The Hero’s Journey: The Miltonian Satan of the British Epic in Opposition to the Kingian Roland of the American fictional West

Abstract

Summary This article focuses on the concept of “monomyth” or “the hero’s journey”, applied to the character of Satan in the poem Paradise Lost (1667) by John Milton and Roland in the saga of contemporary fiction The Dark Tower (1982-2012) by Stephen King. We observe the peculiarities of these writings, paying special attention to their structures, whose meanings contribute to the creation of the characters and to the way in which the narrative scheme of separation-initiation-return works in both cases.