Journal of the stylistic of Persian poem and prose
volume Number 19، number In Volume 4، July 2026 ، issue Number 122

The Forty-Day Journey as an Archetype of Purification: A Narrative Structure Analysis of the Play Sabz, Sohrab, Sorkh Based on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey

Ava Kazemi , Vida Dastmalchi (Author in Charge), Rahman Moshtaqmehr

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Sabz, Sohrab, Sorkh (Green, Sohrab, Red) by Mohammad-Baqer Nabati Moghaddam is a modern rewriting of the tragedy of Rostam and Sohrab. By shifting the climactic moment (Sohrab’s death) to the very beginning of the play, the author creates a non-linear, symbolic structure. This study aims to analyze the archetypal pattern of Rostam’s forty-day journey carrying Sohrab’s corpse, based on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey and Carl Gustav Jung’s archetypes. The central research question is: to what extent does this journey align with Campbell’s classical model, and how do its inversions relate to a critique of power and the redefinition of redemption in the contemporary world?

METHODOLOGY: This qualitative, basic-theoretical research employs a directed content analysis method. Primary data is drawn from the full text of the play; secondary data comes from authoritative theoretical sources (works by Jung and Campbell, as well as relevant scholarly articles). Analysis proceeded in three stages: initial coding, classification based on the archetypal framework, and inductive interpretation.

FINDINGS: Rostam’s journey reproduces the three-stage structure of Campbell’s “Departure, Initiation, Return,” yet each stage undergoes a fundamental inversion. The call to adventure is catastrophic; the supernatural aid is deceptive; “atonement with the father” leads to rejection and violence; “apotheosis” transforms into the emergence of an instrumentalized hero; and the “master of two worlds” becomes a “wanderer of two worlds.” Jungian archetypes – the Shadow in the figures of the disheveled grave-digger and the false Rostam, the Anima in the seductive woman (offering wine), the Wise Old Man in the final elderly man – each play a role in Rostam’s incomplete process of individuation. The number forty also represents the archetype of mystical Chella-nashini (forty‑day seclusion), yet instead of leading to divine union (visāl) and light, it results in the “acceptance of immutable blackness.”

CONCLUSION: Through the systematic inversion of archetypal patterns, the play offers a fundamental critique of authoritarian power. In the world of politics, the hero is not only defeated but also betrayed by the very system he serves. Redemption in this world is redefined not as “triumph over evil,” but as “the conscious acceptance of suffering and darkness.” The ultimate boon is transferred from the hero to the spectator, who is called upon to abandon passivity and move toward truth.

Keyword
Sabz , Sohrab , Sorkh , Play , Hero’s Journey , Archetype , Jung , Campbell , Critique of Power , Chella-nashini