The extremities of Cormac McCarthy : the major character types

Author

William Christopher Spencer

Date of Award

8-1993

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

English

Major Professor

B. J. Leggett

Abstract

Cormac McCarthy is an uncompromising writer who has repeatedly tested and expanded the very limits of fiction through the extremity of his subject matter and techniques. Through his extreme characters, McCarthy defines the fundamentals of humanity, the core of existence, as he forces readers to face the limits of human degradation and at times invites them to view the heights of human heroism. For McCarthy, individualized characterization, though important, is subordinate to the exploration of universal issues through repeated character types. Almost all of his major characters fall into one of three categories: incarnations of evil, comic losers, and frontier heroes. His use of unifying characterization patterns endows his fiction with a Biblical weight, a psychological and philosophical richness, and a universal significance that it otherwise could not hope to achieve. McCarthy's incarnations of evil dramatize the power and pervasiveness of evil. Outer Dark's unholy trinity parodies the theological concept of a triune God, while the seductive Judge Holden of Blood Meridian,/i> effectively reveals the psychological allure of evil. Through the comic loser character type, McCarthy's fiction, like Greek tragedy, explores the complex interplay of fate and free will in human existence. But unlike Greek drama, McCarthy's fiction explores the issue in a seriocomic manner, a manner which combines a sense of tragic doom with slapstick humor and a sense of the existential absurd. McCarthy's frontier heroes reveal that intermingled with his often grotesque portraiture of life in Appalachia and the Old West, there is a certain nostalgic, pastoral strain that suggests an individual can achieve heroic stature through a simple, natural lifestyle and an Emersonian self-reliance. McCarthy characterizes Lester Ballard as a parody of the frontier hero, while Subtree's character combines elements of frontier, epic, and existential heroism. Ultimately, McCarthy's use of character types reflects his view of fiction as the equivalent of a revelatory mystical experience. The recurrence of characters, as with Jungian archetypes or Biblical typology, implies a timeless reality beyond our ordinary powers of perception.