The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [132]
On the other hand, those who are least monstrous fall into two groups. The first includes those heroes and heroines who, although egocentric, are most `passive' and obviously victims, like Jules and Jim who seem simply unmanly and impotent as they are drawn down to destruction by the increasingly mad Catherine (it is she who becomes the monster, the chief dark figure of the story). The pitiful Don Jose is little more than a passive victim of Carmen's wiles, until the closing scene where he is turned into a raging monster by his desperate frustration at losing her. Even Faustus is much more a victim than an `active' hero, because it is always Mephistopheles who is pulling the strings and making a fool of him, and he does no serious or obvious harm to anyone else (although in Goethe's version Faust is made to violate and then brutally reject an Innocent Young Girl, Margareta, whose consequent death marks the climax of Part One of the story).
The other category includes those heroes whose motivation is tinged by consideration for something higher and nobler than just their own personal gratification. Few of the examples we have looked at so far might seem to fall under such a heading, with the exception of Brutus: though even he, after a revealing inner moral struggle, puts his hand to the cold-blooded murder of one of his oldest friends, at the instigation of two others, the `envious' Casca and the `lean and hungry' Cassius, whose motivation may not be so obviously high-minded.
But here, as we consider the possibility of tragedies where there may be some redeeming feature to the hero, we are beginning to move on to another level of this plot altogether.
Tragedies of redemption and fulfilment
The essence of Tragedy as we have seen it so far is that it shows a hero or heroine who commits some great offence and is then drawn down, step by step, into paying the price. We are never in much doubt in such stories as to where the balance lies between darkness and light. At the outset, the hero or heroine may be made up of both light and dark qualities. But their dark side prevails, and as they remain set on their disastrous course without serious deviation or change of course, they tend to become darker and darker, while the light in the story constellates more and more outside them: first and most poignantly in their innocent victims; finally, triumphantly, in those who gather in opposition to overthrow them. This is why some tragedies, such as Macbeth or Richard III, can even end on a note of solemn rejoicing. The great life-denying monster who has increasingly cast his shadow on all around has at last been overthrown. Life can begin to flow again. Ultimately the destruction of the dark hero has been a victory for light.
But we are about to look at some familiar examples of Tragedy where the balance between darkness and light falls rather differently. First we are going to look at two stories which begin in familiar tragic manner, but where the hero does not just plunge blindly on towards destruction. As the story progresses he begins to go through a real change of heart. Instead of becoming darker and darker as he gets further locked into egocentricity, he begins to turn into a light figure, even though it is not enough ultimately to save him from destruction. Next we shall look at another story which begins with the hero showing a fatal weakness: but here it is not so much a change of heart which alters the tone of the ending as his recovery of manly strength, which enables him to turn his death into a glorious victory. Then we shall look at a great Tragedy where the hero eventually manages to purge himself of the darkness which has infected him, and is released. Finally we shall look at two stories right at the other end of the spectrum from those