The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [188]
The masculine value
The true hero, if he is to succeed, must be fully a man. The way in which this is represented may seem straightforward enough in those types of story which require the hero to engage in direct physical conflict with the powers of darkness; where in order to overpower or outwit the `monster, or to survive all the tests and ordeals of a Quest, he has to show such obvious manly qualities as outstanding physical and mental strength and stamina. The masculinity of such legendary heroes as Odysseus or Theseus, Gilgamesh or David, King Arthur or Robin Hood, Superman or James Bond, may never seem to be in doubt. As doughty fighters, they show it in their mastery of sword, bow, axe, spear or gun, in their powers of leadership, their courage and combative skill. They seem to be virile figures in every way. But what it is to be fully a man has rather more to it than just these qualities. And we can see this reflected still more clearly in the last of our seven plots, Rebirth.
The essence of the Rebirth story is, firstly, that it shows its central figure imprisoned by the dark power in any of its more familiar guises. We may, for instance, see the hero imprisoned by a Tyrant, like Florestan lying in Pizarro's dungeons. He may have fallen under a spell cast by a Witch or Temptress - like Kay imprisoned by the Snow Queen, or the prince imprisoned in the outward form of the Beast by an enchantress. We may see the hero trapped in a state of darkness which springs more obviously from within himself, like Scrooge or Raskolnikov. Indeed in Peer Gynt we see a hero who is the victim of all these things: the effect of his being enchanted by the `dark king' and the Temptress from the subterranean troll kingdom being to bring out the dark part of Peer, his egotistical `Gyntish self', which comes for so long to dominate his behaviour and to shape his life.
In each instance, what we see is a hero who is held back by his imprisonment from assuming his proper state as a man. He may be presented as a weak, passive figure, like the reclusive Silas Marner or little Kay in the Snow Queen's palace. On the other hand, he maybe strong and powerful like the rich, tyrannical Scrooge or Peer Gynt, the amoral head of a great business empire. But in either case he is in the grip of a power which in some way stunts him and prevents him from living in easy sovereignty over himself. In terms of proper masculinity he has been reduced to a sad, two-dimensional caricature.
In fact, like the feminine, the masculine in stories has two aspects. The first of these is power or strength. This may be presented primarily as a matter of physical potency and presence, as with those heroes whose special combative power is associated with legendary weapons, like the great sword Excalibur or Robin Hood's bow. It maybe presented as the holding of great position or the possession of great riches. It may be portrayed simply as a strength of will, personality or character which enables its possessor to exercise dominance: either over others, or over himself. And in this respect, which derives ultimately from a physical power, the masculine is something which gives mastery and independence.
The other masculine attribute is a sense of order. This may be presented as a consciousness of social order, of hierarchy, propriety, the need for discipline, for justice under the law. Or it may be seen, rather more subtly, as the whole capacity of the human mind to see the world in terms of orderly, rational patterns: that very thing which lies at the root of all our notions of order, whether social or intellectual: the need to see everyone or everything marshalled in proper place and relationship.