Before reading this text, write down a list of the ten best movies you have ever watched. How many of them have a woman as a strong leading character? I bet that there is a disproportion and that there are more movies in which a man is the leading character than a woman. We know that The Hero’s Journey is behind many (or even all of the) plots. Thus, if we cannot find movies that follow this structure and have women as the main characters, it can be said that this journey does not include heroines. This was what Maureen Murdock, one of Campbell’s student, concluded. Murdock created a different theory to bridge the gap of the previous one and published her book called “The Heroine’s Journey: Woman’s Quest for Wholeness” (1990).
The Heroine’s Journey is composed of ten stages:
In order to explain and illustrate this theory, I chose to present it using Brave (2012) as an example. Brave is a production of Disney and Pixar and it innovates in different levels. One is the princess’ appearance, Merida is the first ginger and curly Disney princess (you can see it in the beginning of this post). The other and most important to our analysis in terms of plot. We are going to see that this story is peculiar and very different from other Disney princess movies and it has to do with the Heroine’s Journey. …show more content…
To begin with, it is important to clarify what “feminine” stands for here. Traditionally, women are considered sensitive creatures who have as the main social function motherhood and marriage. This view has been changed during time. However, not only until recently we see this change portrayed in movies. Brave was one of the first animated movie that showed a princess declining this role. Merida, the princess, does not want to get married and starts a big fight with her mother. The queen, Elinor, has raised Merida to become the perfect princess, therefore she does not accept Merida’s
The Heroine’s Journey is composed of ten stages:
In order to explain and illustrate this theory, I chose to present it using Brave (2012) as an example. Brave is a production of Disney and Pixar and it innovates in different levels. One is the princess’ appearance, Merida is the first ginger and curly Disney princess (you can see it in the beginning of this post). The other and most important to our analysis in terms of plot. We are going to see that this story is peculiar and very different from other Disney princess movies and it has to do with the Heroine’s Journey. …show more content…
To begin with, it is important to clarify what “feminine” stands for here. Traditionally, women are considered sensitive creatures who have as the main social function motherhood and marriage. This view has been changed during time. However, not only until recently we see this change portrayed in movies. Brave was one of the first animated movie that showed a princess declining this role. Merida, the princess, does not want to get married and starts a big fight with her mother. The queen, Elinor, has raised Merida to become the perfect princess, therefore she does not accept Merida’s