A Comparative Study Of Thomas Carlyle's And Walt Whitman's View Of Hero

Thomas Carlyle is a great historian,critic,essayist and philosopher in the Victorian age.He is honored as the spiritual leader of the Victoria age: The Sage of Chelsea,and his thoughts have great impacts on the literary writing of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Western countries.American romantic poet Walt Whitman admired Carlyle so much that he once admitted that his writing had been influenced by Carlyle.Both Carlyle and Whitman show deep anxieties over their society and have a strong desire for a hero who can lead the society and save the era from spiritual downfall.Based on Carlyle's and Whitman's specific works and related historical materials,this study analyzes the formation of Carlyle and Whitman's views of hero and the images of heroes in their works,compares the similarities and differences between Carlyle's and Whitman's views of hero,and also attempts to explain the impacts of Carlyle's view of hero on Whitman.This study finds that Carlyle's and Whitman's view of hero are deeply influenced by the era that they lived in.In Carlyle's works,the Victorian age was dominated by the “cash-nexus”.People of that time celebrated the material progress but ignored the spiritual deterioration.Similarly,Walt Whitman lived in the turbulent time of American history when slavery was the mainstream and social conscience was nowhere to be seen.What's worse,American Civil War and the abolition movement led to great changes in the society.As a result,both Carlyle and Whitman aspired to have a hero with leadership and morality to end the social chaos,bring back social order and solve the spiritual crisis of their times.Heroes in their works are either the shapers of the values of the society,or the moral and spiritual leaders of the times,or the Chaosterminators.This study points out that Carlyle and Whitman both hold positive attitudes toward the role that a hero plays in politics,humanities and morality.Not only do they admire the leadership skills,bravery and determination of Cromwell and Lincoln,but also appreciate wisdom,keeninsights and writing skills of Shakespeare and Emerson.What's more,heroes,no matter military leaders or men of letters,are well equipped with sincerity,the most important quality of a hero.It is noticeable that some of the words that Whitman employed to describe heroes are borrowed from Carlyle.However,despite similarities,Carlyle's and Whitman's views of hero have differences.Carlyle believes that the hero is destined while Whitman,a democratic poet,not only admires heroes,but also praises common people.Whitman suggests that everyone could become a hero.