Archetypes are commonly seen throughout different media such as artwork, film, or literature. Similar ideas or perceptions come together to create said archetypes. As defined by Faber and Mayer (2008), “an archetype is an internal mental model of a typical, generic story character to which an observer might resonate emotionally”. Carl Jung, famed psychoanalyst, first created this concept to describe how all human beings know of these commonalities through the collective unconscious. Today, we typically think of archetypes when looking at the development of fictional characters. Star Wars, one of the largest film franchises in the world, uses many of these archetypes in its character development. A great example of this phenomenon is Luke Skywalker, as the archetype of the Hero. Tarot cards are another form of media that also convey these archetypes, however they do so through each card’s imagery. With the use of different colors and symbols tarot cards can convey the same archetypes that can be seen in film and literature. While there are tarot decks in existence, they all use different art and art styles to depict the same archetypal messages. Within this project, I created my own version of the major arcana in a tarot deck using the imagery seen within the Star Wars saga. I then completed a comparative critical analysis of how Star Wars contains some of the same allegories, archetypes, and imagery seen within tarot cards. By looking at the archetypes of both Star Wars and the tarot we are able to gain a stronger grasp of the themes present in both types of media, film and art.

This thesis examines the three films of the most recent Star Wars trilogy (2015-2019) through a feminist lens, investigating the following question: is the trilogy’s leading woman, Rey, a feminist character throughout her arc? This thesis finds that while the telling of Rey’s story certainly has its feminist moments, it fails in several ways to truly abolish the patriarchal frame/attitude that was ingrained from the first two trilogies, leaving the character of Rey feeling incomplete. As the first female to be the primary protagonist in a Star Wars film, Rey’s strength and light certainly make her a positive female role model for young audiences. However, she is held back by the patriarchal society in which she exists and thus is ultimately reduced to being second-best in her own trilogy to the all-powerful older white men who came before her.