Shrek

I recently watched the hilarious and unforgettable story of an ogre and a talking donkey, Shrek. I watched it with my family and it is always a classic and always bring a good laugh to me, the story follows Shrek and his journey to get his swamp back, but mistakenly falls in love with the very thing that enables him to allow him to be able to get his swamp back. Shrek is also based in a fairytale world leading this movie to be based on archetypes and Greek mythology.

Within Shrek we have the generic Stages of a Hero's Journey in a very humorous manner.

Stage 1: Departure: The start of Shrek's long journey is when he bumps into Donkey, one of the only creatures that thinks as Shrek as a person with feelings rather than a evil, human hungry monster. Donkey tells Shrek that all the fairy tale creatures are getting rounded up. Later that night all the fairy tale creatures that have been rounded up, have been relocated to Shrek's swamp. Shrek learns that a man going by the name of Lord Farquaad has relocated these fairy tale creatures to his own swamp, and must see this Farquaad character and get his swamp back.

Stage 2: Initiation: Shrek confronts Farquaad about the re-location of all the fairy tale creatures and strikes a deal with him. Get Princess Fiona to Lord Farquaad and Shrek will get his swamp back to its normal, quiet self.

Stage 3: The Road of Trials: Shrek leaves his world behind travelling with his new found accomplice Donkey. Donkey and Shrek travel far and wide to the castle, where they find the point of no return. To rescue to Princess they must travel across a rickety old bridge over a lava lake, into a castle guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. Shrek decides he should go to the top tower to find this Princess while Donkey keep a low profile. Being Donkey, Donkey somehow finds the dragon, and wakes it up. While Shrek is able to rescue Princess Fiona and escape with Donkey at hand. Shrek escorts Princess Fiona back to Lord Farquaad only finding out that he loves her. But over hearing a conversation between donkey and Fiona, Shrek hears words that cut deep, leaving Shrek to give up Princess Fiona to Farquaad.

Stage 4: The Innermost Cave: Thanks to Donkey, Shrek realizes that Fiona really loves Shrek not Lord Farquaad and that he needs to stop the wedding between the two. Again, Donkey saves the day by bringing in a dragon, giving a lift to the cathedral. Shrek is able to crash the wedding on time but to his surprise finds out that by day Fiona is human, but by sundown she is also like him a ogre. Shrek tries to and tries to get to Fiona but is battled off by Lord Farquaad's guards.

Stage 5: Return and Reintegration with Society: Passionately, Shrek and Fiona meet lips and forever make themselves husband and wife also transforming Fiona into an ogre. With Lord Farquaad eaten Shrek doesn't have all that much to worry about, and coincidentally they all live happily ever after.

Heroic Archetypes:

I would categorize Shrek under the Unbalanced Hero/The Denied Hero. I would categorize Shrek under these two Archetypes because Shrek is looked at as the underdog, someone who couldn't do what he is expected of while also status wise he is not expected to do anything in life because he is an ogre. Also, Shrek has emotional problems by balancing his love towards Fiona but also trying to balance how people look at him. Shrek is looked at as an ugly ogre, but deep down Shrek actually has feelings and because of this constant judging of people, Shrek has lived his life alone and without anybody and is hard to keep living that way when Donkey is part of this new adventure. Lastly, Shrek has a little bit of Defiant Anti-Hero in him, he fights mainstream society, by living a secluded life, and believes little of Happily Ever After Endings. Such as a Princess being rescued by Prince Charming.

Shrek's Archetypal Journey led him on two different quests, one to search for love (although he didn't know it at the time) and the fool's errand. Shrek was sent on a journey from Lord Farquaad (Fool's errand) in search of Princess Fiona to gain back Shrek's swamp. Although Shrek cared nothing about the princess and just wanted his swamp back, Shrek falls in love with Fiona and later in the movie saves her from marrying Lord Farquaad and being able to live happily ever after.

Symbolic Archetypes

Colors:

Red- In the movie Lord Farquaad is always wearing red symbolizing his violent passion of hurting people like the gingerbread man. Also, red on Lord Farquaad might symbolize the disorder he brings to the land by displacing so many fairy tale creatures.

Green- Probably the most prominent color throughout the movie, green is put on everything from Shrek to the forest he lives in. Green was probably most suitable for Shrek because it symbolizes the growth of Shrek overtime due to the long adventure he had with Donkey.

Nature:

Cave: In the movie Fiona sleeps in a cave which I find quite funny because caves symbolize femininity which perfectly suits Fiona.

Stars: Shrek and Donkey are looking up at the sky and looking at each star for characters portrayed such as Capricorn, but they also look at what these stars did for guidance towards their lifes to come, such as learning about morals of a story.

Mountain: When Shrek and Donkey make it to Fiona's castle they come across a Castle where she is supposed to live, perched on top of a mountain. I believe this mountain symbolizes the goals and the ambitions Donkey and Shrek have to getting Fiona.

If you have seen Shrek how do you feel fairy-tales relate to Greek Mythology and Archetypes? Do you feel that they are very similar or very distant from each other, if you feel they are similar, what are some of the characteristics you might think relate Greek Mythology and Fairy-tales together?