The tragic hero; a person everyone has always dreamt of being at least once in their life. A tragic hero is a character who has made a judgment error that leads to their own destruction. The idea of this archetype came from Joseph Campbell’s idea of the monomyth cycle. The monomyth cycle is a twelve step approach to the archetype commonly referred to as the “hero’s journey”. Each step is split into the three basic ideas; the departure, initiation, and return (Campbell, 30). The departure is when it is first made apparent that the hero must go on a journey and tackle an endeavour. The initiation is the moment they leave their ordinary world, the place they have known for so long. The return is once they have completed their journey and are
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This is where Hamlet lived with his royal family in ordinary Denmark, his everyday life. Soon after his father, King Hamlet, is murdered by the Prince’s uncle, Claudius. The murder of Hamlet’s father is the second step in the cycle, the call to adventure. Hamlet, while mourning, instantly feels empowered to take action against Claudius marrying his mother, Gertrude. However, Hamlet then decides to instead simply mourn in the loss of his father and not return to school. His inaction in this case is his refusal to call which is the third step in Campbell’s monomyth cycle. The last step in the departure piece of the cycle is where the hero meets their mentor. In the case of Hamlet his mentor is the ghost of his father, King Hamlet. The ghost of his father meets him and confirms that Claudius was guilty for his murder and that he wanted his son to avenge his …show more content…
The first step of initiation is the transfer between departure and initiation and is called “crossing the first threshold” or is typically known as leaving the ordinary world. The moment that Hamlet leaves the ordinary world is the scene where he kills Polonius in hopes that Claudius is the one hiding behind the curtains. The “road of trials” is a very important part of the monomyth cycle since this is where the hero learns where he stands with those he has encountered on his journey. In this step Hamlet learns that his old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are no longer people he can consider friends because they have followed Claudius in his attempt to see what is wrong with Hamlet by spying on him. Leading Hamlet to only have only one ally left, Horatio. The seventh piece is the approach to the climax. In this case Ophelia has no idea what to do with her life now that her father is dead which leads to the vengeance of Hamlet for killing Laertes’ father. The ordeal is when Hamlet has learned that his one true love, Ophelia, committed suicide due to his accidental murder of her father. This is also called the anti-romance phase of his monomythic cycle (Frye, 156) The next step is called the reward. In the case of Hamlet the reward is winning the first two rounds of his swordfight with Laertes. After the first 9 steps of Campbell’s monomyth cycle is where Hamlet lacks his heroic story. While Hamlet may have
This is where Hamlet lived with his royal family in ordinary Denmark, his everyday life. Soon after his father, King Hamlet, is murdered by the Prince’s uncle, Claudius. The murder of Hamlet’s father is the second step in the cycle, the call to adventure. Hamlet, while mourning, instantly feels empowered to take action against Claudius marrying his mother, Gertrude. However, Hamlet then decides to instead simply mourn in the loss of his father and not return to school. His inaction in this case is his refusal to call which is the third step in Campbell’s monomyth cycle. The last step in the departure piece of the cycle is where the hero meets their mentor. In the case of Hamlet his mentor is the ghost of his father, King Hamlet. The ghost of his father meets him and confirms that Claudius was guilty for his murder and that he wanted his son to avenge his …show more content…
The first step of initiation is the transfer between departure and initiation and is called “crossing the first threshold” or is typically known as leaving the ordinary world. The moment that Hamlet leaves the ordinary world is the scene where he kills Polonius in hopes that Claudius is the one hiding behind the curtains. The “road of trials” is a very important part of the monomyth cycle since this is where the hero learns where he stands with those he has encountered on his journey. In this step Hamlet learns that his old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are no longer people he can consider friends because they have followed Claudius in his attempt to see what is wrong with Hamlet by spying on him. Leading Hamlet to only have only one ally left, Horatio. The seventh piece is the approach to the climax. In this case Ophelia has no idea what to do with her life now that her father is dead which leads to the vengeance of Hamlet for killing Laertes’ father. The ordeal is when Hamlet has learned that his one true love, Ophelia, committed suicide due to his accidental murder of her father. This is also called the anti-romance phase of his monomythic cycle (Frye, 156) The next step is called the reward. In the case of Hamlet the reward is winning the first two rounds of his swordfight with Laertes. After the first 9 steps of Campbell’s monomyth cycle is where Hamlet lacks his heroic story. While Hamlet may have