In Star Wars: A New Hope, George Lucas builds an interplanetary space-traveling world stuck in a power struggle. Darth Vader and his associates hope to exert tremendous control over the known galaxy. By powering the Death Star, a space battleship with enough manpower to obliterate a large planet, they are able to enact policies without retribution.
However, not all lies content. A rebellion brews against the near autocracy, with a government official, Princess Leia, managing to steal the layout of the Death Star. Hoping to detect a weakness within the massive system, she attempts to transmit the information to the revolt, however, gets captured and sent to the Death Star.
The Hero’s Journey in Star Wars is told through the lens of Luke Skywalker, a farm boy. After witnessing a telegram of Princess Leia through R2D2, the filmgoers follow him as he attempts to rescue her from the Death Star. Their interactions demonstrate co-existing meanings and potential crossovers in Campbell’s steps “Meeting with the goddess” and “Woman as temptress".
After Luke and Han Solo (acquaintance) are sucked into the Death Star, they sneak through to find Princess Leia’s cell and rescue her. Thus marks Luke’s “Meeting with the goddess” as he breaks into her jail.
According to Campbell’s definition of this step, this encounter demonstrates the main character’s meeting with “amor fati”, or “love of fate”. This concept is applied physically and metaphorically. By entering her cell, Luke triggered a number of alarms in the Death Star, which prompts Storm troopers, the fighters of Darth Vader, to make an attempt on his life. His escape becomes one of life and death, rather than one of imprisonment. Furthermore, his break in signifies a turn in Luke’s world. He is no longer just a farm boy, nor a simple intruder of the Death Star - he has rescued one of the leader’s of a galaxy wide rebellion. Thus, whether he likes it or not, this meeting marks his transition from unnoticed town boy to a massive criminal/huge hero (depending on the perspective).
As gunfire sounds down a narrow hallway and their only escape route is blocked, Luke, Leia and Han Solo debate on what to do. Suddenly, Leia grabs Luke’s gun, shoots into a garbage chute, and jumps into the pit. Thus marks the beginning of “Woman as Temptress” as Luke’s soft spot of Leia overpowers his sense of reason as he hurls himself after him. As expected, Han Solo has no choice but to jump in, and the following scene shows their near death by pancake-ification and Luke almost being swallowed by an alien worm.
This scene demonstrates how at this moment, his hypnosis by Leia leads Luke to commit to a questionable decision that leads him off the quest. I think that in terms of depth, the “Woman as temptress” is a bit more shallow than “Meeting with Goddess”. In the latter, Luke’s status and position changes both physically and metaphorically. Freeing Leia awakened him to a higher social order that a farm boy didn't have access to before. Him jumping into the trash chute simply physically leads him to a potentially very stinky and unpleasant death.
However, the significance lies in Leia’s role as both a Goddess and Temptress. Usually, the Goddess guides the hero onto the main character, while the Temptress derails him massively. In Star Wars, Leia manages to be both. An interpretation for her character (help and hurt) is a possible duality with “supposed good turned bad”. This trope is very pervasive within Star Wars. Most prominently, Darth Vader was originally a Jedi Knight who turned into his current “dark” form for power. This duality is again demonstrated with the Force - we learn from Obi-Wan that being able to control the “waves of the universe” teeters between using The Force or converting to the Dark Side, literally, the good and bad. I think that Leia, from Goddess to Temptress and back again, demonstrates that, unlike the actions of Darth Vader and many other characters, it is possible to refuse corruption. Interestingly, I think this anticipates Luke’s future rejection of conversion to the Dark Side when his true parentage is revealed.
In conclusion, while both “Meeting with Goddess” and “Woman as Temptress” serve as interesting “Hero’s Journey” steps in Star Wars, it is the combination of them through Leia which serves as particularly fertile ground for analysis, revealing tropes with the good and bad. These revelations allow the watcher to view Star Wars with a more critical eye and perceive underlined foreshadowings.
Hi Renee, I think that your interpretation of Leia as being both the Goddess and the temptress and how it relates to duality of good and evil was really interesting. Especially when her and Luke's true parentage is later revealed, the binaries between good and evil are further highlighted. Another aspect that I thought was really interesting was how you said that him rescuing Leia was when he truly transforms out of this simple farm boy and into more of a hero.
ReplyDeleteHey Renee, this idea of Leia being both Goddess and Temptress in Campbell's diagram is a very good connection to make using Star Wars' lore with the force being good and bad. I believe I also talked about a similar situation happening with Siddhartha being a sucker for Kamala, but now this time it's Luke being a sucker for Leia (even though they are related). In both Siddhartha and Star Wars, I find it odd how the Woman as Temptress always tempts the hero with their charm, making the hero infatuated with them and causing them to make irrational decisions. I give this blog 10 stormtroopers out of 10.
ReplyDeleteI think this idea of Leia as a Temptress and a Goddess is really interesting because it came up in Siddhartha as well. Before we watched this or read Siddhartha, I thought the Temptress and Goddess would be different people, but it's interesting that the recurring theme is that they are the same person. It's interesting how in a relatively simple cycle of the Hero's Journey, these stories bring complexity to the female lead by making her have a more intricate personality and relationship with the main character.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog!! I thought it was cool how you compared two stages of the Hero's Journey, that while visibly different, are actually quite similar and I liked your explanation of Leia's role in both stages as a woman who represents contrasting characteristics. It's interesting to think about how Luke's perception of Leia ultimately leads to her being portrayed as a goddess and a temptress at the same time, because if he knew more about her origin, then she would likely represent a different role in the Hero's Journey.
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