The Red Badge Of Courage Character Analysis

Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage is a Civil War novel written in 1895. The novel tells the story of a young soldier who flees from the war, and subsequently is afflicted by mental anguish. Though the novel may be centered around the Civil War, the real war revolves around this anguish occurs in Henry’s head. From the onset of the novel, the protagonist tries hard to reconcile the mythological stories of past heroes arising from glorious battles with the ordinary and much less exalted experiences of his regiment. When presented with the knowledge that he may be moved to the front lines, Henry begins to deliberate over the war and glory he envisioned with the reality of the situation he is now in, and wonders if he’ll return ‘with his

shield’.
The Red Badge of Courage is essentially about Henry’s worry that he’ll die without any real acknowledgment instead of gaining the revered glory that he desires. His notion of glory is seemingly at odds with the heroes that he admires in that he holds no sense of duty. Henry places far more value in being recognized and revered than he does in accomplishing an act that will lead to such glory. However, as the plot begins to unfold and Henry is faced with possibly having to actively participate in the war, he starts to question whether he actually deserves this glory he holds in such high regard. He sways back and forth between the heroic courage that he has read and heard about that leads to fame, and his thinking that the army may never actually fight in the war—that the 304th regiment simply amount to a “blue demonstration.” It will be interesting to see in the next half of the book how our protagonist develops as a character.

In the early portion of the book, Crane offers his readers several chances to examine the protagonist’s personality. Henry seems to be largely narcissistic and self-centered, and appears deeply unconcerned with the concept of duty. Henry’s only concern is glory, and he has seemingly no drive to do what it takes to earn this glory. A good example of this is when he fears that he may be outed as a coward, but not because his lack of bravery is indicative of being a bad soldier, but because such exposure would ultimately deny him of the renown he longs for.
 As The Red Badge of Courage progresses, Henry ultimately realizes that, in the grand scheme of things, he is insignificant—like his mother says before he leaves for the war, he is “jest one little feller amongst a hull lot of others”. As the troops are marching, they encounter a corpse, Henry feels the urge to find the answer to the “Question” in the ‘eyes’ of the corpse. This “Question” is never outrightly expressed, but the answer, which Henry longs to figure out, seems to have something to do with comprehending the intricacies of life, and the true meaning of honor. This corpse is such an important metaphor in the first half of this novel. It is symbolic of both the

brutal finality of death and the lack of concern of nature to the end of human life. Firmly entrenched and overrun with ants, the corpse serves as an integral piece of the scenery. No matter how much effort is put into finding out if the soldier lived in a moral and honorable manner, or if he possessed courage, nothing is capable of altering the crucial, unavoidable truth of his death—neither his achievements nor his status matter. The sight of this corpse disengages Henry from the comfortable moral assumption that the squirrel’s evasion from the danger he presented to it gave him, and exhibited that his reason has been too basic. Our protagonist learns that death may ultimately be simply that, and that the universe may not care about him or his fear of death. The author uses these fleeting moments—this first encounter with a corpse and Henry’s recollection of his mother’s advice—to instill the larger themes of the novel in the reader’s mind, such as the tensions between preserving self and the drive to conduct oneself in an honorable manner.
 In the protagonist’s first true encounter of war, he experiences a loss of individuality. In losing this sense of sense, Henry undergoes a remarkable transformation. He begins to realize the hollowness of his former belief that glory is achieved automatically when a soldier engages in battle fiercely. When he witnesses none of his fellow soldiers acting in a ‘heroic’ manner, he forgets his individuality and fights with his regiment for the greater good, allowing him to get over his desire of self-preservation. Henry’s experiences with war test his comprehension of his own importance and has ultimately altered the way he views glory and valor. Henry comes to the realization that his life is truthfully of little significance—that the world will not cease to spin with the end of his life. This crucial revelation about the relative trivialness of life is incorporated throughout the first half of the novel.
 All in all, Henry’s engagement with Jim and the battered soldier ultimately force Henry to reconcile imagination with real life. He perceives the soldiers who have been wounded in battle as heroic and admirable, but subsequently watches a couple of them die. He is profoundly ashamed of his lack of bravery in running from war, and desires to attain a wound (his red badge of courage) in order to vindicate his nerve. But the heroic soldiers who acted in the manner in which he wishes he could have, one of them being his good friend Jim, die of their injuries. The evident need of navigating this inherent conflict between life and glory/honor is a great strain on Henry.