The Sidekicks

{Sorry I took so long to post this blog. Yesterday I had swimming practice and then I had to work, and went to sleep as soon as I got home since I had SATs this morning, and after I took the SATs, I went straight to work.}

Batman has Robin, Mario has Luigi, Han Solo has Chewbacca, and so on. Most great fictional heroes have a sidekick who always stands by their side, thus the name, during their "quests". But usually the sidekick is less experienced than the actual hero, unlike D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers. D'Artagnan, our hero, has as sidekicks some of the greatest fighters in Paris, whose only qualities that can be offered to our hero are loyalty and courage. It would be very understandable if Alexandre Dumas made the sidekicks, the three musketeers, great men who would teach our hero how to be a great man also, but they each have their own flaws, which seem to always be presented to D'Artagnan.

In Chapter 25, when D'Artagnan returns to the inn where Porthos was left to duel, the host of the inn explains in details how Porthos lost all the money that he had, "even to his horse"(257) in a game of lansquenet* and his mistress, who is not a Duchess, wouldn't pay the bill. Also, he had lost a duel. When D'Artagnan talks to Porthos, he makes up this lie of how he hurt himself after winning the duel, and that his Duchess has been very hard to reach. D'Artagnan then realizes that Porthos is a liar, not a very exemplary trait.

In Chapter 26, Aramis once again decides to join the church, because his mistress apparently has abandoned him. But after he reads the letter that D'Artagnan picked up at his house, he decides not to join the church anymore when he reads the letter. Aramis has a certain facility to give up on his own future due to life troubles, in this case love. Another trait we don't want our young hero picking up on that either, he is in love, but he is not giving up his ideals.

Then in Chapter 27, Athos, the centered and most respected by D'Artagnan musketeer, drunkenly opens his heart to D'Artagnan about his past and how he is really "messed up in the head", I think that is the best way to describe it. He hung his beloved wife after he found out she was a criminal. After that he has been feeling very depressed and that has affected his life. Depression is not good for a hero either (except for Batman, but we can understand his pain =P).

So the question I pose is why would Dumas set up the sidekick and main hero the way he did? My answer would it be that even though the three musketeers, the sidekicks, are a lot more experienced than D'Artagnan, they are the ones who is going to learn with our hero. He is going to change the lives of each one of the musketeers to turn them into better men, without altering their unique, and sometimes comical, personality. This story will also show how the old and experienced can learn from the young and precipitated. D'Artagnan is also going to learn a lot from the musketeers too, of course, after all they are "The Men".

*lansquenet - a game of cards played in France and most of Western Europe. Literally means "foot soldier", since it was invented by such. (As told by www.dictionary.com)