after he is blinded by the fire at Thornfeld Hall.
His guilt stems from his locking away Bertha, as
well as from his deception of Jane, and he com-
pounds his guilt by hiding in his damaged mansion,
doing nothing to restore the balance upset by his
transgressions.
While some literary characters are undone by
guilt, others seem impervious to it, acting as if they
are conscience-free. In fact, the sense of guilt is so
fundamental to the human condition that one must
assume something is wrong at the core of those who
can commit evil and feel nothing. For instance, Iago
in Shakespeare’s otheLLo and Chillingsworth in
The Scarlet Letter wreak havoc on all those around
them, bent only on achieving their own goals,
which in Iago’s case is power and in Chilling-
sworth’s is revenge. Given Sigmund Freud’s theory
of the id, the ego, and the superego, in which the
id is our primitive impulses, the superego is moral-
ity tempering those impulses, and the ego is the
mechanism that mediates between the two, these
characters would seem to be missing an important
part of their psyches.
Characters such as these, as well as characters
whose lives are spent controlled by guilt, can func-
tion as cautionary tales for the reader. Guilt is an
important part of human personality, but when it
takes over a life, that life may not be worth living.
See also Bunyan, John: piLGriM’s proGress,
the; Davis, Rebecca Harding: LiFe in the
iron MiLLs; Dostoyevsky, Fyodor: criMe and
punishMent; Hardy, Thomas: tess oF the
d’urberviLLes; Irving, John: worLd accord-
inG to Garp, the; Kingsolver, Barbara: poi-
sonwood bibLe, the; Knowles, John: separate
peace, a; O’Brien, Tim: thinGs they carried,
the; O’Neill, Eugene: LonG day’s Journey into
niGht; Poe, Edgar Allan: “Tell-Tale Heart,
The”; Shakespeare, William: JuLius caesar;
Macbeth; Turgenev, Ivan: Fathers and sons.
FURTHER READING
Stern, E. Mark. Psychotherapy and the Remorseful
Patient. New York: Haworth, 1988.
Taylor, Gabrielle. Pride, Shame, and Guilt: Emotions of
Self-Assessment. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985.
Jennifer McClinton-Temple
heroism
The word hero is commonly applied to many differ-
ent types of people performing wildly varying acts.
For instance, extraordinary acts of physical strength
and courage, such as saving a stranger from a burning
house or standing up to an armed assailant, are feats
we would typically label heroic. Physical courage is
not the only component of heroism, however. Those
who exhibit moral courage, such as people who put
their own lives or reputations at stake to do or say
what is right, rather than what is merely popular, are
also called heroes. Heroes can also be those close
friends or loved ones whom we admire and treat
as role models, calling such a person “my hero.” We
routinely use the term for our popular and talented
sports figures as well, whether or not their behavior
off the playing field can be considered heroic. We
even use it to refer to people who are inspirations
to others, inspirations that do not necessarily hinge
on physical strength or moral superiority. With all
of these varied uses, clearly explaining the allure of
heroism as a literary theme is difficult.
Compounding that difficulty is the fact that in
literary studies, the term hero is used to refer to the
central character of a work. John Dryden first used
the term this way in 1697, and it is still commonly
accepted as a synonym for protagonist, even when
the protagonist does nothing particularly heroic.
We have long used the word heroic to refer to
acts that are special or extraordinary. The exploits
of professional athletes, the life-saving missions
of soldiers and firefighters, the bravery of whistle-
blowers, and even the lives of fictional characters
in our most cherished works of literature seem, in
our minds, to certify them as “heroes.” Getting at
the heart of what qualifies behavior as heroic may
explain why Dryden’s arguable misuse of the term
has had such staying power. The word hero is of
Greek origin, and in Greek mythology it referred to
those who were favored by the gods or had “godlike”
qualities. The Oxford English Dictionary describes
heroes as “men of super human strength, courage,
or ability.” The emphasis here is on super, an adjec-
tive that suggests heroism goes beyond what human
beings are expected to do. Friedrich Nietzsche’s
theory of the übermensch (sometimes translated as
“superman”) speaks to this concept of going beyondheroism 47