Hero's Journey
“The Hero's Journey,” a template discovered and created by Joseph Campbell, is present in almost every story or novel. Every hero starts with a status quo, or a “normal life,” until they are called to adventure. They are then tested, and go through what
Campbell calls a special world, where they face trials and the ultimate crisis. The hero returns victorious and changed to their new life. Both The Screaming Staircase and
Beauty and the Beast have most (if not all) elements of this template, although both have different variations of some elements. In this essay we will analyze the similarities and differences between those variations in these two stories.
In The Screaming Staircase, the status quo is easy to recognize. Anthony
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The status quo in Beauty and the Beast is also easily distinguishable. Belle is living in a small town with her father where they both feel strange and out of place. The normal life in both stories changes dramatically after the hero is called to adventure.
Both stories have a similar type of call to adventure. Information is brought to light that calls for the hero to take some sort of action. There are risks to taking action, but sacrifices need to be made for the greater good. A new case is introduced to Lucy and Anthony in The Screaming Staircase, one that ends up leading them to further trials and the final crisis. In Beauty and the Beast, Belle finds out that her father Maurice is lost in the woods. She knows the woods are dangerous, but cares deeply for her father and tries to go find him. Both actions cause further trials, but also lead to the ultimate
“happy ending.”
One significant difference lies in the element of the return, or new life. In The
Screaming Staircase, life goes back to the status quo for the most part. Anthony and
Lucy are still solving cases together, although now closer than they were before, and more experienced… but overall, things are very like how they used to be. In Beauty