Blog Entry #10

Andrea Pereira

Professor C. Jason Smith

English 102

25 November 2013

Stardust Essay

In the film Stardust, many of the characters are great examples of archetypes. Archetypes are important in a story because an archetype is the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype. There also is an example of a monomyth in the story which is the main character, Tristan. Tristan is a lover and innocent archetype due to the fact that in the beginning of the story he is only a local store boy that isn’t the richest or strongest boy in town who is in love with a materialistic girl named Victoria. He falls head over heels in love with her without knowing much about her. We see his lover archetype show when he takes her away from her house late at night for a nice picnic. Tristan’s innocent archetype also is demonstrated in him because he is very naïve to the concept of love and believes that he can win over Victoria’s love by just giving her whatever she wants. Tristan being an innocent and lover archetype shows when he goes on a quest for Victoria to bring her a star. He goes above and beyond for her to win her hand in marriage.

On Tristan’s quest to get Victoria the star that she wishes to have in order for him to have her hand in marriage, Tristan lights a Babylon candle given to him by his mother which he never met and lives on the other side of his town in a magical kingdom after the Wall. In this we also see Victoria’s archetype which can be a seeker. She is very self-centered and all she looks for is a way to improve her life, in other words the man that can give her the most to offer is the man she will want to marry. She also can be described as a seeker because she provides energy for Tristan to find himself and go through a big deal of traveling just for her.

While Tristan is on his quest to find the star for Victoria he meets Yvaine, a star. Yvaine can be an innocent archetype due to her being so naïve to the world. The witches are out to get her so that they can have eternal youth and little does she know they are plotting against her. On Tristan’s quest to give Victoria Yvaine, a star, there are evil witches plotting to kill Yvaine and drink her blood in order to have eternal life and youth.

 The main witch, Empuesa is the destroyer for she will do anything in her power to destroy young Yvaine in order to satisfy he own needs. Empuesa can be best described as a destroyer primarily because now since she has lost her youth and is now an old witch she wishes to steal Yvaine’s life to make her own life better. Empuesa is very mean, unkind and ruthless in her mannerisms and in how she is even willing to lie about feeling bad for her own blood (her sisters) in order to have the eternal youth for herself. While her sisters were being killed in front of her face she pretended to feel bad in Tristan’s face when in reality she was extremely happy so that she doesn’t have to share the youth.

On Tristan’s quest to bring Victoria the star he meets Captain Shakespeare while attempting to escape from one of the witches plots to capture Yvaine. At first Captain Shakespeare appears to be giving them both a hard time and even threatens to kill them by throwing them over the boat. Captain Shakespeare even goes to the extent to make his crew believe he has killed Tristan and is keeping Yvaine as a slave. In reality it was all a scam to show to his crew members on his ship that he is tough. Captain Shakespeare in reality is the caregiver archetype. He shows his caregiving archetype is a strange way because he tries to hide it from everyone in order to keep his tough reputation. Captain Shakespeare takes Yvaine and Tristan in his ship where he feeds, clothed and provided shelter for them. He gives them a fresh new wardrobe and even gives Tristan a new hairstyle.  He finds satisfaction in caring for them and is extremely generous. He even protects Yvaine due to the fact that he knows she’s a star and denies to anyone knowing that there was a star in town. Although to the world Captain Shakespeare is a tough and cruel Captain, in all reality he is a very kind and generous man which is completely harmless. He even dresses up in tutus and dances around in his free time which also shows a sense of innocence. Captain Shakespeare also focuses on the needs of Tristan and Yvaine making sure that everything is okay with them. He also provides entertainment for them by teaching Yvaine how to dance. He also does something very important for Tristan by showing him how to swordfight well. Although everyone believes he is a ruthless Captain in all reality he is a generous caregiver.

After Tristan and Yvaine leave Captain Shakespeare’s ship in order to return to wall we see how much Tristan has transformed and how Yvaine’s feelings have changed. Tristan is now a brave strong and confident man compared to the beginning of the movie. This transformation also changes Yvaine’s feelings for Tristan and she is in love with him. Her lover archetype shows because she now is vulnerable to Tristan and while a witch turned him into a rat she now describes to him all that she is feeling and how much she truly cares for him. When Tristan gets transformed back into a person he also tells her how much he cares for her and even goes to the extreme of going to Victoria and telling her that he is in love with someone else.  While he is gone he realizes that if Yvaine was to cross to the town Wall she will vanish. This causes him to run to catch her before she even arrives.

              Although Tristan tries to make it in in time to save Yvaine from turning into stardust. Empuesa arrives when Yviane is right about to cross to the town of wall and kills another witch that happened to enslave his mother. Here we see Tristan's caregiver role come into play due to his high concern for Yvaine and his willingness to go to the lengths of dropping everything and saving Yvaine.

                Although Tristan just missed Yvaine and his mother by a few minutes he grabs a horse in search of them because he knows the evil witch Empuesa took them from the boarder due to them leaving tracks. In Tristan's quest to search for Yvaine regardless of the danger we see him as a warrior archetype. He is very bold for even going to the extreme of going to the evil witch’s castle. When he arrived at the castle Tristain didn't even know it but he was fighting the witches with his uncle that was trying to get the diamond and be king of this magical kingdom. Tristan was a warrior due to his strength to fight off Empuesa after the other witches were dead with his weapon and his drive to do so. He was very heroic and took his knowledge to defeat the witch once and for all.

      At the end when all is done and Empuesa was finally defeated we see the great changes that Tristan has come to terms with. He started off the story being weak young boy and ended the story being a strong man. He is just an ordinary small poor shop boy in the beginning of the story and then he enters this unknown magical kingdom. In this unknown magical kingdom he must face all these tasks in order to save Yvaine and himself. He survives through all these dangerous tasks and in the end turns out to become a king in this magical kingdom. We see Tristan as a monomyth due to his journey of becoming a boy to a hero.

Works Cited
Pearson, Carol S., and Hugh K. Marr. What Story Are You Living? Gainesville: Center
        for Applications of Psychological Type, 2009. Print.

Blog Entry #9

The archetype I chose to describe in the film Stardust would be The Caregiver. In the film Stardust the Caregiver role is played by Captain Shakespeare of the Caspartine, a famous pirate.  The reason I chose this archetype is due to the fact that Captain Shakespeare is not particularly proud of being a caregiver and would rather have a reputation of the opposite of what he really is. The reason why Captain Shakespeare is a caregiver is due to his actions and how he took in complete strangers (Tristan and Yvaine) and gave them food and shelter. Not only did Captain Shakespeare give them necessities to life but he gave them a comfortable environment to live in while he took them to their destination. Captain Shakespeare even protected Yvaine from the witches when he knew that she was a star. The captain denied knowing anything about a star regardless of what he knows. The captain really took good care of them while they were guests on his ship, he also took Tristan in as an apprentice and taught him how to fight with his sword and taught Yvaine to dance. Captain Shakespeare also gave Yvaine and Tristan clothes and even gave Tristan a new look by fixing his hair. The Captain overall fits perfectly into the rold of the Caregiver regardless of what his reputation is. He doesn’t want anyone to know of his Caregiver role in order to install fear into anyone that hears about him.

Blog Entry #8

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas tells a story of death and its hardship. The speaker uses many symbols in his story to describe death such as “dying of the light” which means the ending of death and “last wave” which can mean last breath of life. The author repeats various times in the poem for the reader to not go gentle into that good night which is also the title of the poem. This action symbolizes a person to make the most out of their life, not to let anyone just give up and have them make a difference in life.

                The beginning of the speaker’s poem tells the readers we should fight through death; one must not quit life so easily. In line 2 the speaker states “Old age should burn and rave at close of day” which tells the reader that older people should have a resentment to dyeing and should leave life fighting by burning and raving. The speaker then goes on to say “Though wise men at their end know dark is right…”(Stanza 2, line 4) which means that older people know death is inevitable. “Because their words had forked no lighting…” (Stanza 2, line 5) signifies that people who haven’t make much of an impact, or “lightning” in life should let go so easily and should try their best to make an impact of what’s left of their life.

                The speaker then uses the bay as a symbol of life in lines 7-9. The last wave represents death (or their last breath) and the people who are dying are now crying due to their weak impacts on helping life which is the “green bay”.

                In lines 10-12 “Good men” represents the fighters in life that strived to make a better tomorrow. They took life in and made the best of it yet just as the sun sets, life can go by like a “quick flight”. Quick flight can also represent how fast life passes by us. These good men learned that life can be taken away in a blink of an eye.

                The author’s thesis is constantly reoccurring throughout the whole poem, at the end of each stanza he repeats that one must feel anger and rage knowing that one is dying.  He states rage two times at the end of each stanza emphasizing the importance of fighting and anger knowing that one is to die soon.

                In lines 16-19 we realize why the speaker is so emotional about the fight through death, it turns out that the speakers own father is dying. The speaker’s father is crying due to him stating “fierce tears” which is both a blessing and a curse due to the hope there is that his father can fight through his death.  The speaker again repeats his focus of the poem to his father “Do not go gentle into that good night” which means do not five into death so comfortably.

                The speaker generally is telling people to make the best of life and enjoy it the best you can because at the end of the day death is inevitable. One must fight through death if they have lived through their capacity. The speaker uses imagery to describe life such as “light” and death such as
“night”. Overall it was a very emotional poem, in my opinion due to the fact that it was also involving his own personal experience with his father’s death that he is writing about.

Blog Entry #7

The archetype that I found the most "problematic" or "confusing" is the Magician. I also decided to choose this archetype as most problematic due to the fact that the magician archetype was one of my lowest scores on the Pearson-Marr archetype indicator. The magician is someone that is on the sidelines but they have a lot of power yet they do not fully use it. I found this archetype quite confusing by just reading the definition of it. The basic characteristics of this archetype can be confusing due to that fact that the magician archetype can be perceived as bad and good, the example the book gave me was of Harry Potter. Harry Potter in general is a good magician and uses his wisdom and powers in a good way to help people and there is also a bad magician such as voldemort that uses his powers in a dangerous way to harm people. The magician doesn't necessarily process to have power over the whole situation and have a different way of setting things to be right. There are also bad magicians that use their power in harmful ways; they also have ways of manipulating other which I am not so found of. An example of a magician archetype in real life would be a guru or someone like the Dalila Lama.  

Blog Entry #6

The archetype that I chose was The Caregiver. The reason I chose the caregiver archetype was because it was my one of the two highest scores I had on the Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator and I feel like I relate to that archetype the most. The basic characteristics to that archetype are a giving person that loves to help people. Caregivers are kind and give onto others as they want onto themselves, but sometimes they give much more to others. Although this archetype seems like a very good characteristic to have it also can be curse to have. If one is too much of a caregiver others can easily take advantage of them and caregivers can also be too trusting and let people get away with things. Caregivers also feel accomplished when they are helping someone and feel a sense of responsibly to help others.  A good example of a caregiver in real life would be a nun or a priest. Nuns and priests live their lives in hopes of helping everyone around them, that is in fact their point of living life; to help people. They give others much more then they receive.