During our discussion of the characters, Beowulf was described as a "perfect hero." I'm just wondering what exactly that means; what, to you, makes a hero perfect?
The first thing that comes to my mind is the other example, the flawed hero. Is the perfect hero just one without a character flaw? One who is not brought down through any action or defect of their own?
Personally, I think that the flawed hero would be far more interesting than the perfect hero. Heroes are superhuman by nature, but they need to be identifiable, and flaws make this possible. For example, I've never been a huge fan of Superman. He has always struck me as too "perfect." He has so much power, and is just such a genuinely stand-up kinda guy; it's very difficult to find anything wrong with Superman. To me, this makes him too convenient, too cheap. The flawed and tortured hero is far more interesting, the Batman sort of hero, for instance. Batman has problems of perspective and flaws of judgment. Superman just seems bland by comparison; too clean, too "perfect."
Anyway. Does anyone have thoughts on this?
Thursday, October 23, 2008
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2 comments:
Wow, I was having similar thoughts on this issue. Indeed, the story of the perfect hero would be bland, there would be no use for a moral or a lesson to be learned. The perfect hero would only have his fame to keep his name alive, his deeds to maintain his/her legacy, yet unlike the flawed hero, there would be no honorable character development that would serve as a role-model, so to speak, for the ordinary being. This idea can lead to many tangents, such as the purposes of heroes in literature like Beowulf, one reason possibly being this idea of the hero serving as a representation of an ideal model for humanity to follow. Going back to if the hero were perfect, humanity would have nothing to identify with, to serve as a relationship or link between their "ordinariness" and the "extraordinariness" of these heroes. In other words, flawed heroes people can be related to because some of their own weaknesses can be mirrored in those of ordinary beings.
I would agree that the claim that heroes such Superman and Batman are perfect as incorrect. I think you would also agree with me that there is no such thing as a perfect hero. At least, we have never encountered a hero without flaws in literature or film. I don't intend to go into any sort of religious discussion, yet it is inevitable to point out that the idea of perfection is somewhat impossible to conceive, that is, to apply to a human being, as perfection is a trait generally always and only attributed to God, or a divine being. It is generally agreed that characteristics attributed to a God are different from those attributed to human beings, such as God’s infiniteness, independence (in that it was not created by another being), supreme intelligence and supreme power. Human beings may have similar characteristics, we do have intelligence and power, for example, yet our powers are limited, we are not “perfect” like God is, for example. If there were to exist a perfect hero, it would be suggesting perhaps that they were (or are) as great as a God himself, which technically speaking, I guess, is impossible? I guess what I’m trying to say is that there would be no point in literature for there to be a perfect hero if there were no fault in him/her that made him/her human with no character development to redeem their weakness.
When I think of a perfect hero, Sam, from the Lord of the Rings comes to mind. If superheroes did exist I would prefer to have some one with a genuine heart who can over come temptation. Well, maybe it's because I would want to know or be reassured that there are good people out there. How would society benefit from a hero that gives into revenge or temptation? Take Frodo from the Lord of the Rings, in my perspective he survives and is able to destroy the ring because of Sam. If it hadn't been for Smeagel biting off his finger Frodo would of kept the ring. Sam I believe is the real hero of the movie or book. In Sam I see qualities that would fit a hero all he needs is super powers and he is set.
Maybe we require flaws within super heroes because we would like to have something that relates us to them...? But then what's the point of having a superhero if they are going to give into petty human characteristics? Aren't they suppose to be better than us? I would hope that they would lead a society towards growth and show them how to be better humans. Anyways...
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