The Androgynous Poet as an Epic Hero: The “I” in Wordsworth’s The Prelude

Abstract

This paper is to analyze the androgynous heroism of the “I” in the epic of The Prelude. The Prelude as an epic and the “I” as a hero have often been considered innovative rather than traditional; the story is about a poet’s spiritual journey and the heroism involves inner qualities than martial strength. However, as far as androgyny in heroism is concerned, The Prelude has similar traits to those of some traditional epics. The heroes of The Aeneid, The Divine Comedy, and Paradise Lost show several different or dissonant traits to masculine or male-centered heroism they reveal hesitative, inner, or passive qualities, which are usually condemned as feminine temper to hamper masculine heroic achievement. Yet, these qualities were ultimately proven to be supplementary or alternative to masculine heroism, enabling heroes to perfect their personalities and performance. The Prelude has been often criticized for Wordsworth’s typical distinction of nature from imagination, and the feminization of the former as well as the masculinization of the latter. These gendered opposites, however, were challenged, inverted, and even subverted by Wordsworth himself through the “I”’s quest for the heroic achievement, the growth of a poet’s mind. To become a poet speaking to all human beings, the “I” himself has to overcome his presupposition of femininity and masculinity and to achieve a capacious androgynous soul. Presenting an androgynous poet “I” as an epic hero, Wordsworth shows a poet’s heroism and its validity, and unacknowledgedly acknowledges the absolute necessity of femininity in heroic achievement. As the “I”’s androgyny generally focuses on the unification of polarized gendered qualities, it ultimately desires the synthesis and the harmony of other opposites, such as physical and spiritual, inner and outer, and individual and communal, which makes The Prelude both a traditional and innovative epic.