Jahtiek Moore
Dr. Jason C. Smith
Eng 102
11/30/2013
Multiple
Archetype Existence In Neil Gaimans' Coraline
The Pearson-Marr archetypes are a not a means of
identifying a person, but a means of identifying the traits that they possess.
It stands to reason the we all know a person of a different archetype and it in
a explains who they are. While an Jester archetype and a Ruler are quite
different they are important to each other. The example serves to say that
there is a time for fun and games, but seriousness is essential is some
situations. Another way this could be interpreted is that you can not be
uptight all the time, it just isn’t healthy. Quite a few of these archetypes
appear in Neil Gaimans Coraline as
the main character goes through a few transition of the Pearson-Marr
archetypes.
At
least one of the twelve Pearson-Marr archetypes exist in every person, and in
some cases two or three are present depending on the situation that individual
may be. What is the basis for a multiple archetype presence in a person and
what exactly bring about the change that gives rise to one archetype over
another? A sudden change in a situation for better but usually worse can be one
cause or a life altering event is plausible. The main focus is if two
archetypes can exist at once in a situation and if not, how the situation in
question would favor one archetype over the other. Maybe it simply that each
person is capable of holding multiple archetypes and wears one like a mask or
dress to suit the occasion.
Neil Gaimans' Coraline is home to quite a few archetypes and the characters who
implement them throughout the story. For starters, the main character,
Coralines initial archetype is the Seeker. Due to her parent’s occupations as
writers, most of their time is spent working and not playing with or engaging
their daughter. This causes Coraline to explore. At an point, her father poses
her with the task of counting all of the windows and doors. She is warned of a well outside which she
actively searches for so that she may be informed of its whereabouts.
Coraline's exploration of her new home now brings her to
her neighbors. There are Miss Forcible and Miss Spink who both used to be
actresses. They give Coraline a fortune reading through tea leaves that details
she is in great danger and give her a Talisman, which is a rock with a hole in
it stating that it will make the "unseen see". Forcible and Spink both share the Sage
archetype at this point. They tell Coraline she is in grave danger and equip
her to face this danger.
At this point, Coraline is still a Seeker. She has spent
the better part of the story up to now exploring. The defining moment that may
begin her descent as from a full Seeker is the discovery of the other side of
the house. To be more exact, Coraline meeting the other mother for the first
time. The other mother at first resembles Coralines real mother, except for the
button eyes and medusa like hair with the nails in need of an manicure, which
by now she looks like a demon spider than any mother Coraline has ever seen.
The other mother currently holds the archetype of the Caregiver. She doesn't
want Coraline, her daughter, to leave. She has been waiting for her to return
and become a family. The other mother does not want to be alone and has created
an identical inside landscape to mirrors Coralines home. She wants Coraline to
be comfortable and to feel like she never left. In return, Coraline must have
buttons sewn over her eyes. This of course scares the girl and she departs
immediately for her own world.
Upon returning to her original world, Coraline finds that
her parents haven't returned just yet. By the next day, the next major
character emerges. The cat that implements the Jester archetype. First he shows
Coraline that her parents are trapped in a mirror, which begins her change in
archetypes. After Coraline realizes what she must she begins to take on the
archetype of the warrior, but not just yet. When she returns to the other
world, to get her parents back from the other mother, she is quickly locked in
a closet for being disobedient. It is here she meets the catalyst for her
transition into the Warrior.
In this particular closet are three children, each from a
different time period all together. They each allowed “The Beldam” as they call
her to sew buttons over their eyes and love them as her own. Unfortunately that
love was very short lived. She quickly grew bored of them and allowed them to
perish, casting their souls into a mirror. This is when Coraline takes on a
dual archetype at one moment. In the realization of what will happen if she
does not escape, she knows she must fight. The Warrior archetype is fully
manifested and prevalent. When the Beldam removes her from the mirror, Coraline
remembers that the other mother likes to play games and adores a challenge, so
she issues a challenge. If she is able to find all the souls and her parents,
she will have safe passage to her home, but if she fails, buttons will be sewn
over her eyes and she will be a loving daughter.
The other mother feeling as if Coraline would never
succeed at such a task happily accepts. At this point, Coraline is now a dual
archetype. She is a Warrior-Seeker. She is utilizing her best archetype and her
will and determination to win and escape as her drive. Coraline now begins her
journey as a dual archetype, and a change is noticeable. Her exploration skills
become more proficient, and with the use of her talisman, quickly finds the
first soul. Here the black cat re-enters the story, still a jester. The next
soul is being held by a fleeing rat, which the cat waste no time apprehending.
Although the rat is an enemy, Coraline implores the cat not to play with it,
and to let it go, but not before she collects the second soul from it. The last
marble is collected from what appears to be a giant booger containing a younger
Miss Spink and Forcible. Upon the capture of the all the souls, Coraline
returns to the now melting house. Coraline finds a snowglobe with her parent in
it upon a mantle, but unfortunately, the Beldam makes an appearance. Besides
looking like a demon spider, she looks quite angry and for the first time the
cat shows fear of her presence, with Coraline noting how hard its heart is
beating.
Coraline challenges the other mother one more time
stating the she has hidden her parents in the passage between the two flats.
Coraline in her last ditch attempt, lobs the cat at the other mother and runs
for it. She safely makes it to the other side, but one of the Beldams hands
makes it across as well. Enter the last archetype Coraline embodies, the
destroyer. Interestingly enough, the Seeker is still in effect. Paired with the
Warrior it was a search and rescue pairing, now joined with the Destroyer, it
is an search and destroy mission. Coraline sees the hand, hears it scuttling
around and thinks of a way to rid herself of its existence. She basically baits
it with the key to the door and gets it to jump into a well. Now that the
threat is gone and the enemy is destroyed, it is unclear what archetype exactly
that Coraline takes on but her show of affection to her parents suggest the
growth of the Lover archetype.
Throughout Coraline,
Coraline shows that it is capable to wield two archetypes at one time. When
searching for the souls she was a Seeker-Warrior and when She reached home, A
Seeker-Destroyer. However it did take a series of traumatic life altering events
to bring about theses changes. Is it possible that Coraline could have
manifested the Warrior and Destroyer of her own ability, it is possible. Then
again, archetypes are like that mask or dress/tie your wear for a certain party
or occasion. You may have to wear it now, but when the party is over that tie
or dress or mask goes back into the closet for next time.
