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Theme Of Manhood In The Black Arrow

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Mercy or Revenge? Can a true manhood be self-centered, without compassion or mercy for any, no matter who he or she might be? Throughout literature, authors attempt to portray their ideas of what true manhood is through their characters. In the book, The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson, Richard Shelton seeks revenge on Sir Daniel but instead chooses to have mercy on him, realizing that true manhood involves mercy and humility, rather than the title of a knight. Richard Shelton begins to desire manhood rather than knighthood soon after Richard of Gloucester knights him. After knighting Dick, the Duke of Gloucester stares deeply into his eyes, causing him to quail before his gaze. “The insane excitement, the courage, and the cruelty that he read therein filled him with dismay about the future” (Stevenson 217). Richard discovers the cruelty of knighthood and becomes disillusioned to what true manhood means. After witnessing the ruthlessness and ferocity of knighthood, Dick understands that knighthood did not possess the qualities which he came to believe knighthood included. In order to become Joanna’s husband, Richard forsakes all the glories of knighthood, realizing that Joanna means more to him than knighthood and its fading glories. Dick rescues Joanna from Sir …show more content…

On Dick and Joanna’s wedding morn, Dick saunters through the woods to wash away his anxiety and impatience, and encounters Sir Daniel in the woods. “But I myself have done amiss; I have brought about men’s deaths; and upon this glad day I will be neither judge nor hangman” (248). Dick chooses to have mercy on Sir Daniel, acknowledging that he himself has done wrong. In doing so, he discovers that manhood, unlike knighthood, requires mercy and humility. Dick realizes that knighthood was simply a title given to a man and taking revenge cannot not form him into the man he desiresd to be. Rather, true manhood required mercy and

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