The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [194]
But in most stories this final image of wholeness is centred on the union of the hero with the heroine. And here, as we have seen, the action of the story is eventually reduced, as it nears its ending, to what is essentially a three-cornered struggle. Earlier we looked at this in terms of the dark power, on one hand, standing for the 'dark masculine'; the heroine, on the other, standing for the 'light feminine'; and the hero, coming between them, representing the balance between the two. We can just as well see it another way, with the hero on one side and the heroine on the other, representing the treasure, life, all that he needs to be complete: while the dark power stands between them, representing all that has to be overcome and transcended in order for that final state of wholeness to be achieved.
Whichever way we look at it, the only thing which matters is whether the right balance of qualities can be brought to bear to achieve the goal. And as the story nears its climax, this three-cornered struggle usually presents itself in one of three ways.
(1) Balanced hero/passive heroine
The most basic form of this three-sided conflict is the type of story where we see the passive heroine somehow helpless in the clutches of the dark power - the Princess imprisoned by the monster - and where the hero has finally to prove himself by engaging in a battle to release her. Such a heroine may seem weak and helpless, but at this moment it is precisely her vulnerability which points up the essence of what is happening. In complete antithesis to the hard, aggressive, `dark masculine' power which is threatening her, she stands for the soft, yielding, flowing, loving feminine: precisely the value which the threatening figure so completely lacks. Certainly to set her free the hero has to demonstrate his own masculine power. But just as important to us as we watch the unfolding of the action is the fact that he is seen as not just a tough, masculine figure: unlike his heartless opponent he is also irradiated with protective and sympathetic feeling, and it is this which allows us to see him as a light figure, worthy of his prize. His strengths are redeemed and made positive because they are being used in a cause which is not egocentric. Because he is open to the feminine value within him, he is able to join up with and liberate the feminine outside him. Because he represents not egotism and one-sidedness but a state of balance, he can see clearly what he has to do, and is thus able to rise above the limitations of the dark power and to be united with his `other half'. And finally, to signify the state of inner and outer sovereignty he has achieved, we see him - like Aladdin, Perseus or Odysseus - succeeding to rule over the kingdom.
(2) Balanced hero/active heroine
A second version of the story is that where the figure most obviously threatened by the dark power is the hero himself, and where the heroine plays a much more active role in liberating him. Here we see more explicitly how it is the life-giving power of the feminine which itself helps to draw the hero up to his final state of wholeness. When young Theseus arrives in Crete to face the final test of his burgeoning maturity, he is presented by the Tyrant Minos with two ordeals which show each of the aspects of the `dark masculine' in its most deadly, negative guise. On the one hand, he has to face the Minotaur, half-man, half-bull, representing physical strength and power at its most heartless: on the other, he