A reminder: Working with character archetypes is not about rules. Rather they are tools to analyze existing stories or -- more important from a writer’s standpoint – to help understand the relationships between characters as part of the story-crafting process.
Also this: Each character is the Protagonist in their own story.
Therefore, let’s look at Elvis through two perspectives: First, with Colonel Parker as Protagonist, then with Elvis Presley as Protagonist.
Protagonist: Colonel Parker. As noted previously, the story is told through his perspective. Indeed, he has his own character arc as he descends into hubris as he rides the Elvis Presley roller coaster to his own bitter end.
Nemesis: From an internal standpoint, we can look at both greed and pride as inner drivers which find expression once he discovers Elvis as a young performer. They are his shadow and he embraces those self-destructive instincts. This oppositional dynamic becomes personified in the story in the form of the Las Vegas hotel magnates who make a deal with Parker: He will have his debts wiped clean and have an endless line of credit (for gambling in the casinos) as long as Elvis only performs at the International. This “devil deal” fuels Parker’s shift from ally to enemy in his relationship to Elvis.
Attractor: Elvis is the character with whom Parker has the most emotional connection. While he always sees and uses Elvis for his own mercenary benefit, at first, he does have what feels like a more paternal interest in the young man. For example, when Elvis gets arrested for a “lewd” performance on stage (“He didn’t listen to me. Why didn’t he listen to me?”), Parker determines to find a way to “save him.” That leads to Elvis’ stint in the Army to rehabilitate the performer’s public perception. But over time, whatever feelings of paternal care Parker has for Elvis gets subsumed by Parker’s greed.
Mentor: “Snow job.” That’s what he learned during his stint in the carnival life and that’s what perpetually informs his behavior throughout the story. However much that “wisdom” helps Parker’s managerial career flourish, in terms of his personal “salvation,” it leads to his own destruction. In that regard, we may see this as a False Mentor.
Trickster: Parker’s story really has a Biblical feel to it: “The love of money is the root of all evil.” It is money which lures Parker in all he does and helps drive Elvis’ career rise, but it’s money and his gambling addiction which leads to his – and Elvis’ – demise.
Now let’s consider the story from Elvis’ perspective as the Protagonist.
Protagonist: The Elvis saga as portrayed in the movie evokes the Icarus narrative whose father Daedalus invents wings for his son, but Icarus ignores his father’s advice, flies too close to the sun, his wings melt, and he plummets to his death. In this regard, while Parker is driven by greed (money), Elvis is driven by a lust for fame, his own shadow dynamic.
Nemesis: While Parker certainly turns into an enemy by the story’s third act, there is an oppositional dynamic throughout the middle of the narrative: The restrictive morality of America in the 50s and 60s. This is most notably portrayed by Senator Eastman who leads efforts to destroy Elvis, but Elvis fights back, driven by an inner exhibitionist instinct and need to achieve fame.
Mentor: As a performer, it is members of the Black community who most influence Elvis. From his ecstatic experience at the gospel meeting to interactions with a series of Black musicians such as B.B. King, Little Richard, and Big Mama Thornton, it is these people and this performative experience which speaks most directly to Elvis’ own soul. It’s why when he is forced to become the “new Elvis,” he goes back to Beale Street to reconnect with who he is at his core.
Attractor: First, there is his mother Gladys. His need to provide for her, after the family had experienced poverty, is part of the fuel which drives him to succeed as a performer. Once Gladys dies, there is Priscilla, his wife, but that relationship lapses into a secondary concern when Elvis becomes addicted to drugs.
Trickster: In my view, the core function of the Trickster is to test the will of the Protagonist. They do this by switching from ally to enemy, enemy to ally. That is very much the way in which Colonel Parker functions in relation to Elvis. During the middle of the story, the line is often blurred as Parker’s advice and actions seemingly help Elvis, but always to Parker’s benefit as well. By the end of Act Two, Elvis fires Parker, now seeing him as a full-blown enemy. However, a broken Elvis invites Parker back, in effect giving up the battle, resigning himself (Elvis) to his own destiny with death.
That is a segue into tomorrow’s discussion on Themes.
