The Heroic Journey In Tessa Hadley's Short Story 'Valentine'

What’s the most common type of character in literary history? The hero. Without heroes, fictional universes--and the real world--would not be able to change for the better. Whatever form the villain may take in a story, the evil would always come out victorious if not for the one(s) willing to take a stand against the darkness. Joseph Campbell took notice of this cultural phenomenon and distilled the common points in a hero’s journey to twelve main events that can be cyclical. By establishing her normal life, beginning the departure from her normal life, facing a crisis during her journey, and receiving a treasure at the end of the story that will change her status quo, Stella, from Tessa Hadley’s short story “Valentine,” assumes the hero’s

In this section of the character’s arc, the reader becomes familiar with the “crucial details about [the] [h]ero, his true nature, capabilities and outlook on life” (Bronzite). At the beginning of “Valentine”, Stella is standing with her best friend Madeleine. They are waiting for the school bus that will take them to their all-girl high school on a summer day in the 1970s. Their conversation is laced with exchanges that are “rococo with insincerity, drawling, [and] lascivious” (Hadley 31). She considers her homelife stale and only temporary as she waits for her actual life to commence. She compares herself to Alice from “Alice in Wonderland” after eating the cake: “head swollen with knowledge and imagination, body swollen with sensation and longing” (Hadley 32). These details suggest that Stella is currently accustomed to her normal life, and she is looking to take any leap she can that will get her off of the slowly sinking ship that is her everyday life. As a result, the story has made the reader aware of the important details of Stella’s everyday life and her

The reward can be “an object of great importance or power, a secret, greater knowledge or insight, or even reconciliation with a loved one or ally” (Bronzite). Stella’s “reward” is a bit more complicated. The first hint of Stella speaking or writing to somebody else other than the reader is when she says, “And there you are: that night he made love to me, properly--- or more or less properly” (Hadley 50). This seeds the idea that Stella is speaking to her child as that moment was the time the child was conceived and brought into the story she is telling. Since it is apparent that she kept the child, her life would obviously change from this “reward” as taking care of a child would take a great deal or all of an individual’s effort. Stella at first thought she could return home and go back to school; she would return to her old life. However, she reflects, “But I wasn’t that clever, was I? Had I forgotten everything they’d taught us at school? That you only had to do it once, just once, to get into trouble” (Hadley 51). The reward does not just stop at the child, but it extends to making Stella possess a greater sense of responsibility as she cares for her child as well as bringing her greater insight on the lesson about sex taught in school. Although the child will “facilitate [her] return to the Ordinary World” (Bronzite) as her relationship with Valentine falls apart, she will not return the girl she