The Hero and Heroine

Paper Summary:

This paper relates that, in each of these stories, the desires of a hero or heroine cause him or her to make the right moral choices and force others to make similar choices. The author points out that, in the biblical stories, Solomon is the prototype for all ideal lovers because his love for one woman wins over all other women; and, in the second story, Esther uses her husband's abiding love for her to save her people and to liberate all the Jewish people in her husband's empire. The paper relates that, in "Sir Gawain," Arthur's welfare symbolizes the welfare of the people as a whole; therefore, by risking immoral action and shame, the hero Gawain preserves what is good and best for everyone.

From the Paper:

"So, Esther's act of will is not merely a challenge to the "law of the Medes and Persians," but it is a deeper, and fundamental, attack on the order of society itself. By playing the heroine, Esther, like her counterpart in the Song of Solomon, is urging her beloved to break one law, and risk subverting others, all in the name of the few against the many. Furthermore, as in the previous Biblical selection, it is the personal, private feelings of King that animate his actions. Selfishness is lauded above selflessness, albeit for what most, in the case of Esther and the Jews, would understand to be a desirable goal. Weighed together in the balance, Haman's love for himself and for the laws of the land is but little when compared to the enormity of the King's love for Esther, and his desire for his happiness. In the "Book of Esther," the self-love and love for others react upon each other, producing in one case, an evil design, and in the other, a noble outcome."

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