188
MARY McCARTHY
of cruelty or sarcastic sharpness in Tolstoy, most of his heroes
and heroines are not spared a satirical glance that picks out their
weak points: Vronsky's bald spot, Prince Andrei's small white
hands, the heavy step of the Princess Marya. They live as char–
acters because Tolstoy is always conscious of their limitations,
just as he is with his comic figures; he does not forget that Anna
is
a society woman and Vronsky a smart cavalry officer-types
that in real life he disapproved of and even detested.
The comic element
is
the incorrigible element in every
human being; the capacity to learn, from experience or instruc–
tion, is what is forbidden to all comic creations and to what
is
comic in you and me. This capacity to learn is the prerogative of
the hero or the heroine: Prince Hal as opposed to Falstaff. The
principle of growth in human beings
is
as real, of course (though
possibly not so common) as the principle of eternity or inertia
represented by the comic; it is the subjective as opposed to
the
objective. When we identify ourselves with the hero of a story,
we are following him with all our hopes, i.e., with our subjective
conviction of human freedom; on the comic characters we look
with despair, in which, though, there is a queer kind of admira–
tion-we really, I believe, admire the comic characters
more
than we do the hero or the heroine, because of their obstinate
power to do-it-again, combined with a total lack of self-con–
sciousness or shame. But it
is
the hero or the heroine whose fate
we feel suspense for, whom we blush for when they make a mis–
take; we put ourselves in their place from the very first pages,
from the minute we make their acquaintance. We do not have
to
know
the hero or the heroine to be on their side; not even a
name
is
necessary. We are pulling for them
if
they are called
"K." or "he." This mechanism of identification with the hero is
very odd and seems to rest, almost, on
lack
of knowledge.
If
a
book or story begins, "He took the train that night," we are
surer that "he" is the hero (i.e., our temporary double) than
if
it begins, "Richard Cole took the five forty-five Thursday night."
Or "Count Karenin seated himself in a first-class carriage on
the
