Abstract
As readers of a play, as audience of this play acted on the stage, we seek earnestly for a hero. In actual performance the hero is usually brought out into prominence. How could we understand the primary meaning of such an existence? A French dramatist, Beaumarchais, once said, "Que me font a moi, sujet paisible d'un etat monarchique du XVIII^e siecle, les revolutions d'Athenes et de Rome? quel veritable interet puis-je prendre a la mort d'un tyran du Peloponese, au sacrifice d'une jeune princesse en Aulide? il n'y a en tout cela rien a voir pour moi, aucune moralite qui me convienne." We may be unable to refute him if we grasp the hero as one whose existence can be fully explained empirically. In order to establish the immortality of many heroes, we need to discern some other quality in them. M. Eliade explained the essence of religions by the concept "sacred". We should be able to find a concept that realizes a parallel function as regards the heroes of drama. The primary raison d'etre of the hero in a drama, we conclude, is to help us grasp the transcendental order of the universe, which lies beyond the empirical world of the drama.
