Heroes and Antiheroes

Hamlet and The Revenger’s Tragedy

Nature of a hero• Actively brings about positive change• Morally superior to others • Sacrificial • Humble and modest • Jus ad bellum (just cause) and jus in bello (just means)• Judicious• Supported by destiny• Individuality• Loyalty• Acceptance of death• Physical and mental strength• Honour• Role model

“Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.” Calvin Coolidge

“It is impossible to strive for the heroic life. The title of hero is bestowed by the survivors upon the fallen, who themselves know nothing of heroism.” Johan Huizinga

“every hero has a wound”

The definition of a hero has changed over time

What’s an antihero?

• “An antihero is a protagonist who lacks conventional heroic qualities such as idealism, courage, or morality. These individuals often possess dark personality traits such as disagreeableness, dishonesty, and aggressiveness.”

• Such characters challenge what society perceives to be the archetypal hero

• Antiheroes in popular culture include:

THE TRAGIC HERO• The tragic hero is good overall, but possesses a fatal flaw (hamartia) that brings their

downfall • Their goodness makes us pity them when they meet their end, however their flaw ensures

that the audience can relate to them• A tragic hero must have:

• What is Hamlet’s tragic flaw? There are four possibilities often debated by scholars: inaction, melancholy, trust in the ghost, or madness.

1) Flaw or error of judgment (hamartia) 2) A reversal of fortune (peripeteia) brought about because of the hero's error in judgment. 3) The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions (anagnorisis) 4) Excessive Pride (hubris) 5) The character's fate must be greater than deserved.

The tragic hero is "a [great] man who is

neither a paragon of virtue and justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness or

wickedness but because of some

mistake.”

Is a ‘tragic hero’ every

really a hero? Or are they

simply a ‘tragic protagonist’?

“I, a dull and muddy-mettled rascal…unpregnant of my cause, and can say

nothing”

“When the bad bleeds, then is

the tragedy good’

Hamlet

• Heroised by Horatio: “now cracks a noble heart”

• He has a moral compass• He is willing to sacrifice his life for

his purpose • He kills a corrupt king and avenges

the death of a hero: “prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell”

He is a hero:

Do we only consider him a hero because we expect him to be one? Because we want him to be one?

He isn’t a hero:• He is sucked into the role of revenger and becomes

corrupted by the evil he wishes to eradicate: “[trip him] about some act that has no relish of salvation in’t”

• Even if he is a villain, he isn’t a conventional one, because he recognises his own flaws: “like a whore unpack my heart with words”

• ‘Hamlet’s speech upon seeing the King at Prayers, has always given me great offence. There is something so very bloody in it, so inhuman, so unworthy of a Hero, that I wish our poet had omitted it. To desire to destroy a man’s soul, to make him eternally miserable, by cutting him off from all hopes of repentance; this surely, in a Christian Prince, is such a piece of revenge, as no tenderness for any parent can justify…’ (Anon. 1619.)

• Hamlet’s brutal murder of Polonius and unremorseful response counteract his heroic qualities; he becomes the villain he is trying to destroy

Perhaps Hamlet has

the potential to be a

hero, but he can only

ever be an antihero

because of his

hamartia…

Vindice and Hamlet

• We expect Vindice and Hamlet, as the protagonists, to be the heroes

• They certainly believe their motives are just – killing the men who killed their relatives

• Challenging this royal corruption is what the audience wants too• Yet these just motives get lost in the protagonists’ progressive

brutality• They are eventually tainted by the corruption they wish to purge

There is no justice

system, so people have

to take things into their

own hands. Perhaps

Vindice is just doing

what he has to do? Like

Hamlet, nobody else

will avenge their

relatives’ murders

“carnal, bloody and unnatural acts”

“’tis time to die when we are ourselves our foes”

Ophelia

It could be argued that Ophelia is a hero because she…• Liberates women through her madness, sexual freedom

and decision to act• Contrasts with the deliberating and inactive Hamlet by

decisively choosing ‘not to be’• Maybe she’s not a hero, but could have been if she’d been

born in a different time period. As a woman, she is at the mercy of a patriarchal society that doesn’t allow women to be heroes

“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember; and there is

pansies, that’s for thoughts”

“For many feminist theorists, the madwoman is a heroine, a

powerful figure who rebels against the family and the social order, and the hysteric who refuses to

speak the language of the patriarchal order.”Elaine Showalter

HEROISING THE DEAD:Gloriana, the Ghost and Antonio’s Wife• The dead are heroised by the living, and, as an audience, we only

perceive the dead through the eyes of the living• Just like the ghost, Gloriana never has the opportunity to disprove the

heroic status attributed her by Vindice; thus, she maintains an aura of untainted perfection throughout the play. The ghost is “a satyr” whilst Gloriana had a “form that, living, shone so bright”

• The ghost and Gloriana both died at the hands of the corrupt. In a way, this makes them martyrs – just like Antonio’s wife

• Horatio glorifies Hamlet the moment he dies: “Good night, sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest” – is this how we remember Hamlet?

“that virtuous lady!”/“precedent for wives”“A wondrous lady of rare

fire compact, she’s made

her name an empress by that act”

Horatio and Castiza• Horatio and Castiza are the only characters not corrupted by society. Horatio’s

loyalty and Castiza’s steadfast virtue make them heroes• They are the only people without blood on their hands by the end of each play• Castiza would have had very little practical power as a woman in a patriarchal

society. She may have the potential to be a hero, but society hinders her from being one. Perhaps Horatio is also inhibited from pursuing heroism because he lives in Hamlet’s shadow – and because he’s satisfied with this

• Horatio’s heroism is reinforced by his willingness to die alongside Hamlet: “I am more an antique Roman than a Dane; here’s yet some liquor left”. Horatio claims to see this as heroic - if a Roman had suffered defeat, it was seen as heroic to commit suicide

“Horatio is the man Hamlet wants to be. He is intelligent, but not driven by his intellectual creativity. Horatio seems to accept the world as it is handed to

him where Hamlet is driven by his impulse…Marcellus and Barnardo admire Horatio's intellect enough to

want his opinion about the ghost, but no one accuses Horatio of talking or thinking too much. He can follow Hamlet's elaborate wordplays, but he is not inclined to

engage in any. He knows enough to value what ignorance he has that can protect him from political ruin, but neither ambition nor deceit determines his

loyalties.” (Stockton)

Heroines• Is it impossible to be a heroine in an Elizabethan revenge tragedy?• Women could only ever achieve heroic status by a) remaining sexually

pure, and b) following men’s orders. These were often at odds with each other

• This is illustrated by the characters of Castiza and Antonio’s wife• “A virgin honour is a crystal tower, which being weak is guarded with

good spirits” – there are clear restrictions on female freedom • Perhaps 16-17th Century women could only ever be antiheroes,

because everyone perceived their fatal flaw to be their femininity

“In this thou hast right honourable shown…thou art

approv’d for ever in my thoughts”

“As you did command, I did repel his fetters and denied his access to me.”

Claudius• “In some ways, Claudius exhibits more heroism than Hamlet. He manipulates

fortune and takes what is not rightfully his, but remains unapologetic for his actions; he possesses enough strength to admit that he would do the same again. Hamlet, torn by conscience to smite the morally deficient Claudius, causes the death of six innocent people before he accomplishes his goal. By taking full responsibility for his actions, Claudius mitigates his evil nature.” (Stockton)

• Nevertheless, Hamlet is convinced he’s a villain: “one may smile, and smile, and be a villain”

• We only ever view his murder of King Hamlet from the perspective of Hamlet Jr. Perhaps this doesn’t reflect the reality; Claudius may well have been acting tactically and rationally in order to achieve his goals – isn’t this heroic?

“he that hath killed my king and whored my

mother”

SOME FINAL POINTS ABOUT HEROES

• Our perception of characters is limited by the way in which they are presented through the eyes of others, e.g. Fortinbras, Hamlet, the Ghost, Castiza, Antonio’s wife

• For example, we only know that Fortinbras is “a delicate and tender prince…with divine ambition puffed” because Hamlet tells us so. Do we actually have any evidence to support this ambitious compliment?

• We tend to heroise the protagonist regardless of their qualities, partly because we know them best and partly because we expect them to be the hero

• It is easy to deify the dead, because they can do no evil (canonisation). They are embalmed in the memory of those who loved them

• Heroes can only emerge in a corrupt world in need of a hero. However, we see in the plays that it is almost impossible for a member of such a society to avoid being tainted by the debauchery

• The ends don’t justify the means when it comes to being heroic; both Hamlet and Vindice have honourable motives but they attempt to achieve them using immoral tools

• Perhaps there’re neither heroes nor villains – we’re all a mixture of the two: “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”