The Virgin
The Virgin is the archetype of awakening.
She represents the moment in a person’s life when they begin to sense a truer, more authentic version of themselves — one that has been muted, shaped, or restricted by the world around them. The Virgin embodies untapped potential and the deep human desire to live as one’s truest self.
Where the Hero (from The Hero’s Journey →) grows through external trials, the Virgin grows through self-realization. Her story centers on the tension between who she has been told to be and who she feels she could become.
Common Genres
The Virgin often appears in stories of:
- Coming of age
- Rediscovery
- Artistic expression
- Relationships with family and community
- Identity beyond social expectations
The common thread is: she senses there is more to her than the role she has been living.
Why It Works
The Virgin resonates because she embodies one of the most universal human experiences: the desire to become our true selves within the relationships and worlds that shape us. Carl Jung calls this “the process of individuation — the moment when a person becomes aware of their inner self and begins to integrate it.”
All of us understand what it feels like to:
- Carry expectations from family or community
- Hide parts of themselves to avoid conflict
- Feel a mismatch between who they are (or can be) and the role they are living
- Fear disappointing the people they care about
The Virgin’s arc reflects this struggle between the internal and external in a way that audiences instantly recognize. Her challenges aren’t dragons or villains, but the much harder task of breaking free from the expectations of people she loves or depends on. That’s why her journey feels so real — and so difficult.
The Virgin’s struggle speaks directly to modern identity pressures, such as negotiating:
- Gender expectations
- Cultural identity
- Family obligation
- Authenticity vs image
- Self-expression vs tradition
Key Traits
- Often begins “ugly,” overlooked, or invisible until her authentic self emerges. Virgin stories frequently use the Ugly Duckling → Beautiful Swan transformation to externalize an inner awakening — not because beauty is the goal, but because film and TV need a visible way to show internal change.
- Confidence changes posture
- Joy brightens expression
- Self-acceptance shows in how someone dresses or carries themselves
- Hiding or shrinking makes someone appear unconfident or uncomfortable
- Deeply relational archetype: her identity exists within a web of expectations, obligations, and roles that she must navigate and eventually reshape.
- She may be eager or reluctant, bold or hesitant, confident or unsure — what defines her is the direction of her growth: inward first, then outward.
Characters like Gracie in Miss Congeniality and Mia in The Princess Diaries transform not because they become “prettier,” but because they become more comfortable in their own skin. Their appearance shifts to reflect their growing confidence, agency, and self-recognition.
Key Point for Writers
- The Virgin is not exclusive to female protagonists.
- A character making themselves smaller to fit a role
- Carrying expectations placed on them by others
- Dimming parts of themselves to preserve belonging
- Reveal the emotional cost of conformity and of authenticity: A strong Virgin arc makes both sides of her dilemma felt.
- Virgin arcs often include small, personal victories. Those victories are enormous to her.
- Following a creative impulse
- Dressing differently
- Expressing a hidden talent
- Telling the truth to one person
- Leaving a toxic role
- Admitting a dream out loud
While the Virgin archetype is most often associated with women (because historically women experienced stronger social pressure around obedience, purity, duty, and “staying small”), the archetype is not gendered.
What defines a Virgin arc is not femininity — it is:
Any character — regardless of gender, age, or innocence — can experience this. Billy Elliot →, Elsa (Frozen), Mulan, Sansa Stark (Game of Thrones) are all examples.
Conformity has a cost — staying small, obedient, or “acceptable” should visibly hurt her — even if she can’t articulate why yet. The audience must understand what the Virgin is sacrificing in order to maintain belonging.
Authenticity also has a cost — when she begins to express her real self, she risks rejection, conflict, shame, or loss of protection. Every step toward authenticity should feel like stepping into danger, because her Dependent World punishes deviation.
The Virgin starts from a place of constraint. Her world defines her role so tightly that even tiny acts of authenticity feel risky. A small step towards authenticity should carry huge personal weight — if it doesn’t, it invalidates her struggle.
That’s why Virgin stories rarely launch with a dramatic breakthrough. Instead, the first cracks appear as small but emotionally significant acts — moments where the Virgin lets her real self slip through before she’s ready to show it openly.
These early victories could be:
Common Roles in Story
- Carries the values of their community: The Virgin’s role often reveals what the society values. By showing how she is expected to behave (what she is praised or punished for), the audience immediately understands the cultural norms she is trapped inside. In the Dependent World, the Virgin is subject to and embodies the values of the community that restrict her. She is shaped by the culture she grows up in — its rules, expectations, and beliefs.
- Expose power imbalances: The Virgin’s repression makes the power structure of the story’s world unmistakable. By seeing what she is allowed to do, forbidden to do, or punished for wanting, the audience immediately understands the biases and hierarchies at play — whether they are based on gender, class, family duty, race, beauty, sexuality, age, or tradition.
- Represents innocence and naivety to reveal the world’s power dynamics: The Virgin’s innocence is not just a character trait, but it becomes the lens through which the audience sees the true nature of the world. By seeing who protects her, who exploits her, and who imposes rules on her, we quickly understand how authority, influence, and vulnerability operate in this world.
- Who protects her?
- Who suppresses her?
- Who manipulates her?
- Symbolizes what the world lacks: The Virgin may embody a quality that the world is missing — creativity, compassion, individuality, joy, imagination, or justice. By simply wanting something different, she reveals what the world has forgotten, suppressed, or never valued.
- A catalyst for change in the kingdom: This is what the Virgin does to the story world by being authentic. When the Virgin steps into her true self, the world around her must shift to accommodate her. Her authenticity challenges old rules, exposes broken systems, and pushes the community to evolve. The kingdom’s transformation is part of the Virgin’s story — it shows that her inner change has real, external impact.
Example: In Mulan, her village expects her to be a quiet, obedient “good daughter” who brings honor to her family by marrying well. Her value is defined by compliance, femininity, and tradition. By showing how these expectations constrain Mulan, the film reveals what this society prizes.
For writers who want to explore structural inequality or discrimination, a Virgin character is a key archetype. Her constraints make injustice visible.
Example: In Game of Thrones, Sansa Stark’s early innocence exposes how brutal and predatory King’s Landing really is. How people treat her — from Joffrey’s sadism to Cersei’s manipulation and Littlefinger’s grooming — reveals the real rules of King’s Landing long before Sansa understands them. Because she arrives believing in honor and courtesy, the manipulation, cruelty, and power games of the court register with maximum emotional impact.
Example: In Billy Elliot →, Billy’s longing to dance exposes what his mining town lacks: space for softness, artistry, and aspiration. In a community shaped by poverty, labor, and a harsh version of masculinity, Billy’s dream feels “impossible” because his environment cannot imagine a life beyond survival. His talent and joy reveal a hole in the world around him: the absence of creativity, freedom, and the permission to dream.
Common in Genres
- Fairytales & Folklore: These stories rely heavily on repression → awakening → transformation. The Dependent World is usually visualized through stepmothers, curses, societal rules.
- Coming-of-Age Stories: Especially teen or young-adult narratives where identity formation is central.
- Rom-Coms & Character-Centered Dramas: Virgin arcs thrive here because the focus is on self-worth, identity, and relational tension.
- Fantasy & Medieval: The Virgin’s inner awakening contrasts vividly with oppressive or rigid societal structures.
- Musical / Dance / Artist Stories: Creative expression mirrors inner transformation.
Examples: Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast
Examples: Billy Elliot →, Lady Bird, The Princess Diaries
Examples: Pretty Woman, Working Girl →, Legally Blonde →
Examples: Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones, The Handmaid’s Tale
Example: Billy Elliot →, The Sound of Music
Pitfalls for Writers
- Confusing “powerlessness” for “passivity”: The Virgin often begins constrained — but she should never feel blank, inert, or boring. Even when she can’t act yet, she should still want, long, chafe, or imagine. Her inner spark must be visible; otherwise, the audience feels no momentum.
- If the Dependent World feels escapable: The Dependent World may take many forms — tender (but limiting), strict, oppressive, or even brutal — but it must feel inescapable for the Virgin specifically. If the audience thinks, “She could just leave — why doesn’t she?”, the emotional stakes collapse.
- The Virgin’s arch is internal-first: It’s easy to overemphasize plot mechanics — big events, external obstacles, action beats — and forget that the Virgin’s transformation happens inside first. She isn’t defined by the size of the conflict around her, but by how she begins to reinterpret herself, her role, and what she is allowed to want.
External conflict can (and often should) exist, but it must always serve her inner awakening.
Mulan is a good example of this balance. The film is full of external stakes — war, training, combat — but Mulan’s true arc comes from reframing her own identity. Her external victories matter only because they reflect her internal shift from self-doubt to self-definition.
Works Mentioned
- Kim Hudson, The Virgin’s Promise: Writing Stories of Feminine Spiritual and Sexual Awakening (2010)
- Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)
- Charles Perrault, Cinderella (1697)
- Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, Snow White (1812)
- Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, Sleeping Beauty (1812)
- Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, Beauty and the Beast (1740)
- Michael Patrick King (dir.), The Princess Diaries (2001)
- Donald Petrie (dir.), Miss Congeniality (2000)
- Stephen Daldry (dir.), Billy Elliot (2000)
- George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones (1996)
- Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)
- Garry Marshall (dir.), Pretty Woman (1990)
- Mike Nichols (dir.), Working Girl (1988)
- Robert Luketic (dir.), Legally Blonde (2001)
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