Rapunzel

               Tonight I was watching a television show and the main plot was about fighting a face-less ("inivisble") figure in order to save the "princess" (the damsel in distress, the reward, etc). So, following the tale of Rapunzel, the knight goes up her tower in order to save the screaming princess, but when he gets up there he sets off an alarm that brings a cloaked figure. The knight tries to fight the face-less figure off, but he ultimately fails. When the knight starts to fall (physically and figuratively) to the ground, he catches the hem of the cloak and rips it off, only to reveal that under the cloak is the princess as well. The same princess, wearing the same thing, in the same place, at the same time, and then it hits him: the enemy is themselves. In the alternate universe, the prince who is going through a period of vulnerability, encounters the cloaked figure again (this time himself) and realizes to kill the monster he would have to come to terms with his weaknesses.

               It was supposed to symbolize the creation of fear and how, in the end, the only fear that exists is fear itself. In other words, the only thing that stops someone from completing a journey is themselves, making "the self" the antagonist along with the protagonist at the same time.  In IM, the main character has this moment as well when he realizes that his fears let other people manipulate his identity as a person. And though he would like to blame someone -- Bledsoe, Brother Jack, etc -- it was his willingness of giving away who he is to other people, in fear, that he got corrupted.

               Along with Invisible Man, I think that this occurs more in Hamlet. Hamlet's father is seen, in a lot of different perspectives, as himself. There are even interpretations that his father does not even exist at all; It is just his subconscious speaking to him. So when he creates a boiling need for revenge, created by the fear his father's words won't be fulfilled, he never conquers his fears. If the interpretation is correct, he never came to terms with his weaknesses and never conquered his vulnerabilities, and ended up destroying himself.

               This theme is still in modern culture. In Harry Potter, Harry Potter is LITERALLY connected to Voldemort, making their souls apart of each other. Harry Potter, in a more literal sense, had to go through this theme. He had to get rid of his weaknesses such as death, loss of loved ones, etc, in order to destroy the part of himself that was trying to ruin his life journey. The part that stitched him and Voldemort together wasn't a symbol of strength, it was Voldemort's weakness. So of course, he had to conquer a part of himself, which contained his fears, in order to finish his task a hero.