Identity versus Essence

At the RWA National convention, I attended a Michael Hauge workshop and it really opened my eyes to the intricacies of character arc in a story. Hauge, author of many books such as Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds and The Hero's 2 Journeys, dissected major movies and showed the main character's journey to self discovery. In the beginning of the story, your character is living in what Hauge refers to as their "Identity." This is how the outside world perceives them and the face they put on for the outside world. It is who they believe they have to be in order to survive in their world. Hague calls their inner dreams, who they really desire to be, their "Essence." In a story which ends happily, the hero is able to step out of their Identity, the mask they're wearing to survive in the world, and live fully in their Essence, who they truly want to be. It is the basic, universal character arc. In situations involving love triangles, one competing lover represents the hero's Essence while the other the hero's Identity. I thought this was brilliant and I've been dissecting movies this past week to see how this concept holds up. Here are some movies I've found to hold true. The first is Titanic which is the example Hauge gave during his workshop:

Titanic
Rose is a high-class woman who is supposed to marry the rich, society man (identity). She falls in love with Jack who is fun-loving, adventure-seeking, and lives by the seat of his pants (essence) but is poor. In the end, she gives up her identity of the wealthy heiress to live a life full of adventure and fun like Jack lived his life.

Chasing Amy
Alyssa is a lesbian (identity) who falls in love with a man. She gives up her identity (lesbian) when she admits that she has fallen in love with a man (essence—her reason for being a lesbian was that she didn't want to limit to field to just men to find her true love, so her dream was finding one person to love). Unfortunately, Holden, the man she has fallen in love with, can't let his identity (not that sexually experienced) go and live in his essence (loving someone despite their past).

Kill Bill
The Bride is a contract killer (identity) and when she becomes pregnant she decides to live a "normal" life and become a mom, providing a safe environment to raise her child (essence). Unfortunately, before she can fully live in her essence (giving up her life as a killer), she must use her identity to seek revenge and eventually get back her daughter in order to live in her essence.

Hairspray
Tracy Turnblad does not look like the other girls who dance on the Corny Collins Show—she's pleasantly plump, slightly nerdy, and from a lower class white neighborhood with a pair of odd parents (identity). However, that doesn't stop her from making others overcome their prejudices (against her weight and against her black dance partners and friends) and to become a favorite dancer on the show and pave the way for integration in 1960s Baltimore (essence).

Now I'm applying it to my recent story and since I'm in the beginning of my WIP, it has been really helpful to plan out my characters' development. See if it works for your story!