The Nature of the Hero - Book Report/Review Example

The hero's moodiness inhibits exploration of human behavior. Some heroes are disobedient fellows who committed a wrong in the past. The most vivid example of an evil hero is Hector who is described as "The Hero-slaughtering Hector!" (Homer). The youth of heroes tells against them-it is part of the theme that heroes have been molded into the settled prejudices of the world. Any attempt to allegories of human nature without paying due attention to our sexual responses must appear to be incomplete.

It is possible to say that a journey symbolizes important life stages as the process of becoming an 'adult' and the new perception of self (in Inferno). A man becomes a hero coming through different stages of moral and physical development. Some heroes show a social fanaticism rather than actual bravery, for instance, Dante in Inferno. Since this struggle takes place in many literary works, it is possible to say that a portrait of the hero is more psychological than physical. It is again evident that destiny is irresistible and that one hastens his end by the wrong behavior.

Moreover, the hero is the fatal man who evidences this sort of behavior since it is he who accelerates the progression of events toward an inevitable end. The heroes are depicted as young men who possess enormous physical strength. Love is an important part of the hero's life and journey. Almost all heroes need to win the love of a beautiful woman away from an older man; the older man, who is somehow socially and politically superior to the younger, metes out a dreadful punishment to him. For instance, the Garden of Eden portrays love as an essence of the hero's life and struggle.

Also, love is a driven force that guides the hero. Othello kills Desdemona because of love and jealousy: "She was false as water. Aemil. Thou art rash as fire, to say / That she was false" (Shakespeare). Conversely, an image like cynical, demanding, and arrogant is personal in the bad sense; it is rather showy and individualistic, rather 'clever' and affected; images like this, whose validity can't be verified by readers.On the other hand, it is possible to refute these arguments because the hero is an instrument of necessity in the social context.

As such he may be an executor of fatality who sets into motion a concatenation of events which destroy others, or he may, in turn, be victimized since certain causes in society effect his own end. It is important to note that in the Iliad and Beowulf, the hero's actions benefit not the hero himself but the society which received him and in which he becomes a brave and courageous man.