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Examples Of Monomyth In Beowulf

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Joseph Campbell is an American writer and mythologist. According to his teachings, all mythologies adopt the same pattern, recognized as the heroic Monomyth. The monomyth can also be defined as a hero's journey. Tons of heroic characters reflect the monomyth, regardless of the era, culture and literature it was made in. The epic poem Beowlf executes the theory of a hero's journey thoroghly. In the poem, Beowulf follows the adventures of the hero described in Campbell's monomyth. In order to be acknowledged as an epic, a story must have many stages, according to the monomyth format. The hero’s journey consists of three main stages. These stages are separation, initiation, and return. And ofcourse, Beowulf encounters each one of these stages …show more content…

The first stage a hero must experience in their journey is Seperation. This stage consists of the hero starting off in a normal situation,living everyday life until he or she is informed that their help is needed in another world. The message could be a threat, a dilema or request. This is also known as the hero's call to adventure. In Beowulf, a monster named Grendel has been terrorizing and slaying the people and the kings army for approximately ten years. Beowulf heard, "there was panic after dark, people indured raids in the night, riven by terror". (192-93) This is when he receives his call to adventure. After receiving it, he couldn't allow himself to refuse the call when he knew that his help was desperately needed to defeat Grendel. He gathered his men and sailed from his home to the land of the danes. "There was no one else like him alive. In his day, he was the mightiest man on earth, high-born and powerful. He ordered a bout that would ply the waves and annouced his plan: to sail swan's roads and search out that king, the famous prince who needed defenders. His ambition to go,

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The story of Beowulf successfully follows every step of an Archetypal Hero Quest; the hero, Beowulf, answers a call, makes a decision, prepares, faces obstacles, reaches a climax, and returns home. Beowulf is met with three large battles within Beowulf, first with Grendel, then with Grendel’s mother, and his last fatal battle, with a dragon. Each battle carries aspects that add to the Hero Quest but do not fully create one until all are together. The call is the beginning of a Hero Quest.

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Joseph Campbell defines a hero as “someone who has given his life to something bigger than himself.” In the epic poem, Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney and the novel Harry Potter and the Source’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling, both follow The 17 Stages of Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth. Beowulf and Harry Potter prove they are heroes and fit into Campbell’s pattern because of their bravery, perseverance and courage throughout each story. In Beowulf, the main character Beowulf, demonstrates courage throughout the poem and Campbell’s Monomyth helps prove his heroic journey.

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In conclusion, countless people know of Joseph Campbell's definition of a Monomyth. We see the hero's journey outline everywhere in our modern books and movies. Hercules, in the opinion of many, happens to be one of the best examples of Campbell's definition of a

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In his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell discovered a basic pattern that can be found in all stories portraying a hero. In his hero’s monomyth, the main character is called to an adventure into a foreign land and the skills obtained during the journey are later tested to defeat their toughest challenge. An example of a heroic monomyth can be illustrated in Marissa Meyer’s fantasy novel, Cinder, because the heroine is called to an adventure that she at first refuses, explores an unfamiliar landscape, the castle, where she learns more about her tragic past, and soon comes face to face with her greatest adversary. The events of Cinder follow a linear story that begins in New Beijing, China.

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Throughout history, humans have crafted countless stories of heroes, from the ancient journeys of Beowulf and Odysseus, to the modern ones of Harry Potter and Meredith Grey. At first glance, these stories are diverse in the extreme, coming from all different cultures and about all manner of heroes. One might think such different tales have nothing in common, but upon a closer examination, one notices a single plot template that is featured in almost every good story ever written. This idea, that heroic stories usually follow the same sequence of action, was realized by a mythologist named Joseph Campbell. Campbell calls this template the ‘Hero’s Journey’ or ‘Monomyth’, which has three major parts: separation, initiation, and return.

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The story of Beowulf isn’t just any ordinary story, but a story that has been told for centuries. A story of a hero who’s legacy has been told for so long. Beowulf’s life shows the characteristics of a true epic hero. He showed bravery, he used his strength against his enemies and in the end gave the ultimate sacrifice for his people.

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Objective summary: Analyzing Joseph Campbell’s text In “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, Campbell explores the notion that all heroes fit the same archetype, and demonstrate the same journey at a macroscopic level. He proves that all heroes are centered around only one myth. He illustrates that a monomyth is an idea that all heroes are centered around one hero, but have variations that differentiate stories. By describing the three main phases of the journey that all heroes have to follow: separation, initiation, and return, Campbell explains how these stages relate to every hero.

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Using experience from helping write these works, as well as experiences and information he learned throughout his entire life, Joseph Campbell wrote his well renowned and award winning book The Hero with a Thousand Faces in 1949. It was here that Campbell described the idea of the aforementioned monomyth. The Joseph Campbell Foundation describes the monomyth as, “a universal pattern that is the essence of, and common to, heroic tales in every culture” (“About Joseph Campbell”). This is largely true, as Campbell’s monomythic concept follows a specific set of 17 steps to every hero’s journey. The steps are encompassed and divided amongst three larger stages: The Departure, The Initiation, and The Return.

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Christopher Reeves once said, “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” Although Beowulf was human, he was not an ordinary individual, hero, or king, for he was a man who displayed superhuman qualities in his efforts to protect the Danish and Geatish people. Beowulf, who was established Geatish warrior that spent his life in battle, showed these extraordinary characteristics that made him an epic hero, one who possesses superhuman, almost god-like qualities. Being constantly on a quest, risking his life for glory and the greater good of society, and being superiorly intelligent, courageous and strong are the three most important reasons why Beowulf deserves such a notable

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“The standard path of the mythological adventure of the hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: separation – initiation – return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth” (Campbell 23). Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, claims that all heroes in myths and stories are essentially the same, the title itself reflecting that. This theory he called a monomyth, the myth that in which all myths fall under, describing the hero’s journey. Campbell created a sort of formula and cycle consisting of seventeen steps, categorized into three sections; departure, initiative, and return. Campbell's theory drew off of ideologies like that of Freud.

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Once upon a time, there was a marvelous warrior that was a hero to so many and king to some. In the story of Beowulf, the hero, Beowulf, must follow and go through the hero’s journey. The hero’s journey has twelve stages, or three acts. The stages go in the order: 1) The Call to Adventure, 2) Assistance, 3) Departure, 4) Trials, 5) Approach to the Inmost Cave, 6) Crisis, 7) Treasure, 8) Result, 9) Return, 10) New Life, 11) Resolution, and 12) Status Quo (Winkler). Since Beowulf is facing three different monsters, there is not only the story’s significant journey, but also multiple inside it.

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Very little is known about the epic poem Beowulf besides that the story was told during the Anglo-Saxon period, specifically between the years 500-1100. The author is unknown, due to the fact that the story was originally told verbally and not documented until much later. Like many stories told throughout the ages, Beowulf consists of many archetypes. An archetype is a recurring symbol found in literature, such as the Hero archetype. In this epic poem, the hero, Beowulf, travels from his homeland to Denmark to save a kingdom from an awful beast that has been attacking men late at night for over twelve years.

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A hero's journey is a pattern of narrative identities that appears in many dramas, storytellings, myths, and psychological development. The journey consist of twelve different steps and in the story Beowulf we read about the magnificent and rough journey that Beowulf and this men accomplish. Many people question if Beowulf is considered a hero and if what he did was good. The journey that he embarked on, leads me to believe that Beowulf is a hero and always will be. The first step in the hero's journey is called the “call to adventure” this is when something is disturbed from external pressure of from inner conflict.

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