Deep Diving into Victoria Lynn Schmidt's Heroine Journey
Victoria Lynn Schmidt's heroine's journey diagram is an alternative way to analyze protagonists in films, as opposed to Joseph Campbell's masculine-focused model, while still keeping similar traits. With Schmidt, the female protagonist experiences numerous positive and negative emotions throughout their story, shaping them to become stronger and face their struggles directly. Schmidt starts the heroine's journey with the Illusion of the Perfect World. This initial stage is described as " the heroine's initial state, where she lives in a world she believes is safe and protective, shielded from pain and uncertainty, relying on coping strategies that she believes will work." The illusion blinds the protagonist and has her content with her current situation. However, this thinking all changes after the heroine undergoes the Betrayal phase where she realizes the world is not as perfect as she once thought and is now losing hope. In the Betrayal stage the first...