Maleficent: from the Matriarch to the Scorned Woman (Psycholinguistic Image)

Abstract

The aim of the research is to identify the elements of the psycholinguistic image of the leading character in the dark fantasy adventure film Maleficent directed by Robert Stromberg (2014). The task consists of two stages, at the first of which I identify the psychological characteristics of the character to determine to which of the archetypes Maleficent belongs. As the basis, I take the classification of film archetypes by V. Schmidt. At the second stage, I distinguish the speech peculiarities of the character that reflex her psychological image. This paper explores 98 Maleficent’s turns of dialogues in the film. According to V. Schmidt’s classification, Maleficent belongs first to the Matriarch archetype and later in the plot to the Scorned Woman archetype. These archetypes are representations of the powerful goddess of marriage and fertility Hera, being respectively her heroic and villainous embodiments. There are several crucial characteristics revealed by speech elements.