(I originally wrote this in 2012 but am reposting it because lately I’ve been seeing some comments on Facebook and elsewhere that remind me that there are people who write and talk about Burroughs’ Dejah Thoris as if they know her character — when they obviously don’t. Dotar)
There are as many opinions about Andrew Stanton’s John Carter as there are viewers — but the one universal point of agreement seems to be that Lynn Collins’ portrayal of Dejah Thoris is exceptional — and credit goes to both Collins and director Andrew Stanton for this performance. Make no mistake: this writer is a fan of Collins’ portrayal of Dejah Thoris. So what follows is in no way intended to take issue with the cinematic Dejah we’ve been given by Collins and Stanton.
But for month’s now I’ve been sitting somewhat silently as time and again everyone from Stanton to Collins to a host of reviewers and bloggers have all in one way or another disparaged Dejah Thoris as written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, referring to the literary Dejah as a handwringing damsel-in-distress who lacked much character or appeal — using this to explain the need to create a “new” Dejah to show her as a strong, courageous woman.
Enough!
Today, my sword is unsheathed in defense of the literary Dejah. Far from a shrinking damsel, the literary Dejah is a woman of character and composure, or heart and steel, and she’s been getting an unnecessarily bad rap in ways that a simple examination of the actual text of “A Princess of Mars” will refute.
Let us begin with my defense of Dejah Thoris as written by Edgar Rice Burroughs on the pages of “A Princess of Mars”.
A Clue to Burroughs’ Intent
The main thrust of this defense will be to analyze A Princess of Mars — but I will start with a quote from quote from Warlord of Mars which provides the clearest statement of Burroughs’ intent with regard to how he meant Dejah Thoris to be regarded:
Heroic daughter of a heroic world! It would not be unlike her to have seized a sword and fought at my side, for, though the women of Mars are not trained in the arts of war, the spirit is theirs, and they have been known to do that very thing upon countless occasions.
Now, let’s look at A Princess of Mars.
The Perceived Need to Update the Incomparable One
In various interviews Andrew Stanton talked about the need to update Dejah — that she was “too much of a damsel in distress.” The following interview of Collins gives further insight:
Collins noted her role in John Carter was greatly expanded, as the Dejah Thoris in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novels isn’t a scientist, and serves as a more conventional damsel in distress.
“It was Andrew [Stanton] who was like, make her a stronger woman, and then we made her too strong and we had to go back and open up some of the vulnerabilities and accessibility. It’s tricky!” Collins said. “Being a strong, intelligent woman, it’s tricky because sometimes people don’t like that and you have to temper it to different ways. Hopefully there’s so many of these role models coming in of women of strength that we don’t have to deal with this crap forever.”
For research, she read A Princess of Mars and its sequels, but neither Collins nor Stanton ended up using anything from the 11-volume Barsoom series when it came to Dejah.
“Honestly with the [novel’s] Dejah stuff I was like, can’t use this. It’s written in a way that I was like, ‘I think she’s stronger.’ And Andrew was like, ‘No no, not the books!’ Even though it is the books, she is not of the books,” she explained.
In his otherwise excellent review “I Dream of Mars”, Bassim El-Wakil, echoing the expressed sentiments of many reviewers, writes:
“And then… then there is Dejah Thoris. I tried so very hard not read into A PRINCESS OF MARS, but I couldn’t read it without being shocked at how poorly drawn Dejah Thoris is. All she does is wear nothing, look beautiful, and have hysterical fits of emotion, all the while everyone tells John Carter how wonderful he is. He never makes a mistake. When Dejah Thoris gets mad at him for being rude, it turns out she’s just mad that when he said he loved her, he didn’t also ask her to marry him. Their relationship read like a teenage boy’s wet dream fanfiction. Perhaps this is just because I am a product of my time and cannot identify with the romantic rituals of the Americas a century past.”
I could go on but you get the point. No respect out there for Dejah Thoris of the books.
Let’s break it down.
Let us Examine The Actual Story Beats in the Book, and Dejah’s Behavior
Following are the actual story beats involving Dejah Thoris as written by Edgar Rice Burroughs in “A Princess of Mars”.
1. Dejah Thoris first appears 50 pages into the book when, while leading a scientific expedition, her airship is attacked and she becomes a captive of the Tharks. While being hauled away she looks up and sees John Carter, a human among the Tharks, watching her. She makes a sign with her hand which Carter, had he been a Barsoomian, would have understood and responded to — but he is unable to respond and “the look of hope and renewed courage which had glorified her face as she discovered me, faded into one of utter dejection, mingled with loathing and contempt.”
2. She is hauled in front of Lorquas Ptomel, leader of the Tharks, and gives an eloquent and impassioned speech that is witnessed by John Carter, who is a “captive with privileges” among the Tharks.
“We were unprepared for battle,” she continued, “as we were on a peaceful mission, as our banners and the colors of our craft denoted. The work we were doing was as much in your interests as in ours, for you know full well that were it not for our labors and the fruits of our scientific operations there would not be enough air or water on Mars to support a single human life. For ages we have maintained the air and water supply at practically the same point without an appreciable loss, and we have done this in the face of the brutal and ignorant interference of your green men.
“Why, oh, why will you not learn to live in amity with your fellows, must you ever go on down the ages to your final extinction but little above the plane of the dumb brutes that serve you! A people without written language, without art, without homes, without love; the victim of eons of the horrible community idea. Owning everything in common, even to your women and children, has resulted in your owning nothing in common. You hate each other as you hate all else except yourselves. Come back to the ways of our common ancestors, come back to the light of kindliness and fellowship. The way is open to you, you will find the hands of the red men stretched out to aid you. Together we may do still more to regenerate our dying planet. The granddaughter of the greatest and mightiest of the red jeddaks has asked you. Will you come?”
3. After the speech, one of the Tharks strikes her on the face, and John Carter intervenes, killing the Thark. Dejah, blood flowing from her nose, maintains dignity and carries on a conversation with Carter with no mention of tears or distress.
“Why did you do it? You who refused me even friendly recognition in the first hour of my peril! And now you risk your life and kill one of your companions for my sake. I cannot understand. What strange manner of man are you, that you consort with the green men, though your form is that of my race, while your color is little darker than that of the white ape? Tell me, are you human, or are you more than human?”
4. Placed in John Carter’s care as a result of his defense of her, Dejah, Carter, and Sola go looking for “suitable quarters” in the ancient abandoned city, where they see ancient artwork upon the walls. Dejah’s appreciation of the art is on display, as Carter notes with approval how she ” clasped her hands with an exclamation of rapture as she gazed upon these magnificent works of art, wrought by a people long extinct”.
5. Dejah apologizes to Carter for having misunderstood his intentions when he failed to respond to her hand signal. They have a conversation about his origins; she teases him about Earth habits of wearing excessive clothing.
6. On what amounts to their “first date”, John Carter makes the mistake of using the term “my princess” — another cultural blunder since this amounts to an invitation to marriage — but this time Dejah forgives him, not fully explaining what his transgression is. They talk about their different cultures and the following exchange occurs:
Then she broke out again into one of her gay, happy, laughing moods; joking with me on my prowess as a Thark warrior as contrasted with my soft heart and natural kindliness.
“I presume that should you accidentally wound an enemy you would take him home and nurse him back to health,” she laughed.
“That is precisely what we do on Earth,” I answered. “At least among civilized men.”
This made her laugh again. She could not understand it, for, with all her tenderness and womanly sweetness, she was still a Martian, and to a Martian the only good enemy is a dead enemy; for every dead foeman means so much more to divide between those who live.
7. Next, Carter makes his third cultural blunder, this time causing Dejah to take offense and temporarily shun him. Aside from the fact that this “innocent misunderstanding as a barrier to fruition” is a standard technique in almost all romance novels until today (and A Princess of Mars is, after all, an “interplanetary romance”, first and foremost), her actions in this regard are explained by Sola: “She says you have angered her, and that is all she will say, except that she is the daughter of a jed and the granddaughter of a jeddak and she has been humiliated by a creature who could not polish the teeth of her grandmother’s soak.”
8. Still on the outs with Dejah Thoris, John Carter is forced into a duel with a Thark, and during the fight Carter is momentarily blinded by–it turns out– a small mirror held by Sarkoja, causing him to sustain a wound to his shoulder. Carter looks up and sees Dejah Thoris and Sola on a raised platform beside Sarkoja, and as he watches.
As I looked, Dejah Thoris turned upon Sarkoja with the fury of a young tigress and struck something from her upraised hand; something which flashed in the sunlight as it spun to the ground. Then I knew what had blinded me at that crucial moment of the fight, and how Sarkoja had found a way to kill me without herself delivering the final thrust.
9. Next, Carter comes upon her at a moment when Dejah thinks he is dead, and he finds her, thinking him dead and thinking herself alone, sobbing in grief at his death — with her distress explained by Sola thusly:
“I do not understand either her ways or yours, but I am sure the granddaughter of ten thousand jeddaks would never grieve like this over any who held but the highest claim upon her affections. They are a proud race, but they are just, as are all Barsoomians, and you must have hurt or wronged her grievously that she will not admit your existence living, though she mourns you dead.”
10. Carter then lays it all out for Dejah. He approaches her:
As I waited she rose to her full height and looking me straight in the eye said:
“What would Dotar Sojat, Thark, of Dejah Thoris his captive?”
“Dejah Thoris, I do not know how I have angered you. It was furtherest from my desire to hurt or offend you, whom I had hoped to protect and comfort. Have none of me if it is your will, but that you must aid me in effecting your escape, if such a thing be possible, is not my request, but my command. When you are safe once more at your father’s court you may do with me as you please, but from now on until that day I am your master, and you must obey and aid me.”
She looked at me long and earnestly and I thought that she was softening toward me.
“I understand your words, Dotar Sojat,” she replied, “but you I do not understand. You are a queer mixture of child and man, of brute and noble. I only wish that I might read your heart.”
“Look down at your feet, Dejah Thoris; it lies there now where it has lain since that other night at Korad, and where it will ever lie beating alone for you until death stills it forever.”
She took a little step toward me, her beautiful hands outstretched in a strange, groping gesture.
“What do you mean, John Carter?” she whispered. “What are you saying to me?”
“I am saying what I had promised myself that I would not say to you, at least until you were no longer a captive among the green men; what from your attitude toward me for the past twenty days I had thought never to say to you; I am saying, Dejah Thoris, that I am yours, body and soul, to serve you, to fight for you, and to die for you. Only one thing I ask of you in return, and that is that you make no sign, either of condemnation or of approbation of my words until you are safe among your own people, and that whatever sentiments you harbor toward me they be not influenced or colored by gratitude; whatever I may do to serve you will be prompted solely from selfish motives, since it gives me more pleasure to serve you than not.”
“I will respect your wishes, John Carter, because I understand the motives which prompt them, and I accept your service no more willingly than I bow to your authority; your word shall be my law. I have twice wronged you in my thoughts and again I ask your forgiveness.”
11. Thus a truce is arrived at , and the next phase sees John Carter, Dejah Thoris, and Sola cooperating in their escape, with the relationship matters on hold. The plan goes awry and Dejah is caught trying to escape — (note “trying to escape” –nothing passive about that). She is about to be tortured horribly, John Carter intervenes, and finally John Carter, Dejah Thoris, and Sola are on thoats en route to Helium.
No word was spoken until we had left the city far behind, but I could hear the quiet sobbing of Dejah Thoris as she clung to me with her dear head resting against my shoulder.
“If we make it, my chieftain, the debt of Helium will be a mighty one; greater than she can ever pay you; and should we not make it,” she continued, “the debt is no less, though Helium will never know, for you have saved the last of our line from worse than death.”
I did not answer, but instead reached to my side and pressed the little fingers of her I loved where they clung to me for support, and then, in unbroken silence, we sped over the yellow, moonlit moss; each of us occupied with his own thoughts. For my part I could not be other than joyful had I tried, with Dejah Thoris’ warm body pressed close to mine, and with all our unpassed danger my heart was singing as gaily as though we were already entering the gates of Helium.
12. Next comes the moment memorialized as the Warhoon attack in the movie. John Carter realizes that he must attempt to hold off the attacking green men:
“Good-bye, my princess,” I whispered, “we may meet in Helium yet. I have escaped from worse plights than this,” and I tried to smile as I lied.
“What,” she cried, “are you not coming with us?”
“How may I, Dejah Thoris? Someone must hold these fellows off for a while, and I can better escape them alone than could the three of us together.”
She sprang quickly from the thoat and, throwing her dear arms about my neck, turned to Sola, saying with quiet dignity: “Fly, Sola! Dejah Thoris remains to die with the man she loves.”
Those words are engraved upon my heart. Ah, gladly would I give up my life a thousand times could I only hear them once again; but I could not then give even a second to the rapture of her sweet embrace, and pressing my lips to hers for the first time, I picked her up bodily and tossed her to her seat behind Sola again, commanding the latter in peremptory tones to hold her there by force, and then, slapping the thoat upon the flank, I saw them borne away; Dejah Thoris struggling to the last to free herself from Sola’s grasp.
13. There follows a period of separation in which Dejah Thoris thinks Carter is dead, and the next time John Carter sees her he is undercover in Zodanga where he infiltrates the palace and gets within a few feet of her as she agrees to marry Sab Than. While it is clear to the reader that she is sacrificing herself for Helium, Carter doesn’t get this and takes it as a rejection. Nevertheless he manages to engineer an opportunity to confront her, and when she realizes that he is alive, this exchange follows:
As I came close to her she swayed toward me with outstretched hands, but as I reached to take her in my arms she drew back with a shudder and a little moan of misery.
“Too late, too late,” she grieved. “O my chieftain that was, and whom I thought dead, had you but returned one little hour before—but now it is too late, too late.”
“What do you mean, Dejah Thoris?” I cried. “That you would not have promised yourself to the Zodangan prince had you known that I lived?”
“Think you, John Carter, that I would give my heart to you yesterday and today to another? I thought that it lay buried with your ashes in the pits of Warhoon, and so today I have promised my body to another to save my people from the curse of a victorious Zodangan army.”
“But I am not dead, my princess. I have come to claim you, and all Zodanga cannot prevent it.”
“It is too late, John Carter, my promise is given, and on Barsoom that is final. The ceremonies which follow later are but meaningless formalities. They make the fact of marriage no more certain than does the funeral cortege of a jeddak again place the seal of death upon him. I am as good as married, John Carter. No longer may you call me your princess. No longer are you my chieftain.”
“I know but little of your customs here upon Barsoom, Dejah Thoris, but I do know that I love you, and if you meant the last words you spoke to me that day as the hordes of Warhoon were charging down upon us, no other man shall ever claim you as his bride. You meant them then, my princess, and you mean them still! Say that it is true.”
“I meant them, John Carter,” she whispered. “I cannot repeat them now for I have given myself to another. Ah, if you had only known our ways, my friend,” she continued, half to herself, “the promise would have been yours long months ago, and you could have claimed me before all others. It might have meant the fall of Helium, but I would have given my empire for my Tharkian chief.”
14. Next comes the battle at the wedding in which Carter, aided by Tars Tarkas and the Tharks, busts up the wedding. Dejah remains calm and collected . “Calling to Dejah Thoris to get behind me I worked my way toward the little doorway back of the throne, but the officers realized my intentions, and three of them sprang in behind me and blocked my chances for gaining a position where I could have defended Dejah Thoris against any army of swordsmen.”
15. And the final beat:
She had sunk into one of the golden thrones, and as I turned to her she greeted me with a wan smile.
“Was there ever such a man!” she exclaimed. “I know that Barsoom has never before seen your like. Can it be that all Earth men are as you? Alone, a stranger, hunted, threatened, persecuted, you have done in a few short months what in all the past ages of Barsoom no man has ever done: joined together the wild hordes of the sea bottoms and brought them to fight as allies of a red Martian people.”
“The answer is easy, Dejah Thoris,” I replied smiling. “It was not I who did it, it was love, love for Dejah Thoris, a power that would work greater miracles than this you have seen.”
A pretty flush overspread her face and she answered,
“You may say that now, John Carter, and I may listen, for I am free.”
“And more still I have to say, ere it is again too late,” I returned. “I have done many strange things in my life, many things that wiser men would not have dared, but never in my wildest fancies have I dreamed of winning a Dejah Thoris for myself—for never had I dreamed that in all the universe dwelt such a woman as the Princess of Helium. That you are a princess does not abash me, but that you are you is enough to make me doubt my sanity as I ask you, my princess, to be mine.”
“He does not need to be abashed who so well knew the answer to his plea before the plea were made,” she replied, rising and placing her dear hands upon my shoulders, and so I took her in my arms and kissed her.
And thus in the midst of a city of wild conflict, filled with the alarms of war; with death and destruction reaping their terrible harvest around her, did Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, true daughter of Mars, the God of War, promise herself in marriage to John Carter, Gentleman of Virginia.
Re-capping Burroughs’ Dejah
ERB’s Dejah Thoris:
- Leads a scientific expedition into hostile territory and when taken prisoner makes a bold, impassioned speech to Lorquas Ptomel, leader of the Tharks.
- Upon seeing Sarkoja attempt to blind Carter with a mirror during a duel, launches herself “like a young tigress” on the 12 foot high Sarkoja.
- When Carter stays behind to hold off the Warhoons, she dismounts her thoat and tells Sola she will not leave John Carter to die.
- Agrees to sacrifice her happiness for the safety of Helium