REELING AND WRITHING
or,
Miss Dermark's 2015 Advent Calendar
DAY SEVEN
CHARACTER CHEMISTRY
or,
THE ZODIAC, THE ENNEAGRAM, AYURVEDA: CUES FOR PERSONALITIES.
Q: What are you, Sandra?
A: A girl, a (university) student, a twenty-something, a daughter, a granddaughter, an only child, a closeted nerd, an aesthete, a half-Swede half-Spaniard, a lefty, an aspie...
Q: We all know all that jazz. We're referring to your personality...
A: Ok. I'm an ENFP, an Aquarius ascendant Virgo, a Seven with a Six wing, a Mercurial, a Ravenclaw... Satisfied?
In my translation from the Swedish of an essay by Sven Tito Achen, I wrote the following:
"But there's still another satisfying effect in zodiacal images, id est, the identification they offer us.
One of the duties of zodiac signs is to represent or characterize the people born under the sign in question. Since we are all born under one of them, it means that the zodiac gives every individual a pictorial identity, a psychological and pictorial idea of belonging -- if one prefers: a crest, sigil, or coat of arms. Or a totem. Why this is so relevant can be hard to explain, but the fact that it is so cannot be doubted by seeing zodiac signs at least one hundred times a day, in necklaces, bracelets, and rings, as motorbike stickers and bumper stickers."
Get it? We seek affinity. We know there's a label we can fit into, like Seven (in the Enneagram), Amity, Aquarius, Ravenclaw, House Nymeros Martell, ENFP, Mercurial personality (to give my own labels)... It gives us the sense that we are not alone, and there are more people like us out there.
And how do we tie this into character creation?
I often use the enneagram and the zodiac to create my characters in my longer fictional 'verses (the zodiac, simply stating that a person's birthday determines that person's character, may not fit: you may have a calm and logical Aries... but s/he is a One, and/or with an earth ascendant: that explains a lot. The enneagram, on the other hand, is far more true to the idea of personality evolving as a strategy to deal with a hostile world. Thus, Ones try to put order, Twos try to help others, Threes try to project a positive image of themselves...). And ayurveda, sometimes, for their physical make-up (it also includes emotional and mental features as well). There are pure doshas and dosha combinations. I am a pitta-vata, combining pitta traits (greasy skin and scalp, fair hair and skin, freckles, a short fuse, a mesomorph physique...) inherited from my Swedish father with vata traits (restlessness, sensitivity to the cold, erratic sleeping and eating habits, creativity, constipation...) inherited from my Spanish-Cuban-French-Basque mother.
We're Aquariuses all three, though with different ascendants (Sten [Aquarius-Sagittarius] + Elena [Aquarius-Aquarius] = Sandra [Aquarius-Virgo]). And, going one generation up, you'll find, aside from the Basque and the French surnames, 3 air signs to 1 earth sign: my currently only living grandmother, Barbro Dermark, née Rydskog (a Virgo). Here is the whole table of descent, detailing star signs, profession, and nationality/descent:
(Lars [Gemini, businessman, Swedish] + Barbro [Virgo, student/homemaker, Swedish] = Sten [Aquarius, businessman, Swedish].)
(José [Libra, scientist, Cuban Ibizan/Cuban Basque] + Ana [Gemini, teacher, Cuban French/Cuban Castilian] = Elena [Aquarius, private tutor, Spanish Cuban].)
(Sten [Aquarius, businessman, Swedish] + Elena [Aquarius, private tutor, Spanish Cuban] = Sandra [Aquarius, university student, Spanish].)
So I looked at the facts and thought...
are star signs inherited? Looking at royal families of the early modern period, and at the relatives of my few friends, let me see that star signs can be inherited. In the Ringstetten Saga, the first male lead Gerhard is an Aquarius (like me), his wife Liselotte being a Virgo (for my ascendant). These star signs, aside from air and earth signs in general, reoccur through the dynasty, the flow of new blood into the dynasty bringing new zodiacal combinations. Liselotte's birth father, Gustavus Adolphus, was a Sagittarius, so fire signs are yet another constant in the Ringstetten bloodline. As relevant are winter-born children, including Sags (in spite of Sagittarius not being a sign of winter proper, since it covers late November and early December): every eldest child of the Ringstetten household is born in winter (or, more properly, late autumn with lots of snow, if it's a Sag).
Gerhard Wilhelm von Ringstetten is an Aquarius but he's also a Six, as seen in his interactions with authority throughout his character arc. What's more, he's a rare kind of Six with
both the "phobic" Five wing and the "counterphobic" Seven wing. Sometimes exceedingly obedient, perfectly abiding by the "by-the-book young lieutenant" stereotype his character was meant to deconstruct... and sometimes exceedingly defiant, as seen especially when it takes to his relationship with strong drink and in his sheer recklessness on the battlefield. Basically, I took Cassio from
Othello (the centuries-old "by-the-book young lieutenant" prototype), found out he was a Six with both wings, and started from there. What would this character be like if he ever had real military experience? From there and from my passion from the 30YW sprung the whole Ringstetten series. The combination of his zodiac sign (the most open-minded air sign of them all), family backstory, and desires basically wrote the character's enneatype as well. No surprise that he is exceedingly embarrassed of his middle name (given after the ruling Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia).
In my latest project,
Pleasure Past and Anguish Past, the leading characters are childhood friends Catherine Saunier (a Virgo, a Seven 6w) and Étienne Lebrun (an Aquarius, a Six both wings), both of them French hinterland middle-class young adults heading for university... Their doshas, pitta and vata respectively, can be seen through their physique: he is dark-haired, tall and lean, with blue eyes and a reserved attitude; she is freckled and titian-haired (golden-haired in her childhood), honey-eyed and with a significant cup size, that at first embarrasses her.
Also: Important character Friedl Schönherr is given a significant development: Friedl at first appears to be male, to have the semblance of "one of the ephebes loved by Apollo: golden hair as bright as those green eyes, soft narrow shoulders, skin like mother-of-pearl and delicate features... spoke with an Austrian accent, a Schönbrunn dialect to be more precise, in a lovely tenor voice." Yet Friedl is revealed to be female, putting on men's clothing and looking smart/sharp, assuming a male identity, and bisexual. Her real name, Friederike, embarrasses her even more than Lieutenant von Ringstetten is of being Gerhard Wilhelm. To Friedl, Friederike (their former identity) is dead since long ago: Friedl "killed" Friederike upon leaving her provincial birthplace of Linz for Vienna, as she left her rightish parents, devoutly Catholic as any other good wealthy hinterland Austrians, who tried to live their daughter's life and turn her into a proper lady against her will. (Friedl Schönherr still says Hildegard and Rainer von Lieberecht were the brains behind the death of Friederike von Lieberecht...)
Friedl is an Aquarius with a Leo ascendant, while her partner Renée (a Parisian M2F transsexual) is a Gemini with an Aries ascendant: both of them air signs with fire ascendants. Like the prince and princess of The Snow Queen, on whom they are based (Friedl on the princess and Renée on the prince, though the first impression fools us just like it fools Cath and Tellagorri), they are kindred spirits and meant for each other: "he is as pleased with her as she is with him." Renée as well is also described in a way that makes both Catherine and her mentor, Jon Tellagorri, assume they (Renée is non-binary) are female at the first impression: "unruly raven curls sprawled all over the bedsheets like the rays of a black star... limbs pearly white and delicate, Renée slept with slender arms raised upwards... like an Art Nouveau muse, or more like a vampire countess in a scarlet lace négligée..."
Many other people in their secret circle of Prague society are deviants from traditional gender roles, Italian lolita-themed transvestite Luca, a pure Gemini, who becomes a counterpart and a lover to Tellagorri, among them. Like Friedl, Luca also fled a religious, conservative, and provincial family (his, with a Catholic priestly tradition, in Trento) and "killed" his old self to try her luck, with a new identity, elsewhere. Most relevantly,
all three of these characters are Sevens, though Friedl could be an Eight with a Seven wing as well. The interesting thing is how, while two of them hail from ultra-rightish backgrounds with clear religious morality and societal expectations, Renée was born and raised in a lower-middle-class artistic environment in Montmartre, with far more lax norms and little to no constraints/limits. Proof that the same personality type can be in the blood and can occur across far different backgrounds/family structures, or that it can be a consequence of the style of
both lenient
and harsh caregivers.
Irina Alekseievna Larina, the robber maiden character, is a Sagittarius with Scorpio ascendant (as seen by her cool, mysterious, reserved, introverted yet attractive appearance [she is a soldier of fortune and a military brat, aside from dark-haired and hazel-eyed, rarely smiling or laughing at first] and, later on, by her real-life enthusiasm values of idealism, adventure, self-discovery...). And an Eight, a true tough and prickly chestnut with a soft center, as Catherine winds up calling her. Taking over the late Tellagorri's mentor role, her relationship with Cath is an explosive one, eschewing the usual "Thelma and Louise" plot (the two girls trek across the Baltic and across Sweden in the flowered Vespa, pursued by both her military unit/guardians and the villainess's henchmen hot on their heels). It isn't until Irina appears that the mentoring phase of the story ends and things get gradually more and more exciting...
In my oldest project,
The Stars' Tears, I have three characters, male, female, and non-binary, born each one under one of the air signs, with different origins and different, contrasting enneatypes. István Esterházy is a One and an Aquarius (aside from a septuagenarian in a young adult's body), tall, dark, and slender, made to resemble
Final Fantasy VIII character Irvine Kinneas, but with a reserved and disciplined personality radically opposite from Irvine's. Kareena "Reena" Isadora Violet Desdemona Fitzwilliam XIV is a Libra and a Four, looking like a platinum blond and violet-eyed, beautiful Targaryen, but actually modelled upon pop star Utau Hoshina-Tsukiyomi, the dark magical girl in
Shugo Chara, whose personality she shares, though Reena is far more angsty and even masochistic, reaching lengths Utau would never attain. Asuka Akizuki, a Gemini and a Seven, is the most original character of the series, not only for being non-binary (though born female), but also because of their whimsical and eccentric choices of attire and emotional display (compared to István's sharp and Reena's spectacular). István is right-handed, Reena is ambidextrous (born lefty, raised righty for courtesy's sake), and Asuka is left-handed. While István hails from the past (born in the Cold War Era, spent part of his childhood in a pocket dimension, is really seventyish but looks like a young adult) and Reena from the present, Asuka was born in the future: in the same dystopian colonial Outpost society I had previously created a trilogy for. The benefactor who constantly loads their card with money which Asuka uses to buy everything Asuka wishes... turns out to be their mother, who is also their future self from the dystopian Outpost reality, in which they are but a secondary character.
My choice of all three air signs ties these characters in as a team, while their different enneatypes lead to some really interesting chemistry: the labels of "killjoy", "angsty", and "looney" are given to these characters by one another and by others. Sometimes, they have even broken up and gone separate ways, to reunite after a while. The finale sees them, all three, running through an underground dimension inspired by Dante's
Purgatorio and relying on each other's skills like never before to overcome the seven trials that lie ahead, before the final revelation...
So I mostly take cues from the enneagram and the zodiac, with a hint of ayurveda thrown in occasionally. And sometimes sort the characters into Hogwarts houses or
Divergent factions (I do the same with characters in other 'verses like Westeros or
Pretty Cure), to see where they could fit in. Catherine Saunier is a Gryffindor, Friedl is a Ravenclaw, and Irina a Slytherin. Étienne is a hatstall between Ravenclaw and Slytherin, and so is Astrid Aurora, while Renée is a hatstall between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. In
The Stars' Tears, Asuka is a Ravenclaw, István a Hufflepuff, and Reena (surprise!) a Slytherin. Most leads in the Ringstetten Saga are Gryffindors or Ravenclaws, but Gerhard, the founder of the dynasty, is also a Slyth (or rather a hatstall leaning on Slyth, with traits of the other two houses typically associated with the Ringstetten bloodline), with a Gryff (hatstall between all three houses as well) partner/wife in Liselotte. But what makes Gerhard a Slyth at heart, considering the bravery and cleverness he displayed at Breitenfeld? Simply the fact that the young officer puts rank/status and reputation above these values, that the first Swedish Ringstetten's choice of a military career was for winning glory and wealth, not only for excitement. Just look at Gerhard's face upon being promoted to lieutenant. And after losing every chance of a promotion to rittmeister.
As for factions: Dauntless and Amity are the most frequent ones in my works: Cath could fit in either faction, and so does Liselotte, and all three leads in
The Stars' Tears.
I am particularly fond of using the Reason and Emotion archetypes from Dramatica: they provide excellent foils to one another, like a lock and key or berries and white chocolate. If said characters are an OTP, except some tension, whether for cathartic or witty effect (Gerda and Kai, or Lyanna and Rhaegar, are the first thing that comes to mind, she being the emotional and he the rational one; also Dextra and Nistro, with the gender roles inverted). If they are enemies or kismeses, expect a really interesting relationship (cold-headed Iago and hot-blooded Othello, ditto Hamlet and Laertes). This can also be a mentor-menté/e relationship, with Reason in the role of the teacher and Emotion as the disciple... especially if both learn from one another (Desdemona and the older, sensible Emilia; also Sancho+Quijote... Quijote+Sancho...). And of course they can also be literal siblings, Reason being the older dutiful and Emotion the younger prodigal (Elinor and Marianne, Elsa and Anna, Rin and Len; for sibling trios, the overlooked middle one is always the rational one: in the Baratheon dynamics, the Emotion role is split between eldest and youngest -both prodigals- Robert and Renly, middle child Stannis being the voice of reason; the same goes for the Karamazovs, Dimitri+Alyosha vs. reasonable middle brother Ivan...).
In some cases, ensembles (preferently small ensembles like couples or trios) may incarnate these archetypes: not only the cast of Othello is split right in the middle, but the second arc of the Ringstetten Saga features a similar dynamic: the final confrontation between Lost Soul Gustav Adolf and Free Spirit Katia vs. the older and bourgeois Étienne and Christina, already married reasonable authority figures (the Hera and Zeus -sans charmer instinct-, or Frigga and Odin -sans missing eye-, of the setting)... yet this arrangement is
played with all over the finale: as Gustav Adolf is literally frozenhearted (after drinking from an enchanted spring, taking a 180º turn from Lost Soul to Outcast; the spring itself may be a metaphor for the still lingering war trauma within!), while his older sister Christina's concern about his change of heart -and fight against her husband in a duel- leads her to crossdress (she, the family woman and proper lady, the nurturer fulfilling gender roles, dons breeches and ties her hair in a queue!) and take up the role of Étienne's second. While Étienne approaches the duel with his usual sang-froid, Katia is only an Ophelia-style Lunatic when she crashes the gunfight -hitherto, she rolled up her sleeves as "Katharina, the German barmaid..." but the news that the duel was inevitable led her to drastic measures.
In my stories, the Emotion character is often young and female, and overlaps with the Free Spirit -again, this is the result of writing whom I know, and this refers to the person I know best of all. One who wears heart-upon-sleeve T-shirts (with quotes like PRONE TO WANDER, FANGIRL, and of course FREE SPIRIT verbatim, proudly displayed, if not Shakespeare quotes, Pink Floyd, or the Marauders' Map!). The Reason character is male and often a Lost Soul to offer a foil to her -the fish to her bicycle, the Kai to her Gerda, the left to her right, the darkness to her light-.
Nietzsche identified these archetypes of Reason and Emotion with Apollo and Dionysus, respectively. The classical myth reference cannot be more appropriate.
Anyway, what matters is that she and her foil find their rightful place: the Tin Man or Kai has his heart warmed, while the Shrew or the Beast is tamed -though not purged of her primordial nature or her self-reliance.
Reason & Emotion
Why Reason and Emotion Characters?
Even in the most Archetypal terms this conflict of "good vs. evil" is an insufficient process to fully describe an argument, for it fails to address many other basic concerns that will naturally occur in the minds of audience members, and must therefore be incorporated in the Story Mind as well. That is why there are six other Archetypal Characters.
The first of these pairs the archetypes make up is made up of Reason and Emotion.
Reason and Emotion Described
The Reason Archetypal Character is calm, collected, and cool, perhaps even cold. It makes decisions and takes action wholly on the basis of logic. (Remember, we say wholly because we are describing an Archetypal Character. As we shall see later, Complex Characters are much more diverse and dimensional.)
The Reason character is the organized, logical type. The Emotion character who is frenetic, disorganized, and driven by feelings.
It is important to note that as in real life, Reason is not inherently better than Emotion, nor does Emotion have the edge on Reason. They just have different areas of strength and weakness which may make one more appropriate than the other in a given context.
Functionally, the Emotion Character has its heart on its sleeve; it is quick to anger, but also quick to empathize. Because it is frenetic and disorganized, however, most of its energy is uncontrolled and gets wasted by lashing out in so many directions that it ends up running in circles and getting nowhere. In contrast, the Reason Character seems to lack “humanity” and has apparently no ability to think from the heart. As a result, the Reason Character often fails to find support for its well-laid plans and ends up wasting its effort because it has unknowingly violated the personal concerns of others.
In terms of the Story Mind, Reason and Emotion describe the conflict between our purely practical conclusions and considerations of our human side. Throughout a story, the Reason and Emotion Archetypal Characters will conflict over the proper course of action and decision, illustrating the Story Mind’s deliberation between intellect and heart.
Reason acts on the basis of logic and Emotion responds from feelings. Of course, each of these Characters also has its own motivations, but seen Objectively as part of the Story Mind they represent different approaches and attitudes toward solving the problem.
Recap of Archetypal Characters
Now that we have become familiar with Archetypal characters and some of their limitations, let us recap our list of these two among the eight Archetypal Characters as a prelude to resolving the inconsistencies we saw:
- REASON: This character makes its decisions and takes action on the basis of logic, never letting feelings get in the way of a rational course.
- EMOTION: The Emotion character responds with its feelings without thinking, whether it is angry or kind, with disregard for practicality.
REASON
Action Characteristic: This character is very calm or controlled in its actions.
Decision Characteristic: It makes its decisions on the basis of logic, never letting emotion get in the way of a rational course.
EMOTION
Action Characteristic: The Emotional character is frenzied or uncontrolled in its actions.
Decision Characteristic: It responds with its feelings with disregard for practicality.
7. Reason
Just as his title suggests, the Reason character is present in the story to provide a voice of logic. He is:
- Someone who is fundamentally logical.
- Someone who makes decisions based on logic, not emotions.
- Someone who acts in logical ways.
- Someone whose logic influences
- choices, for better or worse.
EXAMPLES
C-3PO in Star Wars, Hamm in Toy Story, Inspector Gordon in Batman Begins, Herod in Claudius the God
8. Emotion
If you’ve guessed that the Emotion character is pretty much the opposite of the Reason character, then it’s a gold star for you. The Emotion character is:
- Someone who is fundamentally emotional.
- Someone who makes decisions based on emotions, not logic.
- Someone who may be negatively emotional (e.g., angry) or positively emotional (e.g., compassionate)—or both.
- Someone who acts in emotional ways.
- Someone whose emotion influences choices, for better or worse.
EXAMPLES
Mr. Ping in Kung Fu Panda, Cathy in Wuthering Heights, Amelia Sedley in Vanity Fair, Melanie in Gone With the Wind
Characters
The next part of storyweaving works on figuring out where each character fits into the overall plot.
There are eight character archetypes, two of which are:
These basic archetypes provide contrasts to each other, and differ in their outlooks, methods, motivations, and ways of evaluating data. They can be further split up if a writer wants to create more complex characters.
In next issues, we will talk about the Fool's Journey and how the Ringstetten Saga's first and second arcs,
The Stars' Tears, and
Pleasure Past and Anguish Past tie into the Major Arcana: how István, Reena, Asuka, Gerhard, Liselotte, Hedwig, Alois, Gustav Adolf, Katia, and Catherine (but also Friedl and Irina) get to close the circle of Tarot reality, from their beginnings as innocent Fools to their understanding of the whole Universe. Let me tell you: this journey is by no means a walk in the park, but rather the Voyage of Life.
