The purpose of this study is to analyze the character archetypes and fairy tale motifs revealed in Andrzej Sapkowski's fantasy novel The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny. The Witcher series, published in the late 20th century, was reborn in the 21st century as new cultural content, including video games and TV series that consumers love. The Witcher has fun and popularity as a genre literature by inducing readers' empathy through the establishment of archetypical characters. Sapkowski's series recreated various fairy tales to draw on essence of the literature that reflects on human's life. This study examines the archetypes and roles of the main characters of The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny based on Carol Pearson's theory and perfroms an intertextual analysis of the embedded fairy tale motifs.
The first chapter of the the study offers a description of the purpose, analysis method, and previous studies on The Witcher . The second chapter provides a summary of the plot and discusses Sapkowski's history and his works, which contains hints of modern and contemporary history. To analyze the archetypes of the central characters, the third chapter of the study identifies the positive and negative aspects of each character archetype and categorizes their narratives into growth stages across three periods.
Geralt, the main character, is a hero archetype with the ability and courage to fight the enemy. As the story progresses, he agonizes over his beliefs and grows as a hero. Yennefer, Geralt's lover, is a magician archetype who has strong free will. Her role is to bring changes to the hero. She makes Geralt mentally weak and reminds him of the human side, opening opportunities for his mental growth. Siri, Geralt's child of destiny, is a regular girl archetype. After experiencing psychological despair, Siri establishes a family relationship with Geralt, gains a sense of belonging, and begins to interact with others. Geralt, as a hero, recognizes his fate and realizes his duty as a guardian by being with Siri; he evolves into a mature hero by expanding human relationships. Dandelion, Geralt's friend and bard, is a jester archetype with a playful attitude toward life. He possesses the characteristics of a trickster, and through his role, lightens the mood of the story and relieves tension.
The fourth chapter of the study presents an analysis of the fairy tale motifs "Beauty and the Beast", "Snow White", "Aladdin", "The Little Mermaid", and "Hans My Hedgehog" revealed in Sapkowski's work. Normally in fairy tales, female characters are described as passive and conform to the male-centered order; however, Sapkowski reinterpreted the fairy tale and portrayed female characters as independent women. The author also tried to overthrow gender standards by criticizing the male-centered patriarchal social order emphasized as a virtue in the original fairy tales. By combining the story of "Hans My Hedgehog" with "The Sea King and Vasilisa the Wise", which is found in the Russian folktale, Sapkowski drew out a scheme explaining the "law of surprise", an important fateful principle in The Witcher series.
The fifth chapter of the present study deals with the Polish folk element, Strzyga, an evil spirit in Polish folk tales, and Wawel Dragon, of Polish legend. Sapkowski emphasizes that good and evil coexist in human nature by suggesting that Geralt stands on the border between human and non-human.
Unlike most fantasy novel series that continue the orthodox fantasy genealogy via the usage of elements of Celtic or Greek mythology, Sapkowski's The Witcher series is based on Slavic myths, legends, and folktales. The author faithfully follows the existing genre customs while adding creative transformations to present an unfamiliar and original worldview.
In this study, the character archetypes of the main characters of The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny were analyzed, and their intertextuality were reviewed via the analysis of fairy tale motifs borrowed in the episodes. This study discovers the possibility of "literature" as cultural content lively discussed in today's academic world and introduces a positive case for literature to take a step forward with the trends of the digital era. It also explores whether Polish literature can gain global attention and popularity by analyzing the background of Polish literature that has been well-received in other cultures.