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RRL Heroism JP
RRL Heroism JP
Heroes are “motivated by a profound respect for human life,” that their vision of
what is possible goes beyond that of others, that they possess great courage,
and that they are not motivated by public opinion.(Polster, 1992) One of the
examples Antigone, from Sophocles’ play Antigone, who at great personal risk to
herself buries the body of her brother Polynices against the wishes of her uncle,
the king. Antigone is a hero here because her driving motivation is respect for her
brother’s life. She knows she must honor this life, even in death.
Polster goes on to note that hero and heroism are words that have long been
associated with men because of the popular focus on physical courage and
strength. Indeed, the word first appeared in Homer’s The Iliad, when the name
was given to all those who had participated in the Trojan Wars and about whom a
story could be told. But, as Carlyle and Campbell both stress, possessing great
moral courage is just as rare and should be honored with as much fervor. For
example, in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Jane displays more moral courage
than anyone in the novel, standing by her friend Charlotte Temple, standing up to
her evil Aunt Reed, refusing to marry St. John Rivers because she is not in love
with him, and returning to the injured Mr. Rochester. Jane’s efforts are
consistently heroic because they affirm life, they are selfless, and they inspire
others to good. In contrast, Henry Fleming’s actions in Stephen Crane’s The Red
Badge of Courage are not so consistent. Fleeing his first battle, Fleming acts only
out of fear. However, when he returns to battle a changed man, Crane seems to
suggest that he is still acting out of fear. He is now motivated by his desire not to
be seen as a coward. Tim O’Brien, author of the Vietnam War novels Going after
Cacciato and The Things They Carried, has asserted that men have killed and
died “because they were afraid not to.”
Harris and Platzner assess that heroines don’t often “go on quests or engage in
combat with monsters or gods”. An evaluation of Ancient Greek sources such as
Euripides’ Hecuba and Iphigenia, suggests that the main role of the female hero
was that of sacrifice. The female heroic figure is excessively seen with this
quality of self sacrifice, such as with Polyxena. Euripides explains that Polyxena
is self-sacrificial in nature for the sake of her people. As Euripides asserts that
through her sacrifice to Achilles, the Greeks were finally able to set out on their
voyage to Troy and the awaiting war. However Polyxena also expresses more
masculine qualities of wishing to obtain her honor and spirit by insisting on dying
with dignity, not as a slave, so she can be a willing sacrifice.
The female heroic character in Greek literature was however more than
sacrificing.. Most female heroic figures also expressed qualities of wisdom,
cunning and dignity. Pomeroy explains that “Aristotle judged it inappropriate for a
female character to be portrayed as manly or clever” but analysis of characters
like Penelope and Nausicaa in the Odyssey, indicates that female heroic figures
could, and did, hold these essentially masculine qualities. Homer explains that
Penelope outwitted her suitors for years by weaving and unraveling a huge web,
displaying a cunning mind and, in so doing, keeping her dignity. Nausicaa also
shows these qualities. Homer explains that she kept her distance from Odysseus,
even when she rescued him, for knowledge of the destructive powers of talk and
never lost her honor. Through this assessment we can see that the concept of
female heroism did exist as evident in the actions and qualities of certain figures
in relation to their portrayal in texts. But this concept of heroism is more passive
in some respects to the male literary heroes, their quests and obviously heroic
actions.
According to Roger Sales this much is true about the heroism of our century,
and it is probably truer of our century than of some earlier ones: it is rare, and it is
not easy to recognize . If readers of Tolkien in the fifties and sixties could not see
how he and Frodo (his fictional hero) are modern heroes, let us add right away
that no one seems to know, as yet, what postmodern or contemporary heroism is.
In his work, The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien created a saga in the tradition of
the ancient northern European myths and legends that he had studied for much
of his life. Yet there is an anomaly at the very heart of the story. The role of hero
is given, not to any of the bold warriors or mighty wizards that inhabit the pages,
but to “a three-foot high bundle of timidity with furry feet” (Helms 40) one of a
race of little creatures Tolkien invented and called “hobbits.”
Tolkien built extensively on existing traditions and could point to established
literary antecedents for almost everything in his tale. But the hobbits rustic,
pragmatic, usually stay at home folk were something apart. They were in many
respects his own special creation (Shippey 2002, xv, 1–7, and 45–47).