The Fool, as an archetypal figure, is full of love for life and vitality. They believe in enjoying life, both on account of the fine things in it and in seeing the humor in every situation. Without the Fool, there would be little reason for people to come together: they embody happiness and joy, and share their own positivity with those around them.

Background

For those of us just seeing this series for the first time, I'm writing a series on using Pearson's personality archetypes (affiliate link) in storytelling. This profile, of the Fool, is the last of twelve entries in this series, following the Destroyer, Orphan, Innocent, the Sage, the Warrior, the Ruler, the Magician, the Caregiver, the Lover, Seeker, and the Creator. You might also be interested in my earlier series on the Hero and Hero's Journey and the Nemesis.

If you just want a quick recap or introduction, here's the gist: archetypes are recurring patterns that have proven to be pretty universal. They're cognitive schemes that allow us to examine behavior and narratives in light of a coherent whole. That makes them valuable tools to audiences and storytellers, since they make stories authentic and lend them meaning.

Understanding the Fool

The Fool is a powerful archetype because it is arguably the most human one: chaotic but yet pursuing ordered goals, the Fool pursues enjoyment and happiness as their standard course. The Fool is bold and curious, always seeking new experiences, without leaving behind the comfort of home forever. Despite the poor reputation that sometimes is brought upon them due to their name and their mercurial attitudes, the Fool is actually quite balanced and well-adjusted, and typically values intelligence above everything else.

The Fool's agenda is to have not just fun, but positive experiences; they enjoy drama, art, and culture alongside frenetic sporting events and brawls. They follow whatever guiding star speaks to them, but not with the blindness of the Innocent or the conviction of the Sage. When something ceases to satisfy, or is found to be deleterious, they typically abandon it, instead going for a new preoccupation.

The result of this is that the Fool can often stumble into great wisdom because their journey forces them to come to peace with their desires and the nature of the world. They must learn to accept what they can get.

A very successful Fool becomes focused on gratitude and opportunity, looking to each day as a chance to improve and experience. Instead of simply caring about physical and intellectual pleasure, they seek a spiritual understanding and align themselves with the resources and people who can help them pursue that goal. They then seek to share their enlightenment with others, because they have come to appreciate the pro-social process of mutual improvement.

Another element of the Fool that is important is that they tend not to align themselves with others unless they have to, not out of disloyalty but out of a desire to remain aloof and explore their opportunities. While they are unlikely to undergo a Hero's Journey themselves, they can certainly help others along the way. Feste, one of Shakespeare's minor characters in "Twelfth Night", demonstrates this and is able to serve as an intermediary between the multiple characters who are involved in the play.

Illustration from Twelfth night, in the public domain

The Tragic Fool

The tragic Fool can be found in the form of such characters as Unoka in Things Fall Apart. Although Unoka is easy-going and a wonderful performer, he is too lazy and self-indulgent to actually pursue the activities that would bring him success in society, which ultimately causes his own life to become difficult and leads his son Okonkwo upon a diametrically opposed tragic path, in which he becomes the most industrious, and ultimately self-destructive, man of his tribe.

The tragic Fool is still someone who retains a degree of dignity and valor in their pursuit of pleasure. They avoid overtly destructive things–or at least have the wherewithal to realize that such things are destructive and attempt to dissuade others from following their paths. However, the Fool is prone to addiction, self-indulgence, and sloth. In many cases, they abandon their responsibility, as Unoka does Okonkwo, to pursue their desires.

The important distinction here is that the tragic Fool feels regrets; they realize that their actions (or inaction) are not improving the world around them, but they lack the resolve and emotional stability to work toward meaningful improvement.

Another element of the tragic Fool is that they rarely attempt to improve themselves within their own archetype: they seek to change who they are on a fundamental level, but abandon the core motives and inspirations that guide them to do so. This means they are caught in a cycle of failure unless they are able to, in a moment of luck and exceptional effort, have a breakthrough and change elements of their personality. Even so, they will typically lose their ability to improve others' lives with joy.

The Villainous Fool

The villainous Fool goes a step further than the tragic Fool. While the tragic Fool is far from an enviable character, the villainous Fool is absolutely horrid. They pursue their own desires at the cost of everyone else.

I believe Par Lagerkvist's titular dwarf in The Dwarf illustrates a good example of a villainous Fool–emotionally stunted and wantonly cruel, he seems to be unguided and misdirected, often perceiving himself as more intelligent and more wise than he is. Machiavellian and manipulative, he is nonetheless enslaved by his desires and beliefs.

Another example of the villainous Fool comes in the form of the criminal who rebukes Christ on the cross. This Fool, caught in a situation that has already cost him his future, insists on dragging others into misery by taunting those condemned to the same fate as he is.

One issue that comes up when identifying the Fool is that they often seem to waver between other archetypes, not necessarily aligning clearly with themselves: a character like Tyler Durden in Fight Club as a good example of the anarchic tendencies of the Fool, but also resembles the Orphan and Destroyer in his methodologies and modes. Nonetheless, Durden is more of a Fool than anything else.

The Fool in Star Wars

In Star Wars, the Fool is represented by characters such as Jabba the Hutt and Lando Calrissian.

Jabba the Hutt represents a villainous Fool, who is decadent and pursues pleasure above all else, to the point of intimidating others and participating in acts of cruelty and power games so that he can have the sensations of power and leisure he demands.

Lando Calrissian, on the other hand, is a Fool who is filled with more of the positive traits; although his fickle allegiance causes some problems for the protagonists, he manages to come through for his friends and allies when the time is right, focusing on practical methods of ensuring that people are free to enjoy life when he joins the Rebellion.

Using the Fool in Storytelling

The Fool in storytelling is difficult to pull-off well. They rarely follow a traditional Hero's Journey, requiring some clever utilization of their best traits to play a major positive role in a story.

Nonetheless, the Fool can be found in wise mentors who encourage their charges to seek meaning in small things, the people living in the ordinary world for whom the Hero quests, and tragic figures.

The important thing to remember with the Fool is that the joys and pleasures they pursue do not necessarily have to be decadent and border on vice. They can enjoy things like simple daily rituals, or living a life that goes beyond bare necessity.

The wise Fool is thankful and grateful, and can be used to show the ways that the world is transforming during the course of a story. They're also able to pull together people; they don't bind themselves too closely to any one cause or goal, and as such can function in a similar role to the Lover in facilitating reconciliation or connections between characters.

The Fool can also be a barrier and obstacle, or a temptation for another character. As a secondary archetype in a character, it represents the ability to fall into temptation, and characters whose companions are Fools may find peer pressure to give up on their quest.

The Fool can also be motivated by their intellect, participating in contests of wit to prove themselves; they are not as proactive as the Warrior in seeking self-perfection (sometimes narcissism plays a role in this), but they do enjoy an opportunity to joke, trick, or display their keen mind or wisdom.

Using the Fool in Gaming

The Fool is generally under-utilized in gaming because they are perceived as people without a goal. However, the Fool can be motivated to great feats in a number of ways, especially if they are living up to their greatest potential.

To motivate a Fool, they need to see misery that they can solve and have an impetus and path to solve it. They must be convinced to leave their comfort zone and potentially lose their opportunity to enjoy what they have. Often this comes in the form of a challenge to their mental faculties.

Wrapping Up

The Fool is mercurial, and that makes them hard to pin down. They value the good life, and they rely on their keen minds to assess the world around them. Although prone to vices centering on their efforts to get maximum enjoyment with minimum effort, they can learn great truths that go unnoticed to assertive, high-energy followers of other archetypes.