The archetypal hero
Heroes are people who use their resources to better their community or to establish a community. In Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces an argument is made that, although various cultures have expressed the hero's journey in many different costumes, highlighting many different morals depending on the culture, at their core, he sees that they are all pointing to the same aspects of heroism. Broadly, a hero is someone who goes out of their comfort zone to endure a series of trials, often at great personal cost. This person often returns to share a bounty with their community.
The dragon to be slain
In Western mythology, especially European mythology, dragons are often archetypal symbols, highlighting greed and desire. Campbell notices that they typically hoard gold and women, signs for desire, but without being able to make use of either of those. A dragon is often a symbol for some kind of systemic injustice, like the injustice of viewing women as possessions (a mistake that a chivalrous knight would never imagine). By slaying the dragon, the heroic knight accomplishes his destiny.
The symbolic wilderness
Society, says Campbell, is arranged and orderly. Although humans have a tremendous amount of potential, their society often shapes them and places restrictions on their nature. Therefore, the hero must travel into the symbolic wilderness to harness his full potential. The wilderness is the domain for what Jung called the integration of one's dark side, or shadow self. Campbell nods to Jung's theory here, observing that a hero must often learn unpleasant truths about their own nature.
Marriage and the union of opposites
The symbol of marriage and the union of opposites is often the goal or finish line for a hero's adventure. The union of opposites is observed in the book with a respect that verges on religious mysticism. Marriage constitutes a hero's symbolic arrival at manhood or womanhood, because the community is supporting them in their own creation of life. Campbell observes that marriage is often the symbol for plot resolution.
Magic weaponry
Heroes are often endowed with symbolic weaponry, usually with magical origins and powers that speak to the intrinsic power of the hero. In Lucas's Star Wars, Lucas develops Campbell's theory by giving light sabers to the magical jedi, but the motif goes back in time to the origins of myth. Arthur has Excalibur. Even the gods and kings of ancient Mesopotamian folklore, some of the earliest stories on the planet, have named magic weaponry with the same symbolism. The motif is an important part of many other mythologies too, including Nordic and Greek myths.
