The Guard
02-13-2003, 12:39 AM
Not sure whether this belongs here or not, but here's my English essay on Batman and the comparisons to the classic hero quest. Wanted to see what fans would think.
THE DARK KNIGHT
Over the years, the hero quest, or Monomyth, has become recognized as the one central story that all cultures share. With an overall plot that is often similar, the archetypal hero quest contains various elements that make it instantly recognizable. There are three kinds of archetypes that are common in the hero quest: situational, character, and symbol. The Batman mythos are no exception to this rule. The stories that make up the Batman legend are rich in the elements of the classic hero quest, and have been since writer/artist Bob Kane first created them in 1939. Since that time, hundreds of artists and writers have contributed to The Batman's legend, and the character has evolved. It has been passed on, the story often changing, but retaining a few key elements.
As Joseph Campbell, the author of The Hero With 1,000 Faces, points out, a culture's myths are not just stories. They carry our hopes, dreams, and values. If that is true, then what can we say about the stories of our culture that contain similar elements? What do the Batman mythos reveal about our culture, it's values, and ideals?
The core of the Batman legend revolves around the fact that Bruce Wayne watched his parents gunned down by a nameless mugger when he was just a child. That nameless mugger managed to steal, in a series of gunshots, Bruce's parents, his childhood, and much of the rest of his life. This is a common occurrence in the Monomyth. The tragic loss of one or both of a hero's parents. Bruce's need for vengeance was so great, that he vowed, on his parents' memories, to spend the rest of his life warring on all criminals. He was determined to make sure that what had happened to him would never happen again. Born into great wealth (a noble birth), Bruce Wayne decided to use his vast resources to make good on his promise.
Another common occurrence in the hero quest is the call to adventure, and the subsequent training that a hero undergoes. Bruce Wayne was no exception. In fact, the character of Batman may have exceeded any other literary character, as he left Gotham City as a teenager, and traveled the world, in the process learning over 100 styles of combat and meditation. He trained his mind and body to mental and physical perfection. He became a master scientist, and a student of the greatest detectives there were to learn from. He immersed himself in criminal theory and history, and emerged as close to a perfect human being as there would ever be. He was a man on a mission. Like many heroes before him, Bruce Wayne had developed the skills and the means for his quest, but lacked the method. And he searched for it relentlessly for a long time.
Though he would eventually become the hero he set out to be, Wayne was a reluctant hero. This is another common trait of the main character in a Monomyth. Bruce would have preferred to have a life and love over the world that he grew to know. But at the age of 25, he could take no more. He went out into the night looking for trouble and found it. Barely alive and bleeding to death, a delirious Bruce Wayne returned to his manor to wait for his death. As he sat in the study that his father had occupied years before, he begged his parents for the help he needed. For the method to make criminals afraid. He had to be black. Terrible. As if in answer to his prayers, a large bat flew in the window. In the tiny creature, Bruce Wayne saw his future. He would become a bat. The bat that inspired Bruce's crusade may well have been a supernatural messenger, which is another aspect of the hero quest. The figure of a bat represents various things in many cultures. In some cultures, the bat represents the guardian of the night. And in other cultures, it's believed that seeing a bat is seeing a guise of the devil himself. The costume that Bruce Wayne designed to disguise himself and frighten others resembles something evil, even satanic, with it's jagged edges and horns. This eerie, otherwordly look is not common in the hero quest, although the color black is often attributed to troubled heroes. This is the image that Bruce Wayne would use to strike terror into the hearts of criminals as he became The Batman.
The supernatural figure of a bat was also central in Bruce Wayne's "belly of the whale" experience. As a child, running around on the property behind his family's mansion, young Bruce Wayne fell through a hole in the ground and landed below, in the wet darkness. As he continued through the darkness, he came face to face with a bat. It terrified him, but intrigued him at the same time. Many years later, the bat flying through his window would trigger his memory.
The Batman began his quest as a creature of the night, striking from the shadows and always
vanishing before he could be truly identified, like a thief in the darkness. He never hung around to take credit for his actions, preferring instead to remain an urban legend, much like the characters he was inspired by, Robin Hood and Zorro. His resemblance to those characters cannot be denied. Batman has been called The Dark Knight, and for good reason. He is almost the proverbial knight in shining armor. Handsome, daring, a little dangerous, and always arriving just in the nick of time to rescue the innocent.
The characters in Monomyths are often attributed special powers, or magic talismans, weapons, or armor. Batman is no exception. While he is all too human, his Batsuit itself is almost a magical talisman. Even with all his training and experience, Bruce Wayne is never fully functional as Batman until he dons the cowl. The horned cowl is the trigger. When he puts on the cowl, he seems to become unstoppable, almost in possession of supernatural powers. The mask signals the change.
The magical talismans of Batman's world appear in the form of his chosen weapons and tools. Right from the start of his mission, Batman waged his war not with guns, but with weapons of an almost magical nature. The "batarang" weapon, modeled after the Australian boomerang, has been a key element of Batman's arsenal for a long time. The all-purpose Utility Belt that he wears seems to be a cure-all, and contain a gadget or tool for nearly every situation Batman encounters. In a pinch, the Batsuit itself can be used as a weapon, and he has developed numerous ingenius gadgets that he uses from time to time, like the compressed-air grappling hook gun. Like the magical tokens attributed to characters like King Arthur, Heracles and Perseus, Batman's gadgets have become a part of his lore.
In time, Gotham City became Batman's domain. Gotham has become almost like a troubled kingdom that Batman can rule over, his Camelot, so to speak. A fictional city gives the Batman mythos another similarity to the Monomyth. Gotham City is huge, and despite Batman's efforts, full of corruption and crime. It's a city that, in some ways, could never exist. Gotham has incorporated elements from many of the greatest cities in the world. And some of the locales in Gotham have an almost mystical quality to them. The Batcave. Arhkam Asylum. The Twin Towers. These areas of the city have become as well known to comic book fans as the locales in myth and legend have to those who enjoy them. Batman rules over his kingdom by night, and does what he can to help it during the day as his alter-ego, Bruce Wayne.
If Gotham is Batman's mythical kingdom, then Wayne Manor is his castle. It is his stronghold, and conceals his real life far below in the caverns of what has come to be known as The Batcave. From here, Batman plans his war on crime with his allies, almost like a modern-day King Arthur and his knights of the roundtable.
And, like many of the heroes in Monomyths, The Batman has plenty of allies and sidekicks.
People that share his dream, and mission. Not long after he began his crusade, Bruce Wayne came
upon the "lost child" of his mythos, a teenager whose parents, like his, had been murdered. Seeing
his own tragedy mirrored in the boy, Bruce took the child, Dick Grayson, in as his ward, and eventually trained him as his partner, Robin. Robin was a laughing young daredevil to Batman's brooding Dark Knight, and could be considered as many of the archetypal character models, including the trickster and the sidekick. There have since been several Robins. Dick grew up to become his own man under the strong tutelage of Bruce, and set off to protect the nearby city of Bludhaven as the vigilante Nightwing. In time, Batman took on a second Robin, who was killed in action by one his greatest enemies, and sometime later, a third.
There have been other allies in Batman's war on crime. The police commissioner of Gotham
City, James Gordon, was one of the first. Even the villain Two-Face was once one of Batman's
closest confidantes. The roster of Batman's costumed allies now includes Oracle, who used to be Batgirl until being crippled at the hands of The Joker, and is now the broker of information to an entire planet full of superheroes, Azrael, a knight-like assassin, an avenging angel who Batman rescued from a life of brainwashing and death, The Huntress, whose history mirrors Batman's own tragic loss, The Spoiler, and Batgirl. The four female heroes bear strong resemblances to many of the warrior women archetypes that can be found in different versions of the hero quest.
The villains that inhabit Batman's world are usually colorful archeypes. There is The Joker,
Batman's arch-enemy, who has been described as The Clown Prince of Crime, and wears the
purple of royalty as a costume. There is Two-Face, who was once Harvey Dent, a successful
district attorney on the side of justice (and Batman's ally), whose mind has now been tipped to
madness and an obsession with duality. There is The Scarecrow, a creature of the dark who
feeds on the fear of others. And there are many, many others that fit the archetypes found in the
Monomyth: Catwoman (the harlot), Hugo Strange (the wizard/mad scientist), Poison Ivy (mother nature), Solomon Grundy and Amygdala (giants), Killer Croc (the monster), Clayface (the shapeshifter), Nocturna (the witch), Deadshot (the hired killer), and several "damsels in distress", usually women that Bruce Wayne has loved, that Batman has rescued from certain death.
One of the more important aspects of the hero quest is the appearance or seeking out of a mentor, or guide. There have been many such figures in Batman's life over the years. Leslie Thompkins was a doctor who found a terrified Bruce after his parents were killed, and became like a second mother to him, and a method of support for Batman. Alfred Pennyworth, the valet who cared for Bruce after his parents' death, is very much a father-figure and mentor and remains an ally in his war on crime.
During his training, Bruce learned from the best assassins and martial artists in the world. Some of them tried to take him under their tutelage and twist him to their own ends. There is even a villain named Ra's Al Ghul, who once wanted Batman to marry his daughter, become his heir, and help him in cleansing the world of all human life. Al Ghul's daughter Talia fell in love with Batman, who fell for her as well. But it was not to be. Their love was doomed from the start. Talia's devotion to her father clashed with her love for Bruce Wayne/Batman, and the situational archetype of the "star-crossed lovers" has come into play many times. This particular situation has not arisen only with Talia, but also with Catwoman, and several, more normal women, who Batman has realized he cannot be with because of the vow he made, and the mission he accepted. Some of the women have even lost their lives as a direct result of his crusade.
An interesting aspect of Batman is the moral restrictions he's placed on himself. A hero is
supposed to have high morals, and Batman definitely does. Having seen the effects of losing a
loved one first-hand, and deciding that all life is precious, Batman has sworn never to take a life.
And he never has. He's lost partners, friends, and even lovers to enemies like The Joker and Two-
Face, and he knows that not ending their lives causes even more death, but he cannot bring
himself to kill.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the Batman mythos are the trials and challenges he's
faced and overcome. Heroes have quests. A mission they must accomplish, or a lesson to learn. The Batman is no exception. But unlike many such stories, there will be no apotheosis. Because The Batman's quest is one he can never win. He fights a war that's doomed to failure. He knows it's useless, and still he fights on. More then anything, Batman's fight is a struggle to control, to master death. This is another central theme of a Monomyth. He has seen more death then anyone, and still tries to understand it, to control it. Over and over again he learns he cannot. Instead of giving in to his fear of death, and becoming bitter, he still strives to prevent pain and death as much as he can.
Deeds and challenges are a large part of the hero quest. And the deeds of Heracles and other
classic heroes pale in comparison to the things Batman has done. He has saved and enriched countless lives, and stopped threats so great that the combined strength of all the heroes on the
planet couldn't deal with them. He has rid his city of all but the most token of mob influences. He's dealt with an endless parade of supervillains. He has battled and beaten his own drug addiction. He has saved the world ten times over. He has stopped a rogue Superman (which is no small feat), and has battled foes far greater than himself, been beaten (had his back broken), and fought to come back. He has faced down imposters that want to to claim his mantle and Gotham for themselves. Batman has watched his city fall to a massive earthquake, watched the devastation become too much for most people to handle, and struggled with the people of Gotham as the city was cut off from the rest of the United States to keep order. He has been accused of murder, and had to clear his name. He has been hunted by various corrupt officials from time to time, and fights corruption at every level, from his city's own Mayor to the President of the United States (Lex Luthor). He has dealt with invasion from hostile alien forces. When Gotham City fell to a horrible outbreak of the Ebola virus, Batman traveled to the Middle East to seek out Ra's Al Ghul, the architect of the plague, and bring the cure back to his people. More then once he's faced intergalactic or greater threats as a partial member of the Justice League (an international crisis response team of superpowered heroes).
When we see all of these elements coming together, it's not hard to see the values of our own culture creeping into the stories. The Batman mythos are considered by many comic book fans to be a modern-day epic, capable of holding their own with classics like Heracles, and even Gilgamesh. All of the elements of the hero quest can be found somewhere in the stories about the character and his world. What does this mean about our culture? The Batman legend reflects that aspect of our culture that wants to overcome obstacles. The part of us that wants to believe that somewhere out there is a hero who will protect us at his own risk. The part of us that wants to see humanity face adversity and triumph over it, no matter the cost.
THE DARK KNIGHT
Over the years, the hero quest, or Monomyth, has become recognized as the one central story that all cultures share. With an overall plot that is often similar, the archetypal hero quest contains various elements that make it instantly recognizable. There are three kinds of archetypes that are common in the hero quest: situational, character, and symbol. The Batman mythos are no exception to this rule. The stories that make up the Batman legend are rich in the elements of the classic hero quest, and have been since writer/artist Bob Kane first created them in 1939. Since that time, hundreds of artists and writers have contributed to The Batman's legend, and the character has evolved. It has been passed on, the story often changing, but retaining a few key elements.
As Joseph Campbell, the author of The Hero With 1,000 Faces, points out, a culture's myths are not just stories. They carry our hopes, dreams, and values. If that is true, then what can we say about the stories of our culture that contain similar elements? What do the Batman mythos reveal about our culture, it's values, and ideals?
The core of the Batman legend revolves around the fact that Bruce Wayne watched his parents gunned down by a nameless mugger when he was just a child. That nameless mugger managed to steal, in a series of gunshots, Bruce's parents, his childhood, and much of the rest of his life. This is a common occurrence in the Monomyth. The tragic loss of one or both of a hero's parents. Bruce's need for vengeance was so great, that he vowed, on his parents' memories, to spend the rest of his life warring on all criminals. He was determined to make sure that what had happened to him would never happen again. Born into great wealth (a noble birth), Bruce Wayne decided to use his vast resources to make good on his promise.
Another common occurrence in the hero quest is the call to adventure, and the subsequent training that a hero undergoes. Bruce Wayne was no exception. In fact, the character of Batman may have exceeded any other literary character, as he left Gotham City as a teenager, and traveled the world, in the process learning over 100 styles of combat and meditation. He trained his mind and body to mental and physical perfection. He became a master scientist, and a student of the greatest detectives there were to learn from. He immersed himself in criminal theory and history, and emerged as close to a perfect human being as there would ever be. He was a man on a mission. Like many heroes before him, Bruce Wayne had developed the skills and the means for his quest, but lacked the method. And he searched for it relentlessly for a long time.
Though he would eventually become the hero he set out to be, Wayne was a reluctant hero. This is another common trait of the main character in a Monomyth. Bruce would have preferred to have a life and love over the world that he grew to know. But at the age of 25, he could take no more. He went out into the night looking for trouble and found it. Barely alive and bleeding to death, a delirious Bruce Wayne returned to his manor to wait for his death. As he sat in the study that his father had occupied years before, he begged his parents for the help he needed. For the method to make criminals afraid. He had to be black. Terrible. As if in answer to his prayers, a large bat flew in the window. In the tiny creature, Bruce Wayne saw his future. He would become a bat. The bat that inspired Bruce's crusade may well have been a supernatural messenger, which is another aspect of the hero quest. The figure of a bat represents various things in many cultures. In some cultures, the bat represents the guardian of the night. And in other cultures, it's believed that seeing a bat is seeing a guise of the devil himself. The costume that Bruce Wayne designed to disguise himself and frighten others resembles something evil, even satanic, with it's jagged edges and horns. This eerie, otherwordly look is not common in the hero quest, although the color black is often attributed to troubled heroes. This is the image that Bruce Wayne would use to strike terror into the hearts of criminals as he became The Batman.
The supernatural figure of a bat was also central in Bruce Wayne's "belly of the whale" experience. As a child, running around on the property behind his family's mansion, young Bruce Wayne fell through a hole in the ground and landed below, in the wet darkness. As he continued through the darkness, he came face to face with a bat. It terrified him, but intrigued him at the same time. Many years later, the bat flying through his window would trigger his memory.
The Batman began his quest as a creature of the night, striking from the shadows and always
vanishing before he could be truly identified, like a thief in the darkness. He never hung around to take credit for his actions, preferring instead to remain an urban legend, much like the characters he was inspired by, Robin Hood and Zorro. His resemblance to those characters cannot be denied. Batman has been called The Dark Knight, and for good reason. He is almost the proverbial knight in shining armor. Handsome, daring, a little dangerous, and always arriving just in the nick of time to rescue the innocent.
The characters in Monomyths are often attributed special powers, or magic talismans, weapons, or armor. Batman is no exception. While he is all too human, his Batsuit itself is almost a magical talisman. Even with all his training and experience, Bruce Wayne is never fully functional as Batman until he dons the cowl. The horned cowl is the trigger. When he puts on the cowl, he seems to become unstoppable, almost in possession of supernatural powers. The mask signals the change.
The magical talismans of Batman's world appear in the form of his chosen weapons and tools. Right from the start of his mission, Batman waged his war not with guns, but with weapons of an almost magical nature. The "batarang" weapon, modeled after the Australian boomerang, has been a key element of Batman's arsenal for a long time. The all-purpose Utility Belt that he wears seems to be a cure-all, and contain a gadget or tool for nearly every situation Batman encounters. In a pinch, the Batsuit itself can be used as a weapon, and he has developed numerous ingenius gadgets that he uses from time to time, like the compressed-air grappling hook gun. Like the magical tokens attributed to characters like King Arthur, Heracles and Perseus, Batman's gadgets have become a part of his lore.
In time, Gotham City became Batman's domain. Gotham has become almost like a troubled kingdom that Batman can rule over, his Camelot, so to speak. A fictional city gives the Batman mythos another similarity to the Monomyth. Gotham City is huge, and despite Batman's efforts, full of corruption and crime. It's a city that, in some ways, could never exist. Gotham has incorporated elements from many of the greatest cities in the world. And some of the locales in Gotham have an almost mystical quality to them. The Batcave. Arhkam Asylum. The Twin Towers. These areas of the city have become as well known to comic book fans as the locales in myth and legend have to those who enjoy them. Batman rules over his kingdom by night, and does what he can to help it during the day as his alter-ego, Bruce Wayne.
If Gotham is Batman's mythical kingdom, then Wayne Manor is his castle. It is his stronghold, and conceals his real life far below in the caverns of what has come to be known as The Batcave. From here, Batman plans his war on crime with his allies, almost like a modern-day King Arthur and his knights of the roundtable.
And, like many of the heroes in Monomyths, The Batman has plenty of allies and sidekicks.
People that share his dream, and mission. Not long after he began his crusade, Bruce Wayne came
upon the "lost child" of his mythos, a teenager whose parents, like his, had been murdered. Seeing
his own tragedy mirrored in the boy, Bruce took the child, Dick Grayson, in as his ward, and eventually trained him as his partner, Robin. Robin was a laughing young daredevil to Batman's brooding Dark Knight, and could be considered as many of the archetypal character models, including the trickster and the sidekick. There have since been several Robins. Dick grew up to become his own man under the strong tutelage of Bruce, and set off to protect the nearby city of Bludhaven as the vigilante Nightwing. In time, Batman took on a second Robin, who was killed in action by one his greatest enemies, and sometime later, a third.
There have been other allies in Batman's war on crime. The police commissioner of Gotham
City, James Gordon, was one of the first. Even the villain Two-Face was once one of Batman's
closest confidantes. The roster of Batman's costumed allies now includes Oracle, who used to be Batgirl until being crippled at the hands of The Joker, and is now the broker of information to an entire planet full of superheroes, Azrael, a knight-like assassin, an avenging angel who Batman rescued from a life of brainwashing and death, The Huntress, whose history mirrors Batman's own tragic loss, The Spoiler, and Batgirl. The four female heroes bear strong resemblances to many of the warrior women archetypes that can be found in different versions of the hero quest.
The villains that inhabit Batman's world are usually colorful archeypes. There is The Joker,
Batman's arch-enemy, who has been described as The Clown Prince of Crime, and wears the
purple of royalty as a costume. There is Two-Face, who was once Harvey Dent, a successful
district attorney on the side of justice (and Batman's ally), whose mind has now been tipped to
madness and an obsession with duality. There is The Scarecrow, a creature of the dark who
feeds on the fear of others. And there are many, many others that fit the archetypes found in the
Monomyth: Catwoman (the harlot), Hugo Strange (the wizard/mad scientist), Poison Ivy (mother nature), Solomon Grundy and Amygdala (giants), Killer Croc (the monster), Clayface (the shapeshifter), Nocturna (the witch), Deadshot (the hired killer), and several "damsels in distress", usually women that Bruce Wayne has loved, that Batman has rescued from certain death.
One of the more important aspects of the hero quest is the appearance or seeking out of a mentor, or guide. There have been many such figures in Batman's life over the years. Leslie Thompkins was a doctor who found a terrified Bruce after his parents were killed, and became like a second mother to him, and a method of support for Batman. Alfred Pennyworth, the valet who cared for Bruce after his parents' death, is very much a father-figure and mentor and remains an ally in his war on crime.
During his training, Bruce learned from the best assassins and martial artists in the world. Some of them tried to take him under their tutelage and twist him to their own ends. There is even a villain named Ra's Al Ghul, who once wanted Batman to marry his daughter, become his heir, and help him in cleansing the world of all human life. Al Ghul's daughter Talia fell in love with Batman, who fell for her as well. But it was not to be. Their love was doomed from the start. Talia's devotion to her father clashed with her love for Bruce Wayne/Batman, and the situational archetype of the "star-crossed lovers" has come into play many times. This particular situation has not arisen only with Talia, but also with Catwoman, and several, more normal women, who Batman has realized he cannot be with because of the vow he made, and the mission he accepted. Some of the women have even lost their lives as a direct result of his crusade.
An interesting aspect of Batman is the moral restrictions he's placed on himself. A hero is
supposed to have high morals, and Batman definitely does. Having seen the effects of losing a
loved one first-hand, and deciding that all life is precious, Batman has sworn never to take a life.
And he never has. He's lost partners, friends, and even lovers to enemies like The Joker and Two-
Face, and he knows that not ending their lives causes even more death, but he cannot bring
himself to kill.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the Batman mythos are the trials and challenges he's
faced and overcome. Heroes have quests. A mission they must accomplish, or a lesson to learn. The Batman is no exception. But unlike many such stories, there will be no apotheosis. Because The Batman's quest is one he can never win. He fights a war that's doomed to failure. He knows it's useless, and still he fights on. More then anything, Batman's fight is a struggle to control, to master death. This is another central theme of a Monomyth. He has seen more death then anyone, and still tries to understand it, to control it. Over and over again he learns he cannot. Instead of giving in to his fear of death, and becoming bitter, he still strives to prevent pain and death as much as he can.
Deeds and challenges are a large part of the hero quest. And the deeds of Heracles and other
classic heroes pale in comparison to the things Batman has done. He has saved and enriched countless lives, and stopped threats so great that the combined strength of all the heroes on the
planet couldn't deal with them. He has rid his city of all but the most token of mob influences. He's dealt with an endless parade of supervillains. He has battled and beaten his own drug addiction. He has saved the world ten times over. He has stopped a rogue Superman (which is no small feat), and has battled foes far greater than himself, been beaten (had his back broken), and fought to come back. He has faced down imposters that want to to claim his mantle and Gotham for themselves. Batman has watched his city fall to a massive earthquake, watched the devastation become too much for most people to handle, and struggled with the people of Gotham as the city was cut off from the rest of the United States to keep order. He has been accused of murder, and had to clear his name. He has been hunted by various corrupt officials from time to time, and fights corruption at every level, from his city's own Mayor to the President of the United States (Lex Luthor). He has dealt with invasion from hostile alien forces. When Gotham City fell to a horrible outbreak of the Ebola virus, Batman traveled to the Middle East to seek out Ra's Al Ghul, the architect of the plague, and bring the cure back to his people. More then once he's faced intergalactic or greater threats as a partial member of the Justice League (an international crisis response team of superpowered heroes).
When we see all of these elements coming together, it's not hard to see the values of our own culture creeping into the stories. The Batman mythos are considered by many comic book fans to be a modern-day epic, capable of holding their own with classics like Heracles, and even Gilgamesh. All of the elements of the hero quest can be found somewhere in the stories about the character and his world. What does this mean about our culture? The Batman legend reflects that aspect of our culture that wants to overcome obstacles. The part of us that wants to believe that somewhere out there is a hero who will protect us at his own risk. The part of us that wants to see humanity face adversity and triumph over it, no matter the cost.