The Role Of Archetypes In Beowulf And The Hero's Journey

Commonly, most books that involve a hero subscribe to the idea of the hero's journey. The hero’s journey is a list of situations that many books use in order to tell their story. A story that uses the idea of the hero's journey revolves around one protagonist and their fulfillment of that journey. Mary Shelley in her book Frankenstein uses three different characters to fulfill the archetypal scenario of the hero’s journey and the quest for knowledge.

In the work of literature “The Siren Song,” we notice a variety of archetypes, despite the lack of characters. An archetype is a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology.

Archetypes are defined as “a typical character, an action or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of human nature.” (“Archetype”) The short story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien is about the internal struggle and the journey he faces after he is drafted to serve the army. The classical hero’s journey archetype is similar to Tim O’Brien’s journey in his short story, “On the Rainy River,” with the exception of the arc length and depth of transformation.

In archetype is a model situation, person, or idea that has been copied or repeated many times and is very recognizable. The most common archetype is the story on the underdog. The stores consist of a good person receives when he is faced with the odds of an unbeatable task or in immeasurable obstacle, Such is in the story of David and Goliath. This story has been copied many times infection and in stores based on real life events. I can count many movies and books based on real life sports teams who have triumphed in an unexpected victory or an outstanding season. Most basic stories were the winner always wins in the loser always lose are very boring in distasteful to the reader. Somewhere along the line the winner has to lose in the loser

The hero’s journey is a type of archetype shown in many stories that shows the steps of how a hero becomes a hero: mostly every protagonist goes through this journey. In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael goes on a hero’s journey. He was separated from his normal happy childhood when war hit his country. He then had to fight in the war but UNICEF (The United Nations Children's Fund) took him from the war, rehabilitated him, and he eventually ended up in the U.S where he was safe. In The Hobbit, Bilbo also went on the hero’s journey when he was separated from his non-adventurous life in his hobbit hole and went on an adventure with the dwarves. On that adventure he came across many struggles like saving the dwarves lives and escaping death many times.

Archetypes are used in everywhere such as films, books, and art. They can be in characters, images, and themes. Archetypes repeat in every literature in every genre.

If you would ask me to reflect on a personal experience, I actually have an experience that follows the stages of The Hero’s Journey exactly. It sounds silly, but the first thing that comes to mind is the time I competed in an international beauty pageant. The ordinary world, the call to adventure, the refusal, the meeting

An archetype is a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology. Two archetypes used in The Hobbit are a communion and a hero’s quest. These two archetypes are used throughout the story.

Archetypes are a recurring actions or attributes that represent definitive events in a person's life or a specific character. They are universal emblems in literature that correspond to various aspects of human, behavior, and culture. They are usually incorporated, by writers to symbolize relationships between divergent charterers, situations or symbolically natural opposites. They are a major factor in writing literature because they help shape a piece of literature. Archetypes are a major part they help illuminate the purpose of different characters and bonds between each other. The film Big is a classic film due to, the captivating idea of turning a boy into a man and the use of specific archetypes such as mentors, earth mother, star-crossed lovers and much more. It also is an excellent presentation of the archetypical cycle.

Joseph Campbell describes the hero’s journey as a quest where the “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 adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man” (Campbell 7). The heroine’s quest, according to Valerie Estelle Frankel includes “battling through pain and intolerance, through the thorns of adversity, through death and beyond to rescue loved ones” (Frankel 11). Contrary to the hero’s journey, the heroine’s journey focuses on the “culture on the idealization of the masculine” while the hero’s journey focuses on the adventures. In the inspiring autobiography, I Am

In one point in our lives, we complete a quest or a journey. It may be physically or emotionally, but we all go through one. An archetype represents a universal human experience; archetypes act most commonly in the great forms of literature, little do people know that archetypes occur in our everyday lives. We mostly notice archetypes in the medieval romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and in the fiction The Hero with a thousand faces these heroes go through many archetypes in order to complete quests; also, he possesses many different archetypes during his quest. Gawain’s succession of trials leaves the hero, like Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, a “sadder but wiser man.”

An archetype, is known as a template or the original model. In literature it can take the form of a character, theme, or even a setting. As a character in literature the Archetype represents patterns or common themes in human nature. They are typically very relatable since they possess typical traits found in everyone. Authors use archetypes in literature to demonstrate an action or a situation that is timeless, and is used to represent universal patterns of human nature. In “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen on several occasions the characters use their language and actions to exemplify their “universal” characteristics. Ibsen introduces the readers to a dynamic character by the name of Nora who is timeless because she plays the role of a naïve wife that lies, manipulates and possesses no self-actualization. Henrik Ibsen symbolically use this character to denote the recurring patterns of human nature that are present in today’s world and generations in the past.

Archetypes are used in literature to portray a certain meaning, that helps create a better and more meaningful story. The archetypes used can be embedded in the characters, symbols, or even rituals involved in a story. These archetypes can help give deeper meaning to the story by giving a underlying reference to concepts that are used over and over again in literature throughout history. When an author uses an archetype in his or her writing, they link it to many other stories that use that same archetype. Some do this for a reason, to give an underlying meaning, to symbolized something of importance, or even just to make their story more interesting. Many readers may not notice the underlying archetype, but sometimes the author uses them because he or she knows that the reader will.

Specific archetypes repeat in mythological stories. For example, I have found Jung’s archetype of "wise old man" in many figures like Gandalf and Dumbledore in Lord of the Rings and

What would you do if the person you are in love with doesn’t remember you? That is what Leo has to figure out in the movie The Vow. The movie also uses archetypes to help guide the story along. An archetype is a character, action, or situation that is a prototype (or pattern) of human life generally. In my movie the director used archetypes to help the viewers get connected to the story that is so very tragic. The archetypes this director used were a Damsel in Distress, The Crossroads, and The Quest to Find Love.