Hero and Fate
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This analysis will explore the concepts of fate and the heroic in the following four works: The Aeneid, The Sorrows of Young Werther, The Fall and Three Tales. Aeneas, Werther, Jean-Baptiste Clamence and the characters in Three Tales illustrate different perceptions of and reactions to fate. In so doing they succumb to destinies that are quite varied, from founding Rome in Aeneas’ case to committing suicide in the case of young Werther. Yet each of these characters also demonstrates a variety of other forces that play a role in shaping the destinies of human beings. External and individual forces, free will, cause and effect, perceptions of self and others, and other issues combine to determine the level of heroism exhibited in each of these characters. This analysis will use the characters in these four works as a means of illustrating how such factors play a role in influencing human thought and action, be they heroic or otherwise. Within the context of all of these works we will see demonstrated a concept of fate or destiny as one that is basically tragic, especially for those characters that resist the dictates of their own. In this sense, Walter Benjamin’s view of fate as a continual tension between optimism and pessimism in which the whole time everything is the same is an essentially tragic reality, “The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’, in which we
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life and motherly nurturing he finds in nature. Eventually though, the inability of he and Lotte to form a meaningful union will rob Werther of the joy and comfort he used to find in nature. In a tragic way, Lotte becomes just one more beautiful image that will become Werther’s undoing. He explains that he no longer has a feeling for anything but Lotte, “It is quite disastrous...all my active energies have been cast down into restless listlessness, and I can neither be idle nor accomplish anything. My imagination has deserted me, my feeling for Nature is gone, and books nauseate me” (Goethe 67).
Werther’s view of fate is fairly tragic and dour. He cannot reconcile his optimism and joy of the potential beauty in mankind with the fact that existence if often harsh, uncaring, and results in death. He mocks the human condition for its smallness, insignificance and limitations. He cannot find life meaningful when he cannot do anything but behold a momentary glimpse of the joys provided by nature, art, communion with the godhead or Lotte. He maintains there is a “corrosive” power in the universe that robs men of the will to live by breaking their hearts from the continual, destructive forces that work on mortal man. Werther
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 4880
Approximate Pages = 20 (250 words per page)
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