You may be wondering, what is an archetype?  It’s what Carl June considered “a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches.”  [Dictionary.Reference.com]

What that means is that the archetype must be a symbol or image that all cultures share.  The Jungian idea of the Trickster is often linked to shape-shifters, but werewolves are more than tricksters.  They speak to something primal and elemental in all of us:  the ability to change from human into pure animal.  And, by being animal, these werewolves are doing things that we cannot.  They are reacting on instinct, allowed to express their “shadow” selves and be the animal that is inherent in all of us.

The rise of modern fantasy (and paranormal romance!) has given us werewolves who retain their essential human consciousness after they shift, allowing us to empathize even more with a being that must live continually on the margins of society, forever doomed to liminality and secrecy.

In my own writing, the idea of a love story between two werewolves from warring clans, sort of Romeo and Juliet for shifters, took shape.  Morgane and Aelric emerged as these two dark, perhaps slightly damaged characters, who were very much marginalized within society and even within their own families.  It is their status as outsiders and their own fight to be recognized that defines their relationship with each other and with the world around them.  Morgane pretends that the world around her will just come to accept her animal nature, while Aelric believes he can fight through the perceptions of humans.  This tension, along with their sexual attraction for each other (of course – it IS romance), carries the story.

So why do we care that these werewolves are something more than themselves?  Because when we wonder why we can never get enough Taylor Lautner, or why we fall in love with the characters on True Blood, we know it is because they are expressing some deep part of ourselves. The animal is within all of us.

This article first appeared on http://kabrinimessage.blogspot.com/