The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [31]
Airport (1970) similarly centred on a group of passengers caught in the 'enclosing space' of a crowded airliner at night, threatened with imminent destruction by the presence of a madman armed with a bomb. At least here the threat is partly personified, and when the bomb explodes and the madman is sucked out into the darkness, it might seem the `monster' has been `overcome': except that the real source of the nightmare is not the madman himself, as it would be if he were a true monster, but simply the fear of the plane crashing; and this remains until, with enormous difficulty and to universal relief, the plane is at last brought safely to the ground.
In fact this story of the hero's deliverance from the nightmare of being trapped in some dark, enclosing space, threatening death, is one of the oldest in the world. An obvious example is the tale of Jonah, who falls overboard and is swallowed by the `great fish. For three days he lies in its cavernous interior, sure he is about to die:
`The water encompassed me round about, even to the soul; the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottom of the mountains; the earth with her bars was round me forever.'
Then miraculously his prayers are answered, and the fish `vomited out Jonah on the dry land.'
Jonah does not, of course, kill his `whale, which is why again his adventure cannot be considered strictly an Overcoming the Monster story. But this is only one of countless tales of a hero swallowed by a monster, found in mythology and folk tales from Europe, North America, Polynesia, Japan and almost all over the world, in many of which the hero does actually slay the monster from within. In Hiawatha Longfellow gives a North American `Indian' version, where he describes how the hero goes to challenge `the King of Fishes, Mishe-Nama:
(Note the familiar anthropomorphisation of the animal `monster' -`armour, `warpaint, `wrath.) In `that darksome cavern' the hero `groped about in helpless wonder' until he finds the fish's `great heart beating' and slays it. The corpse drifts ashore, and Hiwatha, `exulting from the caverns', cries out to the birds how he has killed the great monster, and they rescue him.
In the folklore of the Shetlands, the story was told as that of Assipattle, who is treated with contempt by his brothers (like the little shepherd boy David). But he alone is brave enough to challenge the great `Mester Stoorwoorm; so huge that it stretches half across the world, to rescue from its clutches a captive Princess. Clutching a burning piece of peat, Assipattle allows himself to be swallowed, and places the live coal on the monster's liver: `in troth, I think it gave the Stoorwoorm a hot harskit'. Then (as in many other versions) the hero is spewed out by the monster in its dying spasm, and wins the hand of the Princess.
Overcoming the Monster: Summing up
One way in which a story seems naturally to form in the human imagination shows the hero being called to face and overcome a terrible and deadly personification of evil. This threatening figure is defined by the fact that it is heartless, egocentric and seemingly all-powerful, although we ultimately see that it has a blind spot which renders it vulnerable. As the story is usually presented, there is a long build-up to the final decisive confrontation, and the story is likely to to run through these five stages:
1. Anticipation Stage and `Call': We usually first become aware of the monster as if from a great distance, although in some stories we may be given some striking glimpse of its destructive power at the outset. Although initially we may see it as little more than a vaguely menacing curiosity, we gradually learn of its fearsome reputation,