A Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls - By Red Page 0,30
her, even after Jane ran away because of her. And he tries to save her during the house fire. Anyway, locking up crazy people is just what they did back then. He could have sent her to one of those hospitals where she’d be restrained in a cell. Most people would have done that to avoid the scandal.”
6882 Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls[FIN].indd 80
8/27/10 10:36 AM
• I n W h i c h O u r I n t r e p i d H e r o i n e s D i s c u s s t h e M e r i t s . . . •
81
“She’s quite right,” Miss Jane interjected. “Just as, in the end, Mr. Darcy doesn’t support the accepted order of things.
He marries Elizabeth despite her family scandals and her rather annoying mother.”
“See?” Lizzie continued. “Mr. Rochester is as much of a rebel as Heathcliff, only he manages to create something, even through his suffering, instead of just randomly destroying things with his temper. Sound familiar?”
“Hey, Damon was betrayed. He has a right to be cranky sometimes.”
“Damon betrays Stefan all the time.”
“They’re brothers.” Cat shrugged, as if that explained everything. “And he saved him from being tortured in Pearl’s basement, remember? Anyway, the reason Damon does all that other stuff is because he wants to free Katherine, because he loves her.”
“Yeah, but he likes doing all that other stuff, all the violence and the temper tantrums. He gets off on it. Even Elena calls him a ‘self-serving psychopath.’”
“He does it for love! So they can be together. That’s romantic.”
“Selfish.”
“Romantic!”
“Selfish!”
“Girls!” Miss Jane interrupted briskly. “A little decorum, if you please. I have no wish to witness fisticuffs this evening.”
Cat bristled but sat back. “Anyway, when he really starts to get into Elena, he changes,” She insisted, but she wasn’t screeching anymore.
6882 Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls[FIN].indd 81
8/27/10 10:36 AM
82
• A V i s i t o r ’ s G u i d e t o M y s t i c F a l l s •
Lizzie frowned at her notes suddenly. “Hold on, I’ve got a Northrop Frye quote here: ‘The Romantic hero is placed outside the structure of civilization and therefore represents the force of physical nature, amoral or ruthless, yet with a sense of power, and often leadership, that society has impov-erished itself by rejecting.’”
Cat frowned, too. “Wait, that kind of sounds like Damon, too.”
“I know.” Lizzie shuffled through her papers a little more violently. “Okay, we have to rethink this. It’s getting muddled.”
Cat groaned, leaning her chin in her hand. “This sucks. I could be watching Damon right now.”
“No, wait, I got it. Look, it’s not about who’s a Romantic hero and who’s a Gothic hero because Stefan and Damon are both kinds of heroes at the same time.”
“Huh?”
Lizzie bounced in her seat. Cat sighed.
“I’m on to something,” Lizzie promised. “It’s about the archetype of the hero: Epic, Gothic, Romantic.”
“Epic? We have epic now?”
“Epic heroes are like Odysseus and Hercules. They have mythical origins, usually born of a god, and their tests are more physical than mental. They definitely uphold the status quo.”
“Does this have to be in the essay?”
“No.”
“So don’t care then.”
“As I was saying,” Lizzie continued with a sniff, “it’s not about who’s the better hero, because they’re both on the same 6882 Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls[FIN].indd 82
8/27/10 10:36 AM
• I n W h i c h O u r I n t r e p i d H e r o i n e s D i s c u s s t h e M e r i t s . . . •
83
path of the hero archetype. They’re just in different stages of the same journey. Damon’s stuck in the amoral Gothic brooding stage and Stefan has progressed to the Romantic redeemed bad boy looking for further redemption stage.”
“But what about when Stefan drinks Elena’s blood and gets all addicted?”
“Huh. Crap.” She bit her lip. “Wait! Got it! He’s back-tracking on his path, but he eventually moves forward again.
It’s a temporary slide.”
“True,” Cat agreed. “Damon even says it, Stefan goes back to being boring and straightlaced—‘successfully cured of anything interesting in his personality.’”
“Watch it,” Lizzie warned.
“Yeah, yeah. You’re right, though. I mean, Damon moves around on his path, too, like when he saves Elena from Isobel.”
Lizzie nodded. “So the timeline goes like this: Heathcliff, Mr. Rochester, Mr. Darcy.” She beamed. “Man, I’m good.”
“If you say so,” Cat said. “So you write