Why weakness can be essential to being a hero?
In today’s world, the depiction of a hero can be tossed around and vary with every person, but the general idea of a hero is one who stands against injustice and shows no fear in the face of adversity. Many philosophers of older times contemplated with the idea of heroes that underwent various tribulations to be deemed a hero by the people around them. With this in mind, the idea of a perfect hero cannot really be viable in today’s society, and even if it was possible, people today would see a hero very differently. Heroic acts dive into how a hero can be flawed and show signs of weakness in times of trouble as shown in how opposition can drive heroic deeds as part of morality, and why inner turmoil can be really important to becoming the hero of a story. …show more content…
The general rule of thumb for a hero to be compelling to the story is through the usage of a foil or a character that contrast the main hero through mental or physical opposition. In Sophocles’ Antigone, Antigone is meeting with an oppressor in the shape of Creon, for Antigone challenges Creon’s decree of not burying her brother’s body. This seems pretty straight forward, but the idea behind her rebelling shows one flaw of her inner character, her yearning to defy the expected. In Antigone, it states how Antigone embraces the idea of death that defying Creon, “How sweet to die in such employ, to rest, -- Sister and brother linked in love's embrace. “ (Sophocles, lines 71-72) This mechanic is shown as part of a hero who walks the line of morality to achieve one’s own ambitions. Leading on to this, heroes who crave death have a certain aspect of weakness that define them and fuels their pursuit of heroic acts, but leads onto more weakness in the inner conflict of a heroes’ self
In today’s world, the depiction of a hero can be tossed around and vary with every person, but the general idea of a hero is one who stands against injustice and shows no fear in the face of adversity. Many philosophers of older times contemplated with the idea of heroes that underwent various tribulations to be deemed a hero by the people around them. With this in mind, the idea of a perfect hero cannot really be viable in today’s society, and even if it was possible, people today would see a hero very differently. Heroic acts dive into how a hero can be flawed and show signs of weakness in times of trouble as shown in how opposition can drive heroic deeds as part of morality, and why inner turmoil can be really important to becoming the hero of a story. …show more content…
The general rule of thumb for a hero to be compelling to the story is through the usage of a foil or a character that contrast the main hero through mental or physical opposition. In Sophocles’ Antigone, Antigone is meeting with an oppressor in the shape of Creon, for Antigone challenges Creon’s decree of not burying her brother’s body. This seems pretty straight forward, but the idea behind her rebelling shows one flaw of her inner character, her yearning to defy the expected. In Antigone, it states how Antigone embraces the idea of death that defying Creon, “How sweet to die in such employ, to rest, -- Sister and brother linked in love's embrace. “ (Sophocles, lines 71-72) This mechanic is shown as part of a hero who walks the line of morality to achieve one’s own ambitions. Leading on to this, heroes who crave death have a certain aspect of weakness that define them and fuels their pursuit of heroic acts, but leads onto more weakness in the inner conflict of a heroes’ self