The Enduring Metaphor of Angels and Devils

The metaphorical representation of a devil and an angel on a person’s shoulders dates back to the 16th century¹. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, this concept was prominently featured in plays and allegorical art. By the early 1900s, it had found its way into cartoons as a visual shorthand to depict the internal struggle between virtues and vices. The angel serves to keep one on the “straight and narrow,” while the devil tempts one toward vices and earthly pleasures.

A New Metaphor: The Monster and the Unicorn

Did you hear what the devil is trying to get you to do? He was pulling you towards pleasures. Which does he sound like? The unicorn.

Confusing, no?

Well, no, not at all when you realize that the angel and devil metaphors are not the same as the “monster” and “unicorn.” This distinction can be a source of confusion for some who mistakenly believe them to be interchangeable.

In literature, the roles are clearly defined: the angel encourages you to do what is right and good, which is often the more challenging path. Conversely, the devil tempts you to take the easy, lazy, vindictive, or even mean-spirited route. The angel represents good, while the devil embodies bad.

However, neither the monster nor the unicorn is inherently good or bad; they are neutral. They function as psychological building blocks, each with a singular purpose driven by a cause. The unicorn pulls you toward pleasure and actively seeks it with you. Its goal is for you to experience pleasure, and it tugs at you when it finds it. The monster, on the other hand, wants to protect you from any and all pain.

As we know, “no pain, no gain.” Some necessary life experiences involve pain, and not all pleasurable things should be pursued.

The Overlap Between Angels, Devils, Monsters, and Unicorns

In some instances, the devil’s work aligns with the unicorn’s, as he encourages the pursuit of earthly pleasures and vices. The angel’s role can mirror the monster’s by trying to keep you on a path that minimizes future sadness and regret, preventing actions you might later look back on with remorse.

However, the devil can also perform the monster’s function by convincing you to avoid something simply because it is difficult. The angel, at times, does the work of the unicorn by pushing you toward a higher, happier, and kinder purpose, which naturally feels good.

Under the Hood: The Building Blocks of Morality

In literature and even in your own imagination, if you have perceived morality as a struggle between a devil and an angel, you will find that both are composed of multiple monsters and unicorns.

Your morality is constructed by these monsters and unicorns working in concert with a purpose. The way you pair and combine them creates powerful forces within your psyche. If you build your angel with a host of strong monsters and unicorns, your devil will be comparatively weak, and the reverse is also true.

While we often view the angel and devil as distinct entities with their own personalities, the monster and the unicorn are single-purpose building blocks. Each monster and each unicorn has a singular, specific purpose. The same monster that prevents you from doing something harmful in one relationship could also be the one that holds you back from doing something beneficial in another. Not only are they interchangeable, but their highly specific purposes can cause problems if misapplied.

Therefore, we can conceive of the angel and the devil as a higher form of thinking, positioned above the monster and the unicorn, as they are composed of them.

From Freud’s Pleasure Principle to Personal Morality

At a foundational level is Freud’s pleasure principle, a simple binary. This binary, when combined with causes, gives rise to the monsters and unicorns. Combinations of these monsters and unicorns then form your morality, which you can express as the devil and the angel on your shoulders. This entire construct ultimately shapes your personality and who you are.

Those who are religious or spiritual may feel that their monsters and unicorns come pre-packaged within their belief system. Others may feel they have acquired their monsters and unicorns along life’s journey and are simply the result of managing them.

Whether you believe you are guided by an angel and tempted by a devil, or if you feel closer to the pure binary that Freud described, monsters and unicorns are still part of the equation. Pre-packaged angels and devils from religious texts still contain monsters and unicorns that provide the “why” behind the drive to do good and avoid evil.

If you feel you have a devil on your shoulder that whispers “chocolate” too often, he is merely repeating the words of the unicorn inside him.

The more you break down the origin and the “why” of the devil and the angel, the more you will truly understand the source of your motivations. My subjective belief is that it is far better to communicate directly with your monsters and unicorns than to blindly accept that everything the angel says is good and everything the devil says is bad.

Marlowe, Christopher. Doctor Faustus. Written c. 1592. In the play, Faustus is visited by a Good Angel and Evil Angel who offer opposing moral advice—representing internal conflict akin to the modern angel/devil trope ↩︎

When the Devil Sounds Like a Unicorn