What is an archetype? Oxford Dictionaries says an archetype is ‘a very typical example of a certain person or thing’. Writers can use this useful table of the 12 archetypes to create characters.
Jung defined twelve primary archetypes, each with its own set of values, meanings and personality traits. In Jungian theory, an archetype is known as ‘a primitive mental image inherited from the earliest human ancestors, and supposed to be present in the collective unconscious’.