The necessity of choice : reflections on film and history in occupied East-Central Europe

Abstract

Using the tragic-heroic archetypes of Achilles and Hamlet, this paper examines the nature of choice in the real and imagined lives of two individuals living in Nazi-and-Soviet-occupied East-Central Europe: Maciek, a fictional character in Andrzej Wajda’s celebrated post-war film Ashes and Diamonds, and Rudi, an historical person examined in Andrew Stuart Bergerson and Maria Stehle’s “Rudoph Mosaner’s ‘Wanderjahre.’” An interdisciplinary, comparative analysis of these dramatic figures yields insights into the nature of human agency and the necessity of choice, especially in vital situations. Ultimately, for human agents, acceptance or refusal of choice itself may be equally important to particular decisions between two or more morally weighted options.