Differences between the Heroine's Journey and Hero's Journey

 Murdoch’s Heroine’s Journey begins with a “separation from the feminine” and ends with “integration of the masculine and feminine.” Campbell’s Hero’s Journey begins with a call to adventure and ends after its hero gains the “Freedom to Live” and becomes a “Master of Two Worlds.” While both journeys maintain semblances to hallmark fictional conventions (rising and falling action, climax etc.), the beginnings and endings, and subsequently, the purposes, of these journeys are altogether different. Campbell’s structured format guides its hero beyond most normal expectations and onto higher fantastical callings wherein the protagonist more often than not achieves some degree of self-actualization. Murdoch’s heroine’s response to Campbell is more pessimistic. The lofty end goal for the heroine is to merely achieve the same status as the men of her world start with. The resolution of these journey structures retroactively dictates how we observe the previous steps.

The differences between woman and man have historically been, and continue to be, so vast as to seep into every facet of human life and art. The “Road of Trials” step is one present in both the Hero’s and Heroine’s Journey. In the former, it serves as a rite of passage in accepting the call to adventure. It is a necessary step meant to temper the hero and prepare him for later steps. For the heroine, it is a series of punishments for rejecting the social contracts of femininity and embracing masculinity. Many of the boons in the Hero’s Journey are reserved for the Hero. In Virginia Woolf’s landmark essay “A Room of One’s Own,” the narrator proposes the idea of a fictional sister to William Shakespeare. This sister, named Judith, is every bit as talented as Shakespeare. However, while Shakespeare is given the opportunity to seek an education and involve himself in the theatre, Judith is forbidden from even reading. While Shakespeare gets to choose his wife, Judith’s choice is made for her. Woolf goes on to describe Judith’s desperate bid for stardom (which involves sleeping with a stage manager) and eventual suicide. If the heroine’s road of trials is to temper them, it is not to prepare them for the “Freedom to Live,” only mold them into the archetypal ostracized woman who seeks to challenge the status quo.

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Why then has the heroine’s journey been set up this way? In practice, heroine literature seems to abandon all notions of escapism to embrace a more cynical outlook on literature. I believe that while the answer is partially due to the general sentiments of the time or perhaps a tendency to inject anecdotes from one’s own life into their work (see Nella Larsen’s Quicksand) that gives a more realistic approach to texts, in recent times there has been an evolution in the Heroine’s Journey into something more optimistic and resembling an ideal version of Murdoch’s diagram. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (which has been adapted many times into movies and musicals), is the natural successor to the Virginia Woolf and Murdoch philosophy of the time. The Color Purple is made up of an entirety of trials for its protagonist, Celie. Throughout the novel, Celie is abused by her husband, loses her lesbian love-interest, and loses contact with both her sister and two children. However, by the end of the novel Celie owns her own business and lives as a successful unmarried independent woman (something Judith Shakespeare would never have been able to do).

Additionally, I wonder how much merit one should give to Woolf’s claims. Around the time of Restoration in England (mid-17th century), Aphra Behn was one of the most accomplished playwrights of her time. A little over a century later, the freedwoman Phillis Wheatley would publish her poetry collection to widespread acclaim. The title of Woolf’s essay comes from the idea that for a woman to be successful and make a living as a writer she must need “money and a room of one’s own.” As literature continues to evolve, I wonder just how much current published works adhere to these old structures, or even if they ever have.