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Aquest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. It serves as aplot device inmythology andfiction: a difficultjourney towards a goal, oftensymbolic orallegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in thefolklore of every nation[1] andethnic culture.
Inliterature, the object of a quest requires great exertion on the part of thehero, who must overcome many obstacles, typically including much travel. The aspect of travel allows the storyteller to showcase exotic locations and cultures (an objective of the narrative, not of the character).[2] The object of a quest may also havesupernatural properties, often leading the protagonist into other worlds and dimensions. Themoral of a quest tale often centers on the changedcharacter of the hero.
The hero normally aims to obtain something or someone by the quest, and with this object to return home.[3] The object can be something new, that fulfills a lack in their life, or something that was stolen away from them or someone with authority to dispatch them.[4]
Sometimes the hero has no desire to return;Galahad's quest for theHoly Grail is to find it, not return with it. A return may, indeed, be impossible:Aeneas quests for a homeland, having lostTroy at the beginning ofVirgil'sAeneid, and he does not return to Troy to re-found it but settles in Italy (to become an ancestor of the Romans).
If the hero does return after the culmination of the quest, they may facefalse heroes who attempt to pass themselves off as them,[5] or their initial response may be a rejection of that return, asJoseph Campbell describes in his critical analysis of quest literature,The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The quest, in the form of thehero's journey, plays a central role in the monomyth described by Campbell: the hero sets forth from the world of common day into a land of adventures, tests, and magical rewards.
If someone dispatches the hero on a quest, the overt reason may be false, with the dispatcher actually sending them on the difficult quest in hopes of their death in the attempt, or in order to remove them from the scene for a time, but the tale proceeds just as if the claim were sincere, except that the tale usually ends with the dispatcher being unmasked and punished.[6] Stories with such false quest-objects include the legends ofJason andPerseus, the fairy talesThe Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird andGo I Know Not Whither and Fetch I Know Not What, and the story ofBeren and Lúthien inJ. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Silmarillion.
The quest object may, indeed, function only as a convenient reason for the hero's journey. Such objects are termedMacGuffins. When a hero is on a quest for several objects that are only a convenient reason for their journey, they are termedplot coupons.
An early quest story tells the tale ofGilgamesh, who seeks the secret to eternal life after the death of his friendEnkidu. Another ancient quest tale,Homer'sOdyssey, tells ofOdysseus, whom the gods have cursed to wander and suffer for many years beforeAthena persuades theOlympians to allow him to return home. Recovering theGolden Fleece is the object of the travels of Jason and theArgonauts in theArgonautica.Psyche, having lostCupid, hunted through the world for him, and was set tasks byVenus, including a descent into theunderworld.
Many medievalchivalric romances sent knights out on quests. The term "knight-errant" sprang from this, aserrant meant "roving" or "wandering".Thomas Malory collected many quests from theArthurian legend inLe Morte d'Arthur, including that of the eponymousQuesting Beast. The most famous of them — perhaps in all of western literature — is the greatGrail Quest. This tale exists in multiple variants, telling stories both of the heroes who succeed, likePerceval (inWolfram von Eschenbach'sParzival) or Galahad (in theLancelot-Grail), and also the heroes who fail, likeLancelot. Romances often sent their heroes into perilousenchanted forests,[7] where they may achieve their quests.[8] Their aventures are often explained to the knights, particularly those searching for the Grail, byhermits acting aswise old people.[9] So consistently did knights quest thatMiguel de Cervantes set hisDon Quixote on mock quests in a parody of chivalric tales.
Manyfairy tales depict the hero or heroine setting out on a quest, such as inEast of the Sun and West of the Moon where the heroine seeks her husband,The Seven Ravens where the heroine seeks her transformed brothers, orThe Golden Bird where the prince sets out to find the golden bird for his father. Other fairy tale characters may set out with no more definite aim than to "seek their fortune", or even be cast out instead of voluntarily leaving, but learn of something that could aid them along the way and so have their journey transformed from aimless wandering into a quest.[10] While other characters can also set forth on quests — the hero's older brothers commonly do — it is the hero that is distinguished by their success.
Quests continued in modern literature. Analysis can interpret many (perhaps most) stories as a quest in which the main character is seeking smething that they desire,[11] but the literal structure ofaArthurian quests journey seeking something is, itself, still common.
Quests appear in fantasy literature,[12] as inRasselas bySamuel Johnson, orThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz, whereDorothy,Scarecrow (Oz), theTin Woodman, and theCowardly Lion go on a quest for the way back to Kansas, brains, a heart, and courage respectively.[13] Quests also play a major role inRick Riordan's fantasy books, among themPercy Jackson & the Olympians,The Heroes of Olympus, andThe Kane Chronicles, and in dark fantasy novelThe Talisman byStephen King andPeter Straub.
A familiar modern literary quest isFrodo Baggins's quest to destroy theOne Ring in Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings.[14] The One Ring, its baleful power, the difficult method which is the only way to destroy it, and the spiritual and psychological torture it wreaks on its bearer.
