archetypes
(Accessed 03/11/2020) in-text citation: (Figueroba, n.d.)
illustrations list:
Fig .1. The Labyrinth. (1986) [Film Poster, Advertisement]. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/mediaviewer/rm2649548544 (Accessed 03/11/2020)
Fig .2. The Labyrinth: The Goblin King. (1986) [Film Still]. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/mediaviewer/rm3365799168 (Accessed 03/11/2020).
Fig .3. The Labyrinth: Sarah in the Park. (1986) [Film Still]. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/mediaviewer/rm890456832 (Accessed 03/11/2020).
Fig .4. The Labyrinth: Sarah and Hoggle. (1986) [Film Still]. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/mediaviewer/rm1826915584 (Accessed 03/11/2020).
Fig .5. The Labyrinth: The Worm. (1986) [Film Still]. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/mediaviewer/rm1951830273 (Accessed 03/11/2020).
Fig .6. The Labyrinth: Sarah Meets Ludo. (1986) [Film Still]. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/mediaviewer/rm2547757824 (Accessed 03/11/2020).
Fig .7. The Labyrinth: Sir Didymus (1986) [Film Still]. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/mediaviewer/rm1767346433 (Accessed 03/11/2020).
Fig .8. The Labyrinth: Ambrosius. (1986) [Film Still]. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/mediaviewer/rm3042349313 (Accessed 03/11/2020).
Fig .9. The Labyrinth: Sarah at the Goblin Kings Ball. (1986) [Film Still]. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/mediaviewer/rm3399353600 (Accessed 03/11/2020).
Fig .10. The Labyrinth: Toby on M.C Escher’s stairs. (1986) [Film Still]. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/mediaviewer/rm1700237569 (Accessed 03/11/2020).
Fig. 11. The Impossible World of M.C. Escher. (2014) [Lithograph Print] At: https://www.nhpr.org/post/impossible-world-mc-escher#stream/0 (Accessed 03/11/2020).
Fig .12 The Labyrinth: Sarah’s Allies. (1986) [Film Still]. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/mediaviewer/rm22450433 (Accessed 03/11/2020).
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