Campbell defines a hero as one who battles either personal or historical limitations and who becomes a source through which his society is reborn (The Hero with a Thousand Faces 20). Essential to the idea of the mythic hero is that either he or the society in which he lives suffers from some shortcoming (THWTF 37). The characteristics of the hero that Campbell has identified, in myth, offer a model which can be applied to literature.
Campbell describes a hero circle, which is divided into three stages. The first is the Separation/Departure. Destiny calls the hero to his quest (THWTF 46). The failure of the hero to advance in the direction destiny has set is called the refusal of the call (THWTF 53). Here, the hero experiences the crossing, when he accepts the call and begins his journey (THWTF 83). This quest can be for either internal change, or external change for the society. During the initial crossing, he encounters his first trials. In the final step of this stage, the hero is reborn to make the journey destiny has called him to make (THWTF 105).
The second stage is the Trials and Victories of Initiation. Here the hero often encounters women as the "temptress" and symbols of defeat. Extremely important in this stage is the atonement with the Father (God) (THWTF 132).
The final stage of Campbell's hero circle is The Return and Reuniting with Society. Typically this is the most difficult for the hero. Often the hero refuses the return, for he is uncertain how to go back after all that he has experienced (THWTF 201).
The mythic hero archetype is especially evident in the character of Michael Henchard. Michael Henchard fulfills the call to adventure when he sells his wife and his child. After a fruitless search to find them, two more stages of the hero circle are completed. When Susan and Elizabeth-Jane are not found the "refusal of the call" occurs and the adventure takes another direction.
Other mythic elements occur along Henchard's "road of trials" as he encounters what Campbell sees as "Trials and Victories" for the hero. Along the "road" Henchard finds success as the Mayor of Casterbridge, but he also meets with challenges. These struggles lead to the most mythic aspect of the novel: Henchard's relationships with women. As Campbell points out, women are a symbol of defeat for the hero. Henchard is emotionally defeated by his lover Lucetta, who returns to him with the mythic qualities of the goddess of love, Aphrodite. This event, recalls Campbell, is, "meeting with a goddess." Also, Elizabeth-Jane is symbolic of his defeat, as Henchard learns that she is not really his flesh and blood. He is miserable when he is with her, and he is more miserable when he disowns her. These conflicts with women epitomize Henchard's heroic struggle against defeat.
Throughout The Mayor of Casterbridge Henchard manifests many archetypes of heroic behavior. Whether or not Henchard truly completes the hero circle remains open to interpretation.
Campbell, Joseph. The hero with a thousand faces . New York: Pantheon Book, 1949.
Campbell, Joseph. The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and Religion. New York: Alfred VanDer Marck Editions, 1986.
Campbell, Joseph. Transformations of Myth Through Time. New York: Harper and Row, 1990.