The Trickster

The way the trickster is portrayed depends on what the basis of what the story is. He normally is seen is a small and weak character and has to use cleverness and deceit to survive. At times the trickster will be seen as an animal (i.e coyotes, rabbits, and foxes are the most common). The character of the Trickster is normally portrayed as a fool or the trouble maker. They deliberately break the rules of the gods or of society. At times the trickster will use his wit and cunning ability to deceive other, creating a positive or negative outcome. A common misconception of the trickster is that they are always the “evil” character, but the truth is the trickster can aid or sidekick to the protagonist, not necessarily a character trying to hurt the main character. Definition

Significances The Trickster normally is the antagonist of the story that causes a ripple in the plot. This ripple then causes the protagonist to think and fend for themselves. Because the protagonist is forced to think, the trickster signifies the deeper meaning of what the protagonist is trying to accomplish. The trickster can also be the antagonist trying to prohibit the protagonist from being successful.

Odysseus

Odysseus is not normally seen as a trickster, but when he gets the Cyclops drunk, he uses wit to then escape. Also with the help of Athena, Odysseys tricks the suitors into believing he is someone else. This is an example of a negative side of the trickster because Odysseus is using wit to benefit only himself and it then causes harm to the other characters.

Athena

Athena is a prime example of a good trickster. Athena is normally seen as a helper in the Odyssey, but due to her characteristics i.e shape shifting she could also be portrayed as the trickster, because she tricks Telémachus into believing that she is someone she is not telling him he needs to seek information about his father making him do so. Also Athena uses her ability to change the way others appear to benefit these characters. She makes Penelope more appealing to the suitors and turns Odysseus into an old man. She also uses her ability to change the weather tricking Odysseus into thinking he is stranded when he is really on Ithaca. Athena is a good trickster because she is not tricking the main characters in benefit for herself, but instead is causing a positive out come for her peers.

Penelope

Penelope is also a trickster. When she tricks the suitors into believing that she will marry one of them, once she finishes the burial shroud for Laértës, she then unravels the shroud making them wait longer.

Circë Symbolically this picture represents that Circë is a trickster because there is a fox in the picture as well and the fox is a symbolic animal of the trickster.

Circë tricks Odysseus' men into drinking her whine and turning them into pigs thus creating a negative outcome. Circë starts off as the negative trickster in the Odyssey. All her actions are done to benefit herself only, but when she is tricked by Odysseus and then has to turn the men back, and is bound to the swearing of the gods, she then becomes a helper to Odysseus.

Alice in Wonderland

The Cheshire Cat is a great trickster. He is not positive nor negative because he does not gain from being a trickster but he signifies the whole thinking possess that the protagonist must gain but being tricked. The cat speaks in riddle and vague conversation to confuse Alice. When the Cheshire Cat vanishes he leaves behind a well known grin. This grin symbolically represents deceit and your lack of knowledge. The Cheshire Cat leaves the characters in the book and the readers feeling as if they are missing something or the cat knows something that they don't. Alice is forced to think of what the cat meant when he disappeared which ends up being something positive in the end.

Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin tricks the miller’s daughter into giving him her jewelry in return for his service of spinning the straw into gold. When the miller’s daughter she then is tricked into giving him, her first born child. When the time comes Rumpelstiltskin returns for his prize but then is tricked by the miller’s daughter and disappears forever. Rumpelstiltskin is the antagonist that tricks people and uses his wit to trick the miller’s daughter because his is not big nor strong. He causes a situation where the protagonist must think and then she is able to create a better outcome then what was planned for her.