Vol. 51 No. 3 1984 - page 422

422
PARTISAN REVIEW
are all moments of great internaI-struggle . Such moments are treated
implicitly rather than explicitly. They take place in characters who
are neither "wholly saintly" nor "wholly evil." Their greatness lies in
their very imperfection and is located in their conflicts. And in all
this there exists the possibility of choice : there is no determinism, no
fatalism . The interference of Providence is only
one
of the acting
forces.
These qualities of the ancient Hebrew stories also account for
the individuality of their characters. One may say, paraphrasing
Tolstoy, that all perfect characters resemble each other, whereas
each deficient type differs from his fellow . In contrast to the heroes
and gods of
The Iliad,
many of whom differ only in name ; in contrast
to the ancient epics , chivalric romance, and Christian religious nar–
rative which created one-dimensional, denuded stereotypes; and in
contrast to the traditional figures of the mysteries and the morality
plays, there is not one biblical character who is a replica of another.
Each possesses traits and curriculum vitae which are carved in the
world's memory by his particular name and personality. Thus , the
Talmud says (in Sanhedrin) , "The Blessed Be He minted every man
after the mold of the first man but no-one is alike ." (Prometheus, Or–
pheus , Dedalus , etc . are , of course , heroes with weaknesses , but not
one of them has natural human dimensions ; they embody the per–
sonification and codification of the human unconscious and are not
multi-faceted individuals.)
The kind of literary treatment in the Bible, fundamentally an–
thropocentric, found no continuity in world literature until a very
late period . The Anglo-Scandinavian Beowulf, the French Bayard,
Gawain , Tristan, and Roland , the Spanish Cid, and the German
Sigfried-heroes of innumerable sagas and romances , who made their
conquests in love and war on European soil- were not descendants
of Abraham, Moses, Saul , or David , but of Gilgamesh and the Ho–
meric hero (though their blood was mingled with that of the saintly
and suffering Jesus). They were bold, fearless, and unblemished
warriors who overcame all obstacles, and defeated dragons and in–
fidels , while remaining noble hearts who offered their protection to
damsels in distress and the innocent and righteous. The mysteries
and the morality plays which adopted the Old and New Testament
heroes in effect castrated them of all their human instincts , desires,
and lusts, pacified all the conflicts in their characters, and made
them into allegorical figures devoid of all human interest. When they
Christianized them, they also gave them the
coup de grace
and plucked
out their souls. Many of these heroes fell at the end of their path , but
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