Joseph Campbell’s Concept of Monomyth: Analytical Essay

Whether it be a narrative of a myth like that of Hercules or a fascinating tale of a contemporary superhero like Batman or a biography of a leader like Mahatma Gandhi or a snippet from a legendary chronicle like Mahabharata, stories are always interesting. Stories take us into another world, drive us and fill us with motivation. Irrespective of the age, the idea of a hero and his story is always overwhelming. Joseph Campbell studied the myths from all over the world and came up with a theory of monomyth stating that the stories of all the heroes are just variations of each other.

In A Hero with a thousand faces, he states, “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventures with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” Though the story of every hero is special, the fact that most of them follow the same template is very amusing. He proposed a monomyth, the Hero’s journey, a common story structure, a cycle in which the hero sets sail on an adventure from his ordinary world, goes through a crisis, wins, and comes back to the same world, transformed. This monomyth has 3 parts with 17 subparts. Harry Potter, a series of 7 fantasy novels, written by J.K.Rowling, spins around the story of a young man and his struggles to save the wizards and muggles from the dark lord. It has won the hearts of readers all over the world and will forever remain as a classic. I analyzed the story of Harry Potter and realized that it smoothly fits the basic pattern proposed in the Hero’s journey.

The first part of the Hero’s journey is Separation. This part is about the hero’s separation from his mundane world and his entry to a new world. The story starts with Harry living in the Dursley dorm with his uncle, aunt, and cousin.

The call of adventure: The hero receives some information that acts as a head-off to something or somewhere unknown. This is when Harry receives a letter from the owls which is an invitation to the school of wizardry and witchcraft Hogwarts. Dursleys do not let Harry read the letter. That is when Hagrid goes to him, gives him the letter, and tells him that he is a wizard.

“You’re a wizard, Harry”

The refusal of the call: ‘After the call is given, the hero first refuses to go for it due to a range of reasons like fear, obligations, insecurity and other circumstances that hold him up(1). Harry refuses the invitation in disbelief for a moment.

“You’ve made a mistake. I can’t be a wizard, I’m just Harry.”

Supernatural aid: ‘Hero then commits and heeds the call. A Supernatural mentor guides him to the unknown and presents him with the things or artifacts that will be helpful later in his upcoming adventures’(1). Hagrid is Harry’s magical helper, the half giant-half human, the supernatural aid - he takes Harry to Ollivianders where he gets a wand, the magical artifact that he uses throughout his adventure. Dumbledore can also be considered as Harry’s supernatural mentor as he gives him the magical cloak of invisibility and a snitch that contains the resurrection stone (2 Magical objects of Deathly hallows that helps Harry defeat Voldemort).

The Crossing of the First Threshold: This is when the adventure actually starts, the hero crosses the world with limits and ventures onto an unknown boundless world. This is when Harry crosses the threshold- Leaky cauldron and enters Diagon Alley along with Hagrid to get the things needed to go to Hogwarts.

Belly of the Whale: This represents the final separation of the hero from his world, he is now ready to face the new world. This is when Harry gets to the 934 platforms to catch Hogwarts express along with the Weasleys. He is now separated from the muggle world and entered the world of magic.

The next part of the Hero’s journey is Initiation. This is where the crisis begins the hero sets foot on the road of trials and the transformation starts.

The road of trials: The road of trials in Harry potter is a never-ending one. His bravery is put to test many times. Learning magic, Quidditch matches, protecting himself from attacks, protecting the philosopher’s stone from Professor Quirrel and You-know-who, getting trapped in the chamber of secrets, battle with the basilisk and Tom Riddle, and whatnot. All these make him a brave, confident, and powerful wizard who understands the value of friendship and love.

The Meeting with the Goddess: The hero falls in love with a woman who eventually will be a great help in his journey. Harry realizes that he loves Ginny Weasley, his friend Ron’s sister and the one he saves from the chamber of secrets. She joins the Dumbledore army and plays a major role in one of the quests.

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Woman as the Temptress: He gets over physical or pleasurable temptations that keep him from his quest. Though Ginny never tried to keep him from his quest, the dark lord may use her as bait once again to trap Harry which will be a threat to the quest and to her life. So, he doesn’t agree when she says that she wants to accompany him to destroy the Horcruxes. He gets over the temptation of her idea of staying together.

Atonement with the FatherAbyss: Harry’s first encounter with the fearsome father-god is when he escapes from Voldemort for the first time during the Triwizard tournament in the third part of the series. He then watches his godfather, Sirius dies during the battle between death eaters and the order of the phoenix. At the end of this part, he barely survives from Voldemort taking control over him. He also watches his mentor, Dumbledore die. Facing his worst fears, these deaths and his inability to save them pushes him into a state of Abyss.

Apotheosis: The hero overcomes the state of Abyss and achieves a state of realization and understanding with his new knowledge and perception. The Hero gets to know what he must do to finish this difficult phase of his quest once and for all. Harry comes to know about Voldemort's secret of immortality - The Horcruxes. He sets off with Hermoine and Ron to destroy them all.

The Ultimate Boon: The hero achieves the goal of his quest. Harry destroys all the Horcruxes including himself (A part of Voldemort lives inside Harry). According to Campbell, in most of the myths, ‘this boon refers to an elixir of life or a magical plant that gives immortality or the Holy grail’(1). He dies and resurrects as he possesses the Deathly Hallows (The two artifacts inherited from his dad and Dumbledore, and the powerful elder wand that he gets by winning over Malfoy) that makes him the master of death (invincible, i.e immortal ).

The last part of the Hero’s journey is Return. This ends the Hero’s journey as he finishes his quest and returns to the ordinary world.

Refusal of the Return: He succeeded in his quest of destroying the Horcruxes. But his goal is to return to a world without the dark lord. Though he destroyed the Horcruxes and he survived the prophecy that said ‘either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives, he refuses to return after he is resurrected.

The Magical Flight: The Ultimate boon that Harry acquired constitutes 3 objects of the Deathly Hallows. Out of which only one was acquired by going against the guardian (though the master of the elder wand was Harry, the guardian of it was Voldemort). Hence, he now has to defeat Voldemort, the guardian against his boon.

The Rescue from Without: ‘The hero is rescued from a final plight from an unexpected source’(2). Harry succeeds in defeating and killing the dark lord only when Neville Longbottom destroys the last Horcrux, Nagini.

Crossing the threshold: This refers to retaining all the wisdom gained through his journey. He realizes the destruction that power can cause and that it is not safe for anyone to have the power of invincibility and hence destroys the elder wand. He realizes that friendship, kindness, humility, and bravery are what that matter after all.

Masters of two worlds: The chosen one defeats the evil and becomes the master of the muggle world and the wizarding world.

Freedom to Live: He has endured everything, fought with death, survived, died, resurrected, and also became invincible. He has no fear for death and chooses to live an ordinary life. He marries Ginny Weasley and has three kids; Albus Severus Potter, James Potter, and Lily potter.

The myth says that every hero sets off as an ordinary person. The fact that the hero started as an ordinary person is inspiring and also lets us empathize with his struggles easily. The idea that an ordinary person who went on an adventure endured a crisis and transformed into a hero fills people with a hope that one day they could become a hero too. ‘The hero showed that the dragon can be slain and the princess can be saved (3). He proves that nothing is impossible and everything can be endured (motivates people to be optimistic). And, after all, the idea of ‘all is well that ends well is a feel-good one that people can never forget. All these things act as the strengths of the monomyth, and it being applicable to almost all the stories of heroes is the biggest strength.

Though it fits almost all the stories, the order of the journey is not the same to all of them and some of them may not contain all the 17 parts which can be a weakness of the monomyth. Joseph Campbell considered the hero to be male and referred to the hero as ‘he’ almost everywhere. The fact that a female can also be a hero stands as another weakness. The idea of individualistic development makes people selfish and self-centered which is not suitable to the new world of democracy. Thus, the monomyth has its pros and cons - No template is perfect.

References:

1. https:en.wikipedia.orgwikiHero's_journey#Initiation
2. http:changingminds.orgdisciplinesstorytellingplotshero_journeyrescue_without.htm
3. https:medium.com@nikhilrajan48heros-journey-in-the-world-of-fiction-2d01132c0f89
4. https:www.mugglenet.com201404harry-potter-and-the-heros-journey-2