Joseph Campbell's Fascination Of Heroes In Present Day Literature

modern day society, our fascination with heroes are boundless. As young children we aspired to be heroes on own right to save the world from the scrawny hands of evil and villains pot rates in everything from comics, cartoons to masterpiece literature such as .........The characters often does what is normally per cover as impossible and drive our fascination with their strong moral compasses for social justice and teach us important socio-cultural values. Heroes in the past and present day works can be best described in the words of Joseph Campbell, an early 20th century American mutual gist, best known for his work in comparative mythology, who wrote ".........". Interestingly Campbell describes opposing forces and villains, that inescapably
enter one's mind when thinking of heroes, as "Fabulous" - a term that often suggest extraordinary and stupendous phenomenon and people, a term that is not often associated with treacherous villains. Even people, whom most love to hate, have captured the imagination and fascination of all audiences, despite their questionable morality and obvious demise in the hands of superior heroes.
Some of today's most dangerous nemesis such as Loki, Darth Vader, and Joker has managed to get a large fan base that rival that of their heroes. This occurs not because of "If you can't beat them, join them" kind of thinking but because heroes are often defined by the characteristics of the villains. In modern day literature and other media villains provide a base of comparison to the heroes - a reason for one to classify an individual as a hero and also provide a reason for the existence of the hero. Occasionally villains endure their own demise by unwittingly sending an ordinary individual in a journey that will not only define their legacy as a hero but also bring out the unique characteristics that make the said individual a hero. Villains also serve as foil to the hero and thereby bring about the true greatness of the hero and also help depict socio-political culture at the time of the stories creation much similar to the hero. Today’s villains though destroying the world as we know it, manages to extract out sympathy by their little known but still very much alive back
stories. Therefore in many ways that one, Villains and other opposing forces that lurk behind the shadows have more complex character and then that of the hero and occasionally demands audience’s attention more to themselves than to their morally superior heroes.

Classification of an individual as a hero is similar to Einstein’s theory of relativity, which states that all measurements of quantities are relative to the observer. Without villains- heroes are merely a little better that any Good Samaritan. If one was to consider a conflict free society, in which nothing remotely threatens the society as whole or its individuals, then all of its citizens are law abiding citizens with moral high ground. If all citizens are good and work towards the collective good of their community, how does an ordinary citizen differ from a hero? Similarly if the society was conflict ridden, and opposing forces consistently threaten the very foundation of society with lethal threats, then when a highly moral individual stands up to defend all and to sacrifice his safety in doing so, it is much appreciated by society and recognized. This recognition as an upstanding citizen and also as a brave individual cements their status as a hero for they bring hope to the otherwise ailing society. These larger than life characteristics will then therefore be characterized as those of a hero. Without opposing forces and villains, heroes don’t stand out to be differentiated from the rest of society. A hero is someone in ultimatum steps up when everyone else backs down. So for everyone else to be considered meager and driven to their shells by fear, a villain must exist.

While it is important for a villain to exists so that a hero can be recognized by the general public, it’s also important for a villain to exist so that the hero has a reason or purpose to exist.
If a hero goes searching for seemingly random individuals that not everyone in the general public is fully convinced as wrongful individuals and these people can be managed by the strong arms of the existing law, the hero then has a tendency to be characterized as a vengeful murderous vigilante. Penchant example of these figures are the likes of robin hood and green arrow, who are considered vigilante by the law not only because they steal but also by the fact they occasionally interfere with the law and sometimes take justice to their own hands. With a publicly disliked villain like Grendell that demolishes the very structure of society, as represented by is tyrannical occupancy of the Heorot hall, the whole society supports the hero in their efforts and hope for the best. While fictional public backing isn’t always a necessary component in the existence of the hero, without it a hero may suffer an early retirement. The batman trilogies final movie, Dark Knight Rises provides evidence of this as without the backing of Gotham citizens; batman has taken an early retirement after being discouraged to be the dark crusader. The rise of the villain Bane forces batman out of retirement and bring forth not only hope and stability to otherwise desolated Gotham but also reignited faith in
batman - the hero it truly deserves. This in turn delays the subsequent retirement of batman and maintains its existence. The fact remains for a hero to be useful a villain must exist, for the fact remains one either dies a hero in the hands of the villains or lives long without one to see oneself become recognized as a villain by the public that had once adored the said hero.

A villain also serves as a perfect foil to the hero in many works. When the story of Beowulf is taken in its graphic novel context, Grendel provides an excellent foil for Beowulf. In many ways Grendel is the same as Beowulf but they are fundamentally different. Grendel entry to the Heorot hall was not prevented nor was it resolved for many years, through the years many warriors have tried to defeat the beast but has failed. Beowulf on the other hand has triumph over many monsters both in land and in sea. so in close inspection both the hero and the villain have similar experiences against the others kind, and given that Beowulf doesn’t take a sword or any armor in to his confrontation with Grendel, both the hero are at a similar advantage and disadvantage in terms of preparedness to handle the other and artillery. In the graphical representation of Beowulf and Grendel, only thing differentiating them is the color palette as the physicality of the two opponents are remarkable similar.