The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1891-07-07
HEROES AND HEROINEs
fhese People Are Built ny the Reaiiss -
the Plan Of n Machine.


shsse People Are built ny the Re.iIss -
the Plan Of . Machine.
The hero. in the general sense, Il
merely the badge of value. He may
be evil, like Tito; manly. like Ivanhoe;
crazy, like Hamlet or desolate, like
Enoch Arden; but he must be a crea-
ton. In him we recognize the fruit Of
original genius. II he is of our own
time We do not find him familiar per-
sonage. living. perhaps, next door to US;
yet we acknowledge him without hest
tation as genuine. lie is the interpreta-
ton of some current, universal desire Of
man. This is the hero of romance.
But is it possible to say just what the
realist understands a hero to be? In
the course Of discussion the opponents
of romance here appeared unwilling to
admit that romance can adapt itself,
nay. must adapt itself, to the civiliza-
ton it addresses, as well as to that
which it portrays. The hero must be
of his own time, but the novelist must
be of the time he addresses-an indi-
vidual of his own audience. Our real
lists are abnormally sensitive to the fact
that the world has changed since
SCOTS day; but they seem quite un-
aware that romance. in the abstract,
has not changed. To suit the new or
der of things they hasten to cast away
substance instead of remodeling Il.
The new hero must not be extraor.
binary. Why? Simply because SCOTS
and Shakespeare's heroes were extra
ordinary. We have come into q new
day, they exclaim, therefore we must
have q new order of heroes-to-wit: no
heroes at all, but just the baker on tho
corner or the shop woman next door.
The point is to prevent the baker and
the shop woman from doing any thing
interesting. especially any thing noble
or thrilling.
word thrilling. it suggests so much in
speaking OF fiction, and then II Is Qike
q red rag to bully such stimulus to
certain critics who live in constant
dread of sensation. The hero and the
in fiction are but poor ones II
they do not possess the power to thrill
the reader; but how much of a thrill |
shall be permitted is . puzzling ques-
ton. The low pressure critics will
have no thrill at all; indeed they de-
mand depression instead To effectu-
Ally secure this they have set up rule |
that makes it inartistic to indulge any |
of optimism.
The heroes and heroines of the real. |
lsts are built on the plan of a machine
that disappoints every body but the in
Tentor-a machine that does nothing
that is expected of it, nothing that is Of
my interest or value. Tragedy Is I'M
<nown to these people. Romeo may
lie. but his taking of is attended BY
he odor of medicine and the disgusting
letails of 4 physicians report. Juliet
'arely dies; she is too much of philos-
'pher in small matters to be very
yreatly moved by lovers misfortune;
he usually goes out to teach the In
ians.
The view taken by all the masters Of
lotion, from Shakespeare down to
Dumas and Hawthorne, has been that
he hero must be an unusual. an extra
ordinary person; but not an impossible
'erson. Wonder stories must be
'rouped to themselves outside the limit
4 novel writing. When we think Of
century hero or heroine we
lave pretty definite idea before us. II
5 not a steel clad knight and lady Of
he olden time that we call up in our
the environment forbids.
What we do see, however, is heroic, but
a a different sense. The knight and
he lady Of old romance embody the
iea Of medieval civilization; the man
nd the woman set up by genius are
lways opponents, never mere photo |;
raphs. To-day civilization has it,
orms Of heroism and its ideal heroism.
IS aspiration towards certain ideal
tate. No fiction Of our time will be
asting il it has not a hero or heroine,
r both, that can be accepted as stand
ng for some essential element of this
spiration. To keep faith with the
ighest motives of current life is real
Nm in the best sense and romanticism
, the only worthy sense. Heroism lies
q the line of duty and duty grandly
one is the keynote of every truly great
FORK of fiction.-Maurice Thompson,
, America. f.,