Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a feral child raised in one of the Congolian rainforests by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer.
Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel Tarzan of the Apes (magazine publication 1912, book publication 1914), and subsequently in 23 sequels, several books by Burroughs and other authors, and innumerable works in other media, both authorized and unauthorized.
Character biography Tarzan is the son of British aristocrats who were marooned on the coast of West Africa by mutineers. When Tarzan was an infant, his mother died, and his father was killed by Kerchak, leader of the ape tribe by whom Tarzan was adopted.
Soon after his parents' death, Tarzan became a feral child, and his tribe of apes is known as the Mangani, great apes of a species unknown to science. Kala is his ape mother. Burroughs added stories occurring during Tarzan's adolescence in his sixth Tarzan book, Jungle Tales of Tarzan.
Name
"Tarzan" is the ape-name of John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke, according to Burroughs's Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle. (Later, less canonical sources, notably the 1984 film Greystoke, make him Earl of Greystoke.) The narrator in Tarzan of the Apes describes both "Clayton" and "Greystoke" as fictitious names, implying that, within the fictional world that Tarzan inhabits, he may have a different real name.
Burroughs considered other names for the character, including "Zantar" and "Tublat Zan", before he settled on "Tarzan". In the language of the Mangani, or great apes, Tarzan means "white-skin". Though the copyright on Tarzan of the Apes has expired in the United States and in other countries, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. claims the name "Tarzan" as a trademark.
The community of Tarzana, Los Angeles, occupies the former Tarzana Ranch, owned by Burroughs and named for Tarzan.
Jane As an 18-year-old, Tarzan meets a young American woman from Baltimore, Maryland named Jane Porter. She, her father, and others of their party are marooned on the same coastal jungle area where Tarzan's human parents were 20 years earlier. When Jane returns to Maryland, Tarzan leaves the jungle in search of her, his one true love. In The Return of Tarzan, Tarzan and Jane marry. In later books, he lives with her for a time in England. They have one son, Jack, who takes the ape name Korak (the Killer). Tarzan is contemptuous of what he sees as the hypocrisy of civilization, so Jane and he return to sub-Saharan Africa, making their home on an extensive estate in British East AfricaTarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs that becomes a base for Tarzan's later adventures.
As revealed in Tarzan's Quest, Tarzan, Jane, Tarzan's monkey friend Nkima, and their allies gained some of the Kavuru's pills that grant immortality to their consumer.
Physical abilities
Tarzan's jungle upbringing gives him abilities far beyond those of ordinary humans. These include climbing, clinging, and leaping as well as any great ape. He uses branches, swings from vines to travel at great speed, and can use his feet like hands (he prefers going barefoot because he relies on the flexibility of bare feet), a skill acquired among the anthropoid apes.
Tarzan has exceptional strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, and swimming skills. He uses his abilities and power to wrestle dangerous animals like apes, gorillas, leopards, lions, pythons, and crocodiles. There are situations where he has even fought larger creatures like rhinos, tigers, sharks, giant seahorses, and dinosaurs in the Pellucidar era.
Tarzan is also a skilled tracker who uses his sharp hearing and sense of smell to follow prey and avoid predators.
Language and literacy As originally depicted, Tarzan/John Clayton is very intelligent and articulate, and does not speak in broken English as the classic movies of the 1930s depict him.This practice was established with the Johnny Weissmuller films and continued with the films of Lex Barker, but during the Gordon Scott era of the 1950s, the character returned to speaking normal English; some 1930s films (such as one starring Herman Brix) also depicted him speaking normally. He can communicate with many species of jungle animals, and has been shown to be a skilled impressionist, able to mimic the sound of a gunshot perfectly.
Tarzan is literate in English before he first encounters other English-speaking people. His literacy is self-taught after several years in his early teens by visiting the log cabin of his infancy and looking at children's primer/picture books. He eventually reads every book in his father's portable book collection, and is fully aware of geography, basic world history, and his family tree. He is "found" by traveling Frenchman Paul D'Arnot, who teaches him the basics of human speech and returns with him to civilization. When Tarzan first encounters D'Arnot, he tells him (in writing): "I speak only the language of my tribe—the great apes who were Kerchak's; and a little of the languages of Tantor, the elephant, and Numa, the lion, and of the other folks of the jungle I understand."
Tarzan can learn a new language in days, ultimately speaking many languages, including that of the great apes, French, Finnish, English, Dutch, German, Swahili, many other Bantu languages, Arabic, Ancient Greek, Ancient Latin, and Mayan, as well as the languages of the Ant Men and of Pellucidar.
Literature
Tarzan has been called one of the best-known literary characters in the world.Clute, John, and Peter Nicholls. 1993. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. St. Martin's Press. . p. 178: "Tarzan is a remarkable creation, and possibly the best-known fictional character of the century." In addition to more than two dozen books by Burroughs and a handful more by authors with the blessing of Burroughs's estate, the character has appeared in films, radio, television, comic strips, and comic books. Numerous parodies and pirated works have also appeared.
Critical reception While Tarzan of the Apes met with some critical success, subsequent books in the series received a cooler reception and have been criticized for being derivative and formulaic. The characters are often said to be two-dimensional, the dialogue wooden, and the storytelling devices (such as excessive reliance on coincidence) strain credulity. According to Rudyard Kipling (who himself wrote stories of a feral child, The Jungle Books Mowgli), Burroughs wrote Tarzan of the Apes just so he could "find out how bad a book he could write and get away with it."Bederman, Gail. 1995. Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880–1917. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 219.Bederman, Gail. 1995. Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880–1917. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 219.
While Burroughs was not a polished novelist, he was a vivid storyteller. Most of his novels are still in print.Clute, John, and Peter Nicholls. 1993. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. St. Martin's Press. . p. 178: "It has often been said that ERB's works have small literary or intellectual merit. Nevertheless,...because ERB had a genius for the literalization of the dream, they have endured." In 1963, author Gore Vidal wrote a piece on the Tarzan series that, while pointing out several of the deficiencies that the Tarzan books have as works of literature, praises Burroughs for creating a compelling "daydream figure.""Tarzan Revisited" by Gore Vidal . Critical reception grew more positive with the 1981 study by Erling B. Holtsmark, Tarzan and Tradition: Classical Myth in Popular Literature.Erling B. Holtsmark, Tarzan and Tradition: Classical Myth in Popular Literature, Greenwood Press, 1981. Holtsmark added a volume on Burroughs for Twayne's United States Author Series in 1986.Erling B. Holtsmark, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Twayne's United States Author Series, Twayne Publishers, 1986. In 2010, Stan Galloway provided a sustained study of the adolescent period of the fictional Tarzan's life in The Teenage Tarzan.Galloway, Stan. 2010. The Teenage Tarzan: A Literary Analysis of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Jungle Tales of Tarzan. McFarland.
Despite critical panning, the Tarzan stories have remained popular. Burroughs's melodramatic situations and the elaborate details he works into his fictional world, such as his construction of a partial language for his great apes, appeal to a worldwide fan base.
Unauthorized works
After Burroughs's death, a number of writers produced new Tarzan stories. In some instances, the estate managed to prevent publication of such works. The most notable example in the United States was a series of five novels by the pseudonymous "Barton Werper" that appeared 1964–65 by Gold Star Books (part of Charlton Comics). As a result of legal action by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., they were taken off the market. Similar series appeared in other countries, notably Argentina, Israel, and some Arab countries.
Modern fiction In 1972, science-fiction author Philip José Farmer wrote Tarzan Alive, a biography of Tarzan using the frame device that he was a real person. In Farmer's fictional universe, Tarzan, along with Doc Savage and Sherlock Holmes, are the cornerstones of the Wold Newton family. Farmer wrote two novels, Hadon of Ancient Opar and Flight to Opar, set in the distant past and giving further knowledge of the antecedents of the lost city of Opar, which plays an important role in the Tarzan books. In addition, Farmer's A Feast Unknown, and its two sequels Lord of the Trees and The Mad Goblin, are pastiches of the Tarzan and Doc Savage stories, with the premise that they tell the story of the real characters upon which the fictional characters are based. A Feast Unknown is somewhat infamous among Tarzan and Doc Savage fans for its graphic violence and sexual content.
Tarzan in other media
Film The first Tarzan films were silent pictures adapted from the original Tarzan novels, which appeared within a few years of the character's creation. The first actor to portray the adult Tarzan was Elmo Lincoln in 1918's film Tarzan of the Apes. With the advent of talking pictures, a popular Tarzan film franchise was developed, lasting from the 1930s through the 1960s. Starting with Tarzan the Ape Man in 1932 through twelve films until 1948, the franchise was anchored by former Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in the title role. Tarzan films from the 1930s on often featured Tarzan's chimpanzee companion Cheeta, his consort Jane (not usually given a last name), and an adopted son, usually known only as "Boy." However, productions by Sy Weintraub from 1959 onward dropped the character of Jane and portrayed Tarzan as a lone adventurer. Later Tarzan films have been occasional and somewhat idiosyncratic.
There were also several serials and features that competed with the main franchise, including Tarzan the Fearless (1933) starring Buster Crabbe and The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935) starring Herman Brix. The latter serial was unique for its period in that it was partially filmed on location (Guatemala) and portrayed Tarzan as educated. It was the only Tarzan film project for which Burroughs was personally involved in the production.