Through his acceptance of his slavery and what he cannot control, Maximus Decimus Meridius, the main character of the movie Gladiator, shows stoic qualities demonstrated by prominent followers of the Ancient Greek principle. Although he is a Roman citizen and should not, under the Roman laws, be a slave, Maximus does not complain and quietly does as he is ordered. Maximus is strong enough and powerful enough to challenge his master, but he recognizes that a reckless bid for freedom would most likely end poorly. He understands that the death of his family and his capture are outside of his control, and instead he focuses on trying to end the reign of Commodus, an evil emperor. This shows his selfless nature as well, as he is more concerned with the well-being of Rome than himself. Maximus is also a wise man, known for his tactical abilities on the battlefield. This was a trait that stoics valued very highly. In the film, Maximus does not let his unfair circumstances bother him, but rather does what he can for the greater good. Even in the death of Marcus Aurelius, great stoic philosopher and a man whom Maximus loved, Maximus does not despair and allow his grief to consume him but rather focuses on the pertinent problem because it is the only thing that he can control. Like the Stoics, Maximus is not afraid of death, and ultimately sacrifices his life to save Rome.
Marcus Aurelius, a real-life philosopher who is portrayed in the film, was a well-known stoic who valued many of the same character traits that Maximus Decimus Meridius displayed in Gladiator. Stoics stressed the importance of understanding what you cannot change and focusing instead on the variables inside your control, figuring out ways to change undesirable circumstances on ones’ own. The stoics also believed that reason and logic were the most important values that an individual could possess, traits that both Marcus Aurelius and Maximus displayed. The stoic similarities between Maximus and Marcus Aurelius are prominent, and show that stoicism is still an important philosophy in modern times through the portrayal of Maximus as a stoic, brave fighter in the recent movie Gladiator.
Ziva David, a character on the TV show NCIS, demonstrates stoic ideas through her acceptance of inevitable events in her life. Ziva is a trained assassin who used to work for the Mossad, an Israeli intelligence agency, before she joined the Naval Criminal Investigative Services. While she does not demonstrate all of the qualities of stoicism, Ziva displays some similarities to stoics and their beliefs through her ability to accept events in her life that are bad. For example, one of the obvious job descriptions of being an assassin is killing people. Although it is done in the interest of national security and the people she shoots are dangerous criminals, the act of killing another human being is a very difficult thing for most to accept. Ziva struggles with this aspect of her life at times, which is the ultimate reason that she leaves NCIS in Season 11 of the show. However, she understands that shooting criminals who pose a threat to herself or to her team is something that she cannot change about her job, declaring that “It is what it is. It is what you have to do” in response to a question about what it is like to kill a man. While she understand that this is inevitable, Ziva ultimately decides to change what she can about the situation and resigns from NCIS, partially due to her desire to rewrite herself and end her assassin career. By changing what she can about the situation and quitting her job, Ziva shows her stoic qualities. Another way that Ziva is a stoic is shown through her acceptance of her past. Over the course of the show and before, Ziva loses her mother, sister, brother, and father at various points. Although she did not have strong relationships with all of of them, their deaths still affected her. However, Ziva was able to put her grief behind her and continue to solve crimes for NCIS, accepting that everyone must one day die. It is in these ways that Ziva David demonstrated stoic traits.
Stoics understood that some things were inevitable, and that humans had absolutely no way of changing them. For example, humans cannot control wealth or health, or the actions of others, or things that happen to them in their set of circumstances. However, they also understood that many things could be changed, such as your own emotions, actions, and opinions. They changed their circumstances to the best of their ability in order to live the stoic lifestyle. In this way, stoics were able to exist peacefully and not worry about what they could not change, much like Ziva. By at first understanding the inevitability of killing in her role as an assassin and then walking away from her job in order to change, as well as being able to accept the loss of her family, Ziva demonstrates qualities similar to the stoics of Ancient Greece.
While the video below does not have to do with the stoic qualities that Ziva possesses, it gives a glimpse into some of the actions that she tries to change about herself. WARNING: violence
Symbiotic relationships found in nature such as the relationship between the Egyptian Plover and the crocodile, where the bird cleans the crocodile’s teeth in exchange for food, echo ideas about the body and soul as a partnership in the stoic beliefs. A symbiotic relationship is one where two or more parties benefit from the service of the other, in exchange for a service of their own. The Egyptian Plover is famous for fearlessly cleaning the teeth of crocodiles. The plover gains food and security from the crocodile, while the crocodile gets its teeth cleaned. While the survival of either species does not solely rely on this relationship, it certainly makes their existence easier than if they had to complete these tasks independently. This is not a unique circumstance in nature- symbiotic relationships such as the relationship between bees and flowers (where bees receive pollen to make honey and flowers are able to pollinate and grow more effectively), humans and dogs (humans care for dogs and dogs provide companionship for humans), and clownfish and anemones (the clownfish clean the anemone and the anemone provide protection for the clownfish). One depends on the other to function at its highest capacity. Symbiotic relationships are an important aspect of the world in many different ways.
The idea of symbiotic relationships found in the natural world has an interesting parallel in Stoicism. Stoics believed that the soul and the body exist in a type of symbiotic relationship. The body would experience things through sight, touch, taste, sound, and other senses. The soul would then interpret these experiences for the individual. In this case, the soul relies on the body to notice what is going on, while the body depends on the soul to process and make sense of these experiences. One could not function properly without the other, and in this way some of the ideas of stoicism are similar to occurrences in modern times.
President Obama demonstrates some qualities of stoicism through his calm and collected demeanor, which some say echoes the political style of well-known stoic Cato the Younger. Obama leads the country with a placid attitude, in contrast with many politicians today who easily become fired up and are very openly passionate about their policies. While many people value this trait, most of the instances where President Obama has succeeded in the eyes of some Americans are because Obama has not lost his head and allowed himself to be clouded by his emotions. One example of his ability to remain calm is the president’s actions in the wake of the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. When many began to angrily protest the decision of the grand jury not to indict the policeman who shot Michael Brown, Obama urged them to remain calm and not respond with violence. He was not afraid to express his opinions, but he attempted to be diplomatic in his response so that the situation would not spiral out of control. Bill Clinton once described Obama as “a man cool on the outside, but who burns for America on the inside.” This quotation is an observation of Obama’s stoic personality as a political figure. Obama’s calm demeanor is famously satirized in comic duo Key and Peele’s “Obama Anger Translator” sketches, where the president is only able to display his anger toward current events with the help of an extremely non-stoic anger translator, Luther. While intended to be comical, the skits highlight Obama’s tendency to keep his emotions quiet while remaining calm for the sake of his presidency and political career.
Obama’s personality as a political figure is similar to the traits that stoics attempted to echo in Ancient Greece. Remaining calm and under control was an ability that stoics valued. Cato the Younger, a well known stoic and politician in Ancient Rome, was not unlike Obama in his political style. Cato was well known for his honesty and integrity as well as his cool ruling ability. He is credited with bringing stoicism to Rome and mixing it with traditional styles of Roman rule. He often spoke out against tyranny and greatly opposed Julius Caesar. He always stood firm for his own beliefs, but did so in a calm manner (at least relative to the time period), similar to the way that Obama leads the US. In addition to his political similarities to Obama, Cato the Younger followed stoic doctrine and even, in a dramatic stoic act, committed suicide when Caesar took control of Rome. Cato understood that he could do nothing to change Caesar’s reign, so he unfortunately took his own life in the belief that that was one thing that he could control. While Obama does not go to the same extremes as Cato the Younger did during his time in political power, the similarities between the stoic demeanors of the two prove that stoicism is still around in today’s world.
Lord Voldemort, the villain in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, is the exact opposite of a stoic character as he does not accept that he must die one day and tries to control elements of his life that are impossible for him to influence, such as his own mortality. While stoic characters accept that everyone must one day die, including themselves, Voldemort desperately tries to avoid death and commits horrible crimes in pursuit of immortality. He murders over seven people in order to make Horcruxes, or pieces of his soul that are hidden around the world so that he will not die unless all have been destroyed. Voldemort even attempts to control the Elder Wand, an unbeatable wand, to hold absolute power. However, his hubristic and elaborate plans ultimately lead to his downfall. By trying to tamper with death and achieve immortality, Voldemort only brings about his destruction.
Voldemort’s disregard of his own mortality goes against stoic beliefs. The stoics understood that life is temporary and that everyone must accept the fact that they as well as their loved ones are one day going to die, and stoics believed that everyone should not be afraid of this fact. They believed that death is not a terrible thing but merely a terrible idea. Since it is inevitable, it must be accepted by everyone. This belief is shown through the story of Achilles and Lycaon in The Iliad. When Lycaon is at Achilles’ mercy, he begs for mercy from the great warrior. Achilles responds by saying “Come, friend, you too must die. Why moan about it so?” (The Iliad Book XXI line 119) and proceeds to kill Lycaon. Achilles’ speech dramatically demonstrates the ideas of stoicism- that death is inevitable and humans should accept this fact. Because Voldemort did not understand this and tried to achieve immortality, he is the opposite of a stoic character.
Teachings of stoicism are very closely echoed in modern day messages of Christianity, which shows how valid the beliefs and ideas of stoics remain today. Christians strive to master basic urges of human sin rather than giving in to them in order to be rewarded in the afterlife. However, Christians and their gods understand that humans are flawed and that it is ultimately impossible for a human being to live a life completely devoid of sin because of the nature of humanity. It is for this reason that Christians believed God sent his son, Jesus Christ– to forgive the sins of mankind. Another idea of Christianity is the human conscience, understanding of what is right and what is wrong. Christians also stress the concept of a brotherhood, or a united society under their god. The Christian religion relies upon its teachers- such as Jesus, his disciples, the prophets, ministers, and priests- to spread the message of their god and to keep the religion strong throughout the world.
Many important stoic principles are extremely similar to these Christian ideas. Stoics, too, sought to master human urges, such as viewing death as a terrible thing when in actuality it is inevitable. Like Christians, the Stoics taught that humans were, due to their nature, not always able to master these urges and live in the purest form of stoicism. Conscience is another idea in Christianity that is also important in stoicism– being able to tell what is right versus what is wrong. Another similarity between the two is the importance and existence of a united group of people under their religion or philosophy. These similarities are unsurprising, given that Christianity and Stoicism both flourished under the Roman Empire and that Christianity took many ideas from Stoic principles. Although Stoicism is far less prominent today than Christianity, the ideas of Stoicism are still very important in many places, especially in the teachings and basic concepts of Christianity.
In the Harry Potter novels, Ravenclaw House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry values reason over everything else, much like the stoics of Ancient Greece. Although the value of knowledge was only a small part of stoic belief, it was nevertheless an important one that shows similarities to Ravenclaw House. At Hogwarts, students are sorted into four houses based on their personalities. Those who go to Ravenclaw value knowledge over bravery, ambition, and loyalty, the qualities of the other four houses. Ravenclaw students are frequently depicted as studious intellectuals who love to learn and figure things out. Instead of requiring a password to enter, the Ravenclaw common room poses philosophical questions such as, “Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?” (a clever play on the real-world equivalent of “which came first, the chicken or the egg?”). This belief that knowledge was to be valued most highly reflects the ideas of the stoics.
Stoics believed that reason was the key to living a truly stoic lifestyle. Reason, stoics argued, was the way towards being able to understand important ideas of stoicism. Being able to control one’s attitudes, desires, goals, and emotions is not an ability that comes easily. Understanding of stoic philosophy is the most highly important step towards living stoic philosophy. If stoics were ever unable to control their emotions, they were able to fall back on logic and remind themselves why they should not be upset by inevitable occurrences. For this reason, stoics valued logic and knowledge above other values and used this as a tool to achieve success, which echoes the basic foundation of Ravenclaw House at Hogwarts.
The character Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption is a perfect modern-day example of a character who possesses stoic qualities because Andy accepts his imprisonment and coolly and calmly works to change what he can about his sentence, which echoes teachings of stoicism. In the well-liked movie, Andy is sentenced to two life sentences in Shawshank Prison for the murder of his wife and her lover; however, Andy maintains that he is innocent. His cool and calm demeanor make many doubt his claim, but at the end of the film (spoiler alert!) it is revealed that he is, in fact innocent. Andy is described from the very beginning by Red, the narrator, as having “a quiet way about him, a walk and a talk that just wasn’t normal around here. He strolled, like a man in a park without a care of a worry in the world…” This description of Andy’s personality is extremely similar to the characteristics that stoics tried to emulate in their daily lives. Andy shows many stoic qualities in the film because he remains cool and collected when he is in jail. He does not panic or complain, but calmly plans an elaborate and well thought-out escape. He recognizes the things that he cannot change in his life- such as his guilty sentence and his treatment in Shawshank- but works to influence what he can, like his imprisonment. It is in this way that Andy Dufresne is a prominent example of a stoic character.
Stoics believed that some things in life, such as opinions, attitudes, and desires, could be controlled by the individual. Other things, such as power, health, or wealth, cannot be controlled, and it was very important to the stoics that they accept that these factors are outside of their control and only strive to change the variables in their control. While often a difficult practice, many stoics found success and peace of mind by following stoic teachings. In the same way, Andy managed to escape a very secure prison by working to control what he could and not worrying about things outside of his control.