Defining Heroism In Joseph Campbell's 'Hero With A Thousand Faces'
Jessica Zagami
Professor Vogtman
ENG102
28 September 2014
Defining Heroism
What defines a true hero? In his work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell famously attempts to unravel this enigma by analyzing mythology. Campbell theorizes that there are three major stages in a hero’s journey. He explains, “The standard path of the mythological adventure of the hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: separation—initiation—return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth” (Campbell 23). During Separation, the hero departs from his known world; during Initiation, the hero faces trials; during Return, the victorious hero returns to his known world to share his boon. The hero’s deed, whether physical …show more content…
The poem supports my claims that Orpheus’s journey to save Eurydice is selfish and that transcendence of the ego is the paramount to heroism. In “Eurydice,” even as Orpheus mourns the loss of his bride, Eurydice mourns the loss of her own life and known world. Truly, her grief is profound. When she is summoned to follow Orpheus, suddenly she is filled with hope, even desperation, that she might be alive once more. Then, he fails to lead her out of her hell. He glances back, out of his own arrogance and selfishness, and dooms her to Hades a second time. The poem seethes with Eurydice’s bitterness. She laments his determination to save her, shown in Stanza I; “if you had let me wait / I had grown from listlessness / into peace, / if you had let me rest with the dead, / I had forgot you / and the past” (Doolittle 4). She would rather he had left her alone to come to terms with her death; then, she might have more easily rested in peace. Instead, Eurydice has life ripped away from her
Professor Vogtman
ENG102
28 September 2014
Defining Heroism
What defines a true hero? In his work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell famously attempts to unravel this enigma by analyzing mythology. Campbell theorizes that there are three major stages in a hero’s journey. He explains, “The standard path of the mythological adventure of the hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: separation—initiation—return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth” (Campbell 23). During Separation, the hero departs from his known world; during Initiation, the hero faces trials; during Return, the victorious hero returns to his known world to share his boon. The hero’s deed, whether physical …show more content…
The poem supports my claims that Orpheus’s journey to save Eurydice is selfish and that transcendence of the ego is the paramount to heroism. In “Eurydice,” even as Orpheus mourns the loss of his bride, Eurydice mourns the loss of her own life and known world. Truly, her grief is profound. When she is summoned to follow Orpheus, suddenly she is filled with hope, even desperation, that she might be alive once more. Then, he fails to lead her out of her hell. He glances back, out of his own arrogance and selfishness, and dooms her to Hades a second time. The poem seethes with Eurydice’s bitterness. She laments his determination to save her, shown in Stanza I; “if you had let me wait / I had grown from listlessness / into peace, / if you had let me rest with the dead, / I had forgot you / and the past” (Doolittle 4). She would rather he had left her alone to come to terms with her death; then, she might have more easily rested in peace. Instead, Eurydice has life ripped away from her