How useful is Joseph Campbell s Hero With a Thousand. Faces as a tool for literary criticism?

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1 Brilliant Club- Spring term assignment. 07/04/2015 How useful is Joseph Campbell s Hero With a Thousand Faces as a tool for literary criticism? Joseph Campbell s Hero with a thousand faces is the theory that any myth, legend or fairy-tale consists of three main stages; Separation- Initiation- and Return. These can then be further detailed into 17 sub stages which will be referred to when necessary throughout the essay. Whilst it is often referred to as a heroes journey, it doesn t just concern the hero but also the environment and society in which they operate i. This essay stresses how Joseph Campbell s Hero With a Thousand Faces is a relatively useful tool for literary criticism and that its usefulness is affected by the presence of differing genres and archetypes. We will also explore why the Monomyth isn t always a useful tool for literary criticism. The summarisation of the stages from a fairy tale, myth or narrative in the form of the Monomyth is regularly a strong basis for comparisons between varying forms of literature and film. It gives us a good platform from which we can conduct analysis and form opinions, whilst picking out clichés and reoccurring themes. This is because Campbell focuses on the Monomyth being a universally reoccurring pattern which authors may use subconsciously, so how well it fits shouldn t be overly influenced by contexts such as time period or culture, nor intentional factors like other fields of literary criticism (Marxism, Feminist Theory, Post-Colonial Theory and Queer Theory, to name just a few.) Also, the idea of the Monomyth can be summed up with a term called Comparative Mythology, this means comparing myths from different cultures in an attempt to find shared themes and characteristics ii. Campbell s Monomyth theory, along with the idea of genre, Carl Jung s Archetypes and Vladimir Propp s dramatis personae go hand in hand and all fit under this

2 Comparative Mythology category. This re-emphasises Campbell s point that the Monomyth is followed unintentionally, and the point that Archetypes and Genre hugely influence the presence and applicability of The Heroes Journey in literature and film. Supposedly these stages are apparent in all fairytales but this is not necessarily the case. However, contrasting stages of the Monomyth apply differently to varying forms of literature; for example, a comedy is unlikely to incorporate any of the stages, or at least very few, whereas an adventure story is highly likely to feature these stages. You will later come to understand how the presence of genre and archetypes affect its usefulness. This was something we saw when George Lucas acknowledged a debt to Campbell regarding the Star Wars films iii. iv Some people like the Monomyth and some don t, it can be great for authors who want to make their story appealing to people and to make it suit the respective genre, whilst others dislike it because they feel it can encourage cliché writing and make things predictable. Neil Gaiman said: I think I got about half way through The Hero with a Thousand Faces and found myself thinking, if this is true- I don t want to know. I really would rather not know this stuff. I d rather do it because its true and because I accidentally wind up creating something that falls into this pattern than be told what this pattern is. v We saw George Lucas go against this when he acknowledged a debt to Campbell regarding the Star Wars films vi. vii

3 The sources we will use to relate to Campbell s essay are: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz viii (Because it fits very closely with the Monomyth and is an example of a book from an older time period), Harry Potter ix (Because the series is quite a recent publication and is probably aimed at a slightly older age group than The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, also maintaining a strong relevance to the Monomyth) and finally, Dad s Army x (It has little relevance to the Monomyth, partly at fault to its genre- This essay will explain the importance of genre and archetypes later on ) Joseph Campbell s Hero with a Thousand Faces is very good as a tool for literary criticism when applied to Baum s Wonderful Wizard of Oz. All three main stages are present and The majority of the 17 sub-stages are in use. There are some particularly noticeable stages in place such as, crossing the first threshold - when she is whisked off to munchkin land in her house when a tornado strikes (this is perhaps the most obvious one), road of trials - Dorothy must follow the yellow brick road under instruction from the good witch she meets, meeting friends, and facing challenges along the way and finally, the ultimate boon - Dorothy learns to appreciate the family she has got, defeats the witch, reaches The great and powerful Oz and gets her wish granted, and of course finds some great friends in the scare crow, tin man and the lion. However, the stages are not all in place and it is not a perfect fit, In the book version it is particularly noticeable that we go straight into the story and don t get much of a build up or insight into Dorothy s life. Supporting that statement is the absence of the call to adventure stage - Dorothy is not called in any way, she is subconsciously whisked away in her house because of a tornado. She has no intention to go to a new world, and she has no choice in the matter It almost appears to be her destiny to go to the Munchkin land and save them from the wicked witch, which is a bit of a cliché idea, although not included in the Monomyth. In the book s introduction, Baum describes how people are bored of the old fashioned fairy tale and that we need to reinvent the fairytale, he states that:

4 The story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written solely to pleasure the children of today. It aspires to being a modernised fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out. Perhaps this means that Baum was trying to avoid keeping to the Monomyth, if so, he largely failed However, when you consider the context that it was written it is easy to understand how this happened, it was written in 1900 so it is quite a similar time period to The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), therefore the writers of the time would have shared similar ideas. When analysing genre in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz we are looking at Adventure and Fantasy which are perhaps the most prone genres to the Monomyth pattern. This is perhaps the main reason for this book s applicability to the Monomyth. In terms of Jungian archetypes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz contains a Hero in Dorothy, the Parents in Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, a Child, also in the form of Dorothy and a Wise Old Man, the good witch isn t a man but plays a similar role. Propp s dramatis personae is also visible in the storyline too, with The Helper role, in the form of the tin man, scarecrow and lion, The donor or provider is the good witch who provides Dorothy with the ruby slippers, obviously Dorothy is The hero and the villain who is portrayed by the bad witch. There are a few Archetypes not present, such as a Jungian Shadow or devil, but they are generally outweighed by those that are present. These factors generally help to strengthen the usefulness of the Monomyth as a tool for literary criticism when applied to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but the fit is not perfect. This next paragraph will explain why the Monomyth is quite a useful tool for literary criticism when applied to J.K.Rowling s Harry Potter. The genre is a magical realism/ fantasy (amongst others) which ought to be quite concrete with the Monomyth but what really

5 enhances its applicability is the consistent presence of Jung s archetypes and Propp s as well, what Harry Potter has that you could argue The Wonderful Wizard of Oz doesn t have is a strong Wise old man figure, in fact Harry Potter has two in Dumbledore and Hagrid. The Shadow/ Devil archetype is Voldemort and he really abuses that role, we learn in the story line that Voldemort is actually related to Harry and is actually a mental part of him. The story shares so much with the Monomyth and the general comparative mythology family. When put in a time period context it is clear to see why the cycle doesn t fit perfectly, it is written significantly after the Hero with a Thousand Faces so the authors of today are likely to have different views on how to structure a story to those of Campbell s and Jung s time. Interestingly all of the characters I have mentioned here are male, so much could be said from a Feminist point of view. Finally we will look at why Dad s Army has very little relevance to the Monomyth. The main reason for this is down to the film s genre. It s a comedy so it is unlikely to fit with the Monomyth pattern. And that is all there really is to it although some Jungian archetypes are slightly represented with Mrs Pike playing an overly caring Mother ( parent archetype), (With her obsession of keeping her son, Frank, warm with her home knitted scarf) and Frank Pike himself who could be described as playing the child role, because he is very clueless and innocent (as well as stupid, according to Captain Mainwaring, who addresses him as You stupid boy! ). To Conclude So this essay has proved that the Monomyth is quite a useful tool for literary criticism but its applicability is strongly influenced by genre and archetypes. It is generally used subconsciously but is great for readers to help understand and evaluate the success of a book or

6 film. Word count: 1646 i Rephrased from original source: Review- The Hero with a Thousand Faces [6th April 2015] ii Rephrased from original source: Comparative mythology [6th April 2015] iii Lucas, George, Star Wars (saga), (San Francisco, Lucasfilm Ltd, 1977) iv Taken from original source: The Hero with a Thousand Faces [6th April 2015] v Gaiman, Neil, The Brilliant Club Booklet. vi Lucas, George, Star Wars (saga), (San Francisco, Lucasfilm Ltd, 1977) vii Taken from original source: The Hero with a Thousand Faces [6th April 2015] viii Baum, L. Frank, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, (Ware, Wordsworth Editions Limited, 2012) ix Rowling, J.K, Harry Potter (Series), (Camden, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1997)

7 x Cohen, Norman,(Written by Perry, Jimmy and Croft, David) Dad s Army, (Film version), (Culver City, Columbia Pictures, 1971)