MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Department of English Language and Literature

Exploration of the Themes of the WatchSeries of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld

through the Characterof Samuel Vimes

Diploma Thesis

Brno 2019

Supervisor Author

Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D. Bc. Martin Linhart

Anotace

Předmětem této práce je průzkum užití dvou hlavních témat série knih zabývající se Ankh-

Morporkskou Městskou hlídkou, která patří mezi knihy řady Úžasná Zeměplocha Terryho

Pratchetta. Těmito tématy jsou, za prvé osobnost hrdiny v civilizovaném a relativně moderním

městě a kterak je schéma hrdinovy cesty popsané Josephem Campbellem adaptováno do

Pratchettova prostředí a stylu psaní. Druhým tématem je aplikace filozofického konceptu Já a Jiní

(určování identity, respektive vylučování jedinců nesplňujících kritéria daného zmíněným určením)

na fantaskní tvory obývající Ankh-Morpork. Tento průzkum je veden skrze postavu Samuela Elánia,

protagonistu zmíněné série, který v první části slouží jako subverze tradičního hrdinského

vyprávění a ve části druhé slouží jako výchozí úhel pohledu z něhož jsou pozorovány jeho definice

Jiných.

Práce je rozdělena do dvou hlavních částí. Teoretická sekce poskytuje základní informace o Terry

Pratchettovi, prostředí Zeměplochy, Ankh-Morporku a také Hlídky. Mimo to také shrnuje schéma

transformací hrdiny a průběh hrdinovy cesty popsané Campbellem. Analytická sekce poté

porovnává informace ze sekce předchozí s životem a vývojem osoby Samuela Elánia jako možného

Campbellovského hrdiny. Schéma hrdinovy cesty je porovnáno s románem Stráže! Stráže! který

slouží jako odkaz na toto schéma. Následující kapitoly analytické sekce zkoumají Elániovy názory

na Jiné, nejprve ve všeobecném smyslu jeho Já a všech ostatních, po němž následuje Elániovo

vylučování sebe sama ze skupin osob třímajících osobní autoritu navzdory tomu, že on sám patří

mezi ně, a nakonec práce zkoumá Elániovy názory vůči ostatním vnímajícím druhům Zeměplochy a

jak tyto názory ovlivňují jeho přístup k faktu, že se tyto druhy stávají členy hlídky.

Klíčová slova

Terry Pratchett, Zeměplocha, Samuel Elánius, literatura, Campbell, monomýtus, hrdinova cesta,

hrdina, tropy, já, jiní, diversita

Annotation

The focus of this thesis is to examine the use of two main themes in the series centered around

the Ankh-Morpork City Watch which is a part of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series of novels.

The themes in question are, firstly, the portrayal of the hero in a civilized, relatively modern city,

how the Campbell’s created schema of the hero’s journey is adapted into this setting and Pratchett’s

style of writing, and secondly, the application of the philosophical concept of the Self and the Other

(the distinction of identity and the exclusion of those not meeting the criteria of the distinction,

respectively) upon the fantastical species inhabiting Ankh-Morpork. This is accomplished through

the character of Samuel Vimes, the protagonist of the series, who in the first part of the series serves

as a subversion of the traditional hero narrative and in the second as the point of view, from which

his definitions of the Other are observed.

The thesis is divided into two main sections, the theoretical section provides basic information

about Terry Pratchett, the setting of the Discworld, Ankh-Morpork and the Watch, as well as

recounts the schema of the transformation of the hero and hero’s journey as postulated by Campbell.

The analytical section then compares the information from the previous section with the life story

and Vimes’ development as a possible Campbell’s hero. The schema of the hero’s journey is then

compared to the novel Guards! Guards! as it serves as a direct reference to it. Next chapters of

the analytical section then examine Vimes’ view of the Other, first in a very general sense of himself

against anyone else, followed by Vimes’ distinction of himself from the positions of authority

despite him being a person possessing a great authority and finally, the thesis examines Vimes’

attitude toward other sentient species of the Discworld and how it informs his opinions of them

serving as the members of the Watch.

Keywords

Terry Pratchett, Discworld, Samuel Vimes, literature, Campbell, Monomyth, hero’s journey,

hero, tropes, the self, the other, diversity

Prohlášení

Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracoval samostatně, s využitím pouze

citovaných pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty

Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o

právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů, ve znění pozdějších

předpisů.

Declaration

I hereby declare, that this bachelor thesis was done independently, using only the information

provided by the sources cited in the text and included in the list of references in accordance with

the Disciplinary regulations for the students of the Faculty of Education of the Masaryk University.

Brno, 2019………………………………………….

Bc. Martin Linhart

Acknowledgments

I would like to take the opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun,

Ph.D., for his helpful advice, support and patience with me as my supervisor. Furthermore, I would

like to thank everyone who helped me in any way to finish my thesis.

Table of contentsIntroduction.................................................................................................................................7 1 Theoretical section...............................................................................................................10

1.1 Terry Pratchett..............................................................................................................10 1.2 Introduction to the Discworld.......................................................................................11 1.3 The literary analysis.....................................................................................................14 1.4 Literary characters........................................................................................................14

1.4.1 Typology of characters..........................................................................................15 1.4.2 Varieties of a hero.................................................................................................18

1.5 Transformation of a hero..............................................................................................20 1.6 Hero’s journey..............................................................................................................25

2 Analytical section.................................................................................................................41 2.1 What makes a hero? - Vimes’ Journey.........................................................................41

2.1.1 Before Samuel......................................................................................................41 2.1.2 Samuel’s Life Journey..........................................................................................42 2.1.3 Transformation of Vimes......................................................................................46 2.1.4 Guards! Guards! - The Journey of Two Heroes....................................................49 2.1.5 Tradition versus subversion: What makes Pratchett’s hero?................................53

2.2 Vimes versus the Other.................................................................................................56 2.2.1 Vimes and others...................................................................................................57 2.2.2 Vimes and authority..............................................................................................60 2.2.3 Vimes and diversity..............................................................................................63

Conclusion................................................................................................................................70Bibliography..............................................................................................................................72

IntroductionThe Watch series of Discworld books by Terry Pratchett is centered around two focal

themes – the initial focus being the examination of what makes a fantasy it and the second

focal point being the exploration of the philosophical concept of “the Self and the Other.”

The focus of this thesis is to examine how these two themes reflect in the main character of

Samuel Vimes and the journey of said character through the Watch series of novels. First, we

will examine Vimes as a hero from the literary perspective, the literal hero’s journey as

postulated by Campbell, which will be a seminal source of information for the thesis. This

will be followed by the examination of Vimes’ personality, opinions and the development

of therein on the theme of the Self and the Other, in short, a concept used to identify

an individual (Self) or a group of individuals (Us) by excluding them from the mass (Other)

based on physical or mental characteristics, under the rationale of Vimes being the central

protagonist and thus the person with whose opinions the readers should identify. Moreover,

Pratchett himself spoke in interviews about his identification with the character of Vimes

(The Guardian), therefore it could be considered not only the opinion of the character, but of

the author himself.

Structurally, the thesis will be divided into two main sections: the first, theoretical section,

will familiarize us with Terry Pratchett, the Discworld, more specifically, the settings of

the novels. Then we will examine the structure and principles of the Hero’s Journey as first

introduced by Joseph Campbell and later elaborated upon by Christopher Vogler. The second,

analytical part, will compare the information gleaned from the theoretical section to the plot

of the Watch’s series of Discworld novels, with special attention paid to the initial novel

Guards! Guards! (1989) as it was written specifically as a satire of the concepts of the hero’s

journey and will compare Vimes’ journey with that of Carrot Ironfoundersson who in

the novel represents the traditional archetype of a fantasy hero. The second part of

the analytical section will examine the use of the theme of the Self and the Other, as reflected

in Vimes’ view of himself influencing his views of others, from the general population of

Ankh-Morpork in general, followed by Vimes’ exclusion of himself from people of authority

despite the fact, that he is a person of authority himself and his authority only grows

throughout the series. And finally, apply the concept on how sapient species inhabiting

the Discworld are viewed from the position of humanity represented by Samuel, with

a sidenote on whether the concept of Other functions within the human race, and again how

Vimes’ identity informs his opinions of said species joining the City Watch under his

command.

Over the course of the thesis, the word “hero” will be used for the sole reason that it is

an unmarked form of the word, it is in no way dismissive of the female hero, as there are

many in Pratchett’s works, with a considerable number of them being in some shape or form

present in the stories of the City Watch, be it among the members of the Watch themselves

(sergeant Angua, Cheri Littlebottom, or Salacia von Humpeding), or even among the

civilians, most notably Vimes’ wife Sybil Ramkin. Also, there is a greater use of footnotes

in the thesis. Their use is intended as a nod towards the similar manner of use of footnotes by

Terry Pratchett in his novels and they will be used to clarify, note or in some other capacity

reference additional information, that may not be fully relevant to the subject matter, yet it

hopefully helps enhance the content.

As a personal note, when formulating the topic of this paper, I knew I wanted to make

an analysis of a heroic character of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, where there are only three

possible options with potential: Vimes, Carrot and Angua. Carrot was eliminated outright,

even though he is the obvious hero of the first book, just setting out on his hero’s journey, but

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he is too conventional a hero and he does not change that much over the course of his

adventure, in other words, he is too boring. Vimes eventually won out of personal preference

as he is the character with, in my opinion, the most depth out of all the other main characters

present in the Watch series. That is not to say that the other characters are flat, far from it. It is

precisely the depth of character that makes Pratchett such an extraordinary writer.

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1 Theoretical section

1.1 Terry PratchettTerrence David John Pratchett was born 28th April 1948. During his time at school, he was

by his own words “a nondescript student” (Smythe), attending technical school without much

of an idea of what he wants to be. In 1968, he married Lyn Purves with whom he had

a daughter Rhianna eight years later, their only child.

His first literary work was a short fantasy story “The Hades Business” that was first printed

in a school magazine when he was thirteen years old and later on, in a magazine named

Science Fantasy. His first novel was The Carpet People (1971), a re-imagining of sorts of

the Lord of the Rings story set on a rug in someone’s home, twenty years after its initial

publication, the novel was rewritten, due to Pratchett not being happy with his work.

The novel shared certain traits with the later Discworld novels – a world that is flat and

a sense of humor that is both lighthearted and deep at the same time, the humor especially

would become one of his signature features. The Colour of Magic which was published in

1983 was the first Discworld novel and served as the beginning of one of the bestselling

fantasy series. According to the website FantasyBookReview.co.uk, “It is believed that 1% of

all the books sold in England are penned by Pratchett. His books have been translated into 36

different languages and have sold over 60 million copies.”1 As a writer, Pratchett also

cooperated with other authors, most notably with Neil Gaiman on the critically acclaimed

book Good Omens, its adaptation is expected to premiere later this year.

From the scope of topics discussed in his books, it is apparent that Pratchett was a well-

versed, renaissance man of sorts. From the very young age, he was a technical and computer

1 In 2015 (the year of the publishing of the article), other sources (Smythe) claim over 90 million

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enthusiast,2 hobby astronomer, a radio hobbyist and, in his books, he showed a great

understanding of various science disciplines.

In 1998, he received the title of the Officer of the Order of the British Empire and later, in

2009, a knighthood, both for his services to literature. He was awarded ten honorary

doctorates from universities in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. He also won

numerous awards of literature, Hugo and Locus Awards (one of the most prestigious literary

awards), to name a few.

In 2007, Pratchett was diagnosed with an early-onset of the Alzheimer’s disease, he

became a large activist, donating large sums to research a cure for the illness and becoming

the patron for Alzheimer’s research UK and a public face for those afflicted. He eventually

succumbed to the disease on 12th March 2015 at the age of 66.

1.2 Introduction to the DiscworldThe Discworld series of books, by the late Terry Pratchett, counts 41 novels, a short story

collection, several maps of various locales on the Disc (the in-universe name for the world of

the novels), a tetralogy centered around the Science of Discworld, and other accompanying

books, e. g. a cookbook written as a collection of recipes by the Discworld characters. Most

novels can be divided into one of seven series based upon the group of central characters:

Rincewind, a failed student-wizard of the Unseen University of Ankh-Morpork, and/or

the members of the academic board of said university, the Discworld personification of

the Death, ancient civilizations of the Disc, Witches of Lancre, Tiffany Aching (a young adult

oriented series of novels centered around a young witch that is under the tutelage of Granny

Weatherwax, one of the Lancre witches), various proponents of an industrial revolution, and

the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. The world setting has been adapted into several movies,

2 He even contributed to mods for the Elder Scrolls RPG series (Maher)

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games for personal computers as well as board games and a setting for a tabletop RPG game,

novels became animated series, comic books and theater screenplays and the latest rumors

point out towards a live-action adaptation of the Ankh-Morpork city Watch (Narrativia).

When Pratchett died due to his illness in early 2015, the decision was made by him and his

daughter Rhianna Pratchett to not continue the series further with the Shepherd’s Crown being

the final novel.

The series is set in a fantasy world similar to the way our own Earth was imagined in

the ancient times: a flat disc sitting on top of four giant elephants who are standing on

the shell of a giant turtle named A’Tuin. However, this is not the only parallel to our own

world. Pratchett often took inspiration3 for his world from other literary authors, from

the classical, such as William Shakespeare (e. g. the general plot of Wyrd Sisters references

the plot of Macbeth (Breebart, 25)), to the well-known fantasy authors, such as J. R. R.

Tolkien (e. g. the portrayal of dwarfs as gold and gem obsessed miners and craftsmen

(Breebart, 52)) or H. P. Lovecraft (presence of eldritch entities of unfathomable power

(Breebart, 42)); from various folklore, mythologies, or fairy tales from around the world

through the existence and portrayal of myriad of mythical races; or simply from our world and

its history, e. g. the life and fate of the predecessor of Samuel Vimes, Stoneface Vimes, closely

follows that of Oliver Cromwell.

Of course, as a humorous fantasy (Pringle, 31-33), there is magic, sentient races other than

humans and ever-present gods sitting on the tallest mountain in the very center of

the Discworld, manipulating the fates of people. However, there was also an intent to bring

system and rules to the fantastical, e. g. magic cannot do everything, in fact, it would probably

be easier (and safer) to achieve the end through some other mean (Colour of Magic, 48). Or

the distribution of landmass on the Disc requires presence of a counterweight continent made

3 Or in other instances mocking and/or parodying his source of inspiration

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of solid gold so as not to tip over, or the existence of a miniature sun orbiting A’Tuin to

provide a day/night cycle and warmth to the Disc.

Still, the most important force of the Discworld is the narrative. This is where the author

(or, from the point of view of the characters, the natural order of things) usually subverts

the expectations to serve the overall story or the comedic purposes of the scene, as is the case

when for example an infant child found orphaned in a forest with a crown-shaped birthmark

and clutching a legendary sword is expected to return to the lands of his late parents and bring

with him order and justice. However, it is not stated anywhere he needs to claim the throne

while doing so (Guards! Guards! (GG), 21). Or that a man dressed as a woman will due to

the laws of the narrative inevitably become a romantic interest of another man, even despite

the fact that the former is under normal circumstances considered by others so hideous that he

has to carry a note from the city Patrician to prove that he is in fact a human being (Jingo,

364).

The Watch

As the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is the focus of this thesis, we should first familiarize

ourselves with this line of novels. Though the City Watch appears in practically any novel that

takes place in the twin city of Ankh-Morpork, the organization is the sole focus of eight

novels, with the Guards! Guards! being the initial.4

Gradually, we see throughout the novels the development of the City Watch from an army of

three, lead by a disillusioned and often inebriated captain Samuel Vimes, to a respectable

policing force the authority of which is recognized even beyond the borders of its jurisdiction.

With the prestige of the Watch, the status of its commander also rises. Samuel Vimes begun

his journey as a poor child growing up in the Shadows, the worst part of the city, to eventually

4 Despite most of the events depicted in the novel Night Watch actually chronologically precedes events inmost of the other Discworld novels, due to quantum which is the answer to all questions that cannot beexplained through logic, magic, or the force of the narrative.

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become the lord commander of the entire City Watch, the Duke of Ankh, and the second most

powerful man in the city, exceeded only by the patrician lord Vetinari, the benevolent dictator

of the city state.

The cast of characters also grows, starting with the original four, which included aside from

the aforementioned Samuel Vimes also Fred Colon, a cowardly, fat sergeant who is despite his

initial impression of him very street-smart, Nobby Nobbs, a petty thief with possible goblin

ancestry, and Carrot Ironfoundersson, a two meter tall dwarf and the legitimate heir to the city

throne. Eventually, more characters (and races) appear, such as Angua von Überwald,

a werewolf with body image issues, Cheri Littlebottom, the first openly female dwarf and

master forensic expert, Detritus, a troll drill sergeant and a one-man army, Reginald Shoe,

a zombie and an avid social rights activist in general and of the undead in particular, and

many more.

1.3 The literary analysisOne of the better-known people in the field of narratology is professor Joseph Campbell,

most famous for his publication Hero with a Thousand Faces that identified repeating patterns

in religions, mythologies. folk tales and stories throughout the world. These patterns are being

incorporated even into contemporary storytelling either consciously or unconsciously.

1.4 Literary charactersAs we are about to discuss the journey of a literary character, we should first establish

a basic typology of both main and supporting characters. The work that proved most valuable

when formulating this chapter proved to be Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey, which describes

the various archetypes present in most stories of the modern fiction. The book itself began as

an expansion upon the work of Joseph Campbell and provides not just mythological examples

of the hero’s journey, but also those from contemporary popular culture.

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1.4.1 Typology of characters

Campbell in his presentation of the Monomyth, the underlying schema of the occurence of

events during the hero’s journey (Campbell, 23), calls forward the idea of Jungian archetypes,

or archetypal images (16) which are described as a patterns of personality innate in all

members of the human race. Jung claimed that the archetypes are constant and emerge

throughout all cultures both in ancient myths as well as in modern storytelling (though their

presence in most productions since the idea of archetypal images has been put forward is in

most instances deliberate) (Vogler, 23-24).

However, as Vogler points out, as these archetypes are constant, their connection with

characters is not (24). In order to develop character fully, the archetypes should be perceived

as functions or roles the character must perform at the moment of the story. This also follows

the idea of the transformation of the hero, as will be discussed in a later chapter.

The archetypes are numerous, therefore, for the purposes of the thesis, four general

archetypes relating to the literary characters have been selected and will be discussed in

the following chapter. These have been selected based on the roles Samuel Vimes had

performed during his tenure in the series.

Hero

The most logical archetype to start with is the hero. The word hero is of Greek origin,

the root of which comes from an Indo-European term for to serve or to protect (Online

Etymology Dictionary) (which is rather fitting given the focus character). After all, it is

the archetype from which the alternative name for the Monomyth is based and the sole focus

of most of the stories and myths: a hero’s journey.

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The hero serves two important functions in the story: the point of view and identification

for the audience, and the source and drive of growth and development for the story, both

external and internal (Vogler, 30-31).

When approaching a previously unknown world, the hero may serve as “window into

the story” to introduce them to the world, or to aspects of it the narrator, if present, may have

“chosen” not to (Vogler, 30). To best achieve identification, the hero should possess certain

“universal” qualities that would make them desirable or admirable to the members of

the audience, while also having their own understandable flaws in order not to make them too

unidentifiable or unrealistically perfect (Vogler. 30-31).

In some instances, it is difficult to discern the actual hero of the story, to which Vogler

presents a simple definition: “The one who learns or grows the most in the course of

the story” (31). Yet, it is not just the internal change that sets heroes apart from the rest of

the cast, hero is also the character who takes the mantle of responsibility to propel the changes

within the narrative (Vogler, 31.).

Mentor

A very specific type of an Ally character is the Mentor, whose main purpose is to help

the hero on his journey by providing guidance and/or gifts. It is also very closely connected

with the role of a parent, at times even being a literal parent of the hero. Vogler describes

mentors as a characters the heroes aspire to be through embarking on their journey (40).

Mentor in the mythical sense is someone who speaks with wisdom, which they gained

through experience, or even more mythically through a connection to the gods themselves.

Another role the mentor may fulfill is the conscience and motivator. Mentor guides hero

through the ordeal, at times directly pushing them in the right direction (Vogler, 40).

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The important thing to note, that even though the image of a mentor is often a sagely old

person sitting by the road (as Campbell himself called the role a Wise old man or woman (8)),

the mentor character might be neither, in fact, the role of mentor might at times be fulfilled by

the antagonist, or even by the hero himself, usually presented as the hero’s personal angel or

demon, or their own inner code of conduct, that helps them guide their actions.

The word mentor originates in Homer’s The Odyssey where it was the name of Odysseus’

friend whom Odysseus trusted with care for his son Telemachus. However, it the story it was

the goddess of wisdom, Athena, who later “took Sage Mentor’s form” (Pope) and told

Telemachus to chase away suitors of his mother Penelope and later to discover what happened

to his father and even to complete the challenges meant to discourage the suitors in his

father’s stead (Vogler, 120).

Herald

Borrowing the Vogler’s metaphor (55) of herald as an individual announcing the arrival of

a knight or another figure of great importance, the archetypal herald also announces both to

the characters and more importantly to the audience an arrival, in this case, an arrival or need

of the forces of change to upset the current status quo, which in most cases result in

a metaphorical (or sometimes even literal) call to an adventure. Herald is often that which sets

the story in motion (Vogler, 55).

The herald might not necessarily be a specific person, it might be an event – a very special

person arriving into a city, a war, or a natural disaster; or it may be internal, a last straw that

finally broke the camel’s back and changed the hero’s mind that they could not sit by any

longer idly watching on what was happening. Connection of the herald to the main hero

naturally depends on who or what the herald is, as herald is often an aspect of a different

character (Vogler p. 57). Appearance of an antagonist who then challenges the hero surely fits

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the role of a herald, yet its connection to the main hero will be quite different from an instance

when the role is filled by hero’s mentor or an ally, and different still when the herald merely

informs him of an issue that will cause the hero to set out on their journey, and then

disappears from the story altogether.

Shadow

The shadow represents anything and everything that the characters are afraid of or have for

one reason or other rejected (Vogler, 65). In most cases, it will contain all the negative,

the dangerous, the repressed, that has been driven from the rest of the world and the only

refuge It could found was under the cover of the shadow. The reason for embracing this “dark

side” is often what differentiates the heroes and the antagonists. Vogler (65) emphasizes that

here lies the difference between the villain and the antagonist: the villain stands against

everything the heroes stand for, while antagonists might have a common goal with the heroes,

though their methods in achieving them differ. The former have no qualms of using

the shadow to further their own ends, but the latter see it as a mean to an end, a necessary evil

for the greater good.

This archetype may get more complicated when the shadow does not contain negative

aspects, but rather aspects, even objectively positives ones, the hero shuns for whatever

reason, be it their upbringing, some trauma in their previous life, their personal code, etc.

1.4.2 Varieties of a hero

Just as much as there are all the different types a character can be, there are also different

varieties of the hero itself. And just as characters can shift, switch their types to fulfill

a different role in the story, so too the hero can be quite different between stories or even

change mid-way through the story. Vogler lists many different varieties of heroes, however,

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for the purposes of this paper, three types were chosen: the (un)willing, the anti-hero and

the catalyst hero.

A hero can be mostly easily differentiated by whether they are a willing or an unwilling

hero. The willing hero is the one that is motivated to drive the events of the story forward,

self-confident and active. The unwilling ones are the heroes that are caught in the events of

story, often doubting themselves and quite passive. In short, the willing heroes are making the

story happen, while the passive ones usually happen to make a story (Vogler, 34).

The most basic meaning of the term antihero is “a main character (…) who is characterized

by a lack of traditional heroic qualities,” (American Heritage Dictionary). Vogler

distinguishes two main types of an antihero: the wounded antihero and the tragic antihero

(35).

The wounded antihero in Vogler’s definition may in fact possess the qualities that make

a hero, contrary to the dictionary definition – a sense of morality or justice, kindness, or

bravery, yet for whatever reason, they had rejected society or the society had rejected them.

They may become outlaws, or they rebel against the status quo in their own small way, but

they almost always have the audience on their side, because they are doing the right thing

(Vogler, 30). The tragic antihero better matches the definition above – they are flawed

protagonists, battling their inner wars. They may possess some positive traits but they still

eventually lose their inner struggle, their negative qualities come to the surface and destroy

the character (Vogler, 30).

Colville, in one of his video-essays on different kinds of heroes, recognizes a different kind

of the antihero, different to either of the Vogler’s type: the villainous antihero. These

characters may (though not necessarily) lack all the positive traits of the previous two, yet

they still want the objectively good side to prevail. In their eyes, it might be the necessary evil

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to eventually accomplish their goals, but in the eyes of the world at large, they are fighting for

the greater good. They might want to thwart plans of a different villain, trying to enact their

plan before the antiheroes can enact theirs, or the reason might be basic need for survival.

All antiheroes may lack the traits that would make them heroic: their traits may not be

deemed worthy or desirable by the society, they may fall prey to their own foibles, or they

simply do not wish to become heroes and do so only through necessity, they still possess one

unifying feature – they still do the hero’s job.

Finally, there is the catalyst hero. The signifying trait of these heroes is that they tend not to

change through their journeys, or they change only insignificantly. The idea of the hero’s

journey is that the titular hero undergoes a series of changes on his way the same way as

through their action of this journey, they change the world around them, yet this catalyst hero

does not change. Their role in the story can be very much connected with the role of

the mentor, their task, as it were, might be to help and guide people around them, setting them

out on their own journeys (Vogler, 37).

1.5 Transformation of a hero In the previous section, we have examined the different roles a character might play in

the story, the following section concerns itself with the subsequent stages of the character of

the hero’s life from their respective childhoods to their various departures from the world.

As this part of the paper was heavily influenced by the work on the comparative

mythology of Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it is important not to take

the images presented to be meant literally.

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Childhood

Even at the earliest stages of hero’s life, Campbell argues (294), there is frequently a sign

of greatness to their origin: the hero might come from a noble house or might be of some

other “divine” background (in many cases quite literally). This is to show that the greatness

that awaits later in the character’s life is predestined rather than achieved by happenstance.

This does not come without its own problems, heroes must face hardships even at their

young age. They are often banished, or somehow given up by their own parents, often to save

their lives. Campbell lists many instances of hero having to leave their place of origin, only to

return later, stronger from the experience (Campbell, 298).

Aside from the exile, the young hero faces the possibility of being ostracized from the rest

of the people around them and are in some ways “irregular” to the natural order of things.

They may have lost one or both parents, and become orphans or found a step-family. Even

among blood relatives, the hero can be excluded for being the youngest child of the family.

The reason for this exclusion can also be societal, the hero may belong to a noble house that

has been previously disgraced (Campbell, 301).

To survive such ordeal, often an aid can come to the young hero’s side. This aid might be

rather mundane, e. g. a person helps hero through their exile, to something more

extraordinary, such as an animal companion, to a truly supernatural event, a divine

intervention showing the hero’s godly origin or the god’s favor of them (Campbell, 301-302).

The reason heroes have to survive such hardship is to provide the first examples of them

being in some way extraordinary, as only a person of great power of mind and/or body can

prevail against these odds (Campbell, 302).

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Hero as Warrior

For many, the words of the title of this chapter are synonymous and indeed, according to

Campbell, warrior is the next transformation of the hero, following their childhood period of

exile. Their opponent is also their opposite, the hero has spent their life up to this point living

in seclusion, while their opponent, a dragon, a tyrant, a monster, is widely known, often

holding a position of power and believing that their position, title, or strength has made them

untouchable for anyone, securing their rule for eternity (Campbell, 311).

That is the second opposition of the hero and their enemy. The enemy is intent on holding

power indefinitely, preventing any form of change, while the hero is quite the opposite,

bringing change into the world, restoring the natural order of things. That is why two sides

must come into a conflict (Campbell, 311-312).

In this conflict, the hero may use secret knowledge they have found in their exile.

The enemy believes his position to be unshakable. However, this belief is often “a shadow

mistaken for a substance” (Campbell, 311) and precisely from this shadow of obscurity

the hero emerges, bringing the end of their enemy.

Hero as a Lover

The hero made their first steps into the light, the enemy is no more, this is where the hero

usually comes face to face with the opposite sex5 and usually directly as a result of their

previous actions – monsters of every shapes and sizes like to keep young, good-looking

trophies or sacrifices (Campbell, 316), though this may not be the case. The hero’s lover can

just as likely be the enemy’s child (and, by extension, the one who points out the enemy’s

weakness to the hero) (Campbell, 318). The obstacle the lover’s captor (literal or otherwise)

presents for the hero, is, in Campbell’s opinion, simply another example of the enemy from

5 As Campbell speaks about the traditional hero who (traditionally) is male, it may become impossible tomaintain the neutrality.

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the previous chapter forbidding the natural order of things from taking its course (Campbell,

318).

There is always a strong connection between the hero and their lover, Campbell calls

the lover hero’s “other portion” (316) a notion dating to the Ancient Greece, where Plato in

his Symposium speaks of the primeval man being of round shape with “four hands, four legs,

and two faces” that was split into two by Zeus to teach them a lesson in humility (with a threat

of dividing them further, should they continue their insolence) and from that day, each human

walks the Earth, looking for their other half, wanting to become whole again. And to find their

other half, the hero must surmount seemingly impossible odds, which then suddenly dissolve

away in front of them, further signifying the connection with their lovers.

Hero as an Emperor, Tyrant or a Redeemer

Campbell originally kept the information presented below in two separate chapters,

however, since those chapters discuss similar matter – the eventual fate of the hero, and for

the purposes of this thesis, it was decided to combine the information creating a single

chapter.

After the hero has found their lover, their next adventure is often to seek out their father in

order to receive his blessing and the last piece of the hidden knowledge necessary to truly

bring about the world’s change. As many things before, the journey of finding their father is

beset by danger and obstacles, yet much like with the journey for the hero’s lover,

the obstacles vanish when the hero approaches them with courage (Campbell, 320).

The reason for this similarity is the same as with the case of the lovers, the “duality of

the whole,” for “(the hero) and the father are one,” (Campbell, 322-323).

When the hero returns, having found their father, there are two usual courses their lives can

then take, when they ascend the throne and replace the enemy they had overthrown. First is

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rather a tragic one. Here, the hero gradually ceases to be the champion of change they once

were. Instead, their reign becomes more and more reliant on the power the hero wields,

the hero becomes the enemy they had defeated and the cycle of the hero begins anew

(Campbell, 321-322). This almost inevitable destiny stems from the fact, that the hero’s

enemy is in many cases somehow tied with the father (the father shares similar aspects with

the enemy, if they are not directly one and the same) who is then in turn connected with

the hero, meaning the hero will in time surely succumb.

On the other hand, should the hero remain wary of the ways of his enemy, remains on

the true path they had once set out on, often with the realization of the oneness with the father

(and so in turn, the enemy), renouncing the ways of the previous ruler, they resist

the corruption of the lure of the power that had claimed their enemy. However, in order to do

so, the hero must eventually relinquish the power they accumulated, in most cases, the hero

must die to prevent themselves from becoming the tyrant. As Campbell said: “The hero of

yesterday becomes the tyrant of tomorrow, unless (they) crucify (themselves) today,” (326).

Departure

And thus, we reach the end of the hero’s life and story. Should the hero remain virtuous,

they know what fate awaits them and so, they do not fear their end. (Campbell, 329). They

may want (and be able) to postpone the inevitable a bit longer, but not forever (Campbell,

331).

Still, this departure should not be the end of the hero’s story, for in fact their death is

merely a sleep, from which they may be awoken, when their time comes again, perhaps with

a new face or maybe under a different circumstance, for the wheel of fate keeps turning and

will eventually return to the place from which the story had begun (Campbell, 330).

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1.6 Hero’s journeyWe have discussed the life of the hero as a whole from their birth to this world to their

departure from it, this chapter will now take a closer look at the adventure this hero was born

to embark on. Since the time Joseph Campbell formulated the basic schema of this cycle

almost seventy years ago, various authors revised and modified the schema to better fit their

concept of the journey. The main stepping stones, however, remain the same. The following

chapter will therefore be a sort of amalgamation of various sources, attempting to present

the main ideas of each stage. The names of these chapters will still represent the original

designations as coined by Campbell.

The journey will be divided into several sub-chapters, but these can be grouped together

into three greater wholes: the Departure, which will cover the first four chapters and concerns

itself with the hero living in the ordinary world, to crossing the threshold towards their

adventure; followed by the Initiation, consisting of the next six chapters, describing the hero’s

encounters on their journey; and finally, the Return.

Call to Adventure

The story usually begins in the ordinary world, one that has seemingly been stagnant for

a considerably long time. This status quo is disturbed when something – a herald of

approaching change appears. It may be a literal herald bringing news of an event of things

brewing elsewhere, or it may be a portent of things to come: a comet foretelling a war or

the death of the king, or the smoke on the horizon announcing invasion of plundering armies –

possibly a mentor figure to the hero, a warning of approaching doom that will consume

the land should no one stand in its way, or even dreams plaguing hero in their sleep. In short,

it announces coming of times, that will need a hero to face the coming adversity (Campbell,

51).

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The call for adventure might come from within the hero themselves, the world around has

grown stale for them, and they believe that there must be something new outside the familiar.

The unknown can even tempt the hero with promises of not only change, but also with riches,

fame and glory, or just with the promise of the adventure itself (Vogler, 100). And even then,

hero’s answer to the call might be negative and then they will need further push for them to

really begin, while other heroes will venture out immediately out of obligation, or because

they cannot bear the stench of the ordinary world any longer (Campbell, 53-54), or they

simply have no other options left (this last one might eventually become the reason

the unwilling hero has to answer the call) (Vogler, 103).

According to Vladimir Propp (in Vogler, 101) the initial actions of the antagonist may also

serve as the Call. By sending Reconnaissance (as is the term coined by Propp), and thus

encroaching on the hero’s familiar world, endangering it, results in the hero taking action in

order to protect their world.

An important concept of the Call to Adventure is the unknown. Hero must embark into

the uncharted lands, face the unfamiliar (voluntary or involuntary). Campbell even references

Freud (in Campbell, 47) for the call to adventure is meant to evoke the feeling childhood

dread of the separation from the mother, using a familiar feeling all of us have experienced in

our lives.

Chance often plays a role in the initial impulse for the hero’s journey, hero coming across

a person from their past or from the past of their parents, figure of importance seemingly

randomly comes into possession of a vital piece of information, all this may set the events of

the story into motion and the hero towards the unknown (Vogler, 100).

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Refusal of the Call

The hero is of course well aware of the hardships that lay waiting them on the journey

ahead and it is therefore quite natural that they often refuse. We have discussed the unwilling

heroes looking for a way to avoid this venture until they have to change their minds or fate

presents them with no other option.

For some hero’s the refusal might be only a moments hesitation before they accept the call

and are on their way facing the unknown, while for some, the fear of their own inadequacy

might never leave their side, always be there to strike the hero at a moment of weakness,

prompting the return of the Refusal even far into their adventure (Vogler, 113)

In many cases, the hero lists many excuses for the reason they “must” stay and postpone

their journey. For fledgling heroes it may be the fear of the unknown, the tales of horrors of

the world beyond theirs. On the other hand, the seasoned hero might be unwilling for a similar

reason, for they truly know of the horrors mentioned, about the true brutality of the world,

knowledge gained often through bitter experience that they do not wish to live through again

(Vogler, 108).

Even the willing heroes might undergo periods of refusal. These are, in their case, usually

internal and consist of the hero doubting their readiness, for how can they alone measure

against the strength of such a foe or such odds, they are afraid of their weaknesses that might

proved fatal at the fateful moment, such as having the strength to, again, for the seasoned

hero, make the hard choice or be prepared to sacrifice everything should it be required from

them over the course of the adventure. Hero may ever continue forward on their journey, yet

their resolve may at times waiver, even though they do not share their doubts with people

around them, only the audience knows of their existence (Vogler, 100).

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To strengthen the hero’s resolve and overcome their doubts, they often receive grim

reminders of what is to come, should they remain as they are now and refuse the adventure’s

call. Their refusal directly or indirectly leads to a tragedy – the villain’s first strike might

destroy the hero’s home, kill a person close to them, or otherwise shatter their seeming of

the stability and balance of their then current life – one that will make certain the hero’s full

and uncompromising commitment to the quest (Vogler, 109).

On their way out of the door towards the adventure proper, the hero must often overcome

the last obstacle, a Threshold Guardian, put there into place to test the hero’s determination

one last time. The Guardian might once again use hero’s inner doubts against them, showing

the severity of their decision, on how it might affect their life (or effectively end it in

the process), but the hero will eventually always triumph and perhaps. with the first test

behind them, with a strengthened determination be ready to face what is yet to come (Vogler,

111-112).

Supernatural Aid

Also called “Meeting with the Mentor” (Vogler, 117) as the character the hero meets often

during this step of the journey, one that provides them with various helpful items and

information to make the following stretches of the way less perilous and safer for the hero to

tread, typically fulfills the role of a Mentor. This meeting is in no way coincidental and rarely

does a hero who had responded to the Call of the Adventure not meet with their Mentor

figure, because it is often precisely this Mentor whose call the hero answered (on many

occasions, the Mentor arrives as a herald of things to come and so their presence alone serves

as the Call) (Campbell, 67).

In many instances, the gift-givers are usually thought-of as elderly people – sometimes

seemingly helpless, but when the hero provides them with help, they reveal their true nature

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and take the hero under their protection. These are the magical old men granting wishes in

exchange for rather mundane acts of kindness, or fairy god-mothers saving the hero at their

most direst hour. However, there might not be a need for supernatural Mentors, who can just

as well be regular people or more experienced adventurers whose ordinary, yet equally vital

piece of information or equipment, can still prove invaluable. In other instances, the gifts do

not even require being granted by a person, there is wisdom to be found in books, or the hero

might even look and find the key piece of information through introspection based on their

previous experiences (Vogler, 118).

Though, the hero must always be cautious of their Mentor or the gifts they bring, for some

might not be so altruistic as they might appear. We have previously discussed anti-heroes who

act benevolently out of sheer self-interest (see Varieties of a hero) and the Mentor-figure may

be driven by similar creed. They may at first glance seem that their only desire is to help

the hero defeat the villain, yet the reason for it is that they intend on taking the villain’s

position and power for themselves and the hero for them is only a helpful pawn that will make

their bid for power far easier than taking it via the direct route (Vogler, 121).

Crossing of the Threshold

This is the critical portion of the journey, the stepping over the horizon, crossing the line in

the sand, the hero must prove that they are fully committing to the journey, after this step,

there is no going back. This part is the culmination of the first act, the Call of the Adventure

has been answered, all the doubts and the moments of weakness have been dealt with,

the hero received everything their previous life and/or their Mentor could have offered them

and now, before them is only the threshold and beyond it the land of “darkness, of

the unknown, of danger” (Campbell, 71).

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This threshold is usually watched over by the Threshold Guardians, they are the “watchers

of the established boundaries” (Campbell, 75) ensuring that no unworthy will be allowed to

pass. They can be very real, such as a monster demanding a show of force or cunning,

something the hero must best to be able to pass. It may be possible to circumvent

the Guardian (though that too might be part of the test) or the hero might take a leap of faith

and quickly they realize that the threat was just an illusion, and all they have to do is to ignore

it and soldier on. However, the Guardian does not have to be an external factor, it may only

represent fear the hero carries with them of the outside world or what will happen in their own

world, should they leave it. There, the threshold is represented by the hero’s courage, will, or

curiosity finally overpowering the hero’s doubts (Vogler, 129-130).

When the hero finally crosses into the unknown, they may be shocked when they realize

nothing is like what they might have expected. Their hope of a place to be able to live free is

replaced by a constant struggle to live, or their desire to live outside the restrictions of his old

world now mean they also have to live without its protection (Vogler, 130).

Campbell also identifies an interim step, set once the hero crosses the threshold, named “In

the Belly of the Whale” (83) after the frequently reappearing mythological motif. In it,

the hero must pass through the innards of a giant beast as a symbol of their rebirth into

the new, unknown world (Campbell, 84-85).

The Road of Trials

With the threshold successfully behind them, the hero now founds themselves in a

completely new world that is starkly different from the one that they have come to know, far

from the protection of their ordinary one, or so it may seem. Quite often, the various aids,

equipment, or hints they gathered prior crossing the Threshold are more or less covertly

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helping the hero adapt to the rules of the new world and surmount the Trials put into their path

(Campbell, 89).

One of these trials might just be adapting to the new environment, hero who grew up and

accustomed to every whim of theirs being catered to will now have to learn to fend for

themselves if they wish to continue. Or the fundamental rules of the new world may in fact be

completely at odds with the rules that govern the ordinary world, where the originally quite

benign acts could now carry a very harsh punishment with them (Vogler, 139).

Throughout the Road of Trials, the hero might encounter other people, and the way

the hero deals with them is just another form of Trial – the hero must show good judgment of

character and realize who is worthy of their trust and who might betray it later, should it prove

convenient. By acting kindly towards people deemed worthy, the hero might gain an ally – to

signify their completion and passing of the Trial – who then might join the hero on their quest

or simply will be there to lend a hand should they need it. Over the length of the Road,

the lonely hero, perhaps accompanied by only their mentor, may eventually find themselves

creating an entire party of allied adventures. However, by not showing enough courtesy to

those who might feel they deserve it, the hero may just as well create a rival or an enemy who

they will surely see later on the Road. The main difference between these two is that, while

the enemy wishes to cause direct and physical harm towards the hero, the rival only wishes to

beat the hero at their own game, complete the same task as the hero first to humiliate them

and making the hero recognize how wrong they have been to not show them the respect they

so rightly deserve (Vogler, 137-138).

On the Road, the actual number of the Trials can vary wildly, but it quite often is

the number three – number that frequently appears in mythology – and they should prepare

the hero for their final challenge that awaits them at the end of their journey and as such, they

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might reflect the components of the final Trial or they might symbolically reflect the different

features of the hero’s personality, most notably flaws they will have to overcome should they

wish to successfully reach the end of their journey (Campbell, 92-93) On the other hand,

the nature of these Trials can be quite banal as they might only be traps or other obstacles put

into place by the villain in order to impede the chances of anyone who wishes them harm

(Vogler, 137).

The Meeting with a Goddess, Woman as a Temptress

In his book, Campbell greatly emphasizes these two steps on the hero’s journey, so much

so as to grant each of them a full-length chapter (100-116), while Vogler in his work sees

them as mere footnotes on what he calls the “Approach to the Inmost Cave,” (144, 145).

Though, they both agree that these occur before the Final Ordeal and their purpose might

serve as the final Trial of the Road.

The imagery of the goddess represents the hero’s courtship. In his work, Campbell’s claims

that the titular goddess is “incarnate in every woman”. Therefore, if the hero is male,

the goddess is represented by his love interest, if the hero is female, she still represents

the goddess aspect, mirroring the fate of Psyche being permitted to be with her love, Cupid

(Campell, 109-110).

The purpose of the Trial of such an encounter might be to once again test the hero’s

commitment to their quest, but this time not against great adversity, but rather against great

temptation and for the hero to succeed, they must not give in to it and to abandon their

journey for the sake of their own pleasures of the body, but to resist and continue forth, for

only “when he thinks of himself as pure, as the essence of the Good, and the Immovable, he

becomes free.” (Campbell, 113)

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Atonement with the Father and Apotheosis

Just as the goddess in the previous chapter represented in some aspect the Mother, the hero

must now convene with their Father figure. However, not even this step is made easy for

the hero, for when the Mother-Goddess can prove to be too loving to the point of prohibiting

hero’s further journey, the Father figure has gone mad and violent (Campbell, 119-120).

To face the Father is to face the hero’s greatest fear – they need to stand up to him. They

were trained to do so throughout the entire Road of Trials, they were given aids before

crossing the Threshold and made new friends and forged new alliances on their way, but to

defeat the monster their father has become it may not be enough. For this is the stage where

the hero has to cease to be the way they are, to die (metaphorically or literally) in order to

become the true hero they were meant to be (Campbell, 120). Campbell cites

the psychological component of this demise, the hero must sever their connection to the id

and the superego, but also to their own ego to break the shackles that tie the hero “to their

own limited existence” (Campbell, 135) If the courtship with Goddess were meant to prove

that the hero has become “master of life” (Campbell, 111), than the Atonement is transcending

life itself (Campbell, 126).

Even when the hero dies in the literal sense, it rarely is their true end, now that they have

transcended their original self, they return, but changed by the experience and so, the death

becomes another piece of knowledge, a further lesson the hero needs in order to gain the full

knowledge, power and wisdom necessary to control the world around them, knowledge that

usually resides with the father figure, though without the necessary wisdom, it may be

a cautionary tale rather than example. The Father, who had not rejected their ego, proves what

chaos ensues when someone unworthy tries to through their knowledge claim and wield such

power (Campbell, 125-126).

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The hero, however, having realized their connection to the Father, and what would mere

usurping of the power without the necessary wisdom, strips themselves of all aspects of their

mere human existence which also means stripping themselves of limits to their understanding,

gaining the needed wisdom and becoming one with the Universe – Apotheosis (Vogler,

p. 171).

To sum up and put aside the metaphors for now: On this step of the journey, the hero

encounters and has to deal with a great foe (a Father figure, though the Father does not have

to be necessary male (or even human for that matter) – only a person wielding great power).

By using whatever items, information or help from their allies the hero undergoes a greatly

changing experience that shows him that there are no limits to what they can do and they

should now be ready to be granted the Ultimate Boon (the goal of their entire venture) and

wield it properly.

Ultimate Boon

Now, the hero stands before that which he originally sought to find and is ready to take

possession of it. It is the reward for going through the Apotheosis phase and reaching

the other side safely. Naturally, the first thing the hero usually do at this point is to enjoy

the moment of victory. Vogler also notes the re-occurrence of what he calls “Campfire

Scenes” (named after the frequent setting of such scenes, while also referencing the sacrifices

made by ancient heroes to remain in favor with their respective gods (Vogler, 176)) where

the hero and their cohort reminisce about the journey so-far, about their wins, losses, narrow

escapes and it may be a chance for the hero’s allies to reveal some previously kept secret to

signify how the groups has been brought together through shared hardship (176-177).

Now, let us discuss the nature of the Boon itself. As with many other instances of

the Monomyth, the Boon might be quite symbolic and be represented in many ways. It may

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truly be a physical treasure, long lost chest full of gold and precious gems, a dragon’s hoard,

powerful weapons and items, but it can be much more immaterial such as self-confidence or

a piece of vital information, or, for the hero, it could be a love (and even then, it does not

necessarily has to be strictly romantic love) (Vogler, 178-179).

Another immaterial Boon that could be granted to the hero for their achievements on their

journey could be the granting a position of power or importance – a squire completing

a dangerous mission being given knighthood, a novice being initiated into an important order,

gaining additional privileges, a simple, yet smart peasant becoming a king, or a legendary

hero being accepted for their extraordinary deeds among the gods as their equal – the true

meaning of the Apotheosis (Vogler, 179-180).

The hero could have also set out on this adventure to bring to their home lands an item that

would save a dying family member, friend, king, or even the land itself. For this reason,

Campbell also calls this section “the Elixir Theft,” as the Elixir is a liquid that has the power

to heal or even to restore back to life, which is in itself a repeating motif of a life-giving liquid

– water of life, blood, (mother’s) milk (Campbell, 160) – but that which must be taken, for it

cannot be granted or given, the hero must steal it, much like the Titan of ancient Greek

legends Prometheus stole the fire from the gods and gave it to humanity, or Eve taking

the forbidden fruit, both symbols of the start of the human progress, one of the technology and

the other of the mind (Vogler, 179).

As the hero achieved higher level of consciousness through their death and rebirth, or

perhaps, through them also drinking from the source of the elixir, the Boon extended upon

them could be one of limitless sight, they could now be able to see through any lies,

deceptions, or illusions, to speak or understand any language, including those of animals, or to

35

see beyond the limits of time, to look deep into the past, or predict possible events of the far

future (Vogler, 180-181).

Rather more mundane alternative to the unlimited perception could be the gift of epiphany.

During the Ordeal or their rebirth, the hero can come to a sudden realization of some vital

piece of information, through briefly becoming one with divinity or through some implication

by events during or following the ordeal: such as being able to draw and wield a sword, feat

only a true heir to the kingdom can accomplish. Or it could perhaps be something the Enemy

divulges during the fight (Vogler, 181).

However, Vogler also warns us against the chance where the journey can go all wrong

(182). A meeting with their own mortality and chance of demise, which was supposed to be

a humbling experience instead proves to the hero, who is, perhaps, confusing their luck with

fate, that they are the divinity incarnate and so should be treated as such, the ego they were

supposed to left behind during their Ordeal now only grows and the power they wrestled from

the hand of the Father now begins to corrupt them. Maybe in order to win, the hero had to

sink to the level of the enemy, and the champion of life and justice was now turned towards

a life of killing and immorality (Vogler, 182). But this might not be permanent, for ahead of

the hero is now the journey back.

The Return

It is quite natural for the hero to initially refuse to return, on their journey so far, they have

done so much more than they could have possibly expect, the great power they might have

come to possess, the elixir of life within their hands, a party of friends forged and tempered in

battle, the love of their life by their side, why should they return? This Refusal to Return

mirrors in some aspects the initial Refusal of the Call, where the hero did not want to leave

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the familiar for the unknown, as opposed to here, where they do not wish to leave the Special

world full of possibilities they discovered to return to the Ordinary one (Campbell, 179).

Eventually, though, the hero may remember the importance of their mission, the lives of

important people, possibly even the entire land depend on their return with their Boon, or

the hero needs to be reminded of their responsibilities and how pressing those responsibilities

are by their Ally, or the hero might be put into their rightful place of mind by the opposing

force. Perhaps the Enemy they thought to have destroyed during the Ordeal was not destroyed

completely and is now gathering remnants of their forces for a retribution, or what the hero

though of as the ultimate Enemy was only a lieutenant and the act of killing them only

brought unwished attention from their superior – a powerful dragon thought to be

the Guardian of the golden hoard is revealed to be a wyrm whose mother has now returned to

the nest, found its slain hatchling and wants revenge. Especially the brush with an even

greater force than before can help hero to realize their previous victory may have been only

a stroke of luck and their perceived greatness has only been a folly. Whatever the reason,

the hero finally found the resolve and crosses yet another threshold, this time, on their return

journey (Vogler, 189-190).

If the Boon was granted, this journey might be rather pleasant, for the hero travels with

the favor of the one who have granted it, but should it be stolen rather than received, this

return may turn into a flight. Indeed, Campbell speaks of the so-called “Magic Flight” (182)

where the hero must do their best in order to stop or at least for a moment delay the pursuing

force. In order to do so, a sacrifice is typically needed, the hero has to permanently give up

gifts they have previously received, these gifts, when thrown at the pursuers, turn into

unavoidable barriers which slow them down, sometimes an ally can serve as the sacrifice,

willing to offer their life in the hope that they could occupy the pursuers. At this moment,

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the hero often comes to their senses and realize what is truly important and rather their Ally

having to lay down their life or freedom, they part with their treasured possession.

Alternatively, as another humbling experience, they have to abandon their bloated ego, with

its notions of hero’s power and importance and ask for an assistance, as they would not be

able to deal with the problem on their own. One another, rather grimly possibility, they might

be without any other means of delaying the pursuit and the realization might be that of

the importance of the success of their mission and so they will have to face the hard choice of

having to sacrifice a life of one of their companions in order to succeed (Vogler, 191-192).

When all seems lost and the hero is certain that there is now nothing that could save them

from the retaliation, the rescue might come from an unexpected direction – from the ordinary

world. Campbell refers to this as the “Rescue from Without” (192) and it also describes

another way the hero could be pulled back into the ordinary world, should they be unwilling:

“Society is jealous of those who remain away from it, and will come knocking at the door. If

the hero (…) is unwilling, the disturber suffers an ugly shock; but on the other hand, if

the summoned one is only delayed (…) an apparent rescue is effected, and the adventurer

returns.” (Campbell, 192).

Now the hero stands at the line once crossed at the beginning of the journey, one that they

have to cross once again – the first threshold (also referred to as the “final” or “return”

threshold (Vogler, 207, Campbell, 201, respectively)). However, where once was the difficulty

of entering the unknown world, there is now the difficulty of bringing the wisdom found there

back into the Ordinary world, as the two worlds somehow cannot understand each other.

Knowledge gained at the other side now seems as if there are inconsistencies within it when

examined through the logic of the ordinary world, the hero may even grow frustrated and in

some cases abandons further attempts to try to persuade anyone in the Ordinary world to heed

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the advice of the Special one. Other heroes could start to doubt whether there even was any

journey at all and all the memories are only remnant of a dream, or even possibly signs of

a mental illness – in such cases, there are usually some tokens of the journey for the hero to

anchor their beliefs. These will not persuade others, but they assure the hero about the validity

of their experience. (Campbell, 201-202, 204) Other still may wish to return to the Special

world, finding the Ordinary one needlessly “noisy and banal” (Campbell, 202), rather leaving

it to its fate.

The repeating motif of Crossing the Return Threshold is a disproportional rate of passage

of time, hero thinking they were gone from the Ordinary world only for a short while find

they were in fact gone for a significantly longer period, perhaps longer than is possible for

a single lifetime, usually a hundred years for every year spent in the Special World, however,

it can reach as high as three hundred and sixty in case of the Hindu (Campbell, 207). Other

heroes can live entire lifetimes that occupy only a few second or a one night’s sleep.

The reason for this disparity is that in the perfect world of the undying, time has no meaning

and without any means of orientation, the hero, in their eventual connection with divinity,

loses any sense of time progressing return to the Ordinary world they barely recognize or one

they expected to be long gone by the time of their return (Campbell, 207-208).

Furthermore, Vogler develops this idea of the Return Threshold in a way that in order for

the hero to successfully transition from the Special World into the Ordinary one, a new

resurrection or rebirth is needed, citing even real world cases of cleansing of the ancient tribes

performing cleansing rituals, or other reintegration procedures for their warriors and hunters

to “purge the blood and death (…) so they can become peaceful members of the society

again” (198).

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In the similar way, the hero has to endure a second Ordeal – perhaps one connected with

the Magic Flight – they have to face death once again before the coming of the Rescue from

Without. Possibly, the hero may be mortally wounded or lose consciousness when the Rescue

arrives, only to awake, now back in the Ordinary world, further emphasizing the motif of

death and rebirth (Vogler, 199). This second Ordeal is the final test of the hero’s change to see

whether they will return to their old ways or whether the change reached during the Ordeal

has become permanent. Or, in case of the corrupted hero, they receive final chance to reject

the corruption and become who they truly are supposed to be (Vogler, 210-211). This test may

be represented as a choice between the hero’s old self with all its weaknesses, and the new

self that has transcended its former weaknesses during the Journey (Vogler, 201).

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2 Analytical sectionIn this section, we will apply the information presented in the theoretical section on

the specific case of Commander Sir Samuel Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.

First, we will examine the journey of the character of Vimes himself, first of his life as

a whole, then we will quickly summarize his journeys in each respective book in which he

plays a major role and then we will undergo a more rigorous examination of his journey in

the initial novel Guards! Guards! as it has been written specifically to reference the concept

of the hero’s journey. Having done so, we will examine what actually constitutes Pratchett’s

hero.

Following that, we will discuss the portrayal of the theme of Self and Other that became

prominent in the later Watch novels with Vimes representing the Self and his view of

the Other, (the sum of individuals through physical, mental or other distinctions distanced

from the Self) referencing first other people in general, followed by the specific people of

authority and finally his opinion on diversity in the city and in the Watch.

2.1 What makes a hero? - Vimes’ Journey

2.1.1 Before Samuel

To truly understand the journey of Samuel Vimes, we must first search his family history,

most notably for his ancestor Suffer-Not-Injustice Vimes, nicknamed “Old Stoneface” who

lived three hundred years before Samuel and was a nobleman and the commander of

the Ankh-Morpork City Militia, a precursor of the City Watch. His most notable deed is

the regicide of the last king of the city, Lorenzo the Kind, who was anything but what his

name would suggest, a sadistic, immoral and cruel monarch and also with a very specific

fondness for children (Men at Arms, 78). This act brought disgrace to Vimes family name,

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even though it was in a sense justified, as Vimes was supposed to be a “defender of

the crown”, the execution was performed without a trial (as no judge would preside over such

a case) and by Vimes’ own hand. Having effectively overthrown the monarchy, he became

a city ruler for a short while, before being betrayed, executed, quartered and buried in five

separate graves, his family name became banned, property and titles confiscated and family

members were banished to the worst parts of the city (Feet of Clay, 107).

Most male family members still enlisted into the City Watch, and most of those managed to

reach an officer position within its chain of command. Even after many years, the family is

still certain of the justifiable nature of “Old Stoneface” Vimes’ act, for when questioned about

the execution, Samuel responded with: “It wasn’t even execution. You execute a human being.

You slaughter an animal” (FoC, 52).

2.1.2 Samuel’s Life Journey

Samuel Vimes was born into a poor family, as its reputation had not yet recovered from

the Suffer-Not-Injustice’s treason, in the poorest and the worst part of the city. He has no

memory of his father Thomas, who was also member of the City Watch before his premature

death – he was run over by a cart when he was crossing a street – Samuel surmised that his

father was in fact a drunkard and by his own words his father’s fateful cart “was probably

a brewer’s cart, which had ‘run him over’ a bit at a time for years,” (Snuff, 66).

He was therefore mostly cared for by his mother. She made him visit a local dame school –

in short, a very poor quality school, mostly meant to be a sort of daycare, so the children

would be under at least some semblance of supervision – on which he still has very fond

memories, here Samuel also first tasted position of authority, as he was appointed

the blackboard monitor (Thud!, 79-80). He stayed at the school for nine months, following

that, he gradually joined several street gangs, most notably the “Cockbill Street Roaring Lads”

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where he meant eventual patrician’s secretary Lupine Wonse (Guards! Guards! (GG), 59).

At the age of sixteen, he joined the City Watch, where he shortly after came under the tutelage

of Sergeant-at-Arms John Keel, who taught Vimes everything he knew, including his cynical

outlook of the world, but also provided him with a strong moral center he managed to keep in

spite of the environment where being corrupt was normal and expected (Night Watch).

Very little is known about Samuel from that point until the events of Guards! Guards! only

that he rose to the rank of captain of the Night Watch – an institution that has over the course

of the years lost much of its importance with the rise of the Thieves Guild, which effectively

legitimized certain forms of criminality under its regulation6, Vimes lost most of his illusions,

his young boy’s naivety turned into cynicism, while he himself became a drunkard, throwing

most of his leftover money on alcohol and the barest of living expenses (though he was

donating much of his salary to widows and orphans of deceased watchmen (MaA, 239)).

The change of public opinion on the Night Watch comes with the arrival of a dragon, where

the Watch uncovers a plot of using the creature to usurp the control of the city from lord

Vetinari, and establishing a puppet king. It is then, when Vimes quits alcohol, starts to be

more pro-active in his duties as a Watch officer and during these events, he meets lady Sybil

Ramkin with whom he establishes a relationship.

In Men at Arms, the Night Watch investigates a string of murders done using a strange

device propelling metal slugs using some sort of controlled firework. Eventually, they

discover that the perpetrator is a member of the Assassin’s Guild that had discovered the truth

about Carrot being the last descendant of the king of Ankh-Morpork and had taken it upon

himself to assassinate the patrician and make Carrot the new king. By the end of the book,

6 Thieves would receive a Guild issued licenses that allowed them to demand a certain amount of money fromtheir chosen targets. The amount was based on a statistical calculation of an annually declared crime leveland the targets would receive a note stating they were robbed, so as not to be bothered by other members ofthe Guild. Should the Guild find someone robbing without a license or exceeding their allotted quota,the organization would undertake swift internal actions ensuring it would not happen again. (GG, 57)

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having stopped the assassin, the patrician grateful for saving his life merges the two branches

of the Watch and promotes Vimes to its commander as well as knights him, as the knight is

the traditional title of the Watch Commander, granting Vimes title of his own rather than one

he received in marriage with lady Sybil which occurs at the end of the novel.

During the brewing war, as told in the novel Jingo, between the city and its neighboring

nation of Klatch over a newly resurfaced island, as martial law is declared and the patrician

steps down, Vimes resigns as the commander of the Watch and as any patriotic nobleman

starts gathering soldiers for his own private regiment (consisting exclusively of other

members of the Watch who resigned along with Vimes). However, this was all a ruse to stay

independent from the command of the new de facto leader of the city, to investigate an

attempted murder of the prince of the opposing nation in an attempt to prevent the war

altogether. Succeeding, Vimes is rewarded a title of the Duke of Ankh, making him the second

most powerful men in the city.

This new title also comes with other duties, such as in the novel The Fifth Elephant, where

Vimes must travel to the land of Überwald as a diplomat to represent the city at the coronation

of the new Low King of Dwarves. After yet another attempt at the life of nation leader, Vimes

is imprisoned, but he escapes and must fight for his life against the true conspirators – a noble

family of local werewolves – a fight he eventually wins and having attended the coronation

and establishing friendly overture with the king, returns back home. (Interestingly, during his

absence, the crime rate in the city severely plummeted, even despite the sheer incompetence

of the acting-captain Colon, as the criminal population feared Vimes’ wrath upon his return.)

Shortly before the birth of his first son in Night Watch, Vimes is transported back in time

along with a psychopathic criminal Carcer, to the time of the Great revolution. Upon arrival,

Carcer kills John Keel, Vimes’ former mentor, and to ensure the correct course of

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the continuum, Vimes has to replace him for a period of time, technically becoming his own

mentor7, while Carcer joins a special branch of the co-temporary Watch, that was known for

its cruelty, sanctioned by the city’s paranoid patrician, before him and Carcer are transported

back into the present and Carcer is arrested, tried and presumably executed. By this time,

the Watch and Vimes has gained such a renown, that even foreign police forces wish for their

officers to be trained in Ankh-Morpork, these are called Sammies and many people around

the Disc know the term while never having heard about Vimes or the city.

In later years, as his notoriety and responsibilities grow and change, so do his deeds. By

the events of the novel Thud!, he and his wife have opened a hospital that is free of charge for

anyone who cannot afford to pay the fees. In Thud!, Vimes also managed to establish

a diplomatic relationships between the dwarfs and trolls, ending the centuries of mutual hatred

and war by finding a proof of dwarven and troll kings making peace in Koom Valley, which

had been believed to be a location of a major battle between the two races. It is here, where he

also encounters an entity known as the Summoning Dark, that attempts, but ultimately fails to

control Vimes and persuading him to surrender to his baser urges.

Even when Vimes is forced to take a leave of absence, he manages to find himself

investigating and eventually uncovering a slavery ring that captures and transports goblins

from the countryside to participate in a drug making operation abroad. His working with

the local goblin community actually contributes towards the emancipation of the goblin kind

to be considered among sapient species, as they were until them regarded as vermin.

And this is where the story of the life of Samuel Vimes ends, as there are no other books,

where he makes major appearances, this is the entirety of what will be known about

the protagonist of the Watch series of the Discworld novels.

7 Though, according to Lu-Tze – one of the order of monks with the ability to manipulate time, both versionof events had become equally true – a version of young Vimes was tutored by John Keel, while a differentversion was tutored by his older self. (NW, 303-304).

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2.1.3 Transformation of Vimes

Much of Vimes’ life mirrors that of the transformations of the hero as presented by

Campbell. He comes to the world as a descendant of a disgraced house of nobility, shunned

by the society and having to reach adulthood in seclusion in the worst part of the city, never

really knowing his father and his mother dying before the events of the first book (however,

she is supposedly alive during the portion of Night Watch which takes place in the past).

He eventually becomes a watchmen, as close to a warrior a poor orphan boy can be, but

before that, he learns to fight in street kind of combat in order to just survive in the Shades

district of the city, style that has saved his life in his line of duty on numerous occassions

(Night Watch (NW), 279). However, even the Night Watch proves to be yet another place

where they discard unwanted people, based upon the questions Nobby has for Carrot about

the reason that forced him to join them as Vimes’ reason for his posting is thought to him

having “(spoken) his mind. Spoke it once too often to the Patrician, I heard.” (GG, 72).

The opinion in question he shared with the Patrician was on the Thieves’ Guild being nothing

but a pack of thieves (GG, 72). His intents to do right by his city and follow the proper spirit

of the law clashed with the reality where the thieves were legitimized officers of a sanctioned

city guild and so, by extension, a city official just as he was supposed to be, and to twist

the knife further, it was the thieves that were encouraged to prosecute lawbreakers, rather than

the Watchmen.

That all changes with the arrival of a dragon, “for what is a Knight or Hero without

a monster?” (Shepherd in Murray, 62). Along with Watch’s new recruit, who coincidentally

also sees Thieves Guild equally as Vimes and ventures to arrest its head (GG, 60), Vimes

begins undergoing internal changes from an impassive drunk to an active watchmen who is

not afraid to face Wonse, the man of whom he was afraid at the beginning of the book. This

confrontation corresponds to the letter to confrontations between the hero and their enemies

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in Campbell’s work. Wonse is a high-level city official, a right hand man of the city ruler, and

also the mastermind behind the arrival of the dragon, which Wonse wanted to exploit in order

to seize power, while Vimes is a descendant of a disgraced house, living in a literal exclusion

as a member of a powerless police force. Wonse might be the one who brought an actual

dragon into the city, but for Vimes, he is the dragon he has to eventually slay. During these

events, Vimes also meets with the woman that will be his eventual wife, fulfilling another

steps in the supposed transformation of the hero, according to Campbell, from the Warrior to

a Lover.

Next stage of the transformation should be encountering with the Father to become a

Tyrant or a World Redeemer. There could be multiple possibilities for this: for instance

Vetinari could be thought of as Vimes’ Father figure, as Vimes eventually rises in importance

to become Vetinari’s second-in-command. Vetinari is a literal tyrant, which would support this

reading and as Dannell observes in his essay “Terry Pratchett, the Watch and the Blurring of

Genre”, Vetinari performs the duties of a Mentor, advising and testing Vimes as and if needed.

In Feet of Clay, Vetinari freely admits that he had found the identity of his poisoner before

Vimes and still he chose not to disclose it to the Commander, for “I couldn’t let our gallant

policeman know I’d worked it out for myself, could I?” Dannell further likens Vetinari to

a “supernatural presence,” as he very rarely takes action personally and rather acts from

the shadows. However, the most obvious instance of Meeting with the Father would be in

Night Watch, which not only has Vimes meeting his first and most influential mentor. It also,

in a very literal realization of the concept of the oneness of the Hero and the Father (As in

the chapter “Hero as an Emperor, Tyrant or a Redeemer”, where Campbell spoke of the hero

possessing the same qualities as their Father figure, effectively being parts of the same whole,

here, they literally become one and the same) and the fulfillment of the aspirations of the hero

to one day become like their mentor (Vogler, 40). Vimes has to take on the moniker of John

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Keel in order for the history to take proper course. In his role as Keel, Vimes has

the opportunity to become in a sense a tyrant – he could rebel, force his will upon the fate,

save the victims of the regime of the corrupt patrician, make the future that is better – his idea

of better. Instead, he willingly accepts his fate, plays the role as he is supposed to, knowing

that, in the end, Keel and six others must die to redeem the world through this sacrifice. And

following this experience, Samuel Vimes truly becomes a Father as after his return, he

receives a Boon of his son Sam that he will now care for, much like he cared for a young boy

named Sam in the past.

Yet his story does not end there. As Father is, according to Campbell, often connected with

aggressivity, Vimes has to, in the following novel, literally wrestle with his violent side that

was supercharged by a malevolent entity taking on the appearance of a Shadow –

a Summoning Dark – and Vimes is still capable to tame this entity and turn it into a tool to

use. The feat as well as the mark of the Dark grants him a great deal of respect from

the dwarfs and in the final novel, the Boon of the Dark allows him to see in the darkness and

speak with goblins, creatures of the dark, without knowing their language.

Beginning with the novel Night Watch, we see the change of Vimes’ role in the story, he

still is the proactive hero on a Road of Trials before he can reach his Boon that is his firstborn

son, but he also fully accepts the mantle of the mentor. In fact, we can argue that his journey

in the novel serves as a proof to become a father to his son. The change of roles is completed

later in Snuff, where he not only mentors another fledgling countryside policeman, but he no

longer changes over the course of the story as was the case in previous instances and as is

Vogler’s rule of heroes. Instead, he rather becomes a catalyst hero, inspiring change in others

as is then demonstrated in the closing pages of the book, where the characters Vimes came

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into contact showcase how he inspired them to improve themselves and the world around

them (Snuff, 506-507).

2.1.4 Guards! Guards! - The Journey of Two Heroes

Leverett posits that Guards! Guards! combines two genres – fantasy hero’s journey and

a noire detective story (158), though one might argue (most notably Vogler) they are in fact

one and the same. There is a great amount of references to various noir and detective stories.

To name one example, the motto written on the wall of the Watch House on Treacle Mine

Road is “Fabricati Diem, Pvnc,” supposedly meaning “To Protect and to Serve” (GG, 64)

which is in itself reference to the motto of many a police force around the globe; while

the direct translation from Latin “Make my day, punk” is in turn a callback to Clint

Eastwood’s character of Dirty Harry (Breebart, 36).

The story structure follows the pattern of the hero’s journey, we begin with one of

the citizens living under the curious dictatorship of Patrician Vetinari, foreshadowing

an arrival of a hero – king who will smite the tyrant, kill a dragon, sit on the throne and

“Protect and Serve the People with his Sword” (GG, 17) and the hero comes, an orphaned boy

found under mysterious circumstances, adopted and cared for by a kindly couple as if for he

was their own child. On the other hand, we have a child of the streets, being captain of a law

enforcement unit that is not enforcing the law, wondering why he seemingly cannot fit into

the society. Both of these are examples of the hero archetype.

Carrot’s Call to the Adventure was when his adoptive parents sent him from their dwarf

mine to be with his own kind and become a proper man – enforcing law as a city watchman.

He was reluctant at first, but when he arrived to Ankh-Morpork, he immediately started with

his somehow irresistible charisma making friends practically with anyone he met after his

arrival, but also enemies, when he, after consulting the “Laws and Ordinances of Ankh-

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Morpork,” apprehended the president of the Thieves Guild for the “Conspiracy to commit

Crime” (GG, 60) which could be thought of as his first major Trial on the Road.

Vimes’ Call to the Adventure came when people are starting to be burnt to ash by

an unknown creature that vanishes just as quickly as it appears. At first, Vimes is hesitant to

accept the Call and investigate still unwilling to take matters into his own hands, while later,

when he is ready and sure it is the right thing to do, he comes across the Threshold Guardian

in the form of Vetinari who forbids him to investigate. Still, he persists, passes the Threshold

and sets out on his own Road of Trials – his investigation – where he makes allies in

the primate Librarian of the wizard university from which the book describing how to

summon dragons was stolen, and a dragon breeder, lady Sybil, who he saves from a mob of

people who somehow mistake her tiny inbred swamp dragons for a giant, flying, fire-

breathing one. For this rescue, Vimes receives as a gift one of her lesser developed dragons to

be the Night Watch’s mascot, and later on, when the bigger dragon burns down Vimes’ Watch

House, lady Sybil provides them with one of her family’s properties as the Watch’s new

headquarters. One of the meetings with lady Sybil, following the destruction of the Watch

House, serves also as the Meeting with the Goddess, as Vimes comes to know her better, he

realizes there is a certain – not necessarily attraction, but at least an affinity as they are in

many aspects similar (GG, 168-170).

Then comes the Ordeal, the dragon which was summoned by a group of conspirators

manages to break from dragon’s plane of existence on its own, seizes the rule of the city as

the new king and demands a tribute of gold and virgins – the first of the virgin is supposed to

be lady Sybil. When Vimes confronts Wonse regarding the sacrifice, he is thrown into

the dungeon next to the former Patrician. To his rescue comes the Librarian who helps him

escape and the two rush to prevent the sacrifice. Meanwhile, Carrot along with the rest of

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the Night Watch is trying to slay the dragon by shooting the supposed weak spot in its armor

(as all dragons naturally have one (GG, 317-318)), however, they fail.

At the last minute, the situation is saved by the Watch’s dragon mascot who seemingly

attacks the greater one, only to be revealed that the king of the city is in fact a female and

the fight was a mating ritual, resulting in the two dragons flying away from the city, following

the steps of the Magic Flight, as a gift of one of the allies removes the obstacle, in this case

a dragon. Vimes, Carrot, the rest of the Watch and freed Vetinari then confront Wonse who

they discovered to be the leader of the conspirators. When Vimes tells Carrot to arrest Wonse

by “throwing the book at him” (GG, 390), Carrot, due to his dwarf upbringing, interprets

the order literally and throws the canon of the law at Wonse, causing him to stumble and fall

to his death. The main antagonist of the story was killed not by a sword – the weapon of

a hero, but by the laws of the city – the weapon of a police officer.

After the order and Vetinari’s rule is restored, Vetinari asks the Watchmen what they wish

for as a reward for their great service to the city - “a petty wage increase, a domestic utensil

(…) and a new dartboard” (402). A far cry from the traditional hero’s reward of a half of

a kingdom and the hand of a princess in marriage, or even the original bounty of fifty

thousand Ankh-Morpork dollars for killing the dragon.

The Vimes’ storyline in the novel ends at a dinner date with lady Sybil, while Carrot is with

his colleagues in a pub, discussing whether having a king would be truly better(and how all

his clues to being the rightful king of the city actually do not mean anything), further

deconstructing the beliefs of the conspirators who created the entire situation and possibly

summoned Carrot as well as the dragon in the first place.

Leverett postulates that as the initial novel of the series, Vimes as the hero contradicts

the classical trope of “a questing knight or a returning king” (160) as those are being fulfilled

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by Carrot instead. However, as the story developed in later novels, Vimes was shown to be

just so through his family history. From the very start, Vimes was portrayed as the Unwilling

Hero, Leverett (161) refers to an instance where two conflicting opinions fought inside Vimes

when even one of his own men was fighting alone against an entire pub of drunken patrons

and one of his inside voices pressed him not to intervene, the voice “which had nevertheless

enabled him to survive in the Guards these past ten years” the one who was trying to persuade

him not to speak his own mind, a “flaw” that lead to his current penal posting.

Leverret links Vimes’ change of attitude to his attitude towards city as a representation of

Hero’s duties as a lover (161). It is a common and perhaps a bit trite saying that a captain

loves one thing foremost, that being either his ship or the sea itself. Our (then) captain Vimes

seemed to be no different. When we first meet him at the beginning of Guards! Guards!, he is

drunk and in his thoughts, he turns to the city thinking of it as “Woman. Roaring, ancient,

centuries old. Strung you along, let you fall in (…) love, with her, then kicked you (in) teeth.”

(5-6). Later, when the watchmen are discussing their captain, corporal Nobbs repeats a notion

of sergeant Colon, that Vimes “was brung low by a Woman.” (GG, 72). Of course, we can still

assume that it was a living woman, one Mavis Trouncer could be a possible candidate, as

when Vimes is having a near-death experience and his life is flashing in front of his eyes, his

last thought is whether he can “skip the bit with Mavis Trouncer…” (Thud!, 416). Perhaps

there is a slim chance that she was the woman who brought Vimes low, but it is unlikely, as it

is the sole instance where her name is mentioned, in a different book and without context why

the memory connected to her is unpleasant. If she truly was the Woman with a capital “W”

Colon spoke of, her presence would be more pronounced.

Over the course of the novel, Vimes’ attitude change towards the city and he begins to take

more active stance towards the events that are happening in it. Leverett illustrates it on his

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multiple declarations of the city: “As he becomes more willing to accept the mantle of a hero,

his declarations become more powerful, deliberate and assured” (161). Later, when met with

lady Ramkin, his expression mirrors his opening scene, however, where once the city was

a woman, now, “the woman was a city” (GG, 410). And much like Campbell remarks in his

work in the chapter of Meeting with the Goddess, this is when the Hero becomes the master

of life, so does Vimes truly takes matters into his own hands.

And while Vimes changes a great deal, Carrot is almost exactly the same at the beginning

of the story as he is at the end, perhaps a little bit wiser about the way the world works. He

could be perhaps thought of as the Catalyst Hero, as regarded by Vogler, or, in the greater

scheme of things, Carrot could be thought of as a Herald, as his arrival could have served as

a foreshadowing of Vimes embarking on his journey, one where he had to battle his own inner

demons (be it the alcohol, or the ever-encompassing passivity).

2.1.5 Tradition versus subversion: What makes Pratchett’s hero?

Based on the discussion in the previous chapter, it may seem that Vimes is the typical,

“Campbellian” run-of-the-mill hero, with “Pratchettian” twists thrown into the work for

the sake of amusement and parody. Perhaps, Vimes could be considered an anti-hero, tragic

figure fighting against his Shadow. However, Haberkon postulated that there is far more

complexity taking place than it can be seem at the first glance, in his opinion, Pratchett

initially mocks the hero-genre to then completely subvert it (319).

The first instance of it according to Haberkon was already mentioned, the hero with

the sword and the birthmark, and unbelievable charisma appearing just before a crisis strikes,

just as it has been foretold, instead of coming to sit on the throne of Ankh-Morpork and

bringing justice to the city, is doing so by patrolling the city with a copper badge and the

living wage of thirty five dollars (GG, 401). In fact, the seemingly destined hero is often at

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the sidelines and what would otherwise be his job in most other stories is left to a former

drunk, with nine months of education that we could refer to as formal if we were very, very

generous. Haberkon even notes that “if anything, Vimes is usually the wrong person in

the wrong place” (334). Yet Vimes still manages to perform the heroic duties and succeed,

mostly through sheer force of will that has been battling his own inner demons for so long

that it has created its own inner watchman that keeps Vimes’ behavior in check. Rana, in her

introduction into the Pratchett’s Discworld, in fact formulated the mantra that Pratchett’s

protagonists, such as Granny Weatherwax or Tiffany Aching, according to her, follow: “This I

choose to do” (7). Vimes is not the hero because the laws of narrative that govern events on

the Discworld made so, he is the hero because he chose to be one. He stumbles and, as

Leverette points out, his heroics do not necessarily lead to immediate victory (as when Vimes

tries to save lady Sybil and nearly gets himself killed in the process (GG, 228)), but it is

exactly through his determination to do what is morally right regardless of the possible

repercussions that makes Vimes who he is (Leverette, 164-165). And through his persistent

effort, he eventually reaches his goal.

The second way of subversion, according to Haberkon, is the setting. Most heroes are set

away from civilization, while Vimes and his companions are policemen, they are

the civilization (330). Yet, at the same time, they are, at least in the beginning of the series,

still set apart from the greater whole of the civilization presented as the biggest city on

the Disc as the group of outcasts that is the Night Watch. Haberkon further cites the work of

Edward James who regards Pratchett as a writer attempting a democratic fantasy (332). Ankh-

Morpork is the only place on the Disc that does not have some sort of a monarch and

the citizens of the city create associations in order to promote welfare of their particular group

which are frequently recognized by the Patrician.

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Furthermore, Simon Dannel in his thesis on the Pratchett’s subversion of the fantasy genre,

notes that the fantastical is often considered as “(a) fragmentation of normal perception,

(used) to deny the sense of order, to insist that logic and order are themselves fantasies”

(Apter in Dannel), Dannel himself emphasizes Pratchett’s representation as that “of

an illogical place, filled with illogical beings, all being very logical.” To illustrate, Dannel

provides the example of a member of the perfectly legal and publicly well-regarded Assassins’

Guild trying to persuade the heads of said Guild to sanction the inhumation8 of the Patrician in

order to restore the monarchy. This proposal is met only with the question whether “Ankh-

Morpork, at this point in time, require a king?” (MaA, 16-17).

Even Vimes’ damsel is not the typical image of the hero’s Lover. He describes lady Sibyl

when they first meet using the image of “toweringly big (…) great chain-mailed, armor-bra’d,

carthorse-riding maidens who swooped down on battlefields and carried off dead warriors on

their cropper to a glorious roistering afterlife (…). Lady Ramkin could have been one of them.

She could have led them. She could have carried off a battalion” (GG, 122). Leverette

connects this image with the “real noble women of the Middle Ages, Sybil is desirable for her

physical strength and social power, not her beauty. To Vimes, who is practical, she is

impressive” (163). However this too fulfills the notion of the Hero and their Lover being part

of a greater whole, as both Samuel and Sybil are “getting on with (their) life while all that

soppy romance stuff had been happening to other people somewhere else” (GG, 167-168).

Sybil much like Vimes is not keen on playing the role expected of her, in this case the damsel

who is usually passively waiting for her hero to arrive or entering an arranged marriage, she

instead focuses her love elsewhere. Nor is she a young naive little girl, the fact of which

actually poses a problem in Night Watch, where her relatively advanced age leads to

complications during the birth of her first child. As Leverette posits, she “rejects both of

8 Their preferred term over assassination.

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the stories given to her – the young romantic and the old maid – and writes her own” (163)

much like the focus of her later affection.

2.2 Vimes versus the OtherAs was already mentioned, the novels of the later Watch series shifted its focus more

towards the exploration of the theme of “Self and Other”. To reiterate, the Other is

a philosophical concept created in the 18th century by the German philosopher Georg Hegel

and used as a way to identify oneself by excluding it from the Other. This could be done for

an individual to identify them from the collective, or to separate two groups of people. (The

Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 1, 76). Throughout history, this concept and the act of

Othering (excluding individuals by labeling them as members of a particular group separate

from the Self or Us, thus alienating them and pushing them from the center of the society to

its fringes (The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, 620)) has been at the heart of

nationalistic and colonialist tendencies (Key Concepts in Political Geography, 332). Fantasy

is often viewed as “concerned with the revealing and exploring the interrelations of the 'I' and

the 'not-I', of self and other” (Jackson in Dannell) and Pratchett used this concept in novels set

in Ankh-Morpork to explore the relationships of its inhabiting races (most notably between

the Dwarfs and the Trolls), factions, as well as relationships with its neighbors (e. g. with

the Klatch Seriphate).

Therefore, in the following chapter, we will explore this concept by, first, examining

the Self of Samuel Vimes as individual and his view of the Other, meaning of the people

around him and the probable causes for his views. Then, we shall center our attention on how

Vimes relates or distances himself from authority both in terms of politics and nobility, as he

became a prominent political figure over the course of his novels as well as an influential

noble. And finally, as the city of Ankh-Morpork is a cosmopolitan place and the Watch has

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under Vimes’ command became quite a diverse organization, we will examine how

the concept of the Other influenced the Watch membership of non-human species,

the representation of women in the Watch and how Vimes himself views the Otherness of

the non-humans in general on the Disc, or in particular in the Watch.

2.2.1 Vimes and others

Self versus Others

If we would sum Vimes’ view of the world in one word, it would be “cynical”, firstly from

the advice of his mentor (Night Watch) and secondly, from the many bitter experiences over

the years as a Watchman which had always led Vimes to seeing the bad side in everyone. He

is of the opinion that “everyone is guilty of something” (FoC, 329) “the possibility that they

were not guilty of anything was one that he didn’t even think worthy of consideration.”

(Jingo, 82). The other reason for such a negative outlook on life is Vimes’ acute awareness of

his own darker side, or as he calls it the Beast (NW, 79). Vimes is prone to quick and violent

outbursts of anger, usually when cruelty and children were involved, perhaps a trait inherited

from the Old Stoneface (a nickname Samuel also came to be called). In most cases, however,

his will prevails – in Man at Arms, the semi-sentient weapon called Gonne suggest Vimes to

use it to combat criminality, yet Vimes eventually (with small assistance from Carrot)

manages to overcome its temptation. In Night Watch, insane serial criminal Carcer goads him

into killing him, thus breaking the law and a promise Vimes gave to his mentor whom Carcer

killed, yet even then Vimes overcomes him and sends him to be tried. And finally, in Thud!,

a dark entity known as the Summoning Dark possesses Vimes during the events of the book,

infecting his mindscape that has, after years of patrolling the city streets, come to appear

exactly like Ankh-Morpork, when he finally unleashes his anger on dwarfs he suspects of

attempting to assassinate his wife and child, only for the Dark to be thwarted by Vimes’ own

inner guardsman, his Guarding Dark who prevents his from killing defenseless old dwarfs

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(Thud!, 428-430). In Night Watch, Vimes notes that the Beast could be a valuable tool if kept

on a leash (501), in Thud!, we finally see the one who holds the leash, for Guarding Dark is

not meant to keep Vimes’ Shadow out, “(He’s) here to keep it in.” (Thud!, 430). The phrase

“Who watches the watchmen?” and its Latin counterpart “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” has

been present in the series from the very beginning (though in a quite mangled form) (GG,

374), until it is answered in a later novel:

‘Who watches the watchmen? Me, Mr. Pessimal.’ ‘Ah, but who watches you, YourGrace?’ said the inspector with a brief little smile. ‘I do that, too. All the time,’ saidVimes. ‘Believe me’

(Thud!, 26)

Vimes’ protection from the darkness is the Watchman and Vimes’ badge which as he notes

is shaped like a shield (NW, 321), but he also notes that not everyone has the same shield and

if such darkness can be hiding inside of him, man of the law, how can he expect others, whose

job is not to literally uphold the law, to battle their own inner darkness, leaving it waiting for

the right moment to strike, when their shield weakens. And his job as a Watchman does not

bring much evidence speaking to the contrary. There, he sees the worst humanity has to offer,

people like Carcer who do not bother with keeping a shield in the first place, or people who

“burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality” (GG, 298). How can

he not see the rest of us, the Other, with anything but mistrust and cynicism?

Vimes’ Vices

Vimes’ cynicism has been often portrayed in the novels as a state of utter sobriety under

the explanation of most people making their own natural alcohol to be able to survive living

their lives full of contradictions and moments of unfairness. However, Vimes is among

the few people who are unable to make their own inner alcohol, in fact “The Watch was

generally of the opinion that Samuel Vimes was at least two drinks under par, and needed

a stiff double even to be sober” (MaA, 240). To counter this state of utter sobriety, or

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“knurdness” (GG, 301), Vimes has become a drunk by his own admission, as he would have

had to be richer to be alcoholic (The Fifth Elephant (TFE), 257). Murray, in his thesis on the

character of Vimes, uses Vimes’ addictions as a metaphor, positing he is unable to perceive

and cope with the world in other way than through the “corrective lens of the bottom of

a bottle” (59). As Vimes, however, gained more confidence during the incident with the

dragon, he eventually sobered up, though there have been occasional relapses during episodes

of depression (MaA, 227). After he married Sybil, he quit drinking altogether, though he still

occasionally reaches into his drawer in moments of stress out of old habit (FoC, 289-290) and

he apparently visits meetings of the Discworld equivalent of Alcoholics Anonymous (FoC,

319). Luckily, his servant is somehow capable to prepare cocktails that offer all the required

effects of alcoholic beverage without a drop of alcohol in it (Snuff, 33-34). His replacement

vice were cigars he started to smoke as a promise to his wife for not touching alcohol, though

he had to eventually give it up too, at least in the house, probably for his infant son’s health

sake. On these occasions, he instead has to satisfy his addiction with snuff (Snuff, 31-32).

Should we uphold the metaphor of his addictions being the corrective optics Vimes needs

to view the world and have it make sense, we can infer that him casting them aside is him

finally deciding to rather actively participate on transforming the world to a more bearable

place, than to passively continue having to rely on unhealthy comping mechanisms.

Self and Others

Yet Vimes is not all cynicism, from the books, we know that he also tries to voluntary help

others in whatever small way he is able to. In Man at Arms, he is found to be sending half of

his meager salary to widows and an orphan of deceased watchmen (239). Similarly to his

emotional outburst when confronted with a child-murderer, he despises any form of

classicism and the idea of disposable people, in Feet of Clay, when confronted with

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a perpetrator who unintentionally killed a baby and an old woman and then asked whether

they were important, Carrot notes how lucky he was that commander Vimes was not there

(373). Indeed, Vimes is always trying to look out for the downtrodden, for if the city is

working like a machine, which would be “fine except for the occasional people who got

caught in the wheels” (FoC, 157). In his own way, he showed compassion towards fledgling

students of the Guild of Assassins, for if they were students sent by their teachers to be taught

a lesson in humility, he was in many respects disposed kindly towards them as he ordered his

servant to tend to them after they fell for one of his traps (FoC, 20). This stand in a stark

contrast to his dealing with the more experienced full Guild members who he in the better

case painted pink and tied to a fountain, or put in chains and paid with the assassin’s own

money from the inhumation contract to have him ship to a distant part of the Disc (TFE, 181-

182). In all of the cases, he then took the rest of the money (usually tens of thousands of

dollars) and donated it to charities such as the “Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons” that is

run by his wife (TFE, 182) or the “Widows and Orphans Fund” (FoC, 27).

In Snuff, he takes newbie country policeman Feeney Upshot under his tutelage much like

Keel once took him and like he had to, due to quantum circumstances, do the same for his

younger self. He saw a young boy being perhaps unwittingly an accomplice to crime through

his incompetence. Yet Vimes realized the boy only lacked direction, someone to show him

the way how a true policeman should behave as no one had done so until then.

2.2.2 Vimes and authority

Even before becoming quite and important political player, Vimes had plenty of opinions

on politicians and other people of power. His topic of most importance is, for obvious reasons,

the idea of monarchy which he speaks of in terms of a “hereditary disease” (Haberkon, 333).

And time and time again his views are justified by the events occurring around him. There

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were at least three unsuccessful attempts to re-establish monarchy in Ankh-Morpork, each

only lead to innocent people being killed in the process. He managed to maintain a great deal

of his anti-authoritarian attitude despite becoming a great authority, feat that Vetinari

describes as “practically zen” (FoC, 275). Vimes openly despises any symbols of wealth or

high position, especially when he is forced to wear them, he harbors particular feelings of

loathing for golden armors and feathered helmets. He has therefore become quite inventive in

the various means of disposing of them or rendering them otherwise unusable. Yet, he is still

aware that he no longer represents only himself and submits to wearing them when

the situation demands it (NW, 11-12). Neither is he especially fond of his various titles, which

by the end of the series comprise of the impressive “His Excellency His Grace the Duke of

Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, Lord of Ramkin

Estate, Blackboard Monitor9, King of the River” (Snuff, 41) as he personally thinks of Duke as

a job description and insists on being addressed as commander by most of his subordinates,

with Mr. Vimes being reserved for a select few, usually long-serving members of the Watch or

others who had fought alongside him(Thud!, 262), or at least on some occasion saved his life,

such as A. E. Pessimal (Thud!, 317). His titles may have allowed him to enter the noble

circles as one of their equals, yet this only deepened his disdain for nobles as “the women

made his head ache and the men made his fists itch” (MaA, 35) The only instances when he

demanded his title to be recognized were when the vocative “Mister Vimes” was used to

“remind” him of his common origins by another member of nobility (Jingo, 34).

When it came to diplomacy, his diplomatic prowess, (read: “threatening the ambassador

directly with personal harm should his army cross the river by, quote: “sending him home in

9 It would not be Pratchett if the seemingly out of place title of the “Blackboard Monitor” had not carrieda great importance, in this case with Dwarfs who believe that words are sacred as the world was, accordingto their ideology, written and when one is given the ability to erase them, they are given a great power overthe world. (Thud!, 185). Vimes actually becomes a sort of boogeyman figure for dwarfs, especiallyfollowing his victory over the Summoning Dark that has left him carrying the brand of it on his wrist. (Snuff,163).

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an ambulance”) (TFE, 29)” led to an army threatening the country’s borders to pull back so

far so as to threaten to invade a completely different country. This Vimes’ no-nonsense

attitude towards negotiating only made Vetinari employ him in further diplomatic procedures

(TFE, 29). He was greatly opposed of the idea of wars being the “continuation of democracy”

especially now that, being part of the city’s nobility, he saw the diplomatic corps continuing to

enjoy life of luxury and civility even from the supposed enemies, while there were armies

preparing to attack one another (Jingo, 202).

Among his personal philosophies appertains the opinion that when people are trying to kill

him it means he must be doing something right, mostly “annoying the rich and arrogant

people who ought to be annoyed” (NW, 10). This does not mean, however, that he would be

idly waiting for a member of the Assassin’s Guild, as the Watch headquarters and his home

are beset by various traps designed for maximum humiliation of the attempted assassin (NW,

9-10). In the early days, he bought a shaving mirror warped in such a way that instead of

having a good look at his face, he had a perfect view of situation behind him (FoC, 12). After

he was dubbed the Duke of Ankh, Vimes was deemed too important for the smooth working

of the city and in turn, the Guild no longer accepted inhumation contracts on his head. Vimes’

first thought was whether he could be allowed to appeal to this decision, to still be ensured

about the correctness of his actions (NW, 11).

Even once he was engaged to lady Sybil and was offered more luxurious lifestyle than his

current one, he still refused, for example, when his wife-to-be offered to buy him new shoes

so that he would not have to make replacement soles for his current ones out of cardboard, he

was even offended by the offer. In fact, based on his experiences with the way the rich

population of Ankh-Morpork lived, Vimes even formulated his own Theory of Socioeconomic

Unfairness, which shall be presented in its entirety:

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The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed tospend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A reallygood pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which weresort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out,cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore untilthe soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy nightby the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fiftydollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, whilea poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars onboots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

Men at Arms, 36-37

However, after he himself become nobility, though not by marriage, but by his promotion

to the position of Commander of the Watch, he acquiesced to some features of the noble

lifestyle, yet he still preferred his boots having thin soles and under no circumstance would he

allowed himself to be shaved by another person, as he claimed “he’d spent too many years

trudging the night-time streets to be happy about anyone else wielding a blade anywhere near

his neck” (FoC, 13). Though the real reason was that his egalitarian worldview clashed with

the notion that he is someone to be cared for, to give in to the idea that the world is divided

into “those who shave and those who are shaved” (FoC, 13). In Vimes’ eyes, everyone is

equal and thus should be treated equally. He would be happy to invite his personal steward

Willikins to share a drink with him with the only thing preventing it from happening is

Willikins’ own adherence to his code of stewardship, but on the other hand, “well, obviously

a sergeant wasn’t as equal as a captain and a captain wasn’t as equal as a commander” (Snuff,

33).

2.2.3 Vimes and diversity

...of race

Many fantasy worlds boast a high degree of diversity in terms of sentient races, often with

their disagreements or even all-out hostilities, Discworld is no exception, it is home to myriad

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of species from the (near)humans such as dwarfs, orcs or goblins, to the more inhuman in

terms of appearance, e. g. living boulders of trolls or more sculpted gargoyles, the differently

alive zombies, vampires, werewolves and the like, or even artificial sentience in the form of

golems and to a lesser extent (in terms of artificiality, not sentience), Igors – the ever-present,

stitched-together henchmen of vampire clans and other evil masterminds. In most fantasy

settings, these races would be occupying their own domains throughout the world, however,

here, representatives of all of these races can be found living in the relatively small area of

the twin city, having to coexist with one another. Washington also posits that Pratchett

endowed these races with their typical characteristics found in most other novels, including

prejudices against each other, yet he also adds his own “twists”10 (65).

Which results in situations of “us versus them” where the groups in conflict are not

“people” of different color, but of a different species. In fact, so much so, that racism as we

know it from our world barely exists on Discworld and even then mostly in terms of

nationalism (as is the case in Jingo), for humans, speciesism is far more interesting. “Black

and white get along in perfect harmony and gang up on green” (Witches Abroad, 146). That

does not mean, however, that Pratchett had not addressed this issue in his books, as Gibson,

who studied the topic of multiculturalism extensively in the book Terry Pratchett’s Narrative

Worlds, notes, captain Quirke who is the commander of the Day Watch “voices many of

the most typical comments made by British racists” (63). As the Narrator points out “Quirke

was the kind of man to whom it comes naturally to pronounce the word negro with two gs”

(MaA, 254).

Still, Quirke’s disdain in not exclusive to those of different color, as constable Angua

observes following one of his comments on dwafs: “although words like halfpint and

10 Such as the brains of trolls operating exactly like a computer that requires cooling, meaning the higher theambient temperature, the lower their intelligence, leading to the prejudice of trolls’ perceived stupidity(MaA, 221-222).

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gritsucker were offensive, they were as terms of universal brotherhood compared to words

like “people of their type” in the mouth of men like Quirke” (MaA, 255-256). Nor the Night

Watch is without its “resident racist” in the form of sergeant Colon, who Pratchett describes as

“(being) to the School of My Dad Always Said, the College of It Stands to Reason, and was

now a postgraduate student at the University of What Some Bloke In the Pub Told Me”

(Jingo, 44). However, Gibson emphasizes Pratchett’s use of corporal Nobbs, Colon’s patrol

partner and inseparable sidekick, who always deconstructs bigoted and often contradicting

opinions of his superior (63). Gibson further states Pratchett’s avoidance of portraying his

protagonists as openly and irreversibly bigoted, they may at times spout something bigoted,

but then immediately provide proof of a much greater understanding of the topic (62).

At the start of the series, the Watch is exclusively staffed by humans, gradually, over

the course of the series, more and more races come to be members of its ranks, some due to

various diversity outreach programs mandated by the Patrician, always much to the chagrin of

Vimes, in Men at Arms, the Night Watch is forced to admit its first dwarf, troll and werewolf

members, while the werewolf was also Watch’s first female. Vimes only agreed to this

mandate since he was supposed to retire from the Watch by the end of the week. Thus,

the situation would no longer be his problem noting, however, that he was not a speciesist,

only perhaps old-fashioned in thinking that the Watch was a men’s job (MaA, 26). Eventually,

each of the new members show their worth and present their unique skills that work toward

betterment of the Watch. Showing the development of his character, in the following novel,

a dwarf is recruited into the newly merged City Watch, with only merit required is being

an alchemist – another skill so far sorely lacking in the Watch, the dwarf is even surprised by

Vimes’ knowledge of the different Überwaldic dwarf clans (FoC, 30). In Vimes’ own words

on the subject: “I can’t say I like dwarfs much, Littlebottom. But I don’t like trolls or humans

either, so I suppose that’s OK (…) If troll officers call you a grit-sucker they’re out, and if you

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call them rocks you’re out.” (FoC, 31-32). He, despite his own misgivings of others, wants to

give his recruits a fair chance to prove themselves regardless of their species based only on

their skills and the content of their character, and will ensure they will receive the same

treatment from the rest of the Watch, perhaps in hopes that Vetinari assurances were correct, if

the Watch shows that the species of Ankh-Morpork can cooperate, maybe the rest of the city

will be more open to the idea of doing the same (MaA, 5).

…of gender

Having mentioned sergeant Littlebottom, during the events of her inaugural novel, she not

only spearheaded an entire forensic division, she also openly revealed herself to be female,

being the first ever dwarf to do so, due to rather complicated nature of dwarf perception of

gender, suffice to say, dwarf language has no female pronouns (TFE, 52), earning much ire

from her dwarf colleagues, even including captain Carrot, who had been in all other cases

incredibly open-minded (FoC, 277), yet when encountered with Vimes, all he ever felt to note

was that she is wearing eye shadows, mascara and lipstick (FoC, 227) and later on, that she

had grew taller as she was wearing high heels (FoC, 348) though some of it was also due to

his own confusion over the unexpected behavior. When taken his behavior into account with

his knowledge on Überwaldic dwarfs, one would assume he is fully aware of the implications

that stem from the actions of his new recruit.11

The other members of the Watch itself are a bit more complicated matter, as observed by

sergeant Angua, when she was discussing the issue of gender with Cheri:

“You can be any sex you like provided you act male. There’s no men and women in theWatch, just a bunch of lads. You’ll soon learn the language. Basically it’s how much beeryou supped last night, how strong the curry was you had afterwards, and where you were

11 Another interesting thing to note, Cheri is in the novel addressed even by the supposed Narrator as Cheery,as it was the name she gave Vimes upon her joining of the Watch. After she “comes out” to Angua, she doesso with a list of names she thought of calling herself. Angua selects the name Cheri (on the account that withthat many barely literate people in the city, no one would notice the change, unless she would point it out tothem) (FoC, 254), it also becomes the name she is addressed from that point on in the narration.

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sick. Just think egotesticle. You’ll soon get the hang of it. And you’ll have to be preparedfor sexually explicit jokes in the Watch House. (…) Mind you, that seems to have endednow. (…) After I joined in it all seemed to stop. And, you know, they didn’t laugh? Noteven when I did the hand gestures too? I thought that was unfair. Mind you, some of themwere quite small gestures.”

This sentiment is also extended to the way members of the Watch are being addressed

uniformly as Watchmen with only one exception in Feet of Clay, (305). Perhaps when Vimes

proclaimed “Watch was a job for men,” (MaA, 26), he was not speaking generally of humans.

...embraced?

Even the original diversity outreach program forced upon Vimes by Vetinari was extended

over the Night Watch only, perhaps due to the bigoted nature of captain Quirke not allowing it

in Day Watch, or the still not completely salvaged reputation of the Night Watch, with Vimes

about to retire and thus more willing to let it happen, or perhaps due to the fact that as

members of Night Watch, these new recruits would not have to “appear” among the city’s

population during the day, lessening the impact of the outreach program on the rather

speciesist populace. Still, one must wonder whether it all was not the intention of

the Patrician, as he is known to be a skilled manipulator and having taken all of the above into

consideration in order to promote Ankh-Morpork as a truly cosmopolitan city.

By the end of the series, the Watch had sworn in members of almost every race living in

Ankh-Morpork and each race came to fill in a valuable role – Gargoyles can be found all

around the city, making them an ideal informants and witnesses, werewolf Angua is her own

K9 unit, even in her human form her sense of smell is far better than that of any other member

of the Watch, which allows her to provide additional pieces of information that would not

otherwise be found, gnome Buggy Swires is, thanks to his small body, so light he can serve as

a fast aerial unit, Igor is a skilled medic able to provide his unmatched skills even under less

than optimal conditions and the list could go on.

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Still, Vimes proclaimed his dislike for these and other undead races, as their nature

prohibited a policeman to effectively subdue them when necessary. Vampires were among

the last to be admitted, again with many Vimes’ protests, even though the vampire in question

is a member of a group of abstinent vampires called League of Temperance. Dannell links this

mistrust to a Vimes’ own problem with abstinence, citing Vimes’ meeting with another

member of said League: “‘One bite would be one too many?’ said Vimes. He recognized

the mangled mantra,” (TFE, 314). Of course he recognizes the mantra, as he himself visits

abstinence meetings and surely recites a similar saying. However, even this prejudice was

eventually overcome, as constable von Humpeding proved her ability to turn into a swarm of

bats and scout areas ahead, her superhuman strength and sensing the presence of the living to

be a valuable assets to the working of the Watch, to even have Vimes overlook the fact she

was sent to originally spy on the Watch and him (Thud!, 464). In fact, the Watch under Vimes’

command had become the most racially diverse organization in Ankh-Morpork, second only

to the Post Office which employs golems as their workforce, with the “minorities”

represented even in high command positions of the Watch – there are werewolf and possibly

vampire captains12, a female dwarf founds and manages the forensics department, a troll

becomes the best drill sergeant Watch ever had, also leading to the great renown of the Ankh-

Morpork trained Watchmen. And Vimes is always supporting every one of them, there is

a saying in the Watch: “When your back’s against the wall, Mister Vimes is right behind you”

(TFE, 135).

However, Watch is where most of Vimes’ tolerance begins and ends. He is not above

knowingly appearing at a meeting of highly religious and overzealous dwarf fundamentalists

with a troll and an openly female dwarf – both instances of a complete affront to their entire

12 There are conflicting sources. Judgment Day: Science on Discworld states that Sally von Humpedingmanaged to reach the rank of captain, skipping the ranks in-between (198), however, novels themselvesnever refer to her promotion.

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worldview (TFE, 196), or making said troll a cultural attaché to said fundamentalist dwarfs

(TFE, 289). He openly fights against any organization that tries to promote one race, such as

the Campaign for Equal Heights (FoC, 329), claiming “Just because someone’s a member of

an ethnic minority doesn’t mean they’re not a nasty small-minded little jerk” (FoC, 329).

Yet he still makes no distinctions when a member of an ethnic minority becomes the victim

of a crime. Even when the victim belongs to a race that is generally being perceived as a pest

rather than a person, i. e. goblins, he still wishes to investigate it and punish those responsible.

One possible explanation for this could be what he had learned when he was as a small child

terrified of a picture of a smiling goblin, only for his teacher to tell him to look closer and

explain “I hear that they are wretched, badly made mortals. Half-finished folk, or so I hear.

It’s only a blessing this one had something to be jolly about” (Snuff, 199). In other words, he

was told to confront one of his biggest childhood fears and realize there is more to

the perceived monster than meets the eye at first, “Stare it down and it lost all its power to

frighten” (Snuff, 199).

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ConclusionThis thesis was meant to explore the two major themes of the Watch series of Discworld

novels written by Terry Pratchett. The themes in question, the Monomyth otherwise known as

the hero’s journey and the concept of the Self and the Other, were viewed from

the perspective of the series’ protagonist and the Commander of the Watch, Samuel Vimes.

Pratchett does work with the features and concepts of the monomyth when crafting the life

story of Samuel Vimes, their use is, however, overshadowed by their far more blatant all-too-

perfect hero Carrot Ironfoundersson, where Carrot’s obvious flouting of the Campbellian hero

archetype masks the progression of the real hero of the stories. And all that is covered further

still under a thick layer of humor and parody. The image of the myth is there, but, as with

everything on the Discworld, or with all of the Pratchett’s work for that matter, the image is

distorted (and it looks like it is sticking its tongue at you).

Pratchett had created a new kind of hero, one who does not come to save the civilization

from without, but one who works to make the civilization better by being an inseparable part

of it – a police officer. Their tools are no longer swords, but the laws. Pratchett’s hero will not

save the day because it was foretold by a prophecy or destiny, or because they are descended

from a special line of ancient heroes, they will save the day because they believe it is the right

thing to do and they will do their very best to make it so. Even when they are not saving

the day, they nevertheless strive to make the world a better place by performing small acts of

kindness, offering encouragement, counsel, or help to those who would otherwise find none.

For the people around them, they provide an example to follow or an ideal to strive towards.

As for Samuel Vimes dealing with the unknown, he views others with mistrust, but only

because he does not fully trust himself. However, from a young age he learned that

the unknown is only temporarily not understood. He may appear distrustful, cynical,

70

conservative even prejudiced, but once he learns the Other can be trusted, he will gladly make

it a part of the Self.

71

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