Anthony Trollope's Barsetshire heroes.

摘要

By the 1850s, the Victorians had developed a deep-seated ambivalence toward heroes and heroism. Rapid changes in society, religion, and culture compelled some writers to search for new heroes, while other writers questioned whether the hero could exist in the modern world. Mid-Victorian authors, drawing on or reacting against classical, chivalric, and Romantic models, revealed their society's paradoxical feelings on this subject. Anthony Trollope's Barsetshire novels also reflect this Victorian cultural and literary ambivalence toward heroism.;Trollope, following a trend stretching back to the origins of the English novel, undermines any belief in classical heroism. In the first two Barsetshire novels Trollope employs a mock-heroic technique and an intrusive narrator to undercut Archdeacon Grantly's comic posture as an epic hero. In Framley Parsonage and The Last Chronicle Trollope seriously studies the psychology and character of the Reverend Josiah Crawley, demonstrating his failure, through self-martyring pride, to achieve heroic stature.;Every Barsetshire novel includes a variation on the not-quite-heroic young gentleman. Trollope, reacting against the Romantic hero and conventional heroes of Victorian popular fiction, creates young men who always strive for, yet fail to achieve, true heroism. With an ambitious Mark Robarts, an unthinking Lord Lufton, a flirtatious Johnny Eames, or a cowardly Adolphus Crosbie, Trollope exhibits the flaws which ruin the youth's quest for heroism.;In contrast, and roughly paralleling the rise of the democratic hero, Trollope offers two men who embody his idea of a realistic hero: Mr. Harding and Dr. Thorne. Trollope's Barsetshire hero is a mature country gentleman, endowed with moral integrity, compassionate manliness, and self-respect, who creates harmony within his community. Though imperfect, both of these characters act as moral exemplars and as saviors for their society.;Passages in Trollope's autobiography, his critical lectures and biographies, and several other novels and historical works reveal his pervasive and consistent thinking on this topic. Insisting on the novelist's didactic function, Trollope offers Harding and Thorne to his readers as examples of moral excellence and caring: these heroes bring the gifts of harmony and healing to their society, providing stability and moral direction to a troubled Victorian era.