The+Trickster


 * //The Trickster//**

The trickester archtype describes a character that is often wity, sneaky, and enjoys a good april fools joke. The tricksters are wity in that they use their charizma and wit to trick their targets. In mythology and in modern works tricksters are often shapeshifters such as Loki. The role of a trickster is used to help the protagonist by tricking the antagonist, as well as to fool the protagonist to prolong his/her journey toward their mcgoffin, such as in The Labyrinth. The tricksters in mythology where examples to misgeviouse kids for what they should not do and what will happen to them, an example for this could possibly Sysiphis.

Sysiphis was not a god but he had many encounters with the gods, he knew secrets of Zues. He betrayed these secrets and for that Zues punished him and ordered him to tartarus. While in tartarus sysiphis tricked thanatos, the god of death, to demetrate his unescapeable shackles. While tanatos was demenstrating, sysiphus fastened the shackles and trapped thanatos. Now that thanatos is confined, no one was able to die. Sysiphis then went to Personophone, the queen of the underworld, to ask if he could go to earth to score his wife for not throwing his dead, naked corpse in the town square. She allowed it but he ended up staying on earth after scorning his wife. Ares was angry cause no one was dieing, he went to tartarus, freed thanatos, and ordered hermese to drag sysiphis back to the underworld. He was puneshed to a life of hard physical labor. He was doomed to push a large boulder up a mountain, if he got the boulder to the top they would let him free, butonce the boulder got to the top it would roll back on him and him and the boulder would crash to the ground. Also if he stopped pushing the boulder at anytime for a break, harpies would fly down and assault him untill he began pushing the boulder again.

Loki is a shapshifting god found in Norse mythology. In one event, loki finds himself helping Thor get his hammer, Mjöllnir back. Thor wakes up one morning and finds his hammer has gone missing. He turns to Loki for assistence in the hunt for thor's hammer. Loki and Thor go to Freyja to borrow her feather cloak to aide in their search. Freyja agrees to the terms and lends them her feather cloak, Loki takes the cloak and searchs for the where-abouts of Thors hammer is. Loki comes across a jotunn Prymr whom is tending to his animals and plaiting golen collars for his female dogs. Loki asks Prymr if he knows where Thors hammer is. Prymr tells of how he burried it eight leages beneath the earth, and will only give it back if he is wed to Freyja. Loki goes back to Thor and tells Prymr's proposal. They go to Freyja to confront her of the proposal. She falls into a rage and refuses their proposal, but in her rage her necklace, Brísingamen, falls from her neck. Loki and Thor grab the necklace and put it on Thor. Loki dresses Thor up as Freyja to fool Prymr. So he does so, Thor and Loki go to Prymr, fake a marrige, and as soon as Thor's hammer is in reach, Thor grabs it, kills prymr and all his followers, and goes about his business.

The literary role of the trickster is how to overcome oppression from within. A modern day trickster, i feel, would be catagorized as a punk/anarchist. modern day punks base most of their actions off of the pure idea of causing chaos. Punks and anarchists hate the system, the system being the man, government, order, sociaty, law. True anarchist/punks tend to cause chaos in everything they do because it causes contriversy for the system to deal with, the system creats order and they feel that their role is to disestablish this order. The Joker is a good example of this anarchist characteristic. He does things just for the sake of creating choas. He feeds off the idea that his actions effect so many others. I feel that this archtype was manafested to keep the system in check rather then the other way around. Sometimes the government gets too powerful and goes too far, and the idea of this disastablishmen is put into effect durring the dismanteling of the Berlin wall.