The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [200]
On a literal level, as we have noted, it might seem odd that we should find this so satisfying an ending to a story, since in real life marriage is far from being an ending. It is a new beginning, which may be merely the preface to the longest period of a human life.
Nevertheless, in terms of our deepest instincts, this obviously corresponds to one of the most basic and universal patterns in life. If we look around the natural kingdom, we see one impulse in every form of life which transcends everything else. From the protozoa to the higher primates, the central underlying concern of each species is to reproduce its kind, so that the chain of life can continue. And in the majority of life-forms this requires an absolutely fundamental process. Each individual creature, once it is born, must evolve and mature to the point where it can mate with another of the opposite sex, to ensure the birth of the next generation; and, in the higher life forms, must then ensure that those newly-born young are nurtured and provided with the conditions which can enable them in turn to grow up to the point where they are ready to continue the process. Both the drive to do this and the framework of `knowledge' necessary to achieve it are instinctively programmed into every species which relies on sexual reproduction, as the central fact of its genetic inheritance. To this the human race is obviously no exception.
Every human being born into the world begins as a child, with a father and a mother. If the genetic imperative is to be fulfilled and the chain of life is to continue, the child must grow up, leave home and eventually find a mate with whom to establish a new home as a new centre for the generation of new life. In every generation, for life to be handed on, this is the drama which must be enacted: the son emerging from the shadow of his parents, to be united with a wife and take on the role of father; the daughter emerging from the shadow of her parents, to be united with a husband and become a mother.
We thus see essentially four characters in the drama, with a changing interplay of roles as the process unfolds: first the father and mother; then the child, growing up to adulthood; and finally the `other half', necessary to bring the whole process back to its starting point, with the creation of a new child. Here, embedded in a web of our deepest and most powerful instinctual drives, are the most basic of all human relationships. And when we consider the main `dark figures' who continually recur in stories, we have already begun to see how they correspond to each of the four figures in this primordial drama.
First there is the older man whom we see as the Dark Father-figure or Tyrant. He is powerful, often holding authority as the head of a household or a ruler, but he is heartless, using his power only to dominate others. He is thus seen as completely opposed to the flow of life.
Secondly there is the older woman whom we see as the Dark Mother-figure, Dark Queen or Witch. She is a more complex figure because outwardly she may seem to have `feminine' attributes. She may make a show of being caring or protective. She may in her guise as a Witch have visionary, intuitive powers, the capacity to see behind the immediate surface of things to some hidden reality. But she no more possesses the real `feminine' attributes of selfless feeling for others and the ability to `see whole' than the Dark Father. Her `feminine' facade is thus treacherous. Underneath, like the Dark Father, she is totally egocentric, possessed by the `masculine' drive to power and domination.
Thirdly there are the Dark Rivals or the Dark Alter-Ego, of the same sex as the hero or heroine, who stand in some way more directly as competitors for the same goal, or as a'dark opposite'.
Fourthly there is the Dark Other Half, the Temptress or False Wooer, who selfishly