The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [174]
All the main characters we see opposed to the hero or heroine of a Rags to Riches story thus fall into one of these four categories: Dark Father, Dark Mother, Dark Rival and Dark Other Half.
In the earlier stages of the story, particularly while the hero or heroine are still very young, the Dark Father or Dark Mother are likely to be dominant. As the central figure moves into adulthood, the emphasis is likely to shift more towards the Dark Other Half and the Dark Rivals, who are now seen more directly as competitors for the hero or heroine's ultimate goal - as in the closing stages of Cinderella where, in the episode of the `slipper test, we see her stepsisters hoping that it is they who will be chosen as the rightful `other half' to the Prince. By the middle of the story indeed there may have emerged just one Dark Rival, posing such a particular threat that he or she comes to stand as a kind of Dark Alter-Ego to the central figure. An example is the emergence of Jane Eyre's shadowy rival for the hand of Mr Rochester, his crazed and malevolent first wife. In Aladdin this shift of emphasis is expressed with particular subtlety in the hero's changing relationship to the central dark figure who dogs him throughout the story. Initially, when Aladdin is still a young boy, the Sorcerer appears unmistakably as a Dark Father-figure. But later, when the hero has grown up, and the Sorcerer reappears to snatch Aladdin's Princess off to Africa, he has become a classic Dark Rival, or Dark Alter-Ego. Finally he reappears as an even more deadly Dark Rival, when he returns in disguise to try to kill Aladdin; and his death corresponds to the hero's final emergence into the light and union with the Princess.
Measured against these dark figures, the hero or heroine themselves provide a complete contrast. They are not cruel, treacherous, vain or self-seeking. Their real problem, at the beginning of the story, as underdogs in the shadows, is simply that they are lost and do not know what to do. Initially they seem at the mercy of fate and of the dark figures who so cruelly dominate their lives. That is why, in so many Rags to Riches stories, the first step towards their being drawn towards some ulti mate happy ending is that they find a mysterious ally; either a `helpful animal, as when Dick Whittington finds his cat or Aladdin his genies; or a `light' Father or Mother-figure, as when Cinderella meets her fairy godmother or David Copperfield his kindly aunt Betsey Trotwood, who eventually adopts him. The first half of the story shows them, with the aid of their light allies, making considerable progress as they grow up outwardly and venture out on the stage of the world. They may even, by the halfway stage, seem within reach of a happy ending, either on the brink of marriage, like Jane Eyre, or married already, like Aladdin or David Copperfield.
But then comes the `central crisis, when their world falls apart again. They lose all that is dear to them, and we see that inwardly they have not yet really matured at all. What the second half of the story shows is how they discover their own inner strengths, and learn to take charge of their own destiny. The final test invariably shows them confronting the dark power entirely on their own, relying on their own strength. Jane Eyre, as she reaches the climax of her potentially deadly struggle with the iron-willed St John Rivers, is inspired by inwardly hearing the mysterious voice of Rochester; but she feels at last that `my powers were in play. Aladdin finally overcomes the Sorcerer's brother entirely on his own, having been explicitly told by the genie that he can no longer expect any magical help. David Copperfield goes off alone for three years after the death of his wife Dora, initially miserable: but he emerges