Sydney meeting
Austen and the Hero Concept
Michael Giffin

Austen gives her heroines a telos—a goal or purpose, fate or destiny, oriented towards what Aristotle calls eudaimonia, a state of human flourishing and happiness. This state is never reached by accident, it is always the product of conflict and misunderstanding. Before it can be achieved, the heroine must overcome a flaw in her character, a disorder in her family, or both. She must marry the right man, who needs to overcome his own flaw or disorder, he must become a hero, or what Austen believes a hero should be. Developing his last talk to JASA on what Austen does with dramatic structure, Michael Giffin discusses what she does with the hero concept.