| Star Wars Essay, Research Paper
Star Wars As a Mythology
?Fifteen years ago, I set out to make a movie for a
generation without fairy tales.?
-George Lucas
There exists in every culture a series of folk tales and stories, which make up a part of that culture’s history. These stories, called myths, often venture into the magical and fantastic, with great heroes battling terrible monsters to save exotic lands. As the human race has evolved, we have moved beyond the need to attribute unexplained events to supernatural workings beyond our ken. As a result, modern culture puts its faith in science and organised religion, and for centuries there have been no new myths.
In the nineteen-seventies, a young and enthusiastic film maker/director put his imagination and heart into changing that. George Lucas’s now legendary Trilogy of movies and books, Star
Wars, is the result. To the casual observer, the movies are only exciting science fiction stories, but a closer look reveals nothing short of a complete mythology within. George Lucas collaborated
with Joseph Campbell on the making of the first movie of the
Trilogy, A New Hope (A New Hope is more commonly known as
Star Wars, but to be accurate, Star Wars will be used when
discussing the entire Trilogy and A New Hope will be used when
discussing the first movie only.) Before he died, Campbell was
widely accepted as the foremost authority on myths and
mythologies in the world. Campbell strongly believed that every
culture’s myths and legends were strikingly similar, even identical,
to those of every other culture. His The Hero With A Thousand
Faces compares the trials and traits of heroes from all legends.
Lucas incorporated Campbell’s model of the Hero in developing
Luke Skywalker as the Hero in A New Hope.
The plot line of A New Hope is very similar to that of many
mythologies. In order to better understand how Luke evolves as a
Hero, it is necessary to examine the early events of the film and
note how these key events are typical of other myths. A New Hope
takes place in a typical science-fiction galaxy. There exist many
planets and races of intelligent life. The galaxy’s government has
recently been thrown into turmoil by the emergence of the evil
Emperor and his Empire. The Empire is the typical tyrant of
mythological stories. In Greek legend, the creation of the universe
proceeded smoothly until Cronos, father of the gods, decided he
wanted supreme power. He took over and ruled ruthlessly, and it
was up to Zeus and his divine siblings to overthrow him and
restore peace. In A New Hope the Rebel Alliance takes the place
of the gods. As in many myths, the Rebellion is young and
hopelessly outnumbered. Campbell wrote that the Hero is almost
always a youth and weak relative to his enemies. The Rebellion
has just won its first victory by stealing classified information
from the Empire and smuggling it to Princess Leia, a high ranking
Alliance member. Princess Leia is on her way to deliver the
information to Obi-Wan Kenobi, a former general. It is the
Alliance’s hope that Kenobi can safely get the information to the
Rebel base. Obi-Wan lives on Tatooine, a desert planet on the
outskirts of the galaxy which happens to be home to a young Luke
Skywalker. Luke knows Obi-Wan as “Ben,” and believes he is
only an old hermit. This element is also present in Greek
mythology. Cronos swallowed all of his children to ensure that
they could not overthrow him. His wife hid his last son and gave
Cronos a rock to swallow instead. The youngest son, Zeus, was
sent away to live in a remote mountain valley until he grew old
enough to challenge his father. Tatooine corresponds to Zeus’s
valley as the distant sanctuary for the growing Hero.
On the way to Tatooine, Leia’s ship is intercepted and
boarded by one of the Empire’s ships. In desperation she sends the
information, stored in a droid named Artoo-Detoo, to the planet’s
surface. Artoo-Detoo and his companion, an interpreter droid
named See-Threepio, meet and are bought by Luke’s uncle. Thus,
Luke enters the story.
An introduction of some of the story’s key characters will
also help in analyzing the Hero Cycle. Luke Skywalker will
become the Hero. He is nineteen years old and works as a
farmhand on his uncle’s moisture farm. He is bored with his life
and wishes to submit his application to the Starfighter Academy.
Luke’s dream is to be a starfighter and go on grand, epic
adventures. Another classic element of mythology is this yearning.
Campbell thought that one of the basic prerequisites of the Hero-to-be is the desire to become something great.
Han Solo is another key figure. Han is a smuggler, and
earns his living shipping cargo for unscrupulous characters. He
has incurred the wrath of several crime lords, and is currently
looking for easy money to pay his debts. Han joins the adventure
in Mos Eisley spaceport on Tatooine and becomes Luke’s closest
friend. As the plot progresses, Han along with Ben plays the role
of Luke’s tutor. He represents physical discipline and proficiency
in combat. It is Han’s job to instruct Luke as a warrior.
Ben Kenobi is Han’s spiritual counterpart. Ben lives as a
hermit on Tatooine and is regarded by the citizens as a crazy old
man. He was a general in the Clone Wars long ago, and was close
friends with Princess Leia’s father. It is for this reason Leia seeks
him out. Ben is also a Jedi Knight. The Jedi were the protectors
of the galaxy during the reign of the Old Republic but have
become extinct, exterminated by the Empire. Ben is the only Jedi
remaining. It is his role to instruct Luke in the Force, the Jedi’s
source of power. Ben represents mental control and self-discipline. He is Han’s complement in Luke’s teaching.
A New Hope’s version of the classic “damsel in distress” is
Princess Leia. She is a senator in the Republic and one of the
Rebel Alliance’s key members. Leia is captured by Darth Vader
and taken to the Death Star, a mobile space station and the
Empire’s newest and most powerful weapon. There she is
interrogated and, after giving up no useful information, is
scheduled to be executed. It is into this situation Luke and his
friends enter, and it is Luke’s goal to rescue her. Here George
Lucas reflected the modern view of the role of women. Instead of
designing Leia as a meek, subservient woman, he has her take
control and join Luke and Han as an equal. In the Trilogy, she is
developed into a full-blown character. Despite her haughtiness,
both Luke and Han become enamored with her. This creates
something of a love triangle between the three, but, as in most
fairy tales, the heroes work through it (actually, Lucas didn’t
elaborate on it much.)
The two most amusing characters in the movie are See-Threepio and Artoo- Detoo. They are both droids, artificial life
forms with intelligence. Artoo is an astromech droid. These types
of droids are used for navigation and are frequently placed into
starfighters as an engine enhancement. Artoo is placed into Luke’s
starfighter later in the movie, and this gives the two the chance to
develop a master-pet relationship. See-Threepio is an interpreter
droid, working in “human-cyborg relations” as he is fond of
saying. See-Threepio is the closest thing A New Hope has to a
narrator. Most of the comic relief and release of tension in the
story occur as a result of the interplay between Artoo and See-Threepio. Their role in the mythological aspect of A New Hope is
that of the faithful companions of the Hero. These companions
serve him because they know no better or have nothing else to do
or, as in the case of the two droids, because they are programmed
to.
The last remaining key character in A New Hope is Darth
Vader. Vader is the villain, evil, sinister, and powerful. He is
dressed all in black and is half mechanical, giving his voice a
deep, metallic sound which is quite intimidating. Vader plays the
role of the Dark Knight in mythology. He is the being of
unstoppable power and evil which plagues the land. Old Celtic
legends hold that there once was a mystical island named Eire,
which is Ireland today. Eire was peaceful and idyllic until the
coming of Balor of the Evil Eye and his minions. Balor was a
huge, one-eyed Fomorian (Irish giant). He brought hundreds of his
Fomorian followers and settled in Eire, enslaving the populace and
ravaging the land. After many years, a band of heroes killed Balor
and restored peace to the land. These heroes became the Celtic
gods, and included Manannan Mac Lir, Lugh, and Dagda, all
prominent Irish deities. Darth Vader is the Balor of A New Hope.
Vader is extremely powerful and the best starfighter in the galaxy.
Although he tortures Princess Leia and pursues the heroes
throughout the story, he never directly threatens them. The fact
that Luke never faces him is the concession of his power; Luke,
even with his newfound Hero powers, cannot hope to match him.
Even at the end of the story, Vader doesn’t die; he escapes into
space.
Campbell’s model of the Hero involves what he called the
Hero Cycle, or “Adventure of The Hero.” The cycle is circular,
with steps along it which the Hero takes on his journey. The circle
is split into two semicircles, with a line splitting the circle called
the “Threshold of Adventure.” Those events which occur in the
place where the Hero grows up and lives, called the Homeland, lie
above the Threshold of Adventure. Those which occur in the
realm of the fantastic and supernatural, called the Land of
Enchantment, lie below the Threshold. The steps of the Cycle are,
in order: the Call to Adventure, the Helper, the Threshold, the
Tests, the Supreme Ordeal, the Flight, the Return from the
Threshold, and the Elixir.
The crucial part of the plot of A New Hope, as in any folk
tale’s, is the development and evolution of the Hero through the
Hero Cycle. The first part of the Cycle is the Call to Adventure.
Here, the hero discovers that there is something beyond his
normal, everyday existence. Many Irish and Celtic folk tales begin
with the hero riding in a forest and discovering a ring of small
standing stones with a luminescent rock in the center. The hero
enters a doorway in the rock and is transported to a land of faeries
and magic. In A New Hope, Luke chases a runaway Artoo- Detoo
into the desert which makes up the vast majority of Tatooine, and
is ambushed and knocked unconscious by a group of desert
scavengers. Luke is saved from certain death by Ben Kenobi, a
mysterious hermit. Ben takes him to the cave where he lives and
tells him of his heritage as the son of a Jedi Knight. This is his
entrance into the faery rock. Sometimes the Hero refuses the Call
to Adventure. In his cave, Ben asks Luke to accompany him off-world and join the Rebellion. Luke declines and decides to stay.
Campbell said that this refusal, although seemingly against the
Hero’s wish to accomplish legendary deeds, is present in every
Hero, representing his desire to lead a normal life. Luke feels that
he should stay and help his uncle despite his adventurous nature
(Reference A New Hope, 4342–4513). Meanwhile, the Empire’s
soldiers, which have been searching for See-Threepio and Artoo-
Detoo, track the droids to Luke’s uncle’s farm and kill his aunt and
uncle. Upon returning, Luke realizes that there is no reason for
him to stay (Reference ANH, 4724–4914 and 5000–5946), and
agrees to accompany Ben to return the stolen data and join the
Rebellion. Campbell repeatedly emphasized the importance of the
revenge factor in the Hero’s evolution. The Hero’s most common
Call to Adventure is the response to some action taken against
him. The brutal killing of Luke’s family is what makes him
change his mind and answer his Call to Adventure. He leaves his
previous mundane existence and enters the realm of enchantment
and danger.
The next step in the Hero Cycle is the introduction of the
Helper. The Helper is a character who aids the hero’s first
faltering steps into the Land of Enchantment. This character is
often a supernatural, mysterious entity who instructs the hero and
equips him for the trials ahead. When Perseus set off to slay
Medusa, he was told to seek out advice and aid from the gods.
Medusa was the only mortal sister of three Gorgons, and was so
hideous in appearance that any who glanced at her would
immediately turn to stone. Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom
and honorable warfare, lent Perseus Aegis, her brass shield. She
told him to look into the shield and fight Medusa while viewing
her reflection. Hermes, the god of thievery and trickery, gave
Perseus a magic sack and a pair of magical sandals. The sack
would grow large enough to contain anything put in it, and was to
be used to hold Medusa’s head should Perseus prove successful.
The sandals would enable Perseus to fly and bestow upon him
superhuman speed so he could escape the wrath of Medusa’s
sisters. Thus armed, Perseus was ready to engage his foe.
Ben Kenobi and Han Solo play the roles of the helpers in A
New Hope. Ben instructs Luke in the ways of the Force, the Star
Wars equivalent of magic. He gives Luke a lightsaber, the weapon
of a Jedi Knight. This enables Luke to compete with the enemies
he will face in his adventure. Han Solo is Luke’s friend and
companion. He doesn’t give Luke anything tangible, but serves as
the guide from the Homeland to the Land of Enchantment. His
ship, the Millennium Falcon, is the physical mode of
transportation between Tatooine and elsewhere. The physical
transportation to adventure is easily seen in Greek mythology.
Several Greek legends take place in Hades, Greece’s version of
Hell. In order to cross over into Hades, the traveler must cross the
River Styx. This river flowed with poisonous, acidic water and
killed all who came into contact with it. The only way to cross
this barrier was to pay Charon, the boatman of Hades. Charon
would ferry the souls of the dead or those heroes brave enough to
enter Hades for a price. The dead had only to pay a single silver
coin, which they were buried with. Charon refused to ferry living
beings across without an extravagant form of payment or
persuasion, however. Han Solo’s price for taking Luke and Ben to
Alderaan, their destination before it was destroyed, was ten
thousand credits. Luke balked at the price, as Ben and he didn’t
have that much money, but Ben offered to pay Han a small amount
now, plus much more upon arrival at their destination. Han
agreed, and they were on their way (Reference ANH, 5539–5709).
Han also defends the passengers throughout the voyage to
Alderaan and ultimately the Death Star, providing Luke with his
first taste of combat. Immediately upon leaving Tatooine, Han
pulls some fancy maneuvers to evade two Imperial Star
Destroyers, huge ships which would have easily destroyed the
Millennium Falcon. Han’s role as defender is the same as that of
the Argonauts as they accompanied Jason to Colchis in the Greek
legend of the Golden Fleece. Jason had a huge ship built to fetch
the prize which would restore him to the throne of his country. He
invited the greatest heroes from Greece to accompany him, and
they defended and aided him on his journey to Colchis. The peril
the Argonauts faced which is most similar to the Star Destroyers in
A New Hope is the Clashing Rocks of the Symplegades. In order
to pass, the Argonauts had to follow a specific procedure, and
succeeded with only the stern of the ship being crushed. Han is
able to save the heroes with only superficial damage to his ship.
A necessary part of the Hero’s journey is the actual,
physical transport out of his previous life. There is a gate or
Threshold which the Helper from step two aids the hero to cross,
and on the other side of the Threshold lies the Land of
Enchantment. In Norse mythology, there existed a rainbow bridge
which spanned the gap between Midgard, the land of men, and
Asgard, the home of the Gods. This bridge, named Heimdall, was
one such Threshold. The Threshold in A New Hope is the
spaceport of Mos Eisley. It is an extremely dangerous place, as
Ben warns Luke. Luke responds arrogantly, as the naive Hero-to-be often does. (Reference ANH, 5047–5106 and 5217–5230) Mos
Eisley is where Luke sells his landspeeder, a representation of his
former life, and enlists Han Solo’s aid. The Threshold contains a
guardian of some sort which must be passed. This guardian dwells
within the Threshold, and is usually a creature or living enemy.
Heimdall was guarded by a god of the same name whose sole
purpose was to prevent the crossing of the bridge by mortals.
Luke’s first encounter with such a danger occurs while Ben and he
are attempting to enter the spaceport. They enter the city with
See-Threepio and Artoo–Detoo, and are stopped by a group of
stormtroopers. The stormtroopers, which are the Empire’s
standard soldiers, are searching for the droids, and begin to
question Luke about his ownership of them. Ben uses the Force to
exert mind control over them, and convinces them to allow Luke
and him to pass. This is Luke’s first taste of the magical power
which he himself will come to possess.
Another significant encounter takes place in the Cantina,
Mos Eisley’s combination bar/information center. While talking
to Chewbacca, first mate aboard the Millennium Falcon, about
securing passage, Luke is left alone for a brief time. He is bullied
by Ponda Baba, a walrus-headed monster. Ben attempts to calm
the situation by offering him a drink, but Ponda Baba’s friend, a
humanoid mercenary who has “the death sentence in twelve
systems,” attacks him. Ben slices off Ponda Baba’s arm with his
lightsaber and ends the conflict. Here Luke first witnesses Ben’s
power in combat. According to Campbell, this is characteristic of
the Threshold. In addition to being the gate to the Realm of
Adventure, it offers the Hero his first glimpse into a bigger world.
The Hero exits the Threshold eager for more excitement and
mentally more able to accept the wonders he will face.
After leaving his Homeland, the Hero finds himself faced
with many challenges along the path to adventure. After
overcoming these challenges, the Hero is then presented with a
final difficult task and finally the prize. In one Germanic/Norse
myth, the hero, a mighty warrior named Siegfried, seeks to win the
hand of Brunhilde in marriage. Brunhilde has been asleep many
years atop a mountain, placed there by her father Odin as a
punishment. Siegfried sets out and must fight many monsters and
face myriad obstacles to reach the mountain. Once there, he is
faced with Odin disguised as an old man. Siegfried passes by Odin
by breaking Odin’s staff–representative of disarming him. Upon
climbing the mountain, he is faced with a curtain of magical fire
which circles the sleeping Brunhilde. The only way anyone can
pass through the flame is to plunge immediately into it without
hesitation, and Siegfried does so, making his way to his bride.
Luke faces obstacles from the start, but unlike Siegfried, he is
unable to cope with all of them by himself. He is aided by helpers
as described above. After facing the obstacles, the Hero enters the
Land of Enchantment. In A New Hope, Luke enters the Death Star
and attempts to rescue Princess Leia. The Death Star is Luke’s
Land of Enchantment, where he faces most of his personal
challenges.
Here there is a minor discrepancy between the hero cycle
in A New Hope and that in most other mythologies. In nearly
every folk tale or legend, the obtaining of the prize is preceded by
the Supreme Ordeal, a task of seemingly impossible difficulty.
Siegfried’s Supreme Ordeal was the fiery curtain. Perseus had to
kill a monster he couldn’t look at. The Hero’s Supreme Ordeal
was the biggest, most impressive encounter he had to face, and
was the highlight of his adventure. Luke’s rescue of Princess Leia
was indeed spectacular and daring, as he and Han had to cope with
a space station full of enemy soldiers, but the rescue is eclipsed by
Luke’s destruction of the Death Star at the end of the movie. This
was presumably done because A New Hope was an action movie,
which as a rule needs to present a final conflict at the conclusion
rather than the climax. Therefore, Luke’s Supreme Ordeal, the
destruction of the Death Star, is separate from his prize, the rescue
of Princess Leia.
Upon entering the Land of Enchantment, the Hero is
typically left to his own devices to complete his quest. If the Hero
has learned his lessons well and fulfilled his role, he will do well
and succeed. If not, his quest is doomed to fail. The Greek Hero
Orpheus is an example of such an unfortunate. Orpheus fell in
love with a girl named Eurydice and they intended to wed. Several
days before their wedding, the girl stepped on and was bitten by a
venomous snake, and later died. Orpheus determined to go to
Hades to retrieve her. Orpheus, whose mother was Calliope, the
muse of poets and musicians, was widely known as the most
skilled bard in all the land. He was able to calm man and beast
alike by playing his lyre. He was also known for being cocky and
arrogant, and in some variations of the tale his beloved’s death was
planned by the gods to warn him of his pride. Orpheus set out and
entered Hades by playing music so melancholy that Charon, filled
with pity, agreed to ferry him across. Orpheus then fought off and
charmed the spirits of the dead, and made his way to the palace of
Hades and Persephone, the king and queen of the underworld. He
again charmed his antagonists, and was allowed to have his
beloved back if he could make his way back above the earth
without glancing back at her. While making the journey back,
Orpheus called her name to make sure she was following him.
She didn’t hear him, and Orpheus glanced back at her. The girl
was immediately drawn back to Hades and lost forever.
Despite its unhappy ending, the myth of Orpheus bears
much resemblance to Luke’s quest. Immediately upon entering the
Death Star, Luke and his friends hid themselves until they could
ambush several stormtroopers and disguise themselves in their
uniforms. At this point Ben left the group to disable the tractor
beam keeping their ship imprisoned. This is symbolic of the
supernatural force which aids the Hero to a certain point, then
leaves to pursue other goals. In J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,”
Gandalf was only present for certain obstacles, leaving when he
deemed it necessary. His absences allowed Bilbo, the hero of the
story, to prove his worth. Perhaps the hardest leg of Bilbo and his
friend’s journey, the trip through Mirkwood, was traversed without
the aid of Gandalf. The events which occurred in this forest, and
up until the very end of the story, were those in which Bilbo took
control and matured into a Hero. When Ben left, Luke too started
to prove his worth by coming up with a plan to rescue Princess
Leia, who was being held prisoner. His plan worked until Luke,
Han, and Chewbacca reached the prison cell where Leia was being
held. Their success due to Luke’s cunning corresponds to
Orpheus’s charming of the spirits which threatened him. They
then had to fight the guards in order to reach the princess. They
successfully defended against the guards long enough to reach the
princess and rescue her, finally escaping from immediate danger
by sliding down a garbage chute. The friends’s success due (in
part) to Luke’s combat ability corresponds to Orpheus’s success in
fighting off the spirits which didn’t succumb to his music.
After the obtaining of the primary goal, the Hero must flee
from the place of his adventure and face more obstacles along the
way. In this escape, termed the Flight by Campbell, the Hero
exhibits what he has learned and proves that he has earned his
prize. In A New Hope, the obstacles faced by Luke and his friends
after the rescue of the Princess were far greater than those faced
before. Again Luke takes control and starts to fulfill his role as
Hero. Immediately after escaping down the garbage chute, the
friends find themselves in a garbage compactor. Luke is seized
and dragged underwater by a snakelike creature. Han is helpless to
save him, and Luke would have drowned had it not been for the
introduction of the next obstacle. The creature withdraws when
the walls start to move in toward themselves, leaving Luke and
company to deal with a new threat. This series of events is a
classic example of the frying pan-fire analogy. The heroes escape
from the stormtroopers to be threatened with the sewer-creature,
which they survive only to be faced with the walls caving in. The
obstacle of the walls is another example of the Clashing Rocks of
the Symplegades in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts. In the
myth, the heroes escape by following a blind seer’s advice given in
a previous adventure. They let a dove fly through the Rocks ahead
of the ship. The dove’s tail feathers are crushed, but it safely
makes it through. The heroes start to row as the Rocks begin to
separate, and the ship just barely passes through. The Rocks then
withdraw and become forever rooted to the ocean floor. The dove
in this scene of A New Hope is Artoo- Detoo. As Han, Chewbacca
and Leia try to block the closing walls with a length of pipe, Luke
contacts See-Threepio through his comlink. See-Threepio
instructs Artoo- Detoo to interface with the computer and shut
down the garbage facilities, which he does just in the nick of time.
There is a brief but meaningful encounter just before the
band reaches their ship in which there is another example of
Luke’s growth as a hero. Luke and Leia become separated from
the others, and are faced with a wide ravine. There is no way
across, and stormtroopers are attacking them from behind as well
as the other side of the ravine. Luke, thinking quickly, throws a
grappling hook across and swings to the other side. This is Luke’s
first trial he has faced alone, and he successfully overcomes it.
The last obstacle during the Flight occurs as the
companions are leaving the Death Star. Ben has died, killed by
Darth Vader while drawing attention away from Luke and his
band, but Luke’s training with him has been completed. Ben’s
role was to instruct Luke and teach him how to use his cunning.
He exhibits his mastery of this in the crossing of the ravine and the
escape from the garbage pit. The only training Luke has remaining
is instruction in the physical, combat-oriented skills. In Celtic
mythology, there existed a mighty warrior named Cuchulainn.
Cuchulainn was the most powerful hero in the land, and could be
bested by no one in his Homeland. Cuchulainn traveled to Skatha,
a great warrior queen who dwelt in the faerie land, for training and
competition. Han takes Skatha’s place in A New Hope. He
doesn’t actually teach Luke; he is more of an example for Luke to
follow. Han is a brilliant pilot and fighter. His ship is the fastest
ship known to the Rebellion or the Empire as a result of his careful
modifications, although it is less-than-attractive to the eye
(Reference ANH, 10027–10107). Han uses many complicated and
dangerous tactics in ship-to-ship combat, and is headstrong and
fearless in battle. Luke witnesses his friend’s abilities and learns
by copying them. His skills are tested in the escape from the
Death Star. Four TIE Fighters, the Empire’s standard starfighter,
pursue the Millennium Falcon away from the Death Star. Han
leaves Chewbacca and Leia to pilot the ship while he and Luke go
to the weapons controls. It is significant that Han asks Luke to
help him. Earlier he reprimanded Luke’s overeagerness
(Reference ANH, 10129–10309) and now he welcomes his aid
(Reference ANH, 13956–14227). They successfully destroy their
enemies, and Luke shows skill equal to Han’s by destroying an
equal number of ships. Upon finishing training with Skatha,
Cuchulainn aids her in a netherworld battle with an enemy force.
In the battle he fights as well as Skatha, proving he has completed
his training.
The next part of the Hero’s adventure in Campbell’s Cycle
is the return from the threshold. This is the Hero’s exit from the
Land of Enchantment and return to the normal world. This is not a
lull or end of activity; rather, it is a heightening of danger and
resolve. The Hero has succeeded in winning his prize, but in most
myths the prize is necessary to accomplish some deed in the
Hero’s homeland. Perseus slew Medusa not on a whim but as a
request. His mother, Danae, was a beautiful woman whom the
king of the land, Polydectes, lusted after. Polydectes was evil and
greedy, and decided to force Danae to marry him. Perseus
defended his mother so strongly and heroically that Polydectes
decided to get rid of him. He pretended to marry another princess,
and invited Perseus to attend the wedding. Perseus was poor and
could afford no wedding present, and told Polydectes this when it
came time for the presentation of the gifts. Polydectes
condescended to him, knowing that Perseus’s pride would be
stung. Perseus told him that he would do anything the king wanted
as his gift, and Polydectes told him to kill Medusa and bring back
her head, not believing he could do it. Meanwhile, he intended to
force Danae to marry him. When Perseus accomplished the deed
and escaped from the remaining two Gorgons, his adventure was
not over. He still had to return and confront the situation at home.
Luke’s return from the threshold is his escape from the
Death Star to the Rebel base on Yavin IV. He has won a victory
for the Rebellion by rescuing Princess Leia and the information
aboard Artoo- Detoo, but the Empire knows where the Rebellion’s
base is. The Death Star is on its way to destroy the planet, and the
Hero must somehow stop it. Luke has now exited the realm of the
fantastic but must still finish his quest outside of it.
The last step of the cycle is the return with the Elixir and
the Resolution. Beowulf, after wounding Grendel, had secured
Hrothgar’s Mead Hall, but he still had to track Grendel down. In
his case, the Elixir, or the key item or piece of information needed
to complete the quest, was the knowledge of the location of
Grendel’s lair. Only by acting upon the Elixir was he able to kill
Grendel’s mother and end the threat forever. The Elixir in the
story of Perseus was Medusa’s head, which Perseus stuffed in the
magical wallet given to him by Hermes. When he returned to
Polydectes’s palace, he found that his mother had been made to
marry the evil king. Perseus stormed into Polydectes’s throne
room, where he and his nobles were celebrating. Polydectes was
stunned that Perseus had come back, and before he could act
Perseus held aloft Medusa’s head and turned everyone present
save himself into stone.
The Elixir in “A New Hope” was the information Princess
Leia had stored in Artoo- Detoo. Specifically, the information was
the technical readout of the Death Star. Once at Yavin, the heroes
set about searching the readout for a hidden weakness, and found
one. The pilots rushed to their starfighters and prepared to launch.
Luke was invited to join them, thus completing his transition. He
started out as an ordinary boy, answered the Call to Adventure, and
entered the Threshold. He passed the obstacles before him and
successfully overcame his Supreme Ordeal. He escaped safely
back into the ordinary realm, and now all that remained was the
use of the Elixir to finish his quest. Luke was the one who
destroyed the Death Star in the nick of time, thus saving the
Rebellion. The legend of Beowulf again proves useful. Beowulf
finds that Grendel’s lair is underwater, and he immediately dives
in to find him. This symbolizes the impossible situation the Hero
must act in. The Rebels’s situation in A New Hope is similar,
having small one-man starfighters to attack a battle station as big
as a moon. Beowulf is confronted with Grendel’s mother, an
opponent larger and meaner than Grendel himself. The immediate
worsening of odds is also a typical part of the final conflict of the
Hero. Luke and the other Rebel pilots not only have to destroy the
Death Star, but they must also fight off enemy starfighters,
including Darth Vader, one of the best pilots in the galaxy. The
heroes have a bit of luck, though; the Death Star has a small
exhaust port which leads directly to its center. A direct torpedo hit
into the port will destroy the station. Beowulf too gets lucky. He
finds a large, gleaming sword hanging on the wall of Grendel’s
lair. The blade is magical, and allows the user the ability to fight
normally underwater. The heroes in A New Hope get several more
lucky breaks. The exhaust port, which is two meters in length,
cannot be hit with the starfighters’s targeting computers, meaning
that the pilots must aim manually. Ben’s spirit speaks to Luke,
instructing him to “Use the Force” and guiding him. At the critical
point when Luke fires his torpedoes, Han shows up and damages
Darth Vader’s ship, allowing him to fire. These seemingly random
events are well known in mythology. Again, Han and Ben team up
and help Luke in the end. Han gives him what he needs physically
and Ben clears his mind mentally. It is Hermes and Athena at
work again. The inability of the computers to hit the target is the
obstacle’s built in defense system. If any mundane person could
defeat it, a Hero wouldn’t be needed. Only someone with the
necessary knowledge and discipline can succeed. This hearkens
back to Siegfried’s curtain of fire, where only those without fear
could proceed. Luke destroys the Death Star and the Rebels return
home triumphant. The Hero Cycle has been completed.
The Hero Cycle is also prominent in George Lucas’s entire
Star Wars Trilogy. It is somewhat harder to discern, since the plot
is drawn out over three movies. The concept is broader, with more
detail found within the Hero’s training and internal fulfillment.
Everything that was present in A New Hope is present in the
Trilogy, only on a greater scale. There is also a new element
present in the Trilogy, that of the atonement of the Father.
Campbell describes the Atonement as a conflict between the Hero
and a father figure. The father figure doesn’t have to be the Hero’s
actual father, he can be any older character the Hero knows. The
Hero becomes grown and nears the time of his sojourn into the
adult world. It is the father figure’s responsibility to usher him
into the strange new realm. Th Hero, afraid of what lies ahead,
seeks comfort with a mother figure, and regards the father figure
as evil and sinister. He soon realizes that he must proceed, and
once he does so, he realizes that the father figure is not evil as he
once saw it, but is just experienced or bitter. The Hero returns to
the father figure and joins him in the adult world. Many primitive
cultures have stories which deal with this aspect of mythology. In
The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Campbell uses as an example a
village ritual common in primitive African and Asian tribes.
When each generation of males comes of age, the tribal elders
gather to hold a ceremonial circumcision. The boys are driven out
by their mothers and told that they must face a terrible and
frightening ordeal. The terrified adolescents attempt to return to
their mothers, but they are repeatedly pushed away. They are then
herded to a clearing in the woods where the elders are dressed as
tribal animals and monsters from myth. Each boy is taken in turn
and surrounded by the elders. He must close his eyes, and the
circumcision is performed. The boy must do his best not to cry
out. Afterwards, he is dressed as an adult and sent back to the
village. From then on, they are treated as men.
George Lucas may have been considering the development
of the Atonement in A New Hope, but there wasn’t space for it. It
is focused on heavily in the Trilogy, however. In the second
movie, The Empire Strikes Back, Luke fights a climactic battle
with Darth Vader. Luke has not yet become the equal of Vader
and is defeated. Vader reveals to Luke that he is his father.
(Reference The Empire Strikes Back, 15401–15514 and 15729–15950) Luke, shocked and horrified yet somehow knowing it is
true, struggles to deny it. Part of Luke’s Supreme Ordeal is facing
Vader and defeating him, and once he does, he discovers that his
father is not entirely evil. This realization helps him to
comprehend the bigger picture of Good and Evil in the galaxy, and
enables him to finish his adventure.
Several other developments in the Trilogy are worth
considering. The theme and scope of the adventure have been
broadened from those of A New Hope, so the individual plots and
points of the Hero Cycle are broadened as well. Luke’s aims are
much higher in the Trilogy; no longer is he concerned about
becoming a starfighter. He wants to be a Jedi Knight. He has
reached his physical aspirations and now craves more. A good
comparison is found in Faust. Faust had learned all there is to
know in the world, and desired to move on to the supernatural.
Like Faust, Luke had to play a dangerous game to acquire his
knowledge. He had to resist the temptations of the Emperor and
the dark, easy path to power. Faust had to resist giving in and
exulting in his pleasure, thereby ceding his soul to the Devil.
Luke’s Threshold becomes the planet Dagobah. The
Threshold in the Trilogy is the place where Luke realizes his
potential and harnesses it. Luke travels to Dagobah unsure of what
he expects to gain. He meets Yoda, an ancient Jedi Master. Yoda
instructed Ben, and takes Ben and Han’s place as the teacher in the
Trilogy. He teaches Luke to use the Force and trains him
physically. When Luke leaves the Threshold, the Elixir he bears is
the knowledge and power of the last Jedi Knight.
As the forces and power of good have grown, so has the
power of evil. The teacher has been upgraded in character and the
Hero has become greater in power. The villain must therefore be
more sinister and powerful. Darth Vader was the villain in A New
Hope, but his role as the father figure allows a new, stronger
enemy to step in. Enter the Emperor, Vader’s master and the
leader of the Empire. The Emperor represents the opposite of
everything Yoda stood for. He is the ultimate power of Evil. He is
not a Jedi Master, but is trained in the Force and has some
unknown link to the Jedi (Lucas never elaborated on this.) Part of
Luke’s Supreme Ordeal is defeating the Emperor, but he cannot do
it alone. In A New Hope, only after Han had stopped Vader’s ship
from threatening Luke could he destroy the Death Star. In Return
Of The Jedi, the last movie of the Trilogy, Vader must be the one
who aids Luke in destroying the Emperor (Reference Return Of
The Jedi, 20243–20456).
The astounding success and popularity of Star Wars from
its debut until now, over twenty years later, can be readily
attributed to its fairytale aspect. Myths and legends originating
hundreds or thousands of years ago still fascinate us today. The
labors of Hercules and Perseus’s slaying of Medusa are still read
by wide-eyed youths because they embody their ideas and hopes.
Myths have a timeless quality about them that has enabled their
survival. Star Wars is simply a modern mythology. Daring
starfighters armed with lasers and blasters take the place of
armour-clad warriors on horseback. An evil, part-robotic
juggernaut with the Force at his side replaces the Black Knight.
Instead of an impenetrable castle, an armored space station full of
enemy soldiers is the bastion of Evil. The role of the Hero remains
constant, however. The retrieval of the Golden Fleece, the slaying
of Grendel, the rescue of Brunhilde–all are cherished myths
belonging to ancient cultures. Star Wars and A New Hope are
those belonging to ours.
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