grass, the tumor in the CAT scan, and to plan one’s
moves accordingly” (11).
The Czech playwright and essayist Václav Havel
defines hope differently, however, describing it as “a
dimension of the soul... not essentially dependent
on some particular observation of the world or esti-
mate of the situation.... It transcends the world
that is immediately experienced, and is anchored
somewhere beyond its horizons.... Hope... is not
the same as joy that things are going well... but,
rather, an ability to work for something because it is
good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed”
(181). The American philosopher Cornel West
cites Havel to expand on the distinction between
hope and optimism, arguing that hope is far more
profound and significant, and that it is acting in a
belief even when there is no reasonable expectation
of success.
Clearly, the more dire the situation, the more
important it is to maintain hope; wilderness survival
experts often emphasize that keeping one’s hopes
up is absolutely imperative. A literary example
that shows the importance of hope to survival is
Homer’s The odyssey. Odysseus must maintain
hope for his eventual return home, and for reunifica-
tion with his wife and son, through 10 years of war
followed by 10 years of hardship and danger while
lost at sea. Even as gods and various supernatural
beings conspire against his return, as disaster after
disaster hits him, and even when every other mem-
ber of his crew is killed, Odysseus keeps his eye set
on his homecoming. His wife, Penelope, undergoes
a similar story at their home in Ithaca as she holds
on to hope that her presumed-dead husband will
return, and she cleverly works to stall the aggressive
suitors who conspire against her family. Again, hope
is necessary for maintaining courage, dedication, and
perseverance, which suggests that it is a fundamental
survival skill.
On the other hand, some works of literature
critique or even mock those who cling to foolish
or unrealistic hopes. Often, those who encourage
false hope are portrayed as cruel, while those who
refuse to let go of their futile hopes are portrayed
as pompous or lacking in self-awareness. In Wil-
liam Shakespeare’s tweLFth niGht, for instance,
several characters play a prank on Malvolio, a self-
important steward, by fooling him into thinking
he might reasonably hope to woo Olivia, a count-
ess. Ironically, one of the pranksters, Sir Andrew
Aguecheek, is also completely mistaken when he
believes that he might succeed in wooing Olivia,
and he is encouraged by his “friends” who hope to
take advantage of his wealth. Olivia, after a long
period of mourning and despair for a deceased fam-
ily member, finally finds hope for a happy future
in her infatuation with “Cesario”; she, of course,
will never be able to marry “him” because “Cesario”
is actually a woman disguised as a man, and such
a marriage would have been impossible. Through
these and other relationships, the play portrays love
and romance as a series of false and foolish hopes
followed by confusion, compromise, and often bitter
disappointment.
Closely related to false hope are the themes
of hopelessness, futility, and despair. In litera-
ture, hopelessness may be portrayed as an internal
obstacle a character must overcome (or be destroyed
by). Alternately, literary works with a more cynical
or even a nihilistic perspective may portray hope as
a foolish or childlike trait with no basis in reality.
For example, in Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for
Godot (1953), Vladimir and Estragon wait, futilely,
for the arrival of Godot. They are stuck in the same
place, longing for meaning, movement, or answers,
but their hopes and words are useless in altering
their situation. The play suggests that existence
itself is absurd and without meaning, like a game
of language, and to hope otherwise is foolish. Tom
Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are
Dead (1966) which is heavily influenced by Beckett,
portrays the futility of hope in a similar fashion. The
title characters, which were originally very minor
characters in Hamlet, are both sympathetic and
absurd in their attempts to evade their fate, but their
ending has already been written (literally).
Hope for the future, however, is necessary for
courage and perseverance, especially when one’s
cause seems dangerous, unsustainable, or impossible.
Social movements of all kinds therefore depend on
the hope that their efforts and sacrifices have not
been and will not be for nothing. Especially impor-
tant is the hope that the actions of a person or group
can make the leap to actions of historical import; ahope 51