Action Figures in Literature

[sistermagpie]

> Carol responds:
>  I *have* seen "Moses figure" used to describe a certain type of hero, but I can't think of an example offhand. (Quite possibly, there are David, Abraham, and Joseph figures, too, at least in older European literature in which the author can assume familiarity with the Bible.)
> 
> Potioncat:
> So, to summarize the part of Carol's post that I snipped, we have stock characters, and we have hero types: epic, anitheroes, Byronic/Satanic, romantic, reluctant, and tragic. We have Christ and Moses figures. 
> 
> I suspect the nature of the HP Christ figure discussion has been our own difficulty in separtating faith (whether ours or not) from literature. Can anyone think of other Christ figures in literature? Is a Christ figure or a Moses figure a part of the list, or could it be a sub-type?
> 
> The only Moses character I can think of is from a movie, and to my mind that doesn't count. I think maybe Watership Down, except I read it so long ago, I'm not sure of the plot. 
> 
> But the Bryronic/Satanic hero---there's a contrast to the Christ figure, at least in a religious sense. Tell us more about that. Had Snape's role turned out differently, would he have met this category? Although, even had Snape lived, Harry is still the hero. So I guess Snape would remain the stock character cruel school master?
> 
> I'm starting to think I should go back to school, just to get the opportunity to discuss literature again.

Magpie:
There's tons of stuff if we're talking archetypes. I don't know if "Moses figure" would be considered an archetype, but there are definitely other characters who are Moses figures. Usually any character who's saved from a slaughter and adopted by someone else tends to get compared to Moses.

But in terms of archetypes for instance Carolyn Myss I think her name is did a whole about using archetypes for self-help but referred to fictional characters for examples. There's the sidekick, the savior, the spy, the thief, the wizard/sage, the crone--an endless list of types you'd recognize from literature. The Byronic hero is like Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, and Satanic I would assume mostly comes from Milton's Satan. Actually, I was just reading something about that and I'm trying to remember where. One person was saying that the Devil is a character who knows himself--oh yes, it was in a post relating to Wonder Woman. But the jist was that the Satanic character knows himself and is never surprised at the depths to which he would sink. Though another person disagreed and said in some interpretations the devil is wholly self-deluded.

I would say Snape's pretty comfortable in a line of cruel schoolmasters. He'd be quite at home in a Dickens novel that way. He's got some Sydney Carton in him but I don't think he rises to the same level of nobility with his death and love.

-m