Archetypes Case

Archetypes are the base of most movies, television shows, and soap operas that humans engage in today. There are a number of classic archetypes that never fail to be the stars of our entertainment. Disney is one of the most well-known Motion Picture Production companies in the history of film making, and Disney movies are no exception to the archetype tradition. While there are hundreds of Disney movies, they all rely on the waif and warrior with very few exceptions.

One of the most classic Disney movies, and most archetypical, is Cinderella. In the Motion Picture Cinderella, there is a story told of an orphan girl who is forced to live with her mom and two evil step sisters. Throughout her life, she has been tortured and forced to do any work that there is around the house while her step mother and step sisters are able to go out and have fun. This character is the perfect example of the archetype that we call The Waif, which is defined as the character who is often left forsaken and abandoned who is taken advantage of her whole life. Also in Cinderella, there is the well-known Prince Charming which classifies as The Warrior archetype. The Prince in Cinderella is portrayed as the well-known, wealthy, noble man who is destined to save the less fortunate girl who will later become his princess. The Warrior is defined as a literary archetype which protects and defends against all foes, operating on the premise that strength and power overcome any injustice.

Cinderella is the ideal story of a girl that is in distress because of her unfortunate life style who is dependant on a Prince to come and save her, pulling her out of all depression and giving her a fairytale ending. Most Disney movies work off of this basic story with some twists and turns using different forms of life and cultures to explain a variety of different fairytales that will always be classics.

Another Disney story that uses The Waif and The Warrior as its main characters is the classic, Hercules. Hercules tells the tale of a boy who was out of place in a world where his strength was unnatural. Through his searches to find where his strength really came from, he was a mortal who became a God. Son of Zeus and Hera, Hercules was a Greek Hero, The Warrior, in archetypical language, which used his strength to fight the evil and save the good. The Waif in Hercules is The Warrior's very own mistress, Meg, who started out working for the devil, Hades himself. Meg is the girl in the movie who was all for being Miss Independent and never falling in love, covering her vulnerable side to anybody who tried to reveal it. This characteristic of Meg shows that she is undeniably, the waif in this movie. She tries to be independent and act like she will never give her heart to anybody, but she just can't help it when she finds the right guy. Hercules, with his charming ways and heroic acts won Meg's heart which was portrayed as an impossible task. Not only does this make Hercules the warrior, but also his action-packed life of fighting off the devil and his accomplices to save the world. Once

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