The figure of Reuben Bourne in “Roger Malvin’s Burial” by
Nathaniel Hawthorne is quite striking. Appearing as the fictional duplicate of
a classical knight hero, endowed with bravery, self-denial and sense of
honour, he falls short of the reader’s expectations in the course of events. He
is but a wounded hero, whose real capacity cannot match his pretension to
rise up to a high degree of heroism. Far from being only physical, his wound
symbolises his human vulnerability and therefore raises deep questions. Torn
between his pretension and the burden of his humanity, he undergoes a
pathetic turmoil about which his greatest and veritable challenge is to get out
of it.

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