Archetypal Approach

CHARACTERS:

The Hero: The courageous figure, the one who’s always running in and saving the day.

The Outcast: The outcast is just that.  He or she has been cast out of a society or has left it on a voluntary basis.  The outcast figure can oftentimes be considered as a Christ figure.

The Scapegoat: The scapegoat figure is one who gets blamed for everything, regardless of whether he/she is actually at fault.

The Mentor: Assists the hero, sometimes a parental figure, offers knowledge, wisdom, guidance 

The Maiden: “damsel in distress” compassionate, fragile

The Devil Figure: Evil incarnate, this character offers worldly goods, fame, or knowledge to the protagonist in exchange for possession of his soul

The Earth Mother: Symbolic of fruition, abundance, and fertility; this character offers spiritual and emotional nourishment to those with whom she comes in contact

SITUATIONS:

The Task: A situation in which a character, or group of characters, is driven to complete some duty often of monstrous proportion. 

The Quest: Here, the character(s) are searching for something, whether consciously or unconsciously. Their actions, thoughts, and feelings center around the goal of completing the quest. 

The Loss of Innocence: This is, as the name implies, a loss of innocence through sexual experience, violence, or any other means.

The Initiation: This is the process by which a character is brought into another sphere of influence, usually (in literature) into adulthood.

The Fall: This archetype describes a descent from a higher to a lower state of being. The experience involves spiritual defilement and/or a loss of innocence and bliss. The Fall is also usually accompanied by expulsion from a kind of paradise as penalty for disobedience and moral transgression

Cataracts of Heaven: 

Wasteland - Nothing can grow; land/man is barren • Disharmony between people and between man/nature • Lack of faith in God/religion • Images of the desert 

Flood - Any force of mass destruction (flood, tornado, nuclear war, etc.) that wipes out all of society (except for one couple) - a vessel • A structure which carries people from destruction to salvation 

Mountaintop - A safe landing place after the flood • Usually high to represent the return to God/spirituality

SYMBOLS:

Certain images that recur in myths and other genres of literature often have a common meaning or tend to elicit comparable psychological responses and to serve similar cultural functions.

Water: mystery of creation, birth, cleansing, purification, and redemption; fertility and growth - sea — mother of all life, spiritual mystery and infinity, death and rebirth, timelessness and eternity, the unconscious - rivers — death and rebirth (baptism), the flowing of time into eternity, transitional phases of the life cycle 

Sun: creative energy, laws of nature, consciousness (wisdom, enlightenment, thinking, spiritual vision) passage of time and life - rising sun — birth, creation, enlightenment - setting sun — death

Colours - red — blood, sacrifice, violent passion, disorder - green — growth, hope, fertility - blue — truth, religious feeling, security, spiritual purity - black — chaos, evil, mystery, the unknown, death, melancholy - white — light, purity, innocence, timelessness 

Numbers - three — spiritual awareness and unity (Holy Trinity) - four — life cycle, four seasons, four elements (earth, air, fire, water) - seven — most potent of all symbolic numbers — the union of three and four, perfect order, completion a cycle (7 days) 

Circle: infinity, continuity in life (ie. life cycle), wholeness, God as Infinite Wind: inspiration, conception 

Garden: innocence, unspoiled beauty, paradise 

Serpent: evil, destruction of innocence, corruption, sensuality (phallus), Satan 

Desert: hopelessness, death, lack of spirituality 

Ship: journey (through time), voyage 

Tree: growth, regeneration, inexhaustible life, immortality, truth