The Last Unicorn

Schmendrick the magician is an excellent example of the many characters trying to fully become himself. The first time he meets the Unicorn he nearly kills the enchanted animal while trying to free her from her cage(34). He goes on through the novel, continuously making a fool out of himself. When he tries to entertain Captain Cully's "merry" men, he is forced to use slight of hand because he knows his spells are not dependable enough (62). Later in the novel Schmendrick spends time as King Haggard's wizard/fool. Throughout the novel he constantly persists at trying to be a real wizard but fails.

Molly Grue, too, is a character that is trying in her own way to change the person that she is. She is a poor man's Maid Marien. Though, she lives with an outlaw who saved her from an evil baron, she does not fit the classical role of Robin Hood's love. She does not have the sweetness and beauty of the fairy tale, as Captain Cully says she is "suspicious, pinched, dour, prematurely old, even a touch tyrannical"(57). This middle aged woman is cynical and broken. She even admits this to herself when she first meets the Unicorn "How dare you, how dare you come to me now, when I am this? With a flap of her hand she summed herself up: barren face, desert eyes, and yellowing heart" (70).

Captain Cully is yet another example of a character that desperately wants to be a much greater thing than he is. In his case he wants to be remembered as a Robin Hood. He has his men create songs about great deeds he never did. Though he lives his life as an outlaw, he steals from the poor, and gives the rich a percentage. Even his "merry" men lack much enthusiasm, as one of them says to Cully "No offense, captain, but we're really not very merry, when all's said-"(61). Cully is trying to live an illusion.

Beagle leaves many of the unfulfilled characters the way that he finds them, unfulfilled. The "good guys" like Schmendrick and Molly by the end of the story have come to be the people they wanted to be: Schmendrick is a great wizard, and Molly is a fair and innocent maiden.

You can extend this theme to the two characters in the book that are the most opposite of each other, the Unicorn and the Red Bull. The Unicorn represents "being". It is clear throughout the novel she is a character that is everything a unicorn is reputed to be. The Unicorn is immortal, has magical abilities, and cannot be captured by any normal means. She is a magical being, that cannot be seen from members of the "non-being" world. When the Unicorn begins her journey she first meets a farmer that tries to capture her (6). However, the reader quickly learns that the man is trying to capture because he thinks that she is a beautiful white mare, not because she is a Unicorn. This small time farmer is part of (what I term) the "non-being" world, he does not believe in magic, and so cannot believe that the Unicorn is anything more than a horse. Throughout the story people from the "non-being" world cannot see the Unicorn for what she truly is. The only exceptions to these are Molly and Schmendrick. Both of thes e characters are in a way trapped in worlds that they do not want to be in. Schmendrick does not want to be the small time charlatan that he is throughout most of the novel, Molly Grue never grew in to the "Maid Marien" character she wanted to be. So because both of these characters wish so much that they could change, that they could grow into greater beings than what they are, they can both see creatures from the other, less-mundane, world the Unicorn is from.

When you talk about the Unicorn, it is only natural to talk about its counterpoint, the Red Bull. The Red Bull is the ultimate representative of the "non-being" world. He in many ways represents the most cynical and dark side of reality, the part which tries to drive out things that conflict with the "non-being", unmagical world that it represents. In many ways the bull represents defeat. What I mean by defeat is the giving up of hope, breaking the will of his captives. The Bull does this through wearing down his captives. Both the first and second time the Bull meets the Unicorn he never tries to physically harm his enemy. He just runs after his captives, tiring them, intimidating them, until they surrender and allow him to drive them into the ocean. Perhaps the Red Bull's personality can be best summed up by what Schmendrick says at one point, "The Red Bull never fights....He conquers, but he never fights"(197). The Bull only represents self-defeat, he can only win when his captives no longer believe in the mselves. So in his own way the Bull represents the world of the "non-being", those individuals that have given up on the world of the "being", who have accepted the role of the "wannabe", and live in a truly mundane world.

Why did Beagle put these themes of the "being" and the "non-being" world into his novel. Perhaps because he felt that often times a lot of life is based on perspective. What we want to see, hear, and do, depends upon us. If we want to we can settle for the lowest common denominator, like the simple farmer that mistakes the Unicorn for a white mare, or instead strive to push ourselves to be more than we are given, like Molly and Schmendrick. What Beagle says is that you can see the magic and opportunity in life or ignore it. You can give in to the Red Bull, and despair, or resist it.

references:
The version of "The Last Unicorn" that I used was published by ROC, 1991

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