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:''This article discusses significance-laden journeys. For other meanings see Quest (disambiguation)'' In mythology and literature, a quest, a journey towards a goal, serves as a plot device and (frequently) as a symbol.〔http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quest〕 Quests appear in the folklore of every nation〔Josepha Sherman, ''Once upon a Galaxy'' p 142 ISBN 0-87483-387-6 〕 and also figure prominently in non-national cultures. In literature, the objects of quests require great exertion on the part of the hero, and the overcoming of many obstacles, typically including much travel. The aspect of travel also allows the storyteller to showcase exotic locations and cultures (an objective of the narrator, not of the character).〔Michael O. Riley, Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum, p 178-9, ISBN 0-7006-0832-X 〕 ==Quest objects== The hero normally aims to obtain something or someone by the quest, and with this object to return home.〔 W. H. Auden, "The Quest Hero", ''Understanding the Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism'', p35 ISBN 0-618-42253-6〕 The object can be something new, that fulfills a lack in his life, or something that was stolen away from him or someone with authority to dispatch him.〔Vladimir Propp, ''Morphology of the Folk Tale, p 36, ISBN 0-292-78376-0〕 Sometimes the hero has no desire to return; Sir Galahad's quest for the Holy Grail is to find it, not return with it. A return may, indeed, be impossible: Aeneas quests for a homeland, having lost Troy at the beginning of Virgil's ''Aeneid,'' 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, he may face false heroes who attempt to pass themselves off as him,〔Vladimir Propp, ''Morphology of the Folk Tale'', p60, ISBN 0-292-78376-0 〕 or his initial response may be a rejection of that return, as Joseph Campbell describes in his critical analysis of quest literature, ''The Hero With a Thousand Faces''. If someone dispatches the hero on a quest, the overt reason may be false, with the dispatcher actually sending him on the difficult quest in hopes of his death in the attempt, or in order to remove him from the scene for a time, just as if the claim were sincere, except that the tale usually ends with the dispatcher being unmasked and punished.〔Vladimir Propp, ''Morphology of the Folk Tale'', p77 ISBN 0-292-78376-0〕 Stories with such false quest-objects include the legends of Jason and Perseus, the fairy tales ''The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird'', ''Go I Know Not Whither and Fetch I Know Not What'', and the story of Beren and Lúthien in J. R. R. Tolkien's ''Silmarillion''. The quest object may, indeed, function only as a convenient reason for the hero's journey. Such objects are termed MacGuffins. When a hero is on a quest for several objects that are only a convenient reason for his journey, they are termed plot coupons. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「quest」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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