Essay Comparing Gilgamesh And Campbell's Monomyth

Throughout literature we have been able to identify commonalities. While we believe each piece of literature has its own storyline with unique details, and characters. When we look further into stories, there is actually an identical plot that can be seen. Using, Carl Jung’s idea of archetypes, and Joseph Campbell’s, idea of the monomyth, we can compare the movie, “The Matrix” and the contrasting story, “The Epic of Gilgamesh” and find both Jung’s and Campbell’s ideas.

Joseph Campbell developed the, monomyth, which is the cycle that the protagonist goes through, during their adventure. Also known as the, Hero’s Journey. With Gilgamesh, it begins with him in the city of Uruk, leading on men’s daughters, and exposing his arrogance to the people of Uruk. This was the ordinary world. The People begin to cry to the Gods to do something to keep Gilgamesh under control. The Gods replied with Enkidu. This began the coming of Gilgamesh’s journey. Him and Enkidu developed a tenacious bond. They become brothers. Their journey however got interrupted when, Anu had her father send the Bull of Heaven to

Archetypes, are another theory that can be seen throughout literature, and easily identified in every story. The idea is very similar to the Hero’s Journey, except it is a similarity in characters oppose to storyline. He saw common characters such as the “Hero” . In, “The Matrix” this was Neo for saving Morpheus and society from Cypher, and it was also Enkidu for saving Gilgamesh from destroying Uruk with his arrogance. There are other common archetypes such as the, “Earth Mother/ Mentor” In “The Matrix” we see this as Morpheus, and in, “The Epic of Gilgamesh” we see it as