The Heroism of a Protagonist as Seen in Stardust Josiah Hanson College

“A hero. You want to be one of those rare human beings who make history, rather than merely watch it flow around them like water around a rock.” - Dan Simmons

Both the novel Stardust by Neil Gaiman and the film adaption Stardust (Dir. Matthew Vaughn, 2007) show the audience some similarities and many acute differences between the development of Trist(r)an as the main protagonist. These acute differences are particularly seen in the resolutions of both works and how Trist(r)an responds to these resolutions.

To begin, the novel ends with Lady Una running Stormhold as regent while Tristran and Yvaine travel together (Gaiman 211). This in and of itself does not say a whole lot about Tristran but it does point to the way that Tristran “ends up” in this novel in relation to his development. Throughout the story, Tristran displays some qualities that would certainly make him less than what one might want for a heroic character. Tristran is described as being generally an odd young man who was painfully shy and rather naïve. This is contrasted with the end of the novel when we see Tristran as the ruler of all Stormhold. Near the end of the novel, he says this: “there are so many places we have not yet seen. So many people still to...