The Hero’s Journey of Luke Skywalker

The hero’s journey of Luke Skywalker and its depiction throughout the Original Trilogy has been studied and explicated since those movies were released. George Lucas, being an avowed admirer of Joseph Campbell, showed Luke, as well as other characters, enduring many of the classic scenarios outlined in Campbell’s “The Hero With a Thousand Faces”.

What of Luke’s story in the sequel trilogy, particularly in The Last Jedi? Does it also find parallel in Campbell’s work, or in other areas of ancient myth and drama? I believe so. Campbell discusses something called “refusal of the return”; wherein the hero, after accomplishing the heroic task, elects to forego returning to the “world”; in fact he/she retreats “one degree still further from the world”. Thanks to the TLJ novelization, we know now that Luke did not intend to re-start the Jedi Order after the fall of the Empire; instead, he spent years immersing himself in the lore of the Jedi and the Force. Campbell also discusses the hero, at the end of his journey, as saint, ascetic, or world-renouncer. Certainly, ascetic and/or world-renouncer could apply to Luke as he is seen living his life out on Ahch-To.



Beyond Campbell’s “monomyth”, there are other places we can look to find insight into Luke’s character in TLJ. In particular, there is the concept of the tragic hero in classical Greek literature and drama. Per Aristotle, the tragic hero is one whose downfall is brought about, not as the result of an intentionally evil act, but as the result of an error in judgment wherein the hero is actually motivated by a moral imperative. It is the tragic hero’s very morality, often combined with the flaw of hubris, that leads to the tragedy. In TLJ, Luke’s downfall culminates in his fleeting impulse to kill Ben Solo in order to spare the galaxy from evil. The tragic hero is supposed to elicit pity and fear from the audience. Pity because we see that this good person did not deserve this tragic fate; fear because the hero of a story is meant to be the person with whom we identify as a form of wish fulfillment. If it can happen to him, it can happen to us. This being the case, it’s possible that the sense of revulsion with which many fans have reacted to Luke’s depiction in TLJ is exactly what the film-makers had in mind. As a tragic hero, Luke’s fate begins to mirror that of his father.



Aside from the general tropes of the monomyth and the tragic hero, what are some parallels between Luke’s journey and specific characters from myth and legend? There are probably quite a few, but one in particular interested me. I think there are some interesting parallels between Luke Skywalker and King Arthur. Arthur institutes the Knights of the Round Table and rules from Camelot, a new order in which chivalry and virtue are meant to be the guiding principles. However, the glory of Arthur’s reign is all too brief. Decay comes from within, and Arthur’s own nephew (and incestuous son) Mordred betrays the king and ultimately kills him. Arthur’s weapon is discarded when the king orders Sir Bedivere (the one played by Terry Jones) to toss it into the lake. Arthur dies, but his legend lives on. Similarly, Luke’s weapon is destroyed; and he dies as a result of a confrontation with his nephew, but his legend lives on. Of particular interest to me is a line repeated throughout Tennyson’s Idylls of the King:

The old order changeth, yielding place to the new.

This sentiment seems at least somewhat similar to Kylo Ren’s admonition:

Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.

And while change and death are certainly a big part of TLJ, in the end it seems that Rey and Luke have found a way to accept the past; not to ignore it, but to integrate it, so that they can move forward in their own ways.

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