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A romantic hero is a man that is superior in degree to other men and his environment, whose life is a sequence of adventures. Andy Dufrene in Stephen Kings Shawshank Redemption is a romantic hero according to Northrop Frye's theory, which is derived from Jesus Christ. It describes the development of a romantic hero in six stages: Birth of the hero, innocence of the hero, achievements of the hero, maintenance of innocents, contemplative withdrawal from world, and the death and resurrection of the hero. It will be made evident that Andy's entrance into prison symbolizes the birth of a hero, and his innocence is shown by his interactions with the sisters. Despite his powerless situation Andy acquires many achievements and manages to maintain his innocents. Doing time in solitary confinement gives Andy a chance to contemplate his escape, this he accomplishes by tunneling out of the prison.
By using specific references to the plot of the play and Frye's theory, the foregoing statements will prove to be valid. She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. The first two stages in the development of a romantic hero are, birth and innocents of the hero. Like a new born child the hero is coerced into a new environment. For Andy Dufrene the new environment was prison, and his entrance was similar to the birth of a child. They march you in naked as the day you were born.
The imagery of his first day is similar to the symbols of birth. Before the inmates can actually enter the general population, they are stripped naked, washed down, and deloused. Water is the symbol of the beginning and the end of a cycle. The beginning of Andy's adventure was symbolized by him entering prison naked and dripping wet.
What is more innocent than a new born child? Maybe the question that should be asked is. What is more tempting to homosexuals in jail, than a weak naked man? This is the second phase in Andy's development, his innocence. Being naive to prison life, he is taken advantage of by a group of homosexual men called the sisters. Because of his small size and fair good looks, the sisters were after Andy from the day he walked in.
For years the sisters tortured him, but eventually the leader of the gang was removed from the prison. This removal symbolizes the end of the second phase, and marks the beginning of Andy's quest towards his achievements. Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. Like Christ, Andy achieved many goals during his time in jail, especially after he got the sisters off of his back.
In jail a man has nothing but time. Some build things like little matchstick houses, Andy, he built a library. This proves that he is also superior to his environment which is supposed to keep him from leading any kind of a privileged life. Whilst at the head of the library, Andy helps many inmates pass their high school equivalency test. Andy did taxes for all of the guards and the paper work for the wardens dirty money. For this he received special treatment.
This is the reason the sisters left him alone. Andy was told that if he was seen with the slightest bit of blood coming from his behind the guards would make sure that all of the sisters went to bed with a bad headache. He was lucky that he got this kind of special treatment because without it, he would not have survived his entire sentence with the sisters. Despite all of his hardships he still maintained that bit of hope which kept him sane. This is the fourth stage in Frye's theory, maintaining the integrity of the innocent world against the assault of experience. But somehow that gray meat son of a bitch managed to bring in something else as well.
A sense of worth, maybe, or a feeling that he would be the winner in the end. Andy Dufrene was no fool, he kept hope alive. While everyone was living a regular prison life, he was digging a hole to freedom through his cell wall. This hole was his hope, and no matter what had happened to him, be it cruel punishment from the warden or an encounter with the sisters, he always had something to keep his spirits up.
And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. This is what Jesus did in Gethsemane when waiting to be betrayed by Judas. It was his contemplative withdrawal from the world. Andy undergoes this phase in a different form. He was placed in solitary confinement for two months, and given only bread and water. This came about when Andy had just been told by a new inmate that his old cell mate once told him a story of how he killed a rich golf-pro and the woman he was having an affair with.
This made Andy very excited because the convict also said that they blamed the murders on the womans hot shot lawyer. This is exactly how Andy was convicted, except he was a banker, not a lawyer. When Andy tries to convince the warden to find the convict so he could have a second trial, he was thrown in solitary confinement for two months. In these two months Andy must have thought of his escape every minute, because when he was released from solitary he didnt waste anytime.
A month later when the guards did the usual morning role call there was one name that didnt get called, Andy Dufrene. His escape was symbolic of the death and resurrection of Jesus. First his death, crawling through a narrow stone tunnel then through another narrow pipe filled with human bodily waste. Finally his resurrection, when he emerges from the pipe to find himself standing in a river.
Once again the imagery is that of water, except this time it is to mark the end of a cycle. It symbolizes the end of his adventure and the final phase of his development as a romantic hero. Andy Dufrene in Stephen Kings Shawshank Redemption is a romantic hero according to Northrop Frye's theory. Frye's theory which is derived from Jesus Christ describes the development of a romantic hero in six stages: Birth, innocence, achievements, maintenance, contemplative withdrawal from world, and the death and resurrection of the hero. Andy Dufrene's development as a romantic hero is very similar to Jesus Christ in a symbolic manner.
Two men, superior to others and the environment in which they dwell. They each achieve more than the average person, despite constant oppression. But what makes these two men heroes, is a amaranthine will to persevere. Considering what Andy had to pass through on his way to freedom, one might question whose will is strong. Andy Dufrene, the man who crawled through a tunnel of crap and came out clean.
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Research essay sample on Romantic Hero Solitary Confinement
