To grow to be a hero : the influences of Thomas Carlyle upon the late prose romances of William Morris

In an 1886 response to The Pall Mall Gazette, William Morris listed the books which had most affected his thought. Included among them were the works of Thomas Carlyle. This entry, together with other continuing evidence of Morris' interest in both Carlyle's life and philosophy, suggests an influence of considerably greater significance than has been heretofore recognized.

Although parallels have been noted with respect to such themes as the importance of work, the atrophy of human values, and "enthusiasm for heroes," at least one of Carlyle's preoccupations resurfaces with special significance in William Morris' late prose romances. Carlyle's emphasis upon the development of the potential hero, who must actively pass from mere possibility through stages of (1) openness to supernatural influence, (2) strife for perceptual acuity, (3) renunciation of self-concern, and (4) determined effort to promote order and justice, offered Morris an alternative to post-Bloody-Sunday despair. Disillusioned by the people's inability to effect social reform, Morris found in Carlyle's theory of heroic development the basis for renewed hopes for society, and his late prose romances became concrete explorations of Carlyle's more nebulous thought.

While three of these romances (Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair, A Dream of John Ball, and News from Nowhere) examine the quality of heroism itself, the remaining works explore the Carlylean theory of heroic development. In four (The Story of the Glittering Plain, The Wood Beyond the World, The Well at the World's End, and The Water of the Wondrous Isles), heroic growth takes place on symbolic journeys into alien lands; in the other three (The House of the Wolfings, The Roots of the Mountains, and The Sundering Flood), it evolves more In each nearly within the frameworks of the protagonists' societies, case, however, the potential hero travels the Carlylean route from confusion and self-concern to order and other-directed action, instance the result is not only a fully-developed Carlylean hero but enhanced possibilities for the rest of society, as well.