Archetypes In The Other Mother, By Professor Eiland

In order to fully understand both characters, it’s important to look at their historical originals. One way to do this would be by considering common story archetypes, as discussed heavily by Professor Eiland in his mythical archetype list. The Other Mother fits very many of these archetype, so much so that it would be difficult to rank the accuracy of one over the other. In one way, she acts as the “temptress”, goading Coraline into staying in the other world with outfits, toys, and food, rather than any sort of sexual seduction that’s typical of that particular archetype (Eiland). In some ways the Other Mother resembles the “Wicked Witch” as well, seeing as he ultimate goal is to use her powers to cause Coraline’s demise, but unlike a normal …show more content…
He, unlike the Other Mother, is the not the embodiment of evil. He’s a bad man, and the villain, but to refer to him as a “Devil” would be a step towards the extreme. The closest architypes to his character would be the “Outcast” and the “Fool”. The “Outcast” is a simple enough connection to make. Just the very fact that he’s a grown man in Neverland, the physical representation of childhood imagination and innocent, paints him as an odd character. The “Outcast” is someone “unwilling or unable to follow societies rules”, and also “lives outside the norms of a particular society or group (Eiland).” In his inability to cope with his inevitable aging, as well as his unwillingness to abide by war standards and childish ideas of fairness (Barrie), Hook places himself above and outside Neverland’s rules, and his flight from the normal world to one of fantasy apparent disqualification from the company of modern society. Now, to refer to Hook as a “Fool” is a more abstract idea, especially since his formal appearance and idea of “good form” are heavily emphasized within the novel (Barrie). However, Eiland states that the “Fool” is often used to represent the weaknesses of human kind. From the point of view of Peter, or ever the narrator, Hook can very easily be seen as a representation of human weakness. He’s petty, vowing to kill Peter not because of any wrongs the boy committed against him, but because of Peter’s cockiness, and the way he smiled when he slept (Barrie). He holds others to very high social and moral standards, standards that he continuously fails at himself (Barrie). And, just like Peter, he’s terrified of growing old, that his time will run out, and of his ultimate demise. As represented in his panic when he hears the ticking of the crocodile’s clock, he tries to run and hide from his problems, ignore them until they go away, a stark contrast to Peter, who faces death bravely. A “Fool” can very easily be