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Hero and Fate

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 live is not an exception, but a rule” (697). Such a conception of fate will help understand the particular destinies followed by the characters in these works.

The Aeneid was meant to provide a glorification of the founding of the glorious Roman Empire. In it we are treated to the experiences of Aeneas who embodies the qualities of character considered to be ideal by the Roman mentality. So too, Aeneas’ handling of the forces that impact human motive and action are those considered “heroic” by Roman culture. There are...

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Hero and Fate. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 00:56, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1685632.html