“You can expect the unexpected.” ~ publicity for the film Charade

People often have trouble grasping the elusive archetype of the Shapeshifter, perhaps because its very nature is to be shifting and unstable.  Its appearance and characteristics change as soon as you examine it closely.  Nonetheless, the Shapeshifter is a powerful archetype and understanding its ways can be helpful in storytelling and in life.

Heroes frequently encounter figures, often of the opposite sex, whose primary characteristic is that they appear to change constantly from the hero’s point of view. Often the hero’s love interest or romantic partner will manifest the qualities of a Shapeshifter.  We have all experienced relationships in which our partner is fickle, two-faced, or bewilderingly changeable.  In Fatal Attraction the hero is confronted with a Shapeshifting woman who changes from a passionate lover to an insane, murderous harpy.

Shapeshifters change appearance or mood, and are difficult for the hero and the audience to pin down. They may mislead the hero or keep her guessing, and their loyalty or sincerity is often in question.  An Ally or friend of the same sex as the hero may also act as a Shapeshifter in a buddy comedy or adventure.  Wizards, witches, and ogres are traditional Shapeshifters in the world of fairly tales.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION

An important psychological purpose of the Shapeshifter archetype is to express the energy of the animus and anima, terms from the psychology of Carl Jung.  The animus is Jung’s name for the male element in the female unconscious, the bundle of positive and negative images of masculinity in a woman’s dreams and fantasies.  The anima is the corresponding female element in the male unconscious.  In this theory, people have a complete set of both male and female qualities which are necessary for survival and internal balance.

Historically, the female characteristics in men and the male characteristics in women have been sternly repressed by society. Men learn at an early age to show only the macho, unemotional side of themselves.  Women are taught by society to play down their masculine qualities.  This can lead to emotional and even physical problems.  Men are now working to regain some of their suppressed feminine qualities.  Women sometimes spend their adult lives trying to reclaim the male energies within them which society has discouraged, such as power and assertiveness.

PROJECTION

We may also confront the animus and anima in reality. By nature we look for people who match our internal image of the opposite sex.  Often we imagine the resemblance and project onto some unsuspecting person our desire to join with the anima or animus.  We may fall into relationships in which we have not seen the partner clearly.  Instead we have seen the anima or animus, our own internal notion of the ideal partner, projected onto the other person.  We often go through relationships trying to force the partner to match our projection.  Hitchcock created a powerful expression of this phenomenon in Vertigo.  James Stewart forces Kim Novak to change her hair and clothing to match the image of his feminine ideal Carlota, a woman who ironically never existed in the first place.

It’s natural for each sex to regard the other as ever-changing, mysterious. Many of us don’t understand our own sexuality and psychology very well, let alone that of the opposite sex.  Often our main experience of the opposite sex is their changeability and their tendency to shift attitudes, appearances, and emotions for no apparent reason.

Women complain that men are vague, vacillating, and unable to commit. Men complain that women are moody, flighty, fickle, and unpredictable.  Anger can turn gentle men into beasts.  Women change dramatically during their monthly cycle, shifting with the phases of the moon.  During pregnancy they drastically shift shape and mood.  At some time most of us have been perceived by others as “two-faced” Shapeshifters.

The animus and anima may be positive or negative figures who may be helpful to the hero or destructive to him. In some stories it’s the task of the hero to figure out which side, positive or negative, he is dealing with.

The Shapeshifter archetype is also a catalyst for change, a symbol of the psychological urge to transform. Dealing with a Shapeshifter may cause the hero to change attitudes about the opposite sex or come to terms with the repressed energies that this archetype stirs up.

These projections of our hidden opposite sides, these images and ideas about sexuality and relationships, form the archetype of the Shapeshifter.

DRAMATIC FUNCTION

The Shapeshifter serves the dramatic function of bringing doubt and suspense into a story. When heroes keep asking, “Is he faithful to me?  Is she going to betray me?  Does he truly love me?  Is he an ally or an enemy?” a Shapeshifter is generally present.

Shapeshifters appear with great frequency and variety in the film noir and thriller genres. The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, and Chinatown feature detectives confronting Shapeshifting women whose loyalty and motives are in doubt.  In other stories such as Hitchcock’s Suspicion or Shadow of a Doubt, a good woman must figure out if a Shapeshifting man is worthy of her trust.

A common type of Shapeshifter is called the femme fatale, the woman as temptress or destroyer.  The idea is as old as the Bible, with its stories of Eve in the Garden of Eden, the scheming Jezebel, and Delilah cutting off Samson’s hair to rob him of his strength.  The femme fatale finds expression today in stories of cops and detectives betrayed by killer women, such as Sharon Stone’s character in Basic Instinct or Kathleen Turner’s in Body Heat. Black Widow and Single White Female are interesting variants in which a female hero confronts a deadly, Shapeshifting femme fatale.

The Shapeshifter, like the other archetypes, can be manifested by male or female characters. There are as many hommes fatales in myth, literature, and movies as there are femmes.  In Greek mythology, Zeus was a great Shapeshifter, changing forms to cavort with human maidens who usually ended up suffering for it. Looking for Mr. Goodbar is about a woman seeking a perfect lover, but finding instead a Shapeshifting man who brings her death.  The film The Stranger depicts a good woman (Loretta Young) who is about to marry a monstrous Shapeshifter, a closet Nazi played by Orson Welles.

The fatale aspect is not always essential to this archetype.  Shapeshifters may only dazzle and confuse the hero, rather than try to kill her.  Shapeshifting is a natural part of romance.  It’s common to be blinded by love, unable to see the other person clearly through the many masks they wear.  The character played by Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone appears to be a Shapeshifter to hero Kathleen Turner, who is kept guessing until the last moment about the loyalty of her male counterpart.

Shapeshifting may manifest in changes of appearance. In many films a woman’s change of costume or hairstyle indicates that her identity is shifting and her loyalty is in doubt.  This archetype may also be expressed through changes in behaviour or speech, such as assuming different accents or telling a succession of lies.  In the thriller Arabesque, Shapeshifter Sophia Loren tells unwilling hero Gregory Peck a bewildering series of stories about her background, all of which turns out to be untrue.  Many heroes have to deal with Shapeshifters, male and female, who assume disguises and tell lies to confuse them.

A famous Shapeshifter from The Odyssey is the sea god Proteus, “the Old Man of the Sea.”  Menelaus, one of the heroes returning from the Trojan War, traps Proteus to force information out of him.  Proteus changes into a lion, a snake, a panther, a boar, running water, and a tree in his attempt to escape.  But Menelaus and his men hold on tight until Proteus returns to his true form and yields up the answers to their questions.  The story teaches that if heroes are patient with Shapeshifters the truth may eventually come out.  “Protean,” our adjective meaning “readily taking many forms,” comes from the story of Proteus.

MASK OF THE SHAPESHIFTER

As with the other archetypes, Shapeshifting is a function or a mask that may be worn by any character in a story. A hero may wear the mask in a romantic situation.  Richard Gere, in An Officer and a Gentleman, puts on airs and tells a hat full of lies to impress Debra Winger.  He temporarily acts as a Shapeshifter although he is the hero of the piece.

Sometimes a hero must become a Shapeshifter to escape a trap or get past a Threshold Guardian. In Sister Act, Whoopi Goldberg’s character, a Las Vegas lounge singer, disguises herself as a Catholic nun to keep from being killed as a witness to a mob murder.

Villains or their allies may wear the Shapeshifter mask to seduce or confuse a hero. The wicked queen in Snow White assumes the form of an old crone to trick the hero into eating a poisoned apple.

Shapeshifting is also a natural attribute of other archetypes such as Mentors and Tricksters. Merlin, Mentor of the King Arthur stories frequently changes shape to aid Arthur’s cause.  The goddess Athena in The Odyssey assumes the appearance of many different humans to help Odysseus and his son.

Shapeshifters can also be found in so-called “buddy movies” in which the story centres on two male or two female characters who share the role of hero. Often one is more conventionally heroic and easier for the audience to identify with.  The second character, while of the same sex as the main hero, will often be a Shapeshifter, whose loyalty and true nature are always in question.  In the comedy The In-Laws, the “straight” hero, Alan Arkin, is nearly driven crazy by the Shapeshifting of his buddy, Peter Falk, a CIA agent.

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The Shapeshifter is one of the most flexible archetypes and serves a protean variety of functions in modern stories. It’s found most often in male-female relationships, but it may also be useful in other situations to portray characters whose appearance or behavior changes to meet the needs of the story.