Where does the ethical line lay when contemplating whether to tell the truth or a lie in a given situation? The Fifty-First Dragon, by Heywood Broun, is a heroic story that brings to mind the ethical considerations of fibbing and the idea of how illusions of the mind can alter an individual’s personality and natural tendencies. In this story, Gawaine le Coeur-Hardy, a student at Pleasaunce knight school, is represented as a cowardly slacker who becomes a dragon fighting specialist after being given a magic word to use in battle by the school’s headmaster. When he locates his fiftieth dragon he somehow forgets the magic word yet is still able to beat the dragon. Upon returning to school, the headmaster informs him that the magic word was simply an illusion of the mind that gave Gawaine courage; therefore, not letting his fears become an obstacle in his quest. The events of the story work to create two concepts that are extremely important here as they develop the overall plot and give The Fifty-First Dragon its meaning. The importance of both of these themes to the reader and the story will be addressed as follows: First, the idea of how much influence an illusion of the mind can have on the actions of an individual will be analyzed with support from Kathleen Turner and David Maskell, and second, the idea of how, based on ethical considerations, lying often times may be the best call will be analyzed with support from Tim C. Mazur, Sisella Bok, and Amy Dickinson. 

In The Fifty-First Dragon, one of the themes that Heywood Braun brings into the story is the idea of how an illusion of the mind, a false belief placed into someone’s mind by another, can change the attitude and actions of an individual. Broun ties this theme into the story by depicting Gawaine as a coward possessing lazy and unfavorable traits for a knight. He then introduces the headmaster who intends to strengthen Gawaine as a knight by training him to fight dragons with the help of what he refers to as “a magic word” (Broun line 24) which allows him to simply “repeat this magic charm once and no dragon can possibly harm a hair of your head” (Broun lines 24-25). After this, Gawaine is sent out on his quest where he impressively kills forty-nine dragons with the use of the magic word that introduced Gawaine to his inner courage. When he returns to the headmaster Gawaine is finally informed of how the so called magic word never truly contained any magic. The magic behind it, he explains, is how it was able to bring out Gawaine’s inner courage and allow the young warrior to overcome his fears so that they would not stand in his way. The course that Broun took the plot here shows how much a deception of the mind can alter someone’s persona. This theme is one of, if not the most, important aspects of the story as it both creates the plot of The Fifty-First Dragon and allows for an exciting story to be told, and allows for the reader to see the changes in Gawaine as both a person and a knight due to the illusion created by the headmaster in the story. 

The idea of illusion plays a large role in the stories first theme. The Theatrical Illusion: Overview, by David Maskell, is a paper that focuses on theatrical illusion rather than illusion of the mind; however, despite the two types differences in use, the description of what an illusion is and how they work are the same regardless of use. Therefore, this depiction can be applied to Broun’s use of the headmaster’s fallacy on Gawaine. Maskell begins by stating the definition of illusion created by the French playwright Pierre Corneille who declared that “’Illusion is a disconcerting mixture of fantasy and reality’” (Maskell 2nd ed.). Following this, for a majority of the paper Maskell writes how Corneille used illusions in his plays and how they affected his stories using examples. One of the last ideas included in the paper is how the reason Corneille is a master of illusion is because of how well his illusions “engage the emotions of the spectator in the illusion of reality” (Maskell 2nd ed.). In reference to The Fifty-First Dragon, the illusion created by the headmaster accurately follows Corneille’s description as the “magic word” was a fantasy that was perceived to be reality by Gawaine (Broun line 24). Therefore, Gawaine only found the courage that lay deep inside of him because he believed that the fantasy or illusion of the magic word was reality. Along with this, upon learning that the so called safe word was in fact not real, Gawaine was quite unsettled just as Corneille stated would happen by asserting that illusion is “’disconcerting’” (Maskell 2nd ed.). Likewise, we can conclude that Broun’s use of illusion is remarkably powerful because of how well it “engages the emotions” of Gawaine by allowing the character to find his hidden courage. Maskell’s inclusion of Corneille’s depiction of illusion and description of what makes an illusion powerful greatly helps to develop this concept of the story as it allows the reader to analyze Broun’s use of this feature. Likewise, Corneille’s words help readers understand how illusions work both within the story and in everyday life. 

The theme of illusions and their effect on the courage of an individual can be broken down into two main pieces: 1) the idea of illusions (which is analyzed above) and 2) the idea of courage. In order to dig deeper into this concept and analyze how the headmaster’s illusion brought about Gawaine’s courage, the depiction of what courage is and how it comes to be is essential. In 2014 Kathleen Turner, the leading actress in the play Mother Courage and her Children, appeared on NPR to discuss her role in the play and what she believes forms courage. As the interview develops and moves away from her role in the play Turner and the host, Lyden, begin examining what courage is and how it comes to be. During this portion of the conversation Turner states “what is courage but a failure of planning? That’s all” (Turner NPR). Now, with reference to Turner’s belief of courage, we can conclude that while the formation of Gawaine’s courage was primarily due to the headmaster’s illusion, it was secondarily due to the young man’s lack of planning for his future as a knight. This idea, while complex, is accurate when considering the factors that led the headmaster to see a need for the use of the illusion. Gawaine refused to participate in the knight training at school which can be seen when Broun writes “He would hide in the woods when the jousting class was called” and therefore was not planning well for his future (Broun line 3). Due to this lack of planning he was selected to focus on dragon hunting. The only reason he actually found the courage to physically do this is because of the illusion the headmaster created; therefore, the deception provided by the headmaster was only established due to the initial lack of planning that forced Gawaine to go down the path of battling dragons. While applying Turner’s beliefs to Heywood’s story includes many steps, when closely analyzing the cause of all of the events in the story and reading the story viewing courage through the mind of Kathleen Turner, a strong connection can be made between her beliefs on the formation of courage and the courage gained by Gawaine. The words of Turner aid in the development of the stories concept as they help readers to pick apart the pieces of the story and see how it was truly Gawaine’s lack of readying himself for his career as a knight that eventually led to his growth of courage. Additionally, her beliefs on courage are applicable to anyone in society today as they allow for people to understand courage and realize how to instill this character trait within themselves. 

After analyzing both pieces of this theme, illusions and courage, with help from Maskell and Turner we can connect the two and discover how these ideas relate to each other within The Fifty-First Dragon to create the theme of illusions altering courage. These two sources help to develop this theme by considering that since Turner believes that courage stems from poor planning, and Gawaine’s poor planning is what caused him to face battling the dragons, it is this idea of poor planning that led to the headmaster’s use of a “disconcerting mixture of fantasy and reality” (Maskell 2nd ed.), or the illusion that gave Gawaine the essential courage when in combat with the monsters. This idea can be applied to real world scenarios where courage is created in an individual based on a white lie told in order to help that person perform to the best of their abilities. This brings to mind the idea of when telling a lie can be helpful or even essential. 

While the concept of illusions affecting the persona of a person is a strong theme in the story another message Broun ties into the story is the notion that lying may be the best option from an ethical standpoint. Heywood Broun introduces this idea during the meeting between the headmaster and Gawaine depicted in the second paragraph where he provides Gawaine with the “magic word” (Heywood 24). This illusion convinces the knight that the word will allow him to stay free of danger when battling the dragons when in reality the magic word contains no true magic but rather provides him with the vital character trait of bravery. In turn, it is this newfound bravery that allows Gawaine to be so success in his endeavors. This concept has a strong influence on the plot of the story as it is the sole reason Gawaine disregarded his cowardly nature and was able to defeat the first fifty dragons that he battled. 

When analyzing the idea of the ethical standpoints of telling a lie in reference to the headmasters lie of illusion a source I found particularly helpful was Tim C. Mazur’s article Lying. Mazur’s article focuses three different ethical standpoints and how these differing ethical views perceive the act of telling a lie. The first perspective of lying Mazur’s analyzes comes from the philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant sees lying as always morally wrong regardless of the circumstance and believes that telling a lie demolishes an individual’s dignity. Kant’s view on lying has no exceptions and is considered the most conservative ethical standpoint. The next perspective described is virtue ethics. Virtue ethic beliefs state that all actions shouldn’t be judged based on reasoning but instead by the virtues exhibited in doing so. This creates quite a lot of room for interpretation in reference to lying as on one hand a virtue that would discourage lying is honesty, but on the other hand if someone tells a lie knowing it will benefit someone the virtue of compassion is exhibited. The final perspective on lying Mazur depicts is utilitarian ethics. This standpoint of analyzing a lies necessity works to find a balance between the benefits that will occur because of it and weighing that against the harms that will occur as a result of it not being told. In fact, utilitarian ethics even states that if the benefits outweigh the harms then it is unethical to not tell a lie. With reference to The Fifty-First Dragon, the headmaster’s view on telling the lie of the “magic word” (Heywood 24) to Gawaine must fall under either virtue or utilitarian ethics as both of these perspectives see lying as morally right under certain circumstances. Although the headmaster lacked the virtue of honesty upon doing this he showed the virtue of compassion as the intent behind his lie was to protect Gawaine and help him grow into a stronger, more confident knight and human being. His lie could also be seen as fit under the utilitarian ethical perspective as the headmaster may have considered lying to Gawaine due to his belief that the pros would outweigh the cons in this situation as the word would give him the bravery to overcome the obstacle of fear standing in his way. Although either option is plausible, the view of the headmaster in relation to lying is most likely represented by utilitarian ethics as this value has less conservative views on lying and his telling of lie wouldn’t result in the loss of a virtue like it would under the virtue ethical code. This idea of ethical lying is extremely important to the story as it allows readers to understand the reasoning behind the headmaster’s illusion and the factors he considered when deciding how to help Gawaine in this manner; furthermore, it is also important in everyday decision making as it gives individuals different ethical considerations when deciding between telling a lie or the truth. 

After analyzing the different types of ethical standpoints and their views regarding lying another issue to recognize is where the ethical line is drawn when telling a lie. In 2006, after Radio Shack’s former CEO David Edmonson stepped down from his position because overwhelming evidence was released that he falsified his resume, a broadcast of Talk of the Nation on NPR included guests Sisella Bok, author of the book Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life, and Amy Dickinson, columnist for the Chicago Tribunee, who discussed with host Neal Conan the reasons for lying and where the moral line is drawn in a line. As the radio broadcast evolves they begin taking callers who ask questions of share experiences regarding lies. Eventually, a woman named Meg calls in to ask Bok and Dickinson their opinion on where the ethical line lies when telling a lie. Bok answers this by stating how her interpretation of keeping lying within ethical boundaries can be found by asking oneself the question “Can I keep my self-respect if I do this?” (Bok NPR). Bok continues her thought by adding how problems arise when the person telling the lie either doesn’t ask themselves this question or is not unsettled by telling an obviously unethical lie. Dickinson then continues this discussion by implanting her viewpoint which is that a lie becomes immoral when either there is no reason that warrants the lie to be told, which she calls “gratuitous lying” (Dickinson NPR), or when it harms another person. As the conversation develops even further, the idea of using lying as a necessary tool for survival is brought up. Bok comments on this idea by stating how lying during a time of turmoil is most definitely morally sound if it would be able to produce the best effect regarding a person’s well-being. When we apply the beliefs of Bok and Dickinson to the actions of the headmaster in Broun’s story it is clear that the lie told by the headmaster is completely in line with ethical consideration. The headmaster’s reasoning for the illusion he created over Gawaine is warranted in the story as it was done in order to instill confidence in the knight and it worked as a survival tool since this newfound confidence brought out his strengths and allowed him to not only survive but best fifty dragons in battle. The idea of the moral line of a lie with respect to Broun’s story is immensely important as understanding where this line lies allows readers to interpret where the headmaster’s white lie falls and decide if his course of action was ethically correct. As well as being a critical concept in the story the idea of this moral line when lying is important in every human being’s everyday lives as it allows people contemplating telling a lie to consider the ethical standpoint of the lie and think about the effects that it will have prior to physically expressing the lie. 

The different ethical standpoints depicted by Mazur, along with the beliefs on the morality of a lie by Bok and Dickinson work together to help develop the relationship between ethics and lying. When considering the information obtained from both of these sources it can easily be understood why the headmaster chose to deceive Gawaine and why his lie can be considered morally sound. The headmaster’s lie to Gawaine is a key piece of the story as the action of the lie told is the primary cause of the warrior’s ability to defeat the beasts that he did. Furthermore, these two sources provide important points to acknowledge when viewing the morality of the headmaster’s lie as they allow readers to understand the thought process of the headmaster. The ideas found in these sources can also work in the real world to help individual’s recognize all the ethical aspects when determining if a lie is the best course of action. 

Considering the interpretations given above, in The Fifty-First Dragon Heywood Broun writes his short story in order to send two valuable messages to readers: 1) the concept of illusions having a strong effect on the nature of an individual and 2) the idea of ethics in relation to telling a lie. These two prevalent themes can be tied together in the story through the actions of the headmaster. This is because the illusion that the headmaster put over Gawaine and the lie that he told him are the same thing; moreover, the illusion/lie was warranted and only told based on the ethical considerations of the headmaster where he believed (and was correct in this belief) that doing so would have the best outcome as the lie not only generated the courage that allowed Gawaine success but also acted as a survival tool for the knight. Therefore, the action of the headmaster creates two very different themes that work collectively to develop Broun’s story. 

All in all, the work done by Maskell and Mazur; along with the beliefs of Turner, Bok, and Dickinson help to broaden the understanding of illusions, courage, lying, and ethics not only in reference to the headmaster’s actions in Heywood Broun’s short story, but also in any given individual’s day to day life. These resources ultimately helped to accurately represent how the specific aspects of these concepts are presented and give proof of the themes included in the story. 
