Stories as a Circle
The formula behind story arcs stemmed from the philosopher and theologian Joseph Campbell, who developed the monomyth, also known as the Hero’s Journey. He broke it down in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which was about a guy who grew up as a boy scout in a catholic home and was incredibly passionate about native Americans stories, noticing the similarities between parables about Christ and these Native American folktales. After years of studying, Campbell concluded there are characteristics of an effective story that are consistent regardless of religion, race, time, or ancestry.
Dan Harmon simplified Campbell’s monomyth into a more basic structure that is easier to understand, helping anyone build a story. He created the story circle, a distillation of the monomyth into eight individual steps. He believed his circle was universal for any story in any medium. He also thought three dualities make it possible to maintain the rhythm and balance of a story.
The eight stages of the story circle are:
- You – A character is in a zone of comfort
- Need – They want something
- Go – They enter an unfamiliar situation
- Search – Adapt to it
- Find – Get what they wanted
- Take – Pay a heavy price for it
- Return – Then return to their familiar situation
- Change – Having changed
Stories as a Curve
Most stories follow a simple and basic plot pattern, known as the story arc. All story arcs organise and structure the story’s events to build up their audience’s curiosity about how the story will end.
The stages of a basic story arc:
Exposition – The introduction of the setting, characters, and the problems they’re currently facing.
Rising Action – This stage shows the characters fighting against their problems in the story.
Climax – The tenses point of the story, where the characters are challenged with a crisis that controls and determines the rest of the plot.
Falling Action – This stage moves the plot from the climax towards an ending.
Resolution – The last stage returns the story to stability, portraying the outcomes of the climax.
Character Types
Protagonist – The protagonist is the main character in a story. In most cases, the protagonist is a good character; however, they may not entirely be all good in some stories.
Antagonist – The character(s) who stand against the protagonist. Antagonists are portrayed as bad most of the time; however, the antagonist may just have something to learn in some cases.
Dynamic – A character who experiences crucial inner change throughout the story. The character could experience inner growth in themselves or learn an important lesson.
Static – A character who changes very little throughout the story. The character tends not to learn any important lessons or make drastic changes. We see these character traits in school bullies, evil villains, etc.
Round – These characters are typically well-developed lifelike characters with realistic emotions, conflicting feelings, and multiple traits.
Flat – These characters are the opposites to round characters. They’re one-dimensional characters who usually lack emotional depth.
Story Arc and Character Archetypes Break down –
Joker (2019)
Joker is about a mentally troubled man, Arthur Fleck, who works as a clown and is aspired to become a stand-up comedian. His mental health issues involve uncontrollable laugher during stressful times, which often gets him into bad situations. These issues cause most people to reject and look down on him, even though he wants to be happy and accepted. After being physically abused and having his medication prescription cut off, Arthur’s life takes a turn for the worse, causing him to go down a path of delusions, violence, and anarchy, resulting in him transforming into Gotham City’s infamous Clown-Prince of Crime.
I chose this film because not only is it a particular favourite of mine, but it has a unique narrative behind it. I am a massive comic book fan – the Batman franchise being one of my favourite stories to read and watch. I’ve seen the Joker character portrayed in so many ways through books, movies, TV Shows, and animations. However, this movie portrayed him so well that the audience feels sympathy for this character, even though he is vicious. Besides this, I wanted to break down a movie that doesn’t follow your typical cliché storyline, where you can simply outline the character archetypes.
Story Circle
You – Arthur’s status quo is one of emptiness. At the movie’s beginning, he’s shown to be lonely and deeply unhappy. He’s living with a physical disability and an uncontrollable laugh reflex when in stressful situations. We see this during his therapy appointment when he’s always emotionally on edge. He regularly gets beaten up on the streets unprovoked. He’s still living at home as a grown man, looking after his sick mother, whilst having no friends.
Need – From the very start, we can notice that all Arthur wants is to be loved and that his feelings of neglect are rooted in a lack of a father figure whilst growing up. Due to this, he’s now seeking to replace the love he never got from an absent father. Arthur believes his desire to entertain will earn him adoration and fill the void in his heart. However, with everything that is happening in his life, that void is being filled with frustration and anger instead. He’s working as a professional clown, but he’s striving to be a stand-up comedian, inspired by a late-night talk-show host, Murray Franklin, who is his surrogate father figure.
Go – Arthur’s journey begins when his work colleague Randall gives him a handgun for protection. However, Arthur accidentally pulls out the gun in front of children during a performance, resulting in him being fired. On top of this, he then gets beaten up again by wall street guys just after getting fired, which pushes him over the edge, leading him to murder them with the same gun. These events have now put Arthur in a whole new world.
Search – Arthur has now begun to fight back against those who have mistreated him, finding the courage to stand up for himself, which we see when he pushes back against his ex-colleagues and therapist. Life seems to improve him when he finds the courage to approach his neighbour and start a relationship. We also see him throw himself into the deep end when he finally gets up onto the stage to try his comedy act. The killing of the 3 Wall Street men has drawn a lot of media attention, and the people of Gotham are now siding with the killer, triggering an anti-rich wave throughout the city. We see that Arthur now feels some sense of achievement, leading us to question if this was all he wanted the entire time?
Find – Arthur finds a letter written by his mother addressed to Thomas Wayne, Gotham City’s foremost billionaire. Before this, Arthur’s mum always spoke about Thomas Wayne, saying how he would help them get out of poverty one day. Arthur now realises why she said what she said because his mother claimed that he is Thomas Wayne’s son in the letter. Arthur is stunned as he has now found the father he lost and doesn’t know what to do with that intel.
Take – Throughout the movie’s second act, Arthur pays a heavy price on multiple occasions. Firstly, his attempt to contact Thomas Wayne fails and his mother is labelled crazy. Secondly, Arthur’s murder of the three wall street workers has attracted the police to his apartment, whilst his mother suffers from a stroke. Thirdly, Arthur’s stand-up performance was downplayed by his hero and wannabe father figure, Murray Franklin. Arthur has lost two father figures and potentially his mother within this short duration. Later on, he confronts Thomas Wayne in person and finds out that he is adopted, which he confirms when he visits the mental asylum. Lastly, he loses his relationship, which turned out not to be real in the first place and was a fantasy in his head instead. From all that we’ve seen, it’s clear that the director’s goal, to get us to empathise with Arthur, was to beat him by consecutively paying a heavy price. On top of this, Arthur has lost all of his therapist’s emotional support and medication.
Return – From this point, Arthur has hit rock bottom. Mainly because the only person he ever had, his mother, has lied to him throughout his entire life. Even though he’s not losing her, this causes him to think he never really had her to begin with, leading him to murder her in her hospital bed. He has killed someone with an intention for the first time, completing his transformation.
Change – Arthur is now free and has no other commitments for the first time in his life, making him feel happy. His current aim is to cut any connections with his old life to change. As an act of final revenge on his previous life, he murders his ex-colleague Randall with a smile on his face. Arthur gets invited onto Murray Franklin’s show towards the end of the movie’s last act based on his two minutes of viral fame from his prior stand-up performance. He murders Murray on live television and in front of a live audience during the show, removing his father figure and the last connection to his traumatising past. Arthur is now completely free.
To summarise, we spent a long time during the Change point of the circle as a reward for the high-cost Arthur had to pay. We as an audience enjoy watching the 30 minutes of change as it’s satisfying to watch strictly because of those high costs. Arthur’s journey throughout the film was to hit rock bottom and stay rock bottom, losing everything in his life. With this said, can we blame him for becoming so twisted?
Character Archetypes
Hero – Arthur is the hero of the story; even though he doesn’t carry heroic traits, he’s the character who goes through death and resurrection and switches from one world to another. We experience the journey through his perspective. We see him going from someone who wants to be loved and recognised to someone who’s idolised and worshipped, even though it wasn’t the way he initially intended.
Mentor – Throughout the movie, we see that Arthur, our hero, lacks support and guidance. However, two characters partially assist Arthur. The first character is the social worker, who advises Arthur and prescribes drugs to reduce his mental suffering. The second character is his abusive colleague, Randall, who provides him with a handgun to defend himself. This object is crucial as it’s what triggers Arthur’s transformation.
Threshold Guardian – These characters provide a vital test to prove if the hero is committed and worthy of stepping across onto the other world. In this case, I would say the three wall street guys on the train are Arthur’s test as they push him beyond his limits by beating him up just after he gets fired. At his point, Arthur’s actions will determine if he’s worthy enough to go across onto the other world. Arthur decides to retaliate by murdering all three wall street men, taking his first steps onto a villainous path and into a darker world.
Herald – The closest thing to a herald in this story would be Arthur’s mother, Penny Fleck. Even though Arthur does what he does on his accords, his mother advises him to seek the truth, eventually leading him down the path he takes.
Shapeshifter – Nearly everyone in Arthur’s life becomes a shapeshifter. We see this during the film’s second act, where these characters disappoint him one by one, triggering his transformation. Arthur’s therapist/social worker lacks concern and empathy for him. She failed him by disconnecting when he needed her help and advice the most. Arthur’s surrogate father figure and idol, Murray Franklin, failed him by mocking him on television about his stand-up comedy act, the one goal he was striving to achieve. Arthur’s mother had been lying to him throughout his entire life about an essential fact that everybody should deserve to know. The lie caused Arthur to have a positive image of Thomas Wayne throughout his whole life. However, this ended when Arthur’s supposed father, Thomas Wayne, couldn’t offer him a polite conversation, nor an apologetic explanation about Arthur’s upbringing, but instead, a cold shoulder and a punch in the face. On top of this, Arthur’s imaginary girlfriend, Sophie Dumond, was his greatest disappointment as she was his go-to place for happiness and the one person who kept him on his feet.
Shadow – There’s not one character who carries the Shadow archetype in this movie. However, I would personally say the Shadow of this narrative would be the society Arthur lives in. All Arthur wants throughout this movie is support, to be loved and cared for, and just pure positivity. However, we see on multiple occasions that society continuously fails him repeatedly. With that said, if I had to pick a character to choose to be the Shadow, I would choose Thomas Wayne even though he isn’t bad. I say this because he is the complete opposite of Arthur in terms of wealth. Furthermore, society benefits him because of his rich status, whereas Arthur is disadvantaged because he’s poor.
Trickster – The trickster of the story would be the Joker, Arthur’s alter ego. When Arthur flicks the switch and puts on the Joker mantle, he begins using irony and dark humour to highlight the insanity of his own life. I believe he puts on this mantle as a form of escapism from his actual life. The Joker also manages to unwillingly cause a societal movement in Gotham City due to his actions.
Allies – All of the characters that Arthur interacted with and considered allies turned out to be shapeshifters, disappointing him in one way or another. The closest thing to an ally would be the rioters who idolise him at the end of the movie. However, they’re just people living in poverty and don’t know who Arthur is.
Character Timeline – Arthur Fleck