Part 1 – The Labyrinth Defined

Home as Captivity – Rather than a place of comfort, home represents a place of captivity and conformity. The heroine is secretly independent but publicly servile. She often wears conformity as a disguise. Early on, the heroine is defeated by the agents of the Home, who suppress her desire for independence.

The Fragile Truce – Unlike the male-oriented heroes in certain stories, who usually feel perfectly at home in their Native Culture, many heroines do not. This is a fundamental difference in many of our heroines. It is the Native Culture itself that menaces, causes anxiety, and presents the existential threat to the heroine. She is ill at ease in her Native Culture and senses that the familiar and even trusted agents of her culture may turn against her at any given time. 

The Masked Minotaur – A fundamental difference between the Hero’s Journey and the Heroine’s Labyrinth is the nature of the primary villain. On the Journey, the great oppressive villain is a Distant Dragon who threatens the Native Culture. In the Labyrinth, the Masked Minotaur is a member of the Native Culture itself, often a tyrannical male figure. Like the mythical minotaur, which is half man and half beast, the villain is double-natured or duplicitous. He is half benevolent, a revered power that provides order and benefits, but he is also an oppressor that turns his cruelty on many within the Labyrinth.

The Matriarchal Paradox – The relationship between the heroine and her mother requires deeper study. But I wish to point out that the relationship is often omitted. Ironically, the Matriarch rarely represents the feminine model to follow, because she is often rooted in traditional female archetypes of the past. In an inverse of the male-oriented hero, who must learn the wisdom of is native traditions, it is the daughter figure of the heroine who holds the potential for departng from tradition to master a new archetype. She must set out in defiance of convention, sometimes without a mentor, and often without the blessing of the Matriarch. 

The Call to Adventure – A person or event enters the heroine’s life and invites her to leave the captivity of Home and enter the exotic Labyrinth of her own Native Culture. Unlike the Hero’s Journey, I’ve noticed that heroines don’t always experience the Refusal of the Call, which is to show a sudden fear of leaving home. Many heroines are eager to leave home.

Entering the Labyrinth – The heroine leaves home behind, sometimes followed by a sense of guilt at abandoning a set of expectations or responsibilities. Her departure is an act of courage and faith in herself at facing the unknown, even when unsupported. More than just uncertainty at a quest, the modern heroine is aware that her heroic actions are being judged and often doubted. 

Read Part 2

Read Part 3