The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [218]
Similarly in Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi plays a fatherly role in teaching the hero Luke Skywalker how to align himself with `the force'. But he then dies, in a duel with the Dark Father-figure, Darth Vader, just when the hero has developed the maturity to fight his own battles. In fact, as a mature older man guiding the `son-hero' towards the goal, the Wise Old Man always represents the qualities of an ideal father: as Gandalf does for Frodo in The Lord of The Rings; as Platon for Pierre in War and Peace; as Sarastro for Tamino in The Magic Flute. This is because he represents that fully realised state of selfless manhood to which the hero himself must aspire. We also of course see this archetype represented in all those comedies and other stories where, at the end, a selfish Dark Father-figure has his heart and his eyes opened, transforming him into a Light Father.
2. The Light Mother or Good Queen: again this archetypal figure may remain more or less in the background as a symbol of light motherhood, providing the hero or heroine with a rock of loving security which they may both leave and return to: as in all those stories for young children which show the central figure leaving mother for their great adventure and then returning to her at the end, such as Peter Rabbit or Red Riding Hood.
As with the Father-figure, however, we may see her playing a more active guiding role in the action, when she is likely to appear as the feminine equivalent of the Wise Old Man, as a wise older woman. The most familiar instance of this in all storytelling is that which we recognise from the worldwide folk tale we know as Cinderella. When the heroine's true mother dies, she is first replaced by the Dark Mother, the wicked stepmother. But then the mysterious Fairy Godmother (or `good Mother') appears. The Mother-archetype has split into its dark and light aspects, and from then on Cinderella's story is written in the conflict of the two, until the light version has guided the heroine to her goal. Similarly, in Jane Eyre, when the little heroine has lost her true mother she falls under the shadow of the Dark Mother, Aunt Reed; but eventually finds a `light Mother' in the wise and kindly head of the orphanage, Miss Temple. When David Copperfield's true mother dies, he falls under the shadow of the Dark Mother, Miss Murdstone; and during this phase of the story the light elements of `Mother' are personified in an `inferior' form in the kindly servant Peggotty, who can give David love but lacks the power to transform his situation. Eventually, however, these two opposites, the strength of Miss Murdstone and the love of Peggotty, are brought together in the `light Mother' figure of Betsey Trotwood, the firm, loving and shrewd (if eccentric) aunt who adopts David. It is this that launches him on the positive road which brings him eventually to his goal.
In other stories we see a powerful older woman who initially appears to the hero in the emasculating guise of Dark Mother or Witch, like Circe or Calypso, Marcellina or the Marschallin; but who eventually switches to the role of Light Mother, as she releases him from her shadow and urges him forward into independent manhood.
3. LightAlter-Ego or Companion: these are the figures of roughly similar age or status to the hero or heroine who stand as the light equivalents of the Dark Rivals or the Dark Alter-Ego. Here, of course, they are not rivals but friends and