Dec 17, 2009

Victory | Characters

Whatever happens in Victory, readers must admit that it contains a memorable cast. The central figure is Axel Heyst, a Swedish Count, and the son of a disenchanted philosopher whose pessimistic books discourage involvement in life. The elder Heyst, whose influence hangs over his son's actions, much as his portrait hangs in Heyst's bungalow, appears to have espoused a philosophy modeled on Arthur Schopenhauer's intellectual pessimism. Perhaps more relevant to a discussion of the younger Heyst is the presence of several parallels between Heyst and Hamlet. Both Hamlet and Heyst are...