Tarzan of the Apes Character Analysis

Tarzan of the Apes was written by Edgar Rice Burroughs and it was published in 1914. Tarzan is a human that was raised in the African jungle by great apes.  Tarzan was a part of a tribe. None of the apes in the tribe like Terkoz, their evil king. Tarzan was smart enough to leave the tribe and his last words to the apes were, “If you have a chief who is cruel, do not do as the other apes do, and attempt, any one of you, to pit yourself against him alone.

But, instead, let two or three or four of you attack him together. Then, if you will do this, no chief will dare to be other than he should be, for four of you can kill any chief who may ever be over you” (Literature To Go, Tarzan of the Apes, pg 46).

Terkoz was jumped by five of the apes in the tribe and he fled. Any attempt he made to rejoin the tribe after that was a failed attempt and he gave up.

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He was very angry. While traveling in the jungle Terkoz discovered a young woman, Jane Porter. Terkoz grabbed Jane and ran off. Jane’s maid, Esmeralda, screamed as Jane was kidnapped. Tarzan was in the middle of writing a note to Jane, he had fallen in love with her, and when he heard the scream. The note said, “I am Tarzan of the Apes. I want you. I am yours. You are mine.” Tarzan finds out that Jane has been kidnapped by a gorilla and he decides to go and save her.

Tarzan knew he had to save Jane. “He scrutinized the ground below and the trees above, until the ape that was inside him by virtue of training and environment, combined with the intelligence that was his by right of birth, told his wondrous woodcraft the whole story as plainly as though he had seen the thing happen with his own eyes. And then he was gone again into the swaying trees….” (Literature to Go, Tarzan of the Apes, pg 48). He searched and searched for Terkoz and Jane and when he finally caught up with them he knew exactly what he had to do. Him and Terkoz fought to the death, Terkoz being the one to die of course Jane and Tarzan ended up together in the end.

In good literature there is a protagonist and an antagonist. A protagonist is the hero of the story. The protagonist of the story is Tarzan. He is the hero because he saves Jane. An antagonist is the person that is opposed to the protagonist and gives rise to the conflict of the story. The antagonist is Terkoz. He kidnaps Jane because he was kicked out of his tribe. Terkoz assumed that Jane was Tarzan's woman and thought it would be double revenge if he killed Tarzan and stole his woman. That causes conflict because Tarzan is in love with Jane, so the solution had to be to kill Terkoz.