The essay below was written in this section and is reproduced anonymously with the

permission of the writer. It isn’t a perfect 4.0 essay by any means—its ideas could be
better organized and expressed (items d., e., and f. on the Scoring Sheets I use for this
class), but it does an exceptional job in terms of responding fully and accurately to the
prompt (items a., b., and c. on the Scoring Sheet). Notice that it answers in some detail
all the questions posed by the prompt below.

Short Essay 2 • Luke Rex

a) Analyze Sophocles’ hero Luke according to Frye’s five types of heroes (above): which
is Luke, and why? Explain in detail why he is one type (or more?) and isn’t the others.
What does that kind of hero say about Sophocles’ society? About us?

Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism1

1. If superior in kind both to other men and to the environment of other men, the hero is a
divine being, and the story about him will be a myth in the common sense of a story about a god.
2. If superior in degree to other men and to his environment, the hero is the typical hero of
romance, whose actions are marvelous but who is himself identified as a human being. The hero
of romance moves in a world in which the ordinary laws of nature are slightly suspended: prodigies
of courage and endurance, unnatural to us, are natural to him, and enchanted weapons, talking
animals, terrifying ogres and witches, and talismans of miraculous power violate no rule of
probability once the postulates of romance have been established. Here we have moved from myth,
properly so called, into legend, folk tale, märchen, and their literary affiliates and derivatives.
3. If superior in degree to other men but not to his natural environment (33), the hero is a
leader. He has authority, passions, and powers of expression far greater than ours, but what he does
is subject both to social criticism and to the order of nature. This is the hero of the high mimetic
mode, of most epic and tragedy, and is primarily the kind of hero that Aristotle had in mind.
4. If superior neither to other men nor to his environment, the hero is one of us: we
respond to a sense of his common humanity, and demand from the poet the same canons of
probability that we find in our own experience. This gives us the hero of the low mimetic mode, of
most comedy and of realistic fiction. “High” and “low” have no connotations of comparative value,
but are purely diagrammatic . . . .
5. If inferior in power or intelligence to ourselves, so that we have the sense of looking
down on a scene of bondage, frustration, or absurdity, the hero belongs to the ironic mode. This is
still true when the reader feels that he is or might be in the same situation, as the situation is being
judged by the norms of a greater freedom (34).

Humanities 310 • Heroism • Some Thematic Patterns

The transformations of the hero follow a number of thematic patterns and assume a variety
of shapes. Some of the most common motifs below overlap; some indeed are
subcategories of or synonyms for others, as we’ll discover recurrently. But still, you
might want to keep an eye out for variations on the themes below. (This isn’t a list of
heroic traits, just recurrent themes.)

1 Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957. 33-34.
• Mysterious Origins or Past (Moses among the bulrushes, the unknown parentage of
Luke)
• Disguised Identity (Odysseus upon his return to Ithaca)
• Ritual Scar, Mark of Identity (Odysseus’ scar, Pike’s leg in The Wild Bunch, Ratso
Rizzo’s leg in Midnight Cowboy)
• Summons to the Quest (Christ and John the Baptist, Telemachos and Athena)
• Cyclic Departure and Return (Odysseus’s travels)
• Faithful Friend or Servant (Eumaios in the Odyssey, Horatio in Hamlet)
• Betrayal or Suspected Betrayal (Judas, Laertes in Hamlet)
• Patterns of Ascent and Descent (Christ’s descent into the grave and resurrection,
Marlow’s journey upriver in Heart of Darkness)
• Rite of Initiation or Passage (Adela Quested in the Marabar Caves in Passage to India)
• Consulting the Mentor (Telemachos/Nestor, Mentor; the “old men” in The Wild Bunch)
• Descent into the Unconscious or Night-Sea Journey (Job in the whale’s belly)
• Underworld Journey (Odysseus’s meeting with Tiresias in Hades, Prufrock’s descent into
a private hell)
• Supernatural Intervention (ghost of Hamlet’s father)
• Hero’s Narrative of His Adventures (Odysseus’s tale of his adventures among the
Phaiakians)
• Symbolic Death or Maiming (Christ, Odysseus’s act of self-blinding)
• Ritual Cleansing (Christ’s baptism, anointing of his feet by Mary Magdalen)
• Symbolic or Bodily Healing of Wounds (Eastwood in Fistful of Dollars, Yojimbo)
• Captivity and Escape (Odysseus in Cyclops’ cave, Eastwood, Angel’s capture in The Wild
Bunch, Ratso Rizzo and Joe Buck in New York/Florida)
• Retreat to Pastoral “Greenworld” (Angel’s village in The Wild Bunch)
• Retreat to Wilderness Isolation (Christ in the wilderness, Adela at the temple in Passage
to India)
• Wandering (Luke before his arrival at Thebes)
• Wasteland Crossing (Israelites’ forty years in the wilderness, Percival in the Grail
legends, Gawain’s winter journey in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)
• Rescue of/by the Hero (Angel in The Wild Bunch)
• Trial by Combat (Menelaus’s wrestling with Proteus in The Odyssey)
• Trial by Water (storms/shipwrecks of The Odyssey, river crossings in The Wild Bunch)
• Trial by Sexual Temptation (Odysseus with Circe or Calypso, Gawain’s dalliances in Sir
Gawain)
• Trial by Economic/Social Temptation (Nora’s wish to remain with Torvald)
• Trial by Spiritual Temptation (Christ in Gethsemane or in the wilderness)
• Trial by Temptation to Death (Hamlet’s suicide wish)
• Atonement with Father (Christ/Father, Telemachos/Odysseus, Hamlet/Hamlet)
• Reconciliation with Mother (Hamlet and Gertrude)
• Attainment of or Reunion with Spouse (Odysseus and Penelope)
• Symbolic Weapon (the great bow of Odysseus, Eastwood’s revolver, Yojimbo’s sword,
Willy Loman’s car)
• Apotheosis of Hero (Christ’s assumption into heaven, Luke in Luke at Colonus)
• Rebirth of the Social Order (Fortinbras’s arrival in Hamlet, ending of Luke, The Wild
Bunch)
• Achievement of Transcendent Understanding (Luke, Hamlet, Joe Buck in Midnight
Cowboy)
Humanities 310 • Heroism/Antiheroism • Character
Traits/Values
So far, we’ve seen one definition of antiheroism in Northrop Frye’s thinking about the hero
of an ironic story. As he tells us, “If inferior in power or intelligence to ourselves, so that we
have the sense of looking down on a scene of bondage, frustration, or absurdity, the hero
belongs to the ironic mode.” In other words, an antihero is a hero who’s defined less by his
“powers” than by his limitations—though he may have heroic aspirations, like Eliot’s
Prufrock, he is prevented from achieving them by the conditions of his world (his lack of
freedom, powerlessness, alienation).

A second way of defining the difference between heroism and antiheroism is this: if the hero
typically reflects and responds to the values of his society, then the antihero fails to do so or
embodies values in conflict with those of his community—most often simply because the
antihero lives in a world whose values are no longer universally shared. Luke and Hamlet,
for example, have a chance at succeeding because their societies agree on what heroism is
and should be; Eliot’s Prufrock, on the other hand, doesn’t because his society doesn’t agree
on what values are heroic.

Though hardly accurate as a representation of any single hero or antihero, the schema below
might provide you with a map of heroic and antiheroic ethics, a sort of genealogy of morals
to compare with and help define each of the characters we meet. But use with care. If you
used Hamlet as a test case, you might find that he qualifies for half the heroic qualities below,
half the antiheroic ones. These are not, therefore, defining traits of the hero or antihero.
Only a model or definition of a hero will do that.

Heroism Antiheroism
Shared social values Disjunctive social values
Independence, autonomy Alienation, dependence
Fixed self Fluid self
Certainty Doubt
Belief in reason, virtue Skepticism
Firm sense of justice Confused sense of justice
Unusual physical attractiveness or power Unusual physical appearance
Mastery Victimization
Eloquence, ability to communicate Inability to communicate
Fraternity Isolation
Loyalty Divided loyalties
Deception only for honest ends Deceptions often misguided
Love Loneliness
Developed sexual identity Ambivalent sexual identity
Approved sexual behavior Ambiguous sexual behavior
Creativity Creative futility
Secure ethnic identity Conflicted ethnic identity
Elite class affiliation Lower class or outcast affiliation
Aristocratic Democratic or classless
Pre-industrial Industrial, post-industrial
Centripetal Centrifugal
Material prosperity Poverty
Stable life-style Picaresque life-style
Social or political enfranchisement Social or political marginalization
Stability Instability
Decisive Doubt-ridden
Active, forceful Passive, recessive
Awareness of goals Ignorance of goals

Short Essay 2A – Cool Hand Luke

According to Frye, Cool Hand Luke’s Luke is the third type of hero, a leader or

tragic hero with a dash of the fourth type of hero that makes him of low mimetic mode.

Frye’s definition states that if he is, “superior in degree to other men but not to his natural

environment, the hero is a leader.” Luke exhibits the characteristics that fit the model of

the leader or tragic hero with enough human-ness to allow us to identify with him in a

circumstantial way. His story is a comedy and would be considred a tragedy by most

people’s standards as a waste of ability, potential and strength by Aristotle’s definition of

a tragedy. In Aristotle’s definition of tragedy, the hero is exiled or alienated from society,

the outcome to which Luke falls victim by ending up imprisoned for a deed we would see

as somewhat ridiculous.

The audience can view Luke as a victim of his own restlessness. To view Luke as

a victim is what makes him a tragic hero because Luke can be a victim of his own

rebelliousness and that is what allows him to be a tragic hero. In order for him to be a

hero he must possess qualities that make him superior, and Luke rises to the challenge by
not being intimidated by the loud mouth Dragline. Dragline is the self elected ruler of this

little kingdom of the chain gang and Luke’s resistence to the prattle of daily living and

existence in this environment show his mental strength. Luke is smarter than the average

man, he is more clever and intellectual. He has the intellectual ability to stand back and

observe. This intelligence allows him to separate himself from what he is observing.

Luke is able to think for himself and does not feel a need to ‘belong’ in the sense that he

is not of a ‘follower’ mentality. Luke’s quick wit and ability to think and plan ahead lead

to conspire with the other inmates to break out of prison although there may be

punishment for himself and all of the others for the effort. By seeing opportunities as

they arise, he is able to escape repeatedly as the dull witted guards stand by and watch

him systematically remove the keys from the trucks while attending to the obvious

routine of submission being used to show how he had been ‘broken’ by the system and

guards.

XXLuke’s leadership abilities become apparent as he wins the respect of the other

inmates by sheer determination and will in not giving up during a fight. When hardened

men want to stop a fight because it is no longer a challenge but a massacre, Luke’s

bloody advances show a grit that defies logic and baffles all of his peers. The thought

“It’s not worth dying for” never enters Luke’s thoughts as an impulsive and immediate

minded man. This is Lukes built-in vulnerability as a hero, he just doesn’t seem to care

whether he lives or he dies His feelings of being ‘hemmed-in’ that he expresses to his

mother when she comes to visit him seem to be the summary of his life.

Luke is a tragic hero more so than any of the other heroes because his story fits

the mold of a tragedy. A tragedy evokes pity and terror. We recognize that he is close
enough to us that it could happen to us, which allows us to feel pity for him. He falls

from a high place to a low place, which proves to the audience that his character is frail,

just like our own. In the tragedy of Luke, we experience a catharsis or purging of

emotions. Our emotions get played out and we do not need to undergo the suffering

ourselves. As an audience, we get to witness the horror and misery of what happens to

the characters and learns from it. As the movie comes to the end, Luke has also become

an anti-hero. His reason for rebellion at this point has our sympathy, to pay respects to his

dead mother, but his rationale in being willing to be killed obtaining that objective make

it tragic.

In his definition of the antihero, Frye tells us, that “if inferior in power or

intelligence to ourselves, so that we have the sense of looking down on a scene of

bondage . . . the hero belongs to the ironic mode.” At the end of the play, Luke does

become inferior due to his pride. Where he unaware of his motives for living before, he

comes to a moment of epiphany at the end where he finally cries out to God to answer

him about the purpose and meaning of life. His query is heart felt and sincere, but the

prankster luke opens one eye to ‘peek’ at whther God has shown up in a significant way

and once again you understand that Luke not only doen’t expect a true response, but his

faith in God, society and life in general is what breeds the basic contempt he feels for life.

We have no real sense of why Luke has not found what he is looking for in life. In

reference to his deed that landed him in jail, he postulates that he was “settling an old

score” showing the restlessness and boredom he feels as to accomplishing his purpose for

life. He apologizes to his mother for not understanding why he does what he does, but
makes no excuses for his behaviour. These characteristics or endings happen to Luke

therefore making him a type five hero as well, which is an anti-hero.

These two types of heroes say about society that they are the opposites of each

other. A hero reflects or embodies the cultural values of a society, and an anti-hero does

not. In the society that Luke lives in , the hero is actually not a good person because he

ends up being tortured and tormented in jail as a societal form of correction for anti-

social behavior and attitudes. The story’s lesson is that ultimately the devices and

structures of society will win over and individual man’s desires or attitudes. Social

behavior will be adhered to or corrected once it reaches an institutional level. Luke’ story

is one where the depth of the meaning of life and the importance of having a purpose for

ones life is shown in dramatic form. Luke’s lack of identity was so ill conceived that even

as a war hero, it had no significance or meaning to him. It added nothing to his self

esteem or life to be good at something. There was a nagging of ‘something else’ being

there, but not being able to find it. The song he sings when he finds out his mother is

dead is a soul stirring comfort found only in the depth of the soul when a faith in God is

expressed. Luke’s frustration was why God did not seeming to be answering him. The

cynicism and trust he found lacking in humanity caused him to distrust all things cause

his fate and life to be miserable. In our times, we may not see Luke’ as so bad and

deserving of the punishment that he received . Cool Hand Luke expresses the part of the

Anti-Hero in us that admires rebellion in the context of overwhelming authority. Where

society and rules wear us down in traditional ways of doing things ‘their way’ as opposed

to the way we fit in as indivduals, the way we learn, the way we work best, there seems to

always be someone who does not have a grasp of these realities and is trying to bring
institutionalized methods of ‘doing it their way’ to break our individuality instead of

letting a person express therir best self by having some room for individual expression

within the system. Cool Hand Luke’s Anti Hero becomes our hero in likeness to all of the

things we do not understand about life. Our common experience in learning good from

bad and the consequences that follow allowed us to root for the underdog in the situation

and find strength in his ability to motivate the chain gang to work harder and faster for no

other purpose than to rest at the end and disrupt the natural timeline and schedule of the

bosses that had not anticipated the events that occurred. Luke kept people on their feet

wondering what he would do next to inspire, motivate, disrupt or confound you with. You

had to love him for the sheer nature of his cockiness and self assured attitude, You also

had to pity him where he crossed the line and endangered his own life due to ignorance.

Eating fifty eggs might actually kill you under the right circumstances, but for Luke it

was just another challenges in the litany of boredom he experienced in daily life’s lack of

challenges in a small town.