A Circular Illusion

    Victoria Lynn Schmidt's heroine's journey is a circle. The heroine develops throughout the story, but ultimately ends up back where she started in her 'perfect world.' This ending world is supposedly actually perfect rather than an illusion of perfection. However, arguably, no world is perfect. It seems good in the moment, but flaws will always be revealed, and that's part of the fluctuation of life. In Legally Blonde, Elle graduated and was happily in a relationship and about to be employed, but she will always have more challenges in her relationships and job-- maybe she isn't ready to be engaged, maybe she will get overwhelmed at work. This way of thinking may seem pessimistic, but I think it simply acknowledges that just because the story appears to have a happy ending does not mean that the character is living in a perfect world but rather that the audience member is only being shown the highlights of that characters life. 

    To further examine this, we can examine the specific descriptions of the steps of the heroine's journey. Let's start with the illusion of the perfect world. The article states that in this stage of the heroine's journey, the heroine "has deluded herself into thinking everything will turn out fine" ("Heroine's Journey"). Defining when things 'turn out' is a difficult task because life is undeniably a collection of ups and downs. One cannot expect to exist in a state of constant euphoria and perfection but instead must also accept sadness and failure. When the feelings of happiness and bliss do come into the heroine's life, she would be correct that things 'turn out fine,' but this state of mind easily comes and goes. There will always be new problems to solve, but there will also be problems that have been solved. Thus, one can also not claim that things won't 'turn out fine' because problems are constantly being solved. The pain and the happiness intertwine, and so things never 'turn out' well or badly but instead are forever in a state of fluctuation. Paradoxically, the journey ends with the true perfect world, so the heroine would've been right if the journey were not a cycle.

    The article also mentions naivety as part of this first step of the journey. I agree that this a crucial part of this step, but that also begs the question of how one can lose all naivety by the end of the journey. People are constantly growing and learning throughout their experiences, so their areas of naivety just shift around throughout their life. People are always in a state of naivety because they can never know everything about everything. However, this change in areas of naivety is significant. This change is usually established in the final step when the heroine returns to her perfect world. As stated in the article, "She understands herself better and this will change the way she lives her life from then on" ("Heroine's Journey"). This implies a realization of information gained in the journey, but doesn't mean her entire world has been fixed as a perfect world would imply. 

    The final step also mentions that "the heroine sees the world as it truly is" ("Heroine's Journey"). I think that this is actually just the first step but with the reader also under the illusion of a perfect world. Then the story transitions back into the illusion phase and the cycle repeats. However, although the heroine is once again in an illusion, she is not in the same illusion. It is easy to fall into the trap of believing the heroine is going in circles and never truly learning. I do not believe she will ever 'see the world as it truly is,' but I think her understanding of the world will certainly grow throughout her journey. Therefore, the perfect world is not the only illusion but the cyclic nature of the journey is also an illusion. 

The perfect world that the story ends with is simply an illusion to a journey that has yet to start. It is almost like a clicker game where you keep upgrading and starting over, seemingly doing the same thing but visibly seeing improvements and progress. So although the journey does provide the illusion of circularity, if you look at it from a third dimension, you can see that it actually is an upwards spiral of growth in the heroine's life. 

"Heroine's Journey." Wikipedia. 20 October 2022. Accessed 8 March 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroine%27s_journey

Comments

  1. SavindiMarch 18, 2023 at 11:27 AM

    I love your analysis of the cyclical nature of the Heroine's Journey, and I have to agree! I particularly like your discussion on the fluctuation of life, and it reminds me of a saying I hear a lot: You can’t appreciate happiness unless you have been through sadness. Life is a constant fluctuation of successes and struggles, happiness and sadness, naivety and knowledge, etc. While the Heroine's Journey is cyclical, I agree that it is an upward spiral (kind of like spiraling upward along the wire of a spring). The heroine learns something new from each cycle of her journey, but she always goes through a similar cyclical journey to reach each realization. We learn something new after each cycle and avoid the old mistakes, instead making new mistakes to learn new things from. It shows how we are constantly learning in our circular lives, whether we realize it or not.

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  2. Shawn S.March 19, 2023 at 1:13 PM

    I think that the cyclical narrative of the heroine's journey can also apply to it being sort of liberationary in that it strives to combine masculine self-actualization with feminine mutual support. At the end of Legally Blonde, Elle has embraced the feminine aspect of support among other women by accepting it from her law professor and helping her hairdresser, but she still occupies a privileged position as a well-educated lawyer from a rich family. Thus, by the end of this "cycle," Elle does not fully extend self-actualization and compassion to everyone but has only realized it in one context.

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  3. Navid TajkhorshidMarch 20, 2023 at 1:34 PM

    I really like your image of the heroine’s journey as an upwards spiral, seemingly a cycle from one angle but a progression from another. It makes sense, since the heroine will never become truly perfect or live in a truly perfect world, but they can continue to get closer and closer. I do wonder if at some point, the heroine gains a kind of meta understanding of their own path through life, understanding that there will never be a perfect world and not having to have the illusion constantly shattered. I’m thinking of how Siddhartha comes to a meta understanding of why the road of trials is a necessary step, even if it seems to just waste time.

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  4. Maxwell HeMarch 20, 2023 at 1:35 PM

    I like the idea of the Heroine's journey as a constant cycle of learning and adaptation, rather than a one-time event. The heroine, at the end of the journey, obviously ends up more knowledgeable than when they started off, but at the same time, there still is more to learn abut the world. The world also grows and changes, so even if everything was resolved before, things could be different later. So in reality, the idea of a 'perfect' world even after a journey is not exactly true (although perhaps infinitely better in comparison to the illusory perfect world), and there has to be many different journeys which entail vast improvements to the heroine's life.

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  5. Evan W.March 20, 2023 at 1:44 PM

    It's cool how you came this this conclusion! I was also thinking about this repeating cycle of journeys as well in class. I think the idea of the hero's and heroine's journeys being circles is that they are meant to be repeated. Through every iteration the protagonist finds out more about themselves and the world around them. I guess if someone did want to actually escape the cycle of naivety and illusory perfection, they would need to actually transcend to enlightenment.

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