Heroines are NOT the Same as Heroes

Sep 1, 2001 - © Roxianne Moore

The Hero's Journey, in all its many variations, has become an invaluable tool for writers. Books like The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogel, Joseph Campbell's Hero of a Thousand Faces, and Carol Pearson's Awakening the Heroes Within explore the Hero's Journey in depth, and provide us with models for plotting a classic tale.

Yet these books leave something to be desired when it comes to plotting a woman-centered story. Try as you might, you will find that a heroine does not always follow the same steps as a hero. The problem, especially for women writers, is that we intuitively realize that our journeys our different, that we just don't have the same issues as men. For male writers, the problem is slightly different because they tend to believe, as Joseph Campbell did:

In the whole mythological tradition the woman is there. All she has to do is realize that she's the place that people are trying to get to. When a woman realizes what her wonderful character is, she's not going to get messed up with the notion of being pseudo-male.

This is the response that Maureen Murdock got from Campbell back in 1981, when she was trying to understand how a woman's journey relates to the journey of the hero. Dissatisfied with Campbell's answer, she sought a new model, one that addressed the unique trials a woman faces in a man's world. The result is The Heroine's Journey: Woman's Quest for Wholeness.

Although not designed as a tool for writers, The Heroine's Journey provides valuable insight into the paths that women follow in their quests for self-realization. The steps along that path offer many themes that we, as writers, can explore as we strive to create realistic female characters.

Traditionally, heroines have been forced into the same molds as heros, forced to take the same journey because no other path was known. Murdock points out that women do not have the same issues to resolve as men do, and that by making themselves try to follow a Hero's journey, they set themselves up for failure.

Stages in the Heroine's Journey

  1. Separation from the Feminine
  2. Indentification with the Masculine
  3. The Road of Trials
  4. The Illusory Boon of Success
  5. Strong Women Can Say No
  6. The Initiation and Descent to the Goddess
  7. Urgent Yearning to Reconnect with the Feminine
  8. Healing the Mother/ Daughter Split
  9. Finding the Inner Man with Heart
  10. Beyond Duality

While these stages don't fit the neat models used by Vogel and Pearson, they do follow a logical progression from dependence and duality to wholeness and independence. Rather than a step-by-step guide to plotting a novel, they offer valuable insight into a woman's psyche and the journey every heroine must make.

The copyright of the article Heroines are NOT the Same as Heroes in Resources for Writers is owned by Roxianne Moore. Permission to republish Heroines are NOT the Same as Heroes in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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