Joseph Campbell explored the theory that the most important mythological stories from around the world, some of them thousands of years old, share a fundamental structure, which he called monomyth. In laying out the monomyth, he described a numbers of steps or stages along this journey.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman is a children’s story about a girl who is ordinary and imperfect, yet has the role of a hero on a quest. The story follows the classic pattern of a hero’s quest story.Coraline is not special. She’s an ordinary kid with ordinary parents living in an ordinary home. She’s just a girl whose curiosity leads her to an adventure, the consequences of which demand heroic actions from her. Although the writer of the book, author Neil Gaiman, said that he started The Hero with a Thousand Faces, but refused to finish it, there are obvious elements and stages of the monomyth structure in Coraline.
Coraline has just moved with her parents into a flat in an old house. Her upstairs and downstairs neighbors are kind and eccentric older people who can't get her name right, but encourage her curiosity and explorer's instincts. One rainy afternoon, wandering around bored out of her mind (as young explorers are wont to do on rainy afternoons), Coraline opens a locked door in her living room and finds her way into the mysterious "vacant" fourth flat in the house. Surprisingly, the apartment is far from empty, and Coraline comes face to face with two creatures who claim to be her "other" parents. In fact, there appears to be an entire magical "other" world through the door; there are amazing toys to play with and neighbors who never mess up her name.
Soon, however, Coraline realizes that this world is as deadly as it is enchanting. The "other mother" wants to keep Coraline there forever, and her intentions are hardly loving or parental. Coraline meets the ghosts of several other children who had been kidnapped hundreds of years ago, and she realizes that her both her body and spirit are in danger. She has to use all her intelligence and exploratory prowess in order to defeat the horrible "other mother."
Coraline has just moved with her parents into a flat in an old house. Her upstairs and downstairs neighbors are kind and eccentric older people who can't get her name right, but encourage her curiosity and explorer's instincts. One rainy afternoon, wandering around bored out of her mind (as young explorers are wont to do on rainy afternoons), Coraline opens a locked door in her living room and finds her way into the mysterious "vacant" fourth flat in the house. Surprisingly, the apartment is far from empty, and Coraline comes face to face with two creatures who claim to be her "other" parents. In fact, there appears to be an entire magical "other" world through the door; there are amazing toys to play with and neighbors who never mess up her name.
Soon, however, Coraline realizes that this world is as deadly as it is enchanting. The "other mother" wants to keep Coraline there forever, and her intentions are hardly loving or parental. Coraline meets the ghosts of several other children who had been kidnapped hundreds of years ago, and she realizes that her both her body and spirit are in danger. She has to use all her intelligence and exploratory prowess in order to defeat the horrible "other mother."
The first stage of the monomyth, The Call to Adventure, begins after Coraline is not allowed by her parents to explore outside on a rainy day and discovers a bricked up wall behind the drawing room door “which opened to a brick wall”(pg. 13, electronic ed.). Later as she visits her neighbors the crazy old man gives her a message from the mice warning her not to “go through the door”(pg.27) and the retired actresses, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, tell her she is “in terrible danger” (pg.34) after reading her tea leaves and give her a stone with a hole in it for protection.
The next day, Coraline opens the door and finds a passage to the other world. Although she finds the other world to be better than her reality, she goes back to her world because the other mother wants to sew buttons into her eyes, in order for Coraline to stay in the other world forever. Coraline wanting to go back to her reality is The Refusal of the Call.
The Supernatural Aid is represented by the stone received from Miss Spink and the black cat who is talking to her for the first time in the garden.
The Crossing of the First Threshold stage happens when Coraline returns to her world and finds her parents missing and although she is frightened she goes back to the other world to rescue her kidnapped parents.
The Belly of The Whale stage begins when Coraline is not being able to go back to her own world because the other mother has locked the door and has the key in her possession. When she refuses to stay, the other mother locks her behind the mirror as punishment, where she meets the three ghost children.
Coraline decides to play a game with the other mother in order to win her freedom and the freedom of her parents. She proposes a finding game and she sets off to find the souls of the three ghost children and of her parents. This game symbolizes The Road of Trial stage.
As the other mother opens the door Coraline grabs the snow globe, throws the black cat at her in order to distract her and escapes back to her world with the key. This is more dangerous to Coraline than going there because the other mother is trying to keep her in the other world in order to steal her soul. Coraline’s escape back to her world represents The Magic Flight stage.
The Crossing of the Return Threshold is of a crucial importance for her quest and is represented here by the dream Coraline has in which she meets the three children before they move into the afterlife. They warn her that she must destroy the hand because it wants to steal the key in order to open passage between the two worlds and let the other mother get her. Coraline then sets up plan to lure the hand into the well in order to get rid of it forever. Freedom to Live is the last stage , when Coraline returns home victorious and prepares to go on with her normal ordinary life.
According to a statement of Joseph Campbell, The Hero’s Journey was developed for men. Its whole purpose was to show cultures how great men distinguish themselves from ordinary men. A book like Coraline, aimed at children, can actually have significant impact on the culture. It normalizes the idea of a girl on a quest by simply showing one without making an issue of her gender, without making her an exception to the rule that girls can’t quest. It is important for the readers to understand the archetypal quest because it helps them to have a better understanding of the various symbols and themes of the work.
Works cited:
Gaiman, N. (2002). Coraline. Electronic edition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell
