45 Master Characters (52 page)

In
The Deep End of the Ocean
by Jacquelyn Mitchard, the hero descends when she obsesses about finding her lost son. In the death stage she sleeps away in her depression, having given up on everything in life. She is lost in a “dark night of the soul” experience.

Examples of Stage 6

Inanna stands face to face with the dark goddess Ereshkigal. “The all-seeing judges at the gates of the underworld perceive Inanna's hidden, split-off parts and condemn her. Ereshkigal cries out, ‘Guilty!’ and Inanna is killed.” She hangs on a peg to rot.

The Wizard demands that Dorothy bring him the witch's broom or he won't grant their wishes. This is another betrayal for her and a reversal in the story. On her journey to find the broom Dorothy is kidnapped and sentenced to die by the Wicked Witch of the West.

Rose jumps off the lifeboat and races toward Jack. They kiss. He asks her why she did it and she replies, “You jump, I jump, remember?” He is all she cares about and she'll risk everything to be with him. She can face death with him at her side. The rest of the film is about them caught in the death stage waiting for the ship to sink.

Edna rushes to her friend's house to help her give birth. The violent pain her friend must endure terrifies her. When she starts to leave, her friend tells Edna she knows about Edna's affair with Arobin and that she should “remember the children!”

Edna feels that “her children threaten to chain her to a life of misery.” When she returns to her new home she finds Robert, the love of her life, has left her for good. He's unable to face the ridicule that would come if she left her husband for him.

Edna stands naked on the beach for a moment. The only one who supports her is a woman who warns her of the isolation that comes with flaunting convention. Edna walks into the water and swims to her death.

Lester sits admiring a picture of his family and gets shot in the head by a man who is terrified to go on his own journey of self-exploration. There's no room in society for the man who wants to flaunt convention either.

Stretch your imagination as to how one would react in different situations. Use the character archetypes. Don't fall for stereotypes. Not all women will fall into depression when their husbands leave; some will avoid it by going out and having one-night stands, while others may buy a gun or go back to school.

Watch some
Seinfeld
episodes to see how the actions of a supporting character in the beginning of a story come back to ruin all the plans of the main character by the end of the story. This show is a master of it! Can a supporting character make this stage even worse?

Stage 7: Support

Sarah lies on the cold damp floor, her eyes and ears shut. She can't find her way out. Not one drop of light shines, and she can't tell which way is left and which is right.

A voice calls to her, and she lifts her head. In the distance a match illuminates an ascending staircase. It was there the whole time, but she couldn't find it. She picks herself up and follows the light. She thinks, “I thought I was all alone here.”

The female journey includes the relation between the individual and the group. The hero goes through her own awakening and comes out willing to accept help from others. She can't be betrayed again because she has her own strength and self-realization that can't be taken away from her. She is like the prisoner who finds freedom of spirit within her jail cell. It doesn't matter what anyone tries to do to her or take away from her.

She accepts others as they are and embraces the female aspect of supporting one another. She begins to see the oneness that we all share together.

Many a woman who has raised children feels anguish at not having a large community of women to help her out. Having become such isolated family units, the days are gone when she could ask a neighbor to watch her kids on the spur of the moment. There's strength in numbers, and the hero realizes it's OK to be in a group even if it's only with one other person who understands her.

In some cases, like mysteries and horror stories, the hero finds herself totally alone as everyone else has died or disappeared. In this case another character has already set up the tools or set out the information she'll need to find her way out. She's still being helped.

In other cases she's still alone but she seems to draw strength from her beliefs or allows a “spirit” to guide her, as with Joan of Arc.

While the masculine hero may need to do things totally on his own to prove himself to the group, the feminine hero needs to prove herself to herself and then share this knowledge with the group. She accepts that she is female and embraces it as a positive thing. So often she has tried to become a man to live in a man's world. Now she'll define her own world.

The hero lets someone else lend her a hand, give her a boost, and in turn that person will be exposed to the benefits of going on an inner journey. Her journey affects and guides others, so this isn't a handout she's receiving but an example she's giving. Very often supporting characters have problems of their own to overcome, and the hero can allow them to make amends through helping her.

Examples of Stage 7

The Descent of Inanna
translated by Wolkstein and Kramer

After three days Inanna's friend Ninshubur pleads Inanna's case before her fathers. None of them will lend her support except Enki, her mother's father. He's the only one who values the path of descent and sends forth two androgynous beings to go to the underworld and mourn with Ereshkigal, to show her compassion. She restores Inanna to life but “no one ascends from the underworld unmarked. If Inanna wishes to return she must provide someone in her place.”

The Wizard of Oz

Dorothy is captured by the Wicked Witch of the West and left to die. Her friends, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion come to her rescue, and through it they find heart, courage and brains of their own. She has friends who support and care about her. They'll sacrifice their own safety to help her.

Titanic

Rose has Jack, a Double (symbol character) of her own active and ambitious desires. He encourages her and guides her but admits that “the only one who can save Rose is Rose.” He doesn't do it for her but provides her with the space, knowledge and example she needs in order to change. He helps her throughout the entire film as she descends and literally faces death. He then makes her promise she'll survive and do all the things they talked of doing.

The Awakening
by Kate Chopin

There was no one to help Edna with her journey. Society was too strong to fight and no other characters were willing to sacrifice themselves for the journey. She was left alone and was faced with a choice between death or a return to her old life and her old self. She couldn't face isolation if she flaunted convention and did what she wanted with her life, and she couldn't face what society would do to her children because of her actions.

Gender-Bending:
American Beauty

Lester found no support for his decision to change his life and to give up the notion that real men must perform, provide and protect. He wanted to find himself without returning to the safe dysfunctional world he came from.

Have you ever felt down and thought you were the only one in the world who felt that way? And then realized thousands of other people were going through the same thing? Use your own life history for ideas.

Make sure you have planted your hero's helpers in the beginning of the story so they don't seem to appear out of nowhere. They should be people we heard about in Act I or passed by in Act II, so when they're recalled the reader remembers them.

The hero will still face the villain, but she's faced all her demons and is stronger and more prepared for it.

Stage 8: Rebirth — The Moment of Truth

Sarah gathers all of her tools as she walks past the gates once more. She steps into the light and everything, though still the same, seems completely different to her now.

From a positive active stance she goes after her goal. She is no longer the fearful little girl who only knew how to react to the events in her life but a strong woman who makes things happens.

The hero has found her strength and resolve, and she goes after her goal with gusto. Nothing can stop her now. Tyrants and ogres would only find themselves laughed at in this stage. She sees the big picture of life and realizes she can't ever go back to the woman she once was and she doesn't want to.

She dusts herself off, grabs her new powers and walks straight into the lion's den. She isn't afraid to die because she realizes she was already dead in the perfect world. She tasted success during the eye of the storm, and it felt good. Now she wants it all. She can't believe she ever considered giving up during the descent.

The hero has learned to set boundaries, take action and listen to her own inner voice. She has reclaimed her identity and her weapons and realizes she is the creator of her own fear. She has found her courage, used her brains and won her own heart. The three combined are needed to attain her goal.