Byronic Hero's Journey

With the development of our society, the ideas and concepts of lots of things have been changed. Feminist’s act is an important hallmark on our path to improve our society. But stereotypes against the role of female could still be found in many literatures. Looking back into our history, the appearance of women has been always weak and helpless in different time period, compare to man. Although, people’s attitude towards women has been advancing, but there is still a space for improvements and developments. Therefore, individuals must challenge their own false impression regarding the role of female, if our society were to truly abridge the gap between genders. For example, there are some literatures demonstrating sexism perfectly. In Christine, Stephen King illustrates a car that processes the personality of a woman, which often turns violent, driven by envy and wrath; The Exorcist creates the character of Regan, which satisfy the public’s expectation of the weak and helpless; and Dracula is a classic vampire story, where the author emphatically deprecates the woman’s status in the common society. Overall, by comparing with these three novels, the authors have used some specific opinions to enhance the issue of feminism. The authors of Christine, The exorcist and Dracula are considered as sexist writers from the portrayal of Leigh Cabot, Regan and Lucy Westenra’s characterization. They often portray the figure of female in a discriminative way, debase and objectify women in

In the movie Hercules the protagonist, Hercules, experiences the three main stages of Joseph Campbell's, The Hero’s Journey outline. In Hercules a young god, the child of Hera and Zeus, is turned into a mortal by Hades and is then sent to earth. The child struggles with being stronger than his peers and he soon realizes that he is not normal. Hercules goes to the temple of Zeus, talks to his father, and sets out on a mission to become a true hero. Joseph Campbell wrote about the main phases of a hero’s journey, the three phases: departure, initiation, and the return, can be found in the movie Hercules.

Every hero follows the same outline to heroism and Hercules is no different. Hercules, the son of Zeus, is captured as an infant and constrained to a world of mortals. Now, as a teenager, Hercules must prove himself worthy of entering back into Mt. Olympus. With help from a few friends, Hercules withstands all temptations and finds himself on the path to heroism. Joseph Campbell categorized a hero’s journey into three different phases; the departure phase, the initiation phase, and the return phase. The movie Hercules portrays Joseph Campbell's monomyth in a brilliant light.

In contrast, by appearance of a horny sexual character, Joyce, viewers are positioned to see the danger of a woman as she rallies support which turns into a mob after she fails to proceed what she wants – sexual intercourse. However, the actions of main character, Edward, and the clothes worn him and more importantly, an awkward looks of him with scissors for hands positions the viewers to see him as a person who can't and never will fit in ordinary suburbia. Burton’s use of these characters is to convince viewer that whether conformity is good or bad, distinct individual is always to be left behind.

The Hero’s Journey is made up of a series of landmarks in which any hero follows on their journey. In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus, the main protagonist, follows through each step of this journey. His journey begins with his call to adventure. The start of his epic journey from Troy back home to Ithaca begins with his voyage to the Trojan War. Following when the war adjourned, Odysseus was called to lead his men home from the war which is the call to the journey that is explained in the epic. One of the most prominent parts of Odysseus’s journey is his Supernatural Aide or Mentors. There are many gods and goddesses whom offer their assistance to Odysseus along his journey. Following the start of Zeus’s curse on Odysseus in response to the

In the late nineteenth century, women were beginning to take a stand for their equal rights in society. The term “new woman” was used to describe these women, openly proclaiming their independence from men. It was a woman’s way to threaten the conventional ideas of society, and to bring about their own changes (Buzwell). Following their well-known suffrage movement, women claimed their freedom sexually, physically, and in the workplace. For many years’ prior, women were expected to be the typical housewife, watching over the house, cooking, and cleaning. They were property of their husbands. During their equal rights revolution, women pursued careers like doctors or lawyers and fulfilling their sexual desires for purposes other than bearing children. As today’s society may never know the struggles and misfortunes during the Victorian era, Dracula leaves a time capsule behind to elaborate on the realities during such a prominent generation (Podonsky). Considering this given criteria, a new woman comes in a variety of forms; some women represent a stronger sexual desire while others demonstrate character traits on equality in work and education. In the case of Dracula, the two main female characters take two different forms; one blatantly sexual and one chaste (Humphrey). Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula portrays the ideas of a “new woman” in a modern society, utilizing Mina’s and Lucy’s characters to display opposite characteristics of the feminist movement which draw attention to

Campbell describes in detail each stage of the archetypal Hero's Journey, reiterating at several points that the archetype has both a clear basis and a clear echo in the actual living existence of each human being. These spiritual echoes are awakened by metaphor, the various uses of which Campbell also describes in detail. The ultimate purpose of both myth and metaphor, Campbell maintains, is to awaken in each individual human being an awareness of the spiritual aspect of life. This awakening, Campbell maintains, is the first step in the necessary journey away from resistance to the various inevitable physical and spiritual truths associated with being human (i.e., death and suffering) and toward an embracing of them as part of the universal

Expressing one's sexuality is often considered a taboo, especially if it concerns women’s sexuality. A woman expressing her sexuality is often looked down upon because of the notion that women must be innocent and demure. These notions were meant to repress women’s sexual gratification and constrict women into feminine roles as mothers or as wives. These stereotyped feminine roles caused women to be viewed as less of a threat to male masculinity. However, in the Victorian Era, new ideas on what it meant to be a woman challenged these feminine roles and the patriarchal order. The “new woman” wanted to be equivalent to men, financially independent, and sexually liberated. The new woman threatens the patriarchal order because equality of the sexes challenges power dynamics and gender roles. In Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, he challenges the social constraints that limit individual and sexual desires through vampires who are capable of revealing the characters’ repressed desires. With the use of vampires as figurative representation of the new woman, the novel reveals the fear of female sexuality through the erotic acts presented by the women and the men who must confront them.

The call to adventure is the first step of the heros journey. This is when the hero will be influenced to leave the known world or what is familiar to them. If and when the hero chooses to answer the call, they will leave the familiar and enter the unfamiliar. Skeeter’s call to adventure is when she gets the job as the journalist. At this newspaper company she will write a news column about house cleaning.

So to begin with the “Hero’s” Journey. I believe it’s a way of literature that is very common and easily appealed to laymen yet in reality, It doesn’t exist kind of, the entire idea of the hero’s journey seems to revolve around a sense of objective moral understanding insofar that it follows an apparent “Hero” with an “Abyss” often seen as the ultimate personal evil that must be overcome and defeated. However, morality doesn’t exist in the way they present it and holds no weight in our lives at all. Any belief that should be followed must be justified yet a justified moral belief must be derived from some inferential rationale which leads to being infinitely regressive. A justified moral belief’s justification is from another justified moral belief which justification comes from yet another justified belief and so on. To go further into the propositional

Edward is quickly accepted, and conformed, by society when he proves to be useful, still the women become bored and vilify Edward to create a more entertaining situation. In doing this, Edward is alienated for the same reasons he was originally warmly welcomed. Burton uses exaggeration to illustrate the exploitation and misunderstanding commonly experienced by “outsiders”.

In his Literary Theory: The Basics, H. Bertens classifies stereotypes of women in literature into a number of categories; dangerous seductress, self-sacrificing angel, dissatisfied shrew, and defenseless lamb, completely incapable of self-sufficiency, or self-control, and dependent on male intervention. Bertens concludes that the primary objective of these women – or “constructions” – is to serve a “not-so-hidden purpose: the continued cultural and social domination of males”. One such novel that came under feminist scrutiny for these particular reasons was Bram Stoker’s Dracula, although this perlustration didn’t occur until 70 years after Stoker originally penned his masterpiece. However, during the mid-1960s, the rise of the feminist

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a television show that changed the way society views certain issues. Creator Joss Whedon, tackles society’s issues by portraying Buffy as a feminist and victim of how female sexuality is seen as threatening. The monsters “act as physical stand-ins for societal differences and threats: Vampires symbolize sexual predators, werewolves represent bodily forces out of control” (Schwab, 2015). It is evident that Whedon tackles the issue of gender equality

Bram Stoker’s Dracula provides an immense amount of commentary about patriarchal society and gender roles. This is most evident through examination of the characters of Jonathan, Lucy and Mina. Using the supernatural figure of the vampire as a catalyst to examine these issues, Stoker illustrates male anxiety at female sexuality and the need for correction of women who do not adhere to the rigid gender norms of the Victorian era.

George Noel Gordon, Lord Byron and Percy Shelley were two poets who wrote during the Romantic and Victorian eras, but are still world-renowned today. Although Byron and Shelley were friends, their writing styles differed greatly. Byron wrote his poetry based on the idea of negative romanticism, which sought to reject the fixed views of the previous era. Negative romanticism is negative, critical, cynical, and anti-Platonism. Byron’s negative romanticism looked to the past and was manifested in the use of the Byronic hero and satire. In contrast, Shelley wrote his poetry based on the idea of positive romanticism, which tried to find something to build up what Byron tore down through his negative romanticism. Positive romanticism focused on a new orientation, new metaphors, a new world picture, and new myths, which were rooted in Platonism. Byron and Shelley were complete opposites of each other, but seemed to balance each other out, similarly to the yin and yang.