Joseph Campbell: Myth Resource Center

Great thread!

Of course Anakin is the hero of the saga, but many of these archetypes apply well to Luke. One can even argue that Anakin requires Luke (and Leia) to fulfill his ultimate destiny as the hero, with all of the stages of his journey.

It's interesting that in breaking the Jedi Code by marrying and having children, Anakin plants the seed (no pun intended) that will carry the better part of him, and return to save him, allowing him to complete his hero's journey.

 

I don't think the storyline really does apply to Luke. In fact, noting how incomplete Luke's journey actually is makes it all the more clear how secondary his character is in the saga.

Here's what Luke does do:

Departure
1. The Call to Adventure: Luke's finding the droids and later learning from Obi-Wan the significance of this event.
2. Refusal of the Call: Luke will not go with Obi-Wan until his last link to Tatooine is destroyed - quite literally.
3. Supernatural Aid: Obi-Wan, and later Yoda, reveal themselves as almost god-like guardians who present Luke with answers to the questions he can't penetrate.
4. The Crossing of the First Threshold: Luke succeeds in his first conscious attempt to use the Force on the Falcon.
5. The Belly of the Whale: When Obi-Wan dies, Luke doesn't know of Yoda's existance and believes for a while that he really is alone in the galaxy and must stand unsupported against great evil.

Initiation
1. The Road of Trials: Luke has difficulty convincing Yoda he is ready to be trained, then is unable to fulfill his promise to complete the training because of the emotional vice Vader puts him in.
2. The Meeting with the Goddess: Luke doesn't fulfill this
3. Woman as Temptress: Luke doesn't fulfill this
4. Atonement with the Father: Luke confronts and ultimately accepts the dark side within himself.

Return
Luke doesn't fulfill any of these

So, what can we conclude from this? According to Campbell and subsequently Lucas, Luke is not really a hero. He's nothing more than an instrument who gets pulled into his father's duties as the weapon conceived by the Force to right the injustices of all who have used it. There's no real reason to believe Leia couldn't have done Luke's job just as well.

 

Yet after Joesph Campbell watched all 3 movies at Skywalker Ranch he stated the opposite.
Don't believe me?
It is in the autobiography of Joseph Campbell's life which was titled "A Burning Mind".

 

Nice analysis, DLM.

Luke meets 7 of the first 9 points. That is many. I totally agree with you about Luke being the instrument. At least, that's the point I was trying to make.

 

DLM, I agree with some of your assessment regarding Luke?s hero?s journey with a few exceptions:

Departure

4. The Crossing of the First Threshold:

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With the personifications of his destiny to guide and aid him, the hero goes forward in his adventure until he comes to the ?threshold guardian? at the entrance to the zone of magnified power. Such custodians bound the world in four directions?also up and down?standing for the limits of the hero?s present sphere, or life horizon. Beyond them is darkness, the unknown, and danger; just as beyond the parental watch is danger to the infant and beyond the protection of his society danger to the member of the tribe. . . .

The hero may defeat or conciliate this power and go alive into the kingdom of the dark (brother-battle, dragon-battle; offering, charm), or be slain by the opponent and descend in death (dismemberment, crucifixion).

? Joseph Campbell, [i]The Hero with a Thousand Faces[/i][hr][/blockquote] ?If you choose to face Vader,? Obi-Wan says to Luke in [i]Empire[/i], ?you will do it alone. I cannot interfere.? This is the big clue that Luke is leaving the parental watch that Campbell describes above. Vader is Luke?s threshold guardian. Luke goes off to what the audience thinks will be the classic ?brother-battle? (Vader and Luke are ?brothers? in that Obi-Wan is representative of their father-figure), appeases Vader, and enters into the dark unknown when Vader reveals himself as Luke?s father.

5. The Belly of the Whale: This never happens to Luke?

[blockquote][hr]The idea that the passage of the magical threshold is a transit into a sphere of rebirth is symbolized in the worldwide womb image of the belly of the whale. The hero, instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, is swallowed into the unknown, and would appear to have died.

? Joseph Campbell, [i]The Hero with a Thousand Faces[/i][hr][/blockquote]This really applies to Anakin?s hero?s journey and his tenure as a Sith Lord.

[b]Initiation[/b]

1. The Road of Trials:

[blockquote][hr]Once having traversed the threshold, the hero moves in a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a succession of trials. This is the favorite phase of the myth-adventure. It has produced a world literature of miraculous tests and ordeals. The hero is covertly aided by the advice, amulets, and secret agents of the supernatural helper whom he met before his entrance into this region. Or it may be that he here discovers for the first time that there is a benign power everywhere supporting him in his superhuman passage.

? Joseph Campbell, [i]The Hero with a Thousand Faces[/i][hr][/blockquote]Luke?s ?Road of Trials? consists of rescuing Han, dealing with Yoda?s death, and meeting up with Vader on Endor.

3. Woman as Temptress: Just because Luke isn?t tempted by a woman doesn?t indicate that he doesn?t meet this criterion. Luke is [i]tempted[/i] by the dark side of the Force, just like his father.

[blockquote][hr]They mystical marriage with the queen goddess of the world represents the hero?s total mastery of life; for the woman is life, the hero its knower and master. And the testings of the hero, which were preliminary to his ultimate experience and deed, were symbolical of those crises of realization by means of which his consciousness came to be amplified and made capable of enduring the full possession of the mother-destroyer, his inevitable bride. [b]With that he knows that he and his father are one: he is in the father?s place.[/b]

? Joseph Campbell, [i]The Hero with a Thousand Faces[/i][hr][/blockquote]I know this may sound funny, but Palpatine is the ?Temptress.? Luke?s inevitable bride would have been Sidious himself had he taken his father?s place.

4. Atonement with the Father: Not only does Luke confront and accept the dark side within him, he also completely understands what part the dark side plays in the grander scheme.

[blockquote][hr]The problem of the hero going to meet the father is to open h