This will likely be confused with my previous analysis dealing with Mary Sue as she is manifest specifically in popular culture. In this particular analysis, she will be dealt with in a broader sense, as a figure employed throughout history with cultural significance.
I believe that, since Mary Sue has been employed so frequently (and subconsciously) over the years, she has, in fact, ascended to the level of unconscious cultural archetype, an entity contained within us all. What child has not imagined him/herself in the role of Brave Hero, defeating the Evil and converting the disbeliever to his/her side? It is this very use of one’s fertile (and liberal) imagination from which Mary Sue has arisen.
The difference between Mary Sue and the archetypal Hero of Campbell’s Journeys, is the level of specific personality traits and abilities affixed to her. While Campbell’s Heroes are vague and nebulous, Mary Sue is embued with the author’s opinions and desires. Often the author is unaware of her creation’s omnipresence in history and culture, imagining her to be nothing more than an Original Female Character (or OFC), and even taking offense at any comparisons made (“She’s NOT a Mary Sue!”). Said offense is, ironically, usually the first indicator of the character’s Mary Sue quotient.
While she is a common device in fan fic, curiously she is also equally derided by “sophisticated” authors, despite evidence of her presence in historical literature. Mary Sue is spurred on by simple childlike wish fulfillment. She is cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians on a more sophisticated level. Just as role-players are simply enacting their own childhood playtimes with rules and regulations, Mary Sue takes the place of more immature games. Where a young girl might imagine herself a fairy princess at age five or six, she now imagines herself...well, a fairy princess. (See Laurell K. Hamilton’s A Kiss of Shadows for a literal interpretation of this role.) Or an elven queen, Jedi apprentice, vampire slayer, starship ensign...the list will never end.
Nor should it. Mary Sue is a perfectly healthy device for fantasy reenactments, as long as she is not taken seriously by her creators.
I have found evidence of Mary Sue’s presence in older literature in the Anne of Green Gables series. The title character creates her own Mary Sue, dubbed Lady Cordelia Fitzgerald, and gives her (naturally) “hair of midnight darkness,” with skin of “a clear ivory pallor”. Anne makes Cordelia tall and regal, and bedecks her in jewels and places her in posh surroundings. In the same book, Anne explains that she has gone through a number of names for her alter ego, only settling on Cordelia at the setting of the book. This implies that Anne has had a great many Mary Sues over the course of her eleven years. Mary Sue is universal. It isn’t clear what Cordelia’s personality and abilities are, but later Anne reenacts a nicely tragic scene from a poem on Elaine the Lily Maid, putting herself in Elaine’s place.
Mary Sue will always be around. She is neither good nor bad; she simply is. There is no point in fighting her, or attempting to winnow her out by asking that writers cease including her in their adventures. Since she is so easy to spot, those who wish to avoid her can readily do so.
Mary Sue is universally detracted because she is presented as infallible, which is only possible in the theoretical God-concept. Therein also lies the basis of her appeal. However, no hero is infallible; all are flawed to an extent, all make some terrible error that eventually leads to their physical or metaphorical downfall. That makes Mary Sue unbelievable in her perfection. Any superficial flaws are cancelled out by her merit of omnipotence. Mary Sue has all personalities, therefore she has no personality. She is everything, therefore she is nothing. She is the ultimate empty vessel.
If Mary Sue is so easily recognizable, and so universally derided, why do authors continue to use her? She is an excellent tool for inexperienced authors, as an outlet for their creative energies, and simple practice. It’s a “piece of cake” to write a Mary Sue: Simply imagine what you’d like to do in [select environment and/or genre] and create a Mary Sue to do it for you. However, a great many authors seem to get “stuck” in Mary-Sue-mode, and are likely to rehash the same plot used by other authors. It is the redundancy of the Mary Sue, not the Mary Sue herself, of which readers tire so quickly.
Mary Sue will never die, because she is forever reborn. To every author penning her exploits, she is brand-new and unique in their eyes. This is especially true in the case of fic newbies. Since she is a cultural archetype, and therefore unconsciously employed, she sprouts new heads like a hydra...only fan fic veterans can tell that it’s the same old monster underneath.
The line between Mary Sue and a standard original character in fan fic (and indeed original fiction) is occasionally quite thin. Some characters are attractive, gifted, and well-liked in general (in their “universe” or in fandoms), yet cannot be classified as Mary Sues. Deanna Troi of Star Trek: The Next Generation, for example, would be such a character. She is extremely beautiful, telepathic, is half-alien, and is a protagonist within the show. Yet the designated Mary Sue within that particular “universe” (an apt choice of words) is Wesley Crusher, the teenaged ensign. He is highly intelligent, related to a highly influential crew member (namely, his mom’s the doctor), well-liked by the crew in general, and is accorded an unusual amount of rank and responsibility for his age. He also is frequently awarded the assignment of saving the ship, usually after thinking up solutions to impossible situations, despite the fact that there are any number of trained, educated adults (not to mention a highly intelligent android with superhuman capabilities) that could easily do the same thing.