Criticizing Victoria Lynn Schmidt's Model of the Heroine's Journey

    The first main problem with Victoria Lynn Schmidt's Heroine's journey is that while it may be better than the Hero's journey, it still has some pretty stringent elements. This is mainly due to the emphasis on the heroine undergoing a spiritual change, as there are many stories that fit the model decently but don't have much of a spiritual change and something like The Hunger Games come to mind. This as well as the emphasis on a betrayal at the beginning make it much harder to apply broadly. However, it is possible that it wasn't entirely meant to be a monomyth in the same way as the hero's journey and seems to be designed to be a bit more specific. However, the "Descent", "Eye of The Storm", and "Death" Stages do work in a more broad variety of stories so it was definitely meant to loosely fit most stories that at least feature a heroine. It is also less restrictive than Maureen Murdock's model which focuses too much on gender, and isn't quite as rigid as the hero's journey.
    Another problem is that there are many stories that could work as both a hero's journey and a heroine's journey. We looked at Siddhartha as a Hero's journey but he definitely experiences a spiritual change and it is mostly "internally driven" as Wikipedia describes it. Siddhartha also doesn't have an extremely clear mentor figure, and the return phase fits pretty well with Schmidt's model where the heroine "sees the world as it truly is" and will "change the way she lives her life from then on." Another story which could fit both models is again The Hunger Games. It has more of a mentor which is something the heroine's journey never mentions, and doesn't really have a spiritual change like I mentioned above.
    Both models also have a number of steps in common and are both centered around a death and rebirth, which is probably why Siddhartha and The Hunger Games work with both structures. Really the main difference is that Campbell's model is inherently sexist and Schmidt's is meant solely for heroines. The Betrayal and the call to adventure often have a similar effect of starting the rest of the story though in the Heroine's journey it takes the form of a "crisis". The awakening and crossing are both where the hero/heroine decides to go on a journey and leave their world. Rebirth and Apotheosis are also very similar stages and both describe it as essentially attaining a different perspective on the world and with it a renewed resolve. Campbell also has some other stages after it but Schmidt moves it right into the Return phase. 
    The 2 models have enough similarities that it would probably make more sense to just combine them into one that could be applied more broadly instead of having the 2 separate ones. They're both about someone undergoing a process of death and rebirth it's just that Campbell was only thinking about men and Schmidt was only thinking about women when creating them. This leads to both being a bit too stringent to be effectively applied as a monomyth especially since some stories already have elements of both. Schmidt's model is much less rigid than Campbell's which is probably due to it having fewer steps and many of them being a bit more vague. That being said it still should probably center around some kind of death and rebirth or even just a change in the protagonist. Even though it probably isn't even be possible to create a universal template for all stories, some combination of these models would be closer than they are separately even if it would be somewhat vague.

Comments

  1. DmitryOctober 17, 2022 at 7:41 AM

    I think that you make a lot of really good points about Schmidt's heroine's journey. I think the mention of Siddhartha as an example of the heroine's journey. I think that if the heroine's journey is not exclusive to heroines as you point out it's whole point of existence is in question.

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  2. Marco L.December 14, 2022 at 3:56 PM

    While I agree with your point that Schmidt's model has flaws, I don't believe that much value would be gained from combining it with Campbell's model. Mainly, I don't think Campbell's model has much value that isn't already covered by Schmidt's model. Simply altering Schmidt's model would likely be more useful.

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