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 behavior 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 turn out 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 centers 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.
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.
The archetype known as the Shadow represents the energy of the dark side, the unexpressed, unrealized, or rejected aspects of something. Often it's the home of the suppressed monsters of our inner world. Shadows can be all the things we don't like about ourselves, all the dark secrets we can't admit, even to ourselves. The qualities we have renounced and tried to root out still lurk within, operating in the Shadow world of the unconscious. The Shadow can also shelter positive qualities that are in hiding or that we have rejected for some reason.
The negative face of the Shadow in stories is projected onto characters called villains, antagonists, or enemies. Villains and enemies are usually dedicated to the death, destruction, or defeat of the hero. Antagonists may not be quite so hostile — they may be Allies who are after the same goal but who disagree with the hero's tactics. Antagonists and heroes in conflict are like horses in a team pulling in different directions, while villains and heroes in conflict are like trains on a head-on collision course.
PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION
The Shadow can represent the power of repressed feelings. Deep trauma or guilt can fester when exiled to the darkness of the unconscious, and emotions hidden or denied can turn into something monstrous that wants to destroy us. If the Threshold Guardian represents neuroses, then the Shadow archetype stands for psychoses that not only hamper us, but threaten to destroy us. The Shadow may simply be that shady part of ourselves that we are always wrestling with in struggles over bad habits and old fears. This energy can be a powerful internal force with a life of its own and its own set of interests and priorities. It can be a destructive force, especially if not acknowledged, confronted, and brought to light.