"Star Wars resonates out of the best of our classics: Beowulf...Homer...the Bible."
---Dan Rather
Archetypes are primitive modes of thought and tend to personify natural processes in mythological concepts, such as good and evil, fairies, witches and dragons.
Several archetypes are represented in the Star Wars story:
The Hero (Luke Skywalker)
The Sage (Yoda/Obi-Wan)
The Comedians (R2-D2/C-3PO)
The Shadow (Darth Vader/Darth Maul)
The Virgin (Princess Lea)
The Renegade (Han Solo)
But do we really think that George Lucas consciously based Star Wars on Joseph Campbell's mythological archetypes? It would be impossible to write a "epic" without subconsciously using these "stock characters." These archetypes are the basis for every piece of literature ever written, ever conceived of, even by the most ingenious of people. It can not be escaped, nor does it need to be, in order to write or think as an "original." As Danell Jones, my creative non-fiction professor, has told us time and time again, "Stealing is good. Everyone steals from everyone else." Nothing is original, even as originally planned!
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