Heinlein's character archetypes

We’ve been discussing a bit about this in the Starship Troopers thread, but I think it deserves its own discussion. It’s sometimes claimed that all of Heinlein’s works have only three characters in them, those being Young Heinlein, Adult Heinlein, Old Heinlein, and Virginia (I somehow suspect that the originator of the claim didn’t know how to count). While this is certainly not true (there are way more characters than that in Heinlein’s books), he nonetheless did have a tendency to reuse some characters with different names. The archetypes I can think of off the top of my head:

1: The Boy Scout. Hero of most of the juvies, he’s trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, and all the rest. He may or may not be an official member of a Scouting organization, but the qualities are the same. It’s no coincidence that many of these characters debuted in Boy’s Life magazine. Prominent examples include Bill Lermer (Farmer in the Sky) and Matt Dodson (Space Cadet).

2: The Jokester. Another younger character. Won’t let you down in a pinch, but refuses to ever take anything seriously. Never the protagonist, but often shows up as the Boy Scout’s wisecracking sidekick. Such characters show up in Space Cadet, Tunnel in the Sky, and Red Planet, among others (though I can’t remember their names off the top of my head).

3: The Spoiled Brat. A minor antagonist, who shows up in many different ages but only one maturity level. Believes that the world owes him (or her; the Spoiled Brat can be either sex) a living, and refuses to accept the math that shows why what they want isn’t possible. The FN bureaucrats in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and the colonists who give up on Ganymede in Farmer in the Sky are examples.

4: The Scamp. Another youth, and usually a protagonist, but unlike the Boy Scout, doesn’t play by the rules, and in fact seems to delight in chaos for its own sake. Is likely to eventually grow into an Old Fart, if not hanged for horse-thieving first. Examples include young Hazel from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Pollux and Castor from The Rolling Stones, and young Woody from Time Enough for Love.

5: The Old Fart. Older than dirt, and just as dirty. Has Been There and Done That, and is probably still Doing It (whatever It is). Always has a trick or two up his or her sleeve, and is generally regarded as a Bad Influence. Lazarus Long (Time Enough for Love and Grandmother Hazel (The Rolling Stones are the most prominent examples, as well as Lazarus’ grandfather.

6: The Engineer. Skilled with machines, and probably more comfortable with them than with humans. Always willing to face the facts, whatever the facts are. Seldom takes the lead in social situations, but takes things as they come. The most prominent examples are Manny in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and D. B. Davis in The Door into Summer.

7: The Pedant. Well-educated and in a respected position, this character has extensive views on politics and the Way Things Should Be, and is willing to spend several pages expounding on those views (whatever they may be). Usually an old man, but in at least one case (in the short story “Coventry”), a teenaged girl. Other examples include Jubal Harshaw (Stranger in a Strange Land), Prof. del la Paz (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress), and Sgt. Zim (Starship Troopers).

8: The Alien Princess. Might easily be mistaken for a pet of the main human characters, but is actually a young member of some significant standing from a far more advanced race, and views the humans as pets. Has an immature, fun-loving worldview, and despite being referred to as “he” by the humans, is its species’ equivalent of a female, and talks with a girlish voice. Lummox (The Star Beast) and Willis (Red Planet) fit this archetype to a T, and Mike (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress) also shows some of the same characteristics.

I’m sure others can think of many more, and then there’s still plenty of Heinlein characters who don’t really have any equivalents (such as D. D. Harriman and Andy Libby).

I wouldn’t put Sgt. Zim in with the Pedants. That role was filled by Col. DuBois in Starship Troopers. I class Zim as a Role Model. This category can also include Rufo (Glory Road), Col. Baslim (Citizen of the Galaxy)

Then there is The Convert. This character, if not the protagonist, is a secondary character who “defects” from their previous position/beliefs to aid the cause of the Protagonist(s). People like Ben Caxton and Becky Vessy (Stranger)and Justin Foote the 45th (Time Enough For Love).

Let us not forget Cats. Pixel, Dr. Livingston I Presume, Petronius the Arbiter, Random Numbers and the rest.

You’re missing the ‘Girl who knows best’ role model. Young women who are wise beyond their years and provide sometimes exasperated counsel to the hero. Elly from Starman Jones and Betty from The Star Beast would fill this role.

It’s possible I’m conflating them; it’s been a while since I’ve read ST.

And I was considering putting in a category for The Cat, but decided that that one could wait for a few posts. While we’re at it, we could also include the Flatcats in that category: They didn’t have much individual personality, but what they had was undoubtedly feline.

When people talk about Heinlein archetypes, they refer only to the protagonists, not the secondary characters and sidekicks and cardboard villains.

And, as I’ve been making a pet peeve of lately, when they say “all” they mean all major ones, not those in a few odd minor stories or before Heinlein got fully into his style. It’s a rule of thumb, not a cosmic law of the universe.

I haven’t read the other thread, so I’m sorry if I’m missing something from there.

The Companion: the (male) hero’s female counterpart. Smart, competant, sophisticated, beautiful, libertine and sexually available to a fault. Examples include Margrethe (from Job) and Gwen Novak* (from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls).

  • Which may make her the adult version of the female Scamp.

OK, so cut out the Jokester and the Spoiled Brat. The rest all have main-character instances in multiple books. Plus, as mentioned before, the one-off major characters.

Unless you’re hanging on the “except for a few odd stories”? Heinlein’s a science fiction writer; once you eliminate the odd stories there’s not much left.

Don’t forget PeeWee Reisfeld from “Have Spacesuit”, Ricky Gentry from “Door into Summer”, and Holly Jones from “Menace from Earth”.

And Podkane.

And Mary-Lou Martin.

Wyoh from TMIAHM is the poster-girl for this category.

And whatever her name was from Glory Road.

The Heinlein Matron: Usually rich, spoiled and clueless, she walks on for a few paragraphs, says/does something funny/awful to her henpecked husband (often to make a point about obnoxious travellers) and is rarely heard from again.

To wit “Herbert! I left my second-best hat at the station on Earth. You distracted me by making me listen to that lecture on space-safety. You march right up to the front of this rocket and tell that captain to put on the brakes and turn this space-ship around this instant. Give them a piece of your mind, if necessary.”

The exceptions to this are the wife of the President in Stranger and whatshername (Van Vogel?) from “Jerry Was A Man”–both were started from the same seed and grew beyond the classic “Heinlein Matron”

I think it’s largely a cultural thing-the domineering rich wife and the henpecked husband were a trope in '30s and '40s movies. As far as I know, Heinlein was the only major science fiction writer to use the archetype on a regular basis.*

*I’m sure he thought it was funny (it often was) but he also used it to springboard into a science lecture. In the fake example above, the protagonist would have overheard it and either explained (or had explained to him or her) why you can’t just “put on the brakes” in zero-g.

Another example of the Heinlein Matron would be the first customer we see in the story “We Also Walk Dogs.” She was used to set up a contrast between the triviality of her problem and the more serious one that the agency handled right after hers. Plus she was definitely played for laughs and set the tone for a light-hearted story.

The wife in “It’s Great to Be Back” was a less potent version of the Matron, but I think she still qualifies. She was more fleshed-out and less foolish than the typical Matron character, but she seems to be an adaption of the basic archetype.
(guess who just re-read The Past Through Tomorrow?)

I was lumping those in with the Spoiled Brat.

I would put Jubal Harshaw in the Old Fart category in preference to the Pedant category – assuming there’s any need to choose.

Kettle Belly (“Gulf,” Friday – see this thread), OTOH, is definitely a Pedant despite his overt OldFartiness.

But she’s really looking for the Right Man To Have Lots of Babies With. EVERY ONE of Heinlein’s female characters (except for Friday) over the age of about 16 is actually panting to have a dozen kids or more. Oh, she might be putting it off, or waiting for the right man to start reproducing with, but all of them (except Friday) want kids, and want lots of them. I can’t remember now, but I’m pretty sure that even Friday liked having kids in the group marriage she was in, plus of course she loved the child that she bore at the end of the book.

Wyoh and Friday are something of a pair, there, in that neither wants to have kids at first, due to psychological trauma, but once they get over that and become healthy, naturally they go back to the norm of wanting to have lots of babies. Though of course Friday is the book’s main character, not one of a handful of secondary characters like Wyoh is; she’s a lot more severely damaged; and their non-reproductive skill sets are completely different (though, like most Heinlein characters, they’re both extremely competent at what they do). So they’re still not just carbon-copies of each other.

I always suspected it had something to do with his little-known first marriage (Leslyn was his second, and Ginny was the third). Was she the model for Grace Farnham and her ilk?

Oh, I see what you mean.

Perhaps that archetype should be re-titled, since “brat” implies a child.

Like I said, “many ages but only one maturity level”.

What about the “pre pu-pubescent female that Our Hero has an unhealthy fascination with” - examples such as Ricky from Door into Summer and Dora from Time Enough for Love.

Yeah, there’s got to be a kiddie / incest character type in there somewhere.