Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24691863-20140413080351

Dear Merlin Wiki friends, Our discussions on the Forum have inspired me to write this text. It touches on some of the ideas you have brought up and others that I have been thinking about since starting to watch the series and later explored in Merlin – After. I look forward to our continued discussions! All the best, Rhuddem Gwelin Author of Merlin – After http://merlin-after.blogspot.se/

The Tragic Heroes of Merlin

In literature the tragic hero is one who fights for a just cause but fails and/or dies because of a fatal flaw in his or her character. It is around this that the BBC series Merlin bases its epic story. Four of the main characters I see as tragic heroes. Only Gwen, who strength and wisdom stay with her, has no fatal flaw that brings her downfall, though she is left essentially alone at the end of the series.

Of these four I’d like to start with Uther who in many ways is a good king who strives to bring peace and prosperity to the kingdom. One of the weaknesses that bring his downfall is his blind hatred for all sorcery and his unrelenting oppression and violence against all sorcerers, good and bad. This hatred and deep fear reveals a second fatal flaw – hypocrisy. Uther resorts to magic himself to further his own cause, which earns him the contempt and enmity of the two sorcerers close to him, Morgana and Merlin. Uther’s third fatal weakness, shared by parents throughout history, is his inability to show his love for and pride in his son Arthur. By the time he expresses them, Arthur’s own fatal flaw has been established. Uther’s wish to be a good king earns the grudging respect and support of Merlin who repeatedly saves Uther’s life through magic. But Uther dies, not the glorious and powerful king he aspired to be but an overthrown broken down wreck of a man, his downfall caused by the consequences of his hatred, fear and hypocrisy – Morgana’s lust for revenge against him for denying her what she sees as her birthright and for his cruelty. As her magical powers grow this leads her to choose the side of the sorcerers she comes into contact with and manipulate her in their fight against Uther, especially Morgause.

This lust for revenge is Morgana’s fatal flaw. The character of Morgana fascinates us all. At the beginning of the series she is funny, loyal and kind. Her arrogance, brightness and self-confidence make her a beacon of strength in the quartet she forms with Arthur, Gwen and Merlin. Her flaw is her own power – her magic. Its emergence terrifies her and for good reason. If it became known Uther would have her killed. We all wonder if it would all have turned out differently if only Merlin had revealed his magic to her early on but it can also be seen as inevitable that Morgana turns evil as she succumbs to her craving for revenge against Uther. His fatal flaw fires hers.

As it does Arthur’s. Like his father, Arthur strives to be a good king and he becomes a better king than Uther. His ability to see the good in people and his sense of justice reaches out to encompass more people. In often bitter opposition to his father he envisions a Camelot and a united Albion based more on merit than on hierarchy. He succeeds to a certain extent and in the three years between Seasons Four and Five Arthur reigns over a more peaceful and equal Camelot – and possibly Albion – than Uther. But Arthur has been fatally damaged by his upbringing. Uther has bequeathed him a deep-seated sense of inadequacy and inferiority and the lingering and devastating fear of sorcery that makes it impossible for Merlin to reveal the true nature of his support until it is too late. And so finally Merlin. The classic tragic hero. From a poor background with powers he doesn’t understand and a secret destiny he only reluctantly accepts. With a strong sense of duty and loyalty he shoulders the responsibility thrust upon him. His fatal flaw too is created by Uther. From childhood it has been pounded into Merlin that to reveal his magic would be fatal. And though he repeatedly risks his life to save that of others and he repeatedly and foolishly uses his magic because of an almost painful desire to reveal his true nature, when it might have been of greatest benefit to all to do so, he doesn’t. Torn between the conflicting forces of those most important to him and the contradictory interpretations of what his destiny actually is and what he is actually destined to use his magic for, Merlin at crucial moments becomes in a sense paralyzed, much like Hamlet whose own inner conflict prevents the action that family, friends, audience and history seem to demand.

So while we all continually throughout the five seasons cry out to our heroes, “Don’t do that!” and “Tell him/her now!” and “Don’t listen to…” there is an inevitability in the legend. As the series develops there is an almost Shakespearean grandeur in the march towards the end. Woven in and around all of the comedy and charm and silly episodes with goblins and fairies and all the murky religion and evil and all of the undeveloped potential and all the holes in the plot and the logic, the series - like so much of Shakespeare - moves inexorably towards the tragic end. The tragedy of Uther, Morgana and Arthur is that their fatal flaws lead to their deaths. The tragedy of Merlin is that he lives – forever – believing that he has failed.

He hasn’t. His destiny was to keep Arthur alive to become king. This Merlin did and then some. After that, Arthur’s death is his own destiny and Mordred’s, not Merlin’s. But in the emotional trauma and personal loss at the battle of Camlann Merlin doesn’t realize this. Nor do we. In spite of the all the signs, in spite of the certainty of a tragic ending, we’re shaken when it comes.

Isn’t it that which makes us all continue to be enthralled by the series? That which makes us all want more? 