Literary Archetypes In The Literature Of Love

Question 1

What are the origins and key features of a femme fatal?

Answer 1

• Origins: examples seen in literature from ancient times e.g. Sirens in Greek mythology
• Features: an attractive, seductive woman, especially one who will ultimately cause distress to a man who becomes involved with her
• Female temptress

Question 2

What are the origins and key features of a cuckold?

Answer 2

• Origins: Elizabethan era onwards

- Features: a man whose wife deceived him by having sex with another man

Question 3

What are the origins and key features of the tragic hero.

Answer 3

-Origins: Ancient Greek and Roman drama
-Features: a character of noble origins and heroic qualities who possesses a fatal flaw which ruins him
(-Generally male)

Question 4

What are the origins and the key features of a damsel in distress?

Answer 4

• Origins: Medieval era
• Features: a beautiful young woman placed in a dire predicament by a villain or monster and who requires a hero to achieve her rescue. After rescuing her, the hero often obtains her hand in marriage

Question 5

What are the origins and key features of a Byronic/romantic hero?

Answer 5

-Origins: romantic era
-Features: defined by their rejection of standard convention and norms of behaviour, their alienation from larger society, their focus on the self as the centre of existence, and their ability to inspire others to commit acts of good and kindness. Romantic heroes are not idealised heroes, but imperfect and often flawed individuals who, despite their sometimes less than savoury personalities, often behave in a heroic manner
(-Usually upsets people but want to be noble)

Question 6

What are the origins and key features of an ingenue?

Answer 6

• Origins: Georgian era
• Features: typically, the ingenue is beautiful, kind, gentle, sweet, virginal, and often naive, in mental or emotional danger, or even physical danger, usually a target of the heartless seducer whom she may have mistaken for the hero

Question 7

What are the origins and key features of a knight-errant?

Answer 7

• Origins: Medieval era
• Features: a figure of mediaeval chivalric romance literature. The adjective errant (wandering, roving) indicates how the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric virtues, either in knightly duels or in some other pursuit of courtly love

Question 8

What are the origins and key features of a shrew?

Answer 8

• Origins: Middle Ages
• Features: an unpleasant, ill-tempered woman characterised by scolding, nagging and aggression is a comedic, stock character in literature.

Question 9

What are the origins and key features of a heartless seducer?

Answer 9

• Origins: found in restoration comedies (C17th)

- Features: a man that takes pleasure in wine, women and immoral behaviour