NINDYA YUNITA ARDYANI

16020154035 – 2016 A
Intrinsic Approaches to Literature

The Hero’s Journey Analysis of the Movie Ever After

Ever After is an updated adaptation of the classic fairytale, Cinderella. The movie is about
a beautiful young woman named Danielle who is forced to live like a maid after the death of her
father. Danielle’s stepmother makes her doing all kinds of work start from cleaning until cooking,
while she tries to marry off her own two daughters. But Danielle’s life takes a wonderful turn when
she meets the charming Prince Henry. They fall in love to each other, but their love journey does
not work very well. But just like how Cinderella ends up with her Prince, so does Danielle. She is
married to Prince Henry and live happily ever after.
A popular form of structure derived from Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth from his book
The Hero With A Thousand Faces. This analysis will mainly talk about the hero of the story’s
journey until h/she reaches their final ending. There are 12 stages according to Campbell, and 3
main acts, the ordinary world, the special world, and back again to the ordinary world. The 12
stages of The Hero’s Journey in the movie Ever After will be explained below:
1. The Ordinary World: After Danielle’s father passed away, she is forced to live as a maid, she
cooks, cleans, and does all the housework for her stepmother and her two stepsisters.
2. Call To Adventure: Danielle meets Prince Henry while he tries to steal one of her horses, she
keeps hitting him without knowing that he is a prince.
3. Refusal: -
4. Meeting The Mentor: Danielle meets the replacement of the fairy godmother, a historical
male Leonardo Da Vinci
5. Crossing The Threshold: Danielle keeps on bumping into the Prince and she does not tell the
Prince who she actually is, she fakes her identity using her mother’s name.
6. Tests, Allies, Enemies: Danielle’s stepmother knows that she is close with the prince and the
stepmother plans to marry Marguerite, Danielle’s stepsister with the prince.
7. Approach To The Inmost Cave: Danielle is locked in her room after she is caught by her
stepmother. Her stepmother lies to the prince saying that Danielle has married another man
and moved away.
8. Ordeal: Danielle shows up in the prince’s party, and her stepmother tells everyone at the party
that Danielle is a liar, and that she is actually a maid who pretends to be a noble woman
9. Reward (Seizing The Sword): -
10. The Road Back: Danielle comes back home as a maid and she works tearfully. She is then
sold to a wicked man by her bad stepmother.
11. Resurrection: Danielle has to save herself from the man who buys her from her stepmother
12. Return With The Elixir: Danielle is safe and she meets again with Prince Henry and they get
married.