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Summary
On Heroes and Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History is a series of lectures delivered by Thomas Carlyle in 1840, 1841. Carlyle discussed the hero as divinity (Odin), Prophet (Mahomet), Poet (Dante and Shakespeare), Priest (Luther and Knox), man of letter (Johnson, Rousseau, Burns), King (Cromwell and Napoleon).
Carlyle uses the word 'hero' in a broad comprehensive sense, nearly allied to the Greek idea of 'Great man'. According to Carlyle, hero is man of genius. All heroes are at bottom the same. They display their genius in varied spheres. They are called by various names "poet, prophet, king, priest or whatever you will". These heroes are the leaders of man in all ages and it is their works which guide and mould the history of man. They are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, the path-finders and torch-bearers of human civilization. In the first lecture, he said "The History of the world is but the biography of great men... Could we see them, we should get some glimpses into the very marrow of the world's history". His premise was that heroism could manifest itself in any field of human ability, and he proceeded to describe the different forms taken by the hero in different phases of human history.
Throughout the work is heard the urgent cry for powerful leadership in a disorganized age. Carlyle suggests that great men make history. "Fichte's divine idea" is embodied in the leading spirits of the age.
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| On Heroes and Hero-Worship |
Critical Analysis
In the vitality and vigor of his imagination, Carlyle was a poet. His books abound in rich and vivid pictures. His portraits are "vivid, distinct and visible at once and forever". His power of summing up the character of man in a significant word or phrase is unique. Again he has the gift of a genial humor that lights up the subject. His style is the natural expression of the writer's temper. It is a disturbing and bewildering style full of defects and mannerisms. His style is stately, rhetorical and idiosyncratic.