On describing heroes

Ran into some difficulties yesterday when talking about the physical form of heroes. There are not typically many heroes with medical conditions or disabilities (this is a general rule rather than something that's specific to classical and medieval literature) and I was discussing why this was the case. I think you could fairly say that part of this is due to bias against the "imperfect" form - certainly medieval literature indicates that the outside mirrors what's inside.

However, I think that there was a practical reason as well, namely that one would assume that the ideal hero would be strong, tall, and in possession of all his arms and legs; sickliness would be tantamount to weakness and a weak warrior is a warrior who gets beaten by a strong warrior. As such, authors made their heroes strong in order to make them unbeatable. Logical, surely?

The problem is that this isn't necessarily the case. Even as I was creating this argument I felt uncertain about the facts; whatever I do, my knowledge and experience of heroes will always primarily be informed by their presentations in contemporary culture. I wrote: "There is a practical impulse behind the consistently able-bodied hero." This made me feel uncomfortable, as though I were skirting offensiveness. Then my boyfriend drew my attention to Balwin IV, the leprous warrior king. (Apologies for the non-academic link, but it gets my point across.)

I've tried to pacify myself by reminding myself that my study is of literature and literature does not necessarily reflect real life. I eventually altered my sentence so that it read: "There is an unproven practical impulse behind the consistently able-bodied hero." This is a fairer summary of the facts, I think.

Miss Rose in the character of Tom Thumb by
Edward Fisher (engraver) and J. Berridge (artist)

This is an issue that I feel is going to reoccur throughout my thesis. Eighteenth-century parody frequently depended on physical appearance being at odds with character. Fielding's Tom Thumb plays are an obvious example of this, as Tom Thumb was presented as a superlative hero who struck terror into the hearts of giants and made all the ladies at court fall in love with him - but he was frequently cast as a female dwarf. This is just one example; eighteenth-century drama exploited physical appearance as often as it could and a lengthy discussion of this will be unavoidable. As it is, I'm going to need to tread carefully, and watch my wording.