Throughout the history of humanity, the idea of courage has always been well understood by nearly everyone yet has varied greatly in definition. Philosophers throughout history all had their own different definitions of courage from Aristotle saying that courage is the virtue in-between the vices of cowardness and rashness, to Plato saying the courage is the ability to control your desires as well as resisting fear and pain.

In the modern day this is no different. According to the Meriam Webster dictionary, courage is defined as the “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.” However, the Cambridge dictionary simply says it’s “the ability to control your fear in a dangerous or difficult situation;” even the Oxford dictionary begs to differ by saying that it is instead “the ability to do something dangerous, or to face pain or opposition, without showing fear.”

However, William Ian Miller, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, shares and proposes some interesting perspectives on courage in his book “The Mystery of Courage” that I believe can be coalesced into three different definitions of courage that can create for interesting themes and character arcs in our stories.

Offensive and Defensive Courage
In chapter 8 of “The Mystery of Courage”, Miller discusses a generational drama of sorts between two different definitions of courage in order to become the true definition. Is courage defined by aggressive honor or stoicism and fortitude? Is courage offensive or defensive? This is the core of the drama.

In war, a preference for aggressive offence isn’t uncommon nor irrational and the courage to go on the offensive (offensive courage) endures through the ages regardless of values, morals, or technology. However, when a war lasts long enough, the ideal of offensive courage becomes greatly besmirched as it creates for dour and miserable conditions that require the courage to endure and defend against them (defensive courage) which becomes more valued in all of war’s participants than those who continue to push for offensive courage. And then when the war ends, when the next generation comes along, the value of defensive courage is forgotten and the ideal of offensive courage is repolished when the next war eventually rolls around.
These cyclical definitions would apply themselves even outside of war with the cyclical conditions of society itself. Courage would shift within in a single community depending on its needs, be it the courage to make life bearable for those within or the courage to make those outside miserable and hesitant to attack.

And this is where the first two faces of courage can be defined. Offensive courage, the willingness to go forth and meet danger head on, and defensive courage, the willingness to endure extensive suffering and harsh conditions.

Moral Courage
The third and final definition of courage comes from chapter 16 where Miller discusses a term that came about in the English language at around the nineteenth century called “moral courage”.

The first notable person to offer a definition for “moral courage” was Henry Sidwick who defined it as “facing the pains and dangers of social disapproval in the performance of what they believe is duty.” Mathilde de la Mole who, while not directly naming it, then expanded upon this definition as “the willingness to look like a fool, to suffer disgrace in the interests of higher principle or right…”
For us in the modern era, however, moral courage has come to encompass “the capacity to overcome the fear of shame and humiliation in order to admit one’s mistakes, to confess a wrong, to reject evil conformity, to denounce injustice, and also to defy immoral or impudent orders.”

Before we move on, a few things worth noting about moral courage is that, firstly, it is incongruent with the other definitions of courage as offensive and defensive courage tend to clash with moral courage; following orders or doing what it takes to survive may not be the morally right thing to do. Secondly, those with moral courage must be precise in recognizing when and when not to act. As when those with moral courage act out excessively may end up coming off as self-righteous and officious; they come off as acting far too important while trying to tell other people what to do is even if those people couldn’t care any less.

The Faces Courage as Themes
The idea of courage has explored by storytellers nearly as much, if not more, than has by philosophers as is serves as a timeless inspiration for many stories ranging from brave warriors battling fearsome monsters to regular people facing life’s many challenges.

Storytellers often have their themes of courage reflected by the characters and their character arcs within their stories and there have been many different interpretations of what they perceive as courage
Let’s explore the three faces of courage further as we delve into some notable characters from literature. Let’s talk about how the face of courage they embody is reflected and how we can implement this into our own writing.

Beginning with offensive courage. Harry Potter throughout his first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, demonstrates offensive courage many times from his willingness to break curfew to help Hagrid sneak the dragon egg out of Hogwarts, to leaping onto the troll’s neck to save Hermoine from its wrath, to pursuing the titular Philosopher’s Stone to keep it out of the hands of evil. Despite knowing that he could face severe punishment and possibly death at any time during these moments, Harry still chose to face these dangers head on in order to do what he believed was the right thing to do.
Characters who embody offensive courage expectedly go through character arcs that require them to learn how to face and overcome fear and/or danger in order to reach their goal becoming braver and bolder individuals than they were at the beginning of their stories. And so, when writing a character embodying offensive courage, it’s a good idea that character start off as cowardly, fearful, or at least hesitant to immediately jump into danger so that over the course of the story they learn to step outside their comfort zone and into the unknown and uncomfortable, becoming braver and bolder in the process.

Next, an exemplary demonstration of defensive courage comes from Frodo Baggins of J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings. Frodo is but a humble hobbit of The Shire who, despite not being born of nor possessing any greatness or nobility, chose to carry the immense burden of the One Ring throughout the fantasy epic. Frodo throughout his treacherous journey faced near unbearable physical and emotional adversity from the forces of Sauron, the armies of man, his own allies, and even the One Ring itself. And yet, despite all of it, Frodo still chose to bear the burden of carrying the One Ring to not only protect The Shire but all that is good and beautiful in Middle Earth.
Characters who embody defensive courage typically go through character arcs that require them to learn to endure and overcome physical and/or mental hardship in order to reach their goal becoming hardier and more resilient people by the end of the story. And so, when writing a character embodying defensive courage, it’s good idea to write them at the start as vulnerable, sensitive, or at least unprepared to face the hardship that lay ahead as they can be any level of fearless or cowardly at the beginning of the story; it is more important that they learn to not give up or give in when facing adversity rather than just becoming fearless.

For our final face, Atticus Finch of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird near flawlessly reflects moral courage as Atticus, while not facing any danger as fantastical or as unbearable as the previous characters, still chose to defend the innocent Tom Robinson despite knowing that defending a black man in 1930s Alabama would bring scorn and possible danger to his family simply because he refused to give on his principles as a lawyer and a man. Atticus believes in justice and the justice system, feeling that it should be color blind. And yet, when he was given the case of Tom Robinson, Atticus knew he was going to lose but stood firm on his principles giving Tom the strongest defense he could even if it temporarily made him the most scorned person in Maycomb, Alabama.

Characters who embody moral courage typically go through character arcs where they struggle to uphold their principles, virtues, and morality as they pursue their goal even if giving them up would make their lives easier; they learn to stand against social pressure and temptation in the pursuit of their goal as they feel it would be the right thing for them to do. And so, when writing a character embodying moral courage, it is important to establish the character’s moral position and have the audience understand why it’s important that the character is upholding it so that they don’t constantly question why the character won’t just let go their position and just get the story over with already.

Conclusion
As I have stated earlier, courage has taken on many different meanings throughout our history, and these characters and faces are just a few examples of that.

I wish for the three faces of courage I have shared with you here to help you envision what courage looks like so that we all can tell interesting stories about characters overcoming adversity and growing into better people despite their flaws like all good stories do.

I’ve noticed that many people (as of writing this) aren’t willing to leave their comfort zone or make stand for what they believe in due to the conditions and pressures of the society that we live within. And so, I believe it is more important than ever for us all to tell stories of people leaving their comfort zones, making a stand, and becoming better people in order to inspire others to the same in their own lives.
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you when the stars align once again.

-Conwizard