The Writer's Journey

by Christopher Vogler

  A polarized relationship naturally generates conflict as the characters at two contrasting extremes explore and challenge each other's boundaries, concepts of the world, and strategies for living. We find this endlessly fascinating. Conflict, like magnetic energy, is attractive, automatically drawing the attention of the spectator. As a magnet or a magnetized object has the power to attract certain metals like iron and nickel, so a polarized, conflict-filled human situation attracts and focuses the attention of an audience or a reader.

  3. Polarity Creates Suspense

  Polarity generates not only struggle but also suspense about the outcome. Which world-view will triumph in the end? Which character will dominate? Who will survive? Who's right? Who will win, who will lose? What are the consequences when a hero chooses one side or the other of a polarity? A polarized system attracts our attention initially because we all perceive that our lives are sawed back and forth by similar contradictions and conflicts, tugging us in many directions at once along multiple lines of polarity, such as man and wife, parent and child, employee and boss, individual and society. We continue to watch with interest to see how the polarized situations will turn out, looking for clues about how to handle these challenges in our own lives.

  4. Polarity Can Reverse Itself

  When the conflict heats up after several rounds of conflict between the two sides in a polarized drama, the forces that draw two people together may reverse themselves, changing from a force of attraction to a force of repulsion. Two magnets that have been stuck together will fly apart if one of them is flipped so that its polarity is reversed. A moment before, they had been so strongly attracted to each other that it was difficult to pull them apart, and the next moment it's almost impossible to force them together, so strong is the force of repulsion.

  Among the curious properties of electrical and magnetic fields is the fact that the polarity of these systems can abruptly reverse itself. The direction the energy is flowing in alternating current electrical systems flips back and forth from positive to negative fifty or sixty times a second, while the magnetic fields of heavenly bodies reverse polarity infrequently but on some mysterious timetable. For reasons that are poorly understood, the giant magnetic field of the sun reverses its polarity every eleven years or so, generating immense storms of radiation that wash over the earth like invisible tsunamis and disrupt communications and electronics worldwide. Scientists believe the magnetic field of the Earth has flipped poles many times over thousands of years, presumably making magnets and compasses point south for much of the lifetime of the planet. Reversals of polarity on this giant scale seem to be part of the life cycle of stars and planets, like a gigantic heartbeat.

  Such reversals are also part of the life cycle of a story. They may be temporary, quick reversals of attraction or power within a scene, or they may be major hinges or turning points of a story. Within a scene, a quick change of polarity might happen because one of the lovers gets a new piece of information that reverses his or her attitude, say from trust to mistrust, or from physical attraction to disgust. The piece of information might turn out to be false, only temporarily challenging the attraction of opposites, but it creates tension along the line of energy that connects the two characters, and that tension makes good drama.

  5. Reversals of Fortune

  Reversal of polarity in a story can be the abrupt overturning of a character's fortune, a change of luck or circumstances that switches the prevailing conditions from negative to positive or vice versa. Good stories have at least three or four of these reversals for the main character, some have many, and some are even constructed so that they produce reversals of fortune in every scene. In fact, that might be a good minimum requirement for a scene — that it produce at least one reversal of fortune for someone on some level of the story. A shift in power, the underdog standing up to the bully, the fates dealing a blow to the victorious athlete, a lucky break or a sudden setback, all these are reversals of polarity that punctuate a story and give a sense of dynamic movement. The moments of reversal can be thrilling and memorable, like the scene of Norma Rae standing up in the factory to organize the workers.

  ARISTOTLE'S CONCEPT OF REVERSAL

  Aristotle in his Poetics describes the essential dramatic device of the reversal. He calls it peripateia, which refers to the "Peripatos" or covered walkway of Aristotle's Lyceum where he used to walk and talk with his students, developing ideas as they strolled back and forth. Perhaps he used the structure to demonstrate his logic, building up an argument forcefully as they traversed the colonnade in one direction, then demolishing it just as thoroughly on the reverse trip.

  Aristotle says the sudden reversal of a situation for the protagonist can produce the desirable emotions of pity and terror in the audience; pity for someone who suffers undeserved misfortune, and terror when it happens to someone like us. A story captures our emotions by putting someone a little like us in a threatening situation that reverses the hero's fortunes a number of times. Think of the reversals of fortune in movies like Papillon, Shakespeare in Love, or The Far Side of the World, with the sympathetic characters alternating between moments of freedom or triumph and periods of danger, disappointment, and defeat.

  Reversals of fortune in the life of a hero are inevitable and they make for good entertainment, holding our attention as we watch to see what will happen next, and wonder if the positive or negative energies will dominate at the end of the story. Even if we know the outcome, as in the movie Titanic, we enjoy watching how the contest plays out and how the characters react to the ups and downs dealt out by fate or the playwright. In a well-constructed story these repeated reversals accumulate power, adding up to the emotional impact that Aristotle claimed was the point of it all: catharsis, an explosive and physical release of emotion, be it tears of pity, shudders of terror, or bursts of laughter. The reversals, like drumbeats, impact our emotions, triggering reactions in the organs of our bodies. By Aristotle's theory, these drumbeats were supposed to accumulate tension in the bodies of the audience members until the biggest beat of all, at the climax of the play, released a pleasurable shudder of emotion that was believed to cleanse the spirit of poisonous thoughts and feelings. Stories retain their power to release cathartic emotions which is still a profound human need.

  CATASTROPHIC REVERSAL

  Since the beginning of Greek drama in Aristotle's day, the name for the biggest reversal in a character's fortunes has been "catastrophe." "Kata-" means "over" or "down" in Greek and "strophe" is "turn" or "twist", thus a catastrophe is an overturning or down-twisting. "Strophe" may also refer to a strap or a strip of leather or a length of plant fiber that could be woven into a basket, and is the parent of our words for strip, stripe, strap, and strop. It suggests that a play is a kind of weaving in which the strands of the plot, the fortunes of the various characters, interlock and crisscross, typically with the fortunes of the antagonist going up when the luck of the hero is going down and vice versa. A strophe in a classical Greek drama was a turning movement across the stage by part of the chorus, which recited a critical line of text to accompany the move. This was balanced by an opposite turn by another part of the chorus reciting an answering line of text, called the anti-strophe. It made the drama into a kind of polarized dance with the movements and phrases representing contradicting threads of thought or emotion within the society. We speak of "turning points" in stories and these are usually examples of reversal, with the biggest one, the catastrophe, coming just before the end of a classically constructed drama, and having, we hope, the cathartic effect that Aristotle recommended.

  6. Recognition

  In the ancient world a favorite device for bringing about an emotionally charged reversal was a recognition scene, in which the disguised identity or secret relationship of a character is revealed, and the fortunes of the characters are reversed. These are scenes where long-lost lovers are united, where cruel tyrants realize they are about to execute their own sons, where the masked s
uperheroes are unveiled, where the Prince puts the glass slipper on Cinderella's foot and realizes she's the girl of his dreams.

  A mainstay of Robin Hood movies is a scene where King Richard, who has been creeping around England in disguise to see what's been going on in his absence, throws off his outer robe to reveal the rampant lions on his surcoat. Robin and all his men instantly recognize him as the King, falling to their knees in reverent awe. It represents a moment in the story when the tide decisively has turned.

  A recognition scene makes a good climactic reversal when a character has been going around in disguise, like Tootsie or Mrs. Doubtjire. Often it represents the catastrophe of unmasking that the hero has dreaded but it also is the opportunity for emotional honesty and self-acceptance. That the apparent disaster turns out to be the means of dramatic fulfillment makes for a double reversal.

  7. Romantic Reversals

  A kind of current, like magnetic current or electric current, flows through the invisible lines that connect characters in stories and people in relationships. We feel a certain flow of energy with some people and want to be with them, and we can sense when the flow of energy is strangled, blocked, reversed, or completely cut off. We know when there is "good chemistry" or a "spark" between two actors in a romance, two buddies in a comedy, or two rivals in an adventure, and are disappointed when there isn't enough current flowing in a relationship. We feel something when the polarity of a friendship or romance reverses itself, flipping from a strong force of attraction to one of repulsion.

  In stories of romance the two lovers may go through several cycles of reversal, alternating between attraction and repulsion or trust and suspicion, as in Hitchcock's romantic spy thrillers North by Northwest and Notorious, or movies like Body Heat, Casino, Fatal Attraction, etc. The romance may begin with attraction, based on noticing superficially similar tastes or sensing that the other person can supply the elements missing from one's personality. We perversely enjoy watching the reversal of this situation, as the lovers inevitably discover their partners are quite different than they first appeared and are temporarily driven apart. After several reversals of attraction and repulsion, the lovers usually end up in alignment, the forces within them lined up in harmonious energy that promotes their connectedness, unless of course you are portraying a tragic, doomed love affair.

  On the other hand a love story might begin with initial repulsion and mistrust, which will gradually reverse itself to attraction as the lovers overcome their differences and discover common ground, although there may be several reversals of polarity and episodes of attraction and repulsion along the way.

  8. Polarity and the Character Arc

  One of the dependable polarized plot forms is the genre of buddy comedy/adventure, in which two mismatched heroes go through a two-tiered adventure together. On one level, the outer dimension, they are cops, spies, or ordinary people battling some external enemy, creating a polarized struggle between good and evil. But on another level, an inner or emotional dimension, they are in a polarized relationship with one another, usually turning on a sharp contrast in their lifestyles, philosophies, or background. They may want the same overall, external goal, but they go about it in wildly contrasting ways, generating conflict, drama, suspense, and humor through polarity. Examples include Trading Places, the Lethal Weapon series, Zoolander, the Rush Hour movies, etc.

  These stories became formulaic in the 1980s and '90s, where I read a lot of them that studios like Disney and Fox were considering. However predictable they became, they were a fascinating laboratory for studying the myriad ways that writers deal with the kind of story they call a "two-hander," one that has two protagonists or heroes but in a polarized, antagonistic relationship with another.

  The first written story we know of, the epic of Gilgamesh, is the prototype for all polarized buddy adventures to follow. A playboy king, Gilgamesh, is so out of control that his people pray to the gods to send someone to distract him. They send him a real challenge in the form of a huge wild man of the forest, Enkidu. They battle at first, become good friends, battle monsters together, and fully explore the polarity of two different kinds of manhood. The adventure takes a tragic and more noble turn at the death of Enkidu, which sends Gilgamesh on a spiritual quest for the elusive secret of immortality.

  A polarized relationship, be it a friendship, partnership, alliance, or romance, allows for a full exploration of character as the two people, representing opposite ends of a spectrum of behavior, find their standards and habits intensely challenged by energy that is just the opposite of theirs, perhaps outgoing where theirs is shy and private, or highly organized where their lives are chaotic. Here is a partial list of possible polarities within a relationship. Entire stories could be built around each of these pairs of opposites. I'm sure you can think of many more.

  THE DOCTRINE OF CHANGE

  A polarized relationship of opposites may temporarily reach a state of equilibrium or balance, but most polarized systems don't stay balanced for very long. Energy is always flowing, creating change. One side of the polarity exerts force on the other. When a situation is extremely polarized, when the two sides have been driven out to their most extreme positions, there is a tendency for the polarity to reverse itself. According to the ancient Chinese philosophy of the I Ching, the doctrine of changes, things are always in the process of flowing into their opposites. Extreme idealists can turn into cynics, passionate lovers into cold-hearted haters. Abject cowards have the sleeping potential to become heroes, and many saints began as great sinners. This eternally changing feature of reality is described by the Taoist symbol of Yin and Yang, the two comma shapes flowing into one another, each with the seed of its opposite deep in its center.

  The more polarized a system is, the more likely it is to reverse its polarity. This can happen little by little, in graduated stages, or it can come about catastrophically and all at once. Under the stimulus of conflict with a polarized opposite, a character will begin to oscillate, to swing like a pendulum, further away from the opposite at times, closer at other times. If the stimulus is continued to a certain tipping point, the character may flip polarity, and become temporarily aligned with the opposite pole.

  The shy person, impacted repeatedly by an outgoing person, will retreat and advance, but if the stimulus continues, he or she will make a comical or dramatic reversal to experiment with the unfamiliar experience of being confident and highly social. Movies like The Nutty Professor or As Good as It Gets use this technique to explore the extremes of behavior and show us characters gradually and then drastically reversing their polarity.

  The reversal may be almost imperceptible at first, trickling bit by bit like grains of sand in an hourglass. For example, in the classic screwball comedy Topper, a man who has been rigid, disciplined, and meek his entire life enters into a polarized relationship with two playful ghosts, the Kirbys, who are loose, free, and rebellious. At first Cosmo Topper is driven to even greater rigidity to counteract the wild energy of the Kirbys. But this extreme position is unnatural and inherently unstable. Under continued challenge from the Kirbys, Topper experiments tentatively with the free, loose behavior of his polar opposites, then retreats to comfortable rigidity, repeating the process several times until reaching a tipping point where he can no longer resist, and gives himself over completely to their madcap strategy for living, totally reversing his polarity. In the end, he reverts to something like his old, meek behavior, but now has access to his freer side and is happier for it.

  Sometimes, however, the reversal of polarity happens early in the story and all at once, in a catastrophic collapse of the effort to maintain an extreme, polarized position. In Fargo, William Macy's character topples a lifetime of following the rules by reversing polarity to become the planner of a kidnapping that goes disastrously awry. Liar, Liar shows us a man who has lied to everyone and kidded himself his entire life suddenly forced to tell the truth in all circumstances thanks to the powerful birthday wish of
his sincere and honest son. In both cases we see the characters torn between their old polar positions and catastrophic new conditions that place them abruptly at the opposite end of the spectrum.

  9. The Other End of the Spectrum

  When a character goes through a reversal of polarity, what happens to his or her partner in the polarized relationship? Some of these partners exist only to catalyze change in a main character, and will not change much themselves. The Kirbys in Topper aren't going to suddenly turn into spineless weaklings like Cosmo Topper had been. But they may shift their point of view a little, realizing they've been too hard on him or that their meddling has caused him problems that they have to solve. When a character reverses polarity, the laws of polarity suggest that there be some reciprocal movement from the character or force at the opposite pole.

  When Character A makes a seismic polarity shift, Character Z at the other end of the spectrum in the relationship may also take a little vacation from his or her comfort zone, or may be driven to a complete reversal himself. It can become uncomfortably crowded at one pole if both people in the relationship are suddenly expressing the same kind of energy.

  If Character Z has been habitually lazy, and has come to depend on a habitually energetic Character A to do all the work, it can be alarming when the energetic A suddenly decides to experiment with laziness. No one is left to do the work, and Z, who is lazy by nature, may be forced into the unfamiliar role of the worker, with potentially comic results. In movies like Trading Places, characters get to walk in each other's shoes, experiencing unfamiliar worlds, undergoing temporary reversals, and experimenting with unfamiliar behavior. Analyze This is built around two characters reversing polarity in opposite directions, as Robert De Niro's gangster character discovers his softer side and the habitually soft psychiatrist played by Billy Crystal is forced to act like a tough guy to survive.