The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [50]
The journey
The essential pattern of the journey in a Quest is always the same. The hero and his companions go through a succession of terrible, often near-fatal ordeals, followed by periods of respite when they recoup their strength, receiving succour and guidance from friendly helpers to send them on their way. In other words, after the initial feeling of constriction which dominates the start of the story, we now experience the journey itself as a series of alternating phases of life-threatening constriction followed by life-giving release. We shall now consider each in turn: first, the nature of the ordeals; then that of the hero's allies, who rescue him and help him towards his goal.
The first problem facing the hero and his companions is the nature of the terrain across which they have to make most of their journey. Its essence is that it is wild, alien and unfriendly: a desert or wilderness (the Jews, Allan Quatermain); a forest (e.g., `the Waste Forest, `vast and labyrinthine in its depths', in which the Grail-seekers have most of their adventures); moorland or mountainous countryside (Christian, Frodo); a countryside full of dangers from animals and men (Watership Down); or the wild and treacherous sea (Odysseus, the Argonauts, Aeneas, Treasure Island).
Some of the perils they encounter therefore are simply those of the hostile terrain itself. Odysseus and Aeneas are caught in great storms at sea. The Jews and Allan Quatermain face terrible ordeals through lack of food and water, from which they are miraculously saved, in `thrilling escapes from death, by the fall of manna or the discovery of a waterhole. No sooner has Christian left his `City of Destruction' than he is almost sucked down to his death in the Slough of Despond.
But rather more specific obstacles than these stand between the hero and his goal, and these fall into four general categories.
1. Monsters
Firstly the hero and his companions are likely to encounter `monsters. The episode in the Odyssey, for instance, in which Odysseus and his men are trapped in the cave of the man-eating, one-eyed giant Polyphemus, and finally make their `thrilling escape' by blinding the Cyclops and concealing themselves under his sheep, maybe read in isolation just like a miniature version of the Overcoming the Monster plot. But, inevitably, because such episodes are here playing only a subsidiary role in the whole story, they cannot usually be told at great length, and are often passed over much more sketchily.
Aeneas and his men have a fearsome battle with the Harpies, loathsome beasts, half-woman, half-bird. The Argonauts also encounter the Harpies, are set on elsewhere by a race of six-handed giants and, on the island of Babycos, one of them has to face in single-combat the dreaded King Amycus, who has previously challenged and killed every passer-by. Allan Quatermain and his friends have scarcely set out than they have to kill an enormous, deadly bull-elephant. Christian has his encounters with the dragon-like Apollyon and the Giant Despair. The Jews are threatened first by the pursuing armies of the Egyptians, then by the giant `sons of Anak'. Frodo and his companions are threatened with death by a whole range of monstrous opponents, from the mysterious `Black Riders' to the fearsome giant spider Shelob. While the Grail-seekers have on various occasions to fight tremendous battles in the forest with mysterious `Black Knights', who are usually holding captive some beautiful maiden.
2. Temptations
The second specific peril the Quest hero has to face is rather more deceptive and treacherous: the `Temptation. This often, but not always, involves some beautiful and captivating woman. The essence of the Temptation is that it holds out