Who is the ‘Hero’ in a Story?

What do you imagine when you hear the word Hero?

Maybe you see Superman with his red cape billowing in the wind. Or maybe you see Perseus beheading Medusa, Odysseus leading the raid in the city of Troy, even a fireman saving a family from a burning house. Whatever it is you imagine, I would bet it to be someone or something performing a heroic act. After all, it’s in the name.

In speculative fiction, Hero is a word that is often used to describe the protagonist. But what if I told you the term Hero goes beyond superheroes and ancient mythologies? That, in stories, Hero belongs to every genre.

How is that possible? How can Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice be considered the Hero when her story is a classical romance?

The answer: there is a difference between a hero who does heroic acts and the Hero Archetype.

Carl G. Jung’s Archetypes

The Hero Archetype was first coined by Dr Carl G. Jung, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, who discovered that there are twelve imprinted archetypes within the human psyche. Each involve specific personality types that he theorised are derived from the collective unconsciousness and inherited by the ego of the every-day human. Jung believed these archetypes help the ego see and understand the world in its own individual way. Those archetypes being: The Innocent, Everyman, Hero, Outlaw, Explorer, Creator, Ruler, Magician, Lover, Caregiver, Jester and Sage.

This concept was and is known by many, but one particular man it made a resounding impact on was writer and professor, Joseph Campbell.

The Hero Archetype

Campbell was a friend of Jung who studied his teachings and combined those with his own professional knowledge of religion and mythologies, and wrote the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Within the book, what was famously formed was the concept of The Hero’s Journey, which was not originally intended as story structure, but an observation of how the psychology and life cycles of man are structured and shrouded by symbolism. His constant reference to folklore, religions and mythologies as examples is what birthed the Monomyth (which is also known as The Hero’s Journey): the idea that every story follows this same structure.

As part of The Hero’s Journey, Campbell coined his own list of archetypes that he discerned through his research: The Hero, Mentor, Ally, Herald, Trickster, Shapeshifter, Guardian and Shadow. Each archetype holds its own unique place among the human psyche, but we’re here to talk about the Hero.

Oftentimes when the term Hero is mentioned when referring to storytelling, it is not specifically represented by a superhero or mythological hero, but is rather referring to the human ego. It also does not refer to any specific gender, although many people like to differentiate by either using Hero or Heroine to be clearer. It’s commonly misunderstood, but make no mistake, Campbell used the term Hero in the context of the archetype.

According to him, the role of the Hero Archetype is to transcend the ego; to ultimately accept change and integrate the lessons of said change to become a better, more knowledgeable person.

The Path of the Hero

The Hero is always the protagonist of the story, no matter the genre. Let’s relate this to modern-day storytelling. There is no story today that doesn’t involve the call to adventure or the inciting incident; otherwise, there wouldn’t be a story to tell. That call to adventure or inciting incident is the very event the Hero is confronted with that introduces the change—voluntarily or involuntarily—and the journey is the Hero’s struggle after said change or is the consequence of it.

The path of the Hero is this: at the beginning of the story, the Hero exists as is—pre-adventure—equipped only with the knowledge of their current world and themselves before interrupted by the call or the inciting incident, or the very thing that forces the Hero to start their journey. Along the journey, the Hero discovers new things, and by discovering new things, they begin to change as a consequence. Finally, once the adventure is over, they return to peace, but now with more knowledge and wisdom gained from their journey.

This describes precisely what a typical character arc entails in every fictional genre. There are no speculative or fantastic elements attached to what we know every character must go through for a story to be a story. Archetypes aren’t characters, but rather a categorisation of traits withheld in the human psyche and expressed through them. And while characters aren’t real people, they are written as such to allow the reader a completely immersive experience.

So, who is the Hero in a story? The protagonist undergoing change and transcending their ego.