Monomyth Used in Film - Essay Example

The Number 4 June Monomyth Used in Film In his fundamental work en d “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, Joseph Campbell presents the architecture of a typical journey of a mythology character. A hard-working, life-long researcher of mythology across the cultures, Campbell found out that “in all times and under every circumstance, the myths of man have flourished; and they have been the living inspiration…of the activities of the human body and mind.” (Campbell 1). He also spotted that all myths have common characteristics and contained similar themes. Specifically, Campbell notices that all myths tell stories about a hero who embarks on a challenging journey. Just as the researcher found that all myth narratives have a common structure in spite of the fact they belonged to different time periods and cultures, he coined the word “Monomyth” to describe this phenomenon. The Monomyth was found to have seventeen stages. All of them may be broken in three broad categories: the departure (also known as separation), the initiation and the return (See Figure 1). The first category (the departure) comprises the following five stages: 1. The Call to Adventure (a moment in character’s life when he is for the first time warned that all will change soon) (Campbell 28) 2. Refusal of the Call (it often happens in myths that once the hero is made aware about the call, he does not want to accept) (Campbell 49 ) 3. Supernatural Aid (when the hero finds himself already committed to the journey, his helper with magical powers appears to guide him through the quest) 4. Crossing of the First Threshold (the moment the hero enters the adventurous world beyond the limits of his earlier reality) (Campbell 64) 5. Belly of the Whale (the moment of the final separation from the person’s familiar world and known self; the moment when the person is transitioning between the old and the new worlds and selves; upon entering the fifth stage, the would-be hero displays his willingness to die to himself and undergo a particular metamorphosis). Figure 1. Structure of Campbell’s Monomyth (“The Monomyth – Joseph Campbell”) The initiation is the stage when the hero follows the road of trials and overcomes multiple barriers to reach the point of final adventure (Campbell 91). It comprises 6 stages: 1. Road of Trials (is represented by a series of ordeals the hero must endure to start the transformation) (Campbell 81) 2. Meeting with the Goddess (the moment in a quest when a person encounters experience of encompassing love, which is not necessarily a feeling to woman) (Campbell 91) 3. The Woman as Temptress (a point in the journey when the hero is tempted to stray from his quest, with “woman” being used as a metaphor for life temptations) (Campbell 101) 4. Atonement with the Father (a stage when the hero is initiated by the father figure, this may come either through literal or spiritual killing) (Campbell 105) 5. Apotheosis (a point in the quest when the hero either dies physically or moves to the god-like state, or dies to his own self in order to continue living in spirit) (Campbell 127). 6. The Ultimate Boon (represents the point when the goal of the hero’s quest is achieve) (148 Campbell). Last but not least, the third category known as the return comprises six more stages. These are: 1. Refusal of the Return (having found the enlightenment in the opposite world, the hero is likely to refuse from coming back to his previous world to present the boon to his people) (Campbell 167) 2. The Magic Flight (it may happen that the hero will need to escape with his ultimate boon if it is guarded by gods) (Campbell 170) 3. Rescue from Without (similarly to his experience of embarking on the quest , the hero he got encounters powerful guides that will assist him in coming back) (Campbell 178) 4. Crossing of the Return Threshold (this refers to the hero’s effort to integrate the wisdom that he got into everyday life) (Campbell 188) 5. Master of the Two Worlds (the hero becomes competent in both worlds: the outer and the inner one; or the hero receives the power over two worlds, as, for example, Buddha) (Campbell 196) 6. Freedom to Live (power that stems from the mastery leads the hero to being free from fear of death, which is perceived as the freedom to live) (Campbell 205). The hero’s quest or journey is, in Jungian terminology, an archetype that can be found both in ancient in modern stories. Hollywood cinema with its films about hero’s journeys provides an example of this. Specifically, such movies as Star Wars, The Lion King, The Matrix, The Terminator, Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? have followed the Monomyth pattern closely. In this part of the paper, I will look into the realization of the monomyth’s stages in two well-known movies which contain the hero’s quest – The Star Wars (1977) (and two other films of the trilogy The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983)) and The Matrix (1999). Let us first explore the set of “departure stages” in relation to The Star Wars and The Matrix. The Call to Adventure in Star Wars takes place when Luke Skywalker finds Princess Leia’s call for help in holographic form. The call for help has been preserved in the memory banks of R2-D2. Luke, the young protagonist of the film, lives on an uninhabited planet of Tatooine, which he looks forward to leaving (The Star Wars). In the movie The Matrix, Neo’s call to adventure is initiated by Trinity at the night club. The next day Neo receives a call while in his workplace and contacts Morpheus. He is warned that agents intend to capture him (The Matrix). The second stage of Refusal of the Call in The Matrix is acted out in the following way. Neo opts for fleeing and starting his adventure. At the same time, he finds out that the path he follows brings him to the very edge of a skyscraper. The hero is overwhelmed by fear and rejects the call for action. He surrenders to the authorities. Neo finally accepts the call (The Matrix) In “Star Wars”, Luke says he cannot leave his uncle and aunt who need help with the harvest. When his relatives are killed by Imperial storm troopers, Luke feels he can now leave (The Star Wars). Next, the stage of the Supernatural Aid being given to the hero in The Star Wars takes place when Luke meets Obi-Wan Kenobi, an ex-Jedi, who saves him from the sand people and provides him with the light-saber which belonged to his father. A former Jedi, a Force-empowered knight with magical possibilities, Obi-Wan begins teaching Luke about the supernatural power of the universe – the Force (The Star Wars). For Neo, the magical aid arrives in the debugger’s form. Specifically, when Neo is riding in an automobile together with Apoc, Trinity and Switch, a weird reptilian like thing is extracted from Neo’s body with the help of a special device. This thing is actually a tracking device installed by the dragon forces which Neo will later face. In fact, the debugging is very important for Neo’s success as it provides him with confidentiality and secretness (The Matrix). Further, at the stage of Crossing the First Threshold, Neo comes to an old building and encounters Morpheus there. The latter offers Neo to choose either the red or the blue pill. The choice can be made only once and Neo decides to continue his quest rather than end it. This way, he enters a new area of adventurous experience (The Matrix). In “Star Wars”, the stage may be identified at the moment Luke goes away from his home place and comes to the Mos Eisley spaceport. There he drops in a snack bar where he comes across lots of weird aliens. Just as the cantina is seen as a traditional place from where the hero will enter the new world, the patrons Luke meets in the bar represent traditional threshold guardians. At this very point, one realizes Luke has already torn the ties with his previous life and is about to turn into the hero (The Star Wars). The fifth stage from the departure series in “Star Wars” takes place when Princess Leia, Han, and Luke find themselves caught within the trash compactor. This resembles the whale’s belly. In particular, the scene when Luke goes underwater pulled by an awful beast, looks dead, and then regains consciousness in a few moments (The Star Wars). The hero of The Matrix is literally “swallowed into the unknown” (Campbell 74). Neo finds himself in a womb. He has lots of cords around his body. When the system rejects Neo’s pale body, it is swallowed by the tube and thrust into the world. The hero’s body looks dead at this moment (The Matrix). The next series, the initiation, in The Matrix starts with Neo’s entering the road of trials. Morpheus tells Neo that the previous world was a virtual reality or, in other words, the matrix, which can be plugged in and manipulated. As Neo is taught how to do this, he realizes he is about to overcome a number of challenges so that his mind within the matrix gets stronger (The Matrix). As for Star Wars, Luke’s challenging tests are light-saber practice, the rescue of the princess, as well as fleeing from the Death Star. Just as one thinks of a possible labyrinth which may be found at this stage, according to Campbell, one realizes the Death Star represents such labyrinth. In The Empire Strikes Back, the labyrinth is represented by the Cloud City (The Empire Strikes Back). In its turn, The Return of the Jedi has the labyrinth in the form of the magical forest (The Return of the Jedi). Neo from The Matrix goes on to the next stage just as he faces two goddess figures. On the one hand this is Trinity, on the other – the Oracle, who is seen as a real mother-figure The Matrix). In Star Wars, Luke’s fascination with the Princess Leia, in reality his sister, represents the stage (The Star Wars). The next stage of woman as a temptress is illustrated by Darth Vader’s attempt to seduce the protagonist of the film so that Luke becomes the Empire’s servant (The Star Wars). So here, as it is clearly seen, “woman as a temptress” comes as a metaphorical name. In The Matrix, Neo, who is doing an exercise within the matrix comes across a woman in a red dress. Her aim is to distract his attention. As soon as Neo is lured, he fails his mission since the woman is an agent in reality (The Matrix). The stage of “atonement with the father” can be found in The Empire Strikes Back at the moment Darth Vader confesses that he is a father of Luke. Also, the stage is represented by final recognition by Vader of the power of the Force’s light side (The Star Wars). As for The Matrix, its protagonist meets the father figure of Morpheus who pushes him to the one – his destiny and maintains a faith in Neo. Eventually, Morpheus sacrifices himself so that Neo could survive (The Matrix). Further, the apotheosis in The Matrix happens when Neo makes up his mind to rescue Morpheus and sets in motion a series of events that reveals his apotheosis (The Matrix). As for Star Wars, the apotheosis takes place when Luke reaches the status of the full Jedi and gets the power to gain victory over his enemies with the supernatural power of the Force (The Star Wars). The final stage of initiation in The Matrix is when Trinity happens to be in a dangerous situation and Neo calls together his faith in his power and transcends his limited and imperfect consciousness. He is now a superior being and is able to manage and operate the matrix. This is Neo’s “ultimate boon” (The Matrix). In the context of the Star Wars saga, the Emperor’s death is the ultimate boon (The Star Wars). Now let us discuss the third category known as “return” stage by stage. The first stage of the refusal to come back can be identified in Star Wars when Luke attempts to go back to wreak revenge on Darth Vader for his killing Obi-Wan in a shootout. Hans is shouting, “Luke, come on!” at that moment to stop him from doing so (The Star Wars). In The Matrix, when the boon is obtained, it appears that Neo is not ready to come back (The Matrix). The stage of the magic flight is represented in The Marix by Neo being pursued by agents after he decides to stay in the matrix to defeat them. The agents now chase the protagonist with the purpose of killing him (The Matrix). In Star Wars, the stage cab identified when the Millennium Falcon manages to flee from the Death Star and the heroes escape from the Imperial soldiers. The rescue from without takes place in The Matrix when Trinity with her love helps Neo to be reborn in his transcendent self through losing the remainder of his ego. In Star Wars, this stage is clearly identified when the Millennium Falcon appears out of the blue to rescue’s Luke’s fighter. Crossing of the Return Threshold might be seen in Star Wars when the Imperial fighters are destroyed by the Millennium Falcon (The Star Wars). Apparently, this stage is found within the previous one in The Matrix (The Matrix). Next, the stage of “master of the two worlds” is clearly illustrated by Neo’s ability to stop the agents’ assault with the power of his mind. He is now capable of manipulating whatever he wishes within the matrix (The Matrix). In Star Wars, this stage may be identified when Luke destroys the Death Star with the help of the acquired Force. The final stage of the “freedom to live” may be found in Star Wars when the victory ceremony takes place in the base of rebels (The Star Wars). In The Return of the Jedi, this stage may be seen when the Emperor dies and rebels win (The Return of the Jedi). As for The Matrix, this stage is seen as the protagonist shares his acquired boon with the whole world. People now have a chance to live in the world that is real, in “the world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible” (The Matrix) In summary, the protagonists of The Star Wars and The Matrix have some to the end of their stories as the ultimate heroes. The analysis above clearly shows that they both have made vigorous journeys as representations of Campbell’s Monomyth. This provides evidence that in modern films, monomyth can be embodied similarly to how it was embodied in the myths of ancient times, covering all typical stages. Works Cited Campbell, J. The Hero With A Thousand Faces. New World Library, 2008. Print. Return of the Jedi. Dir. George Lucas. Perf. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher. Lucasfilm, 1983. Film. Star Wars. Dir. George Lucas. Perf. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing. Lucasfilm, 1977. Film. The Empire Strikes Back. George Lucas and Hugo Reyes. Perf. Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher. 1980. Film. The Matrix. Dir. The Wachowski Brothers. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie- Ann Moss. Warner Home Video, 1999. Film. Read More