Hugh Glass

Character Analysis

Hugh Glass is the alpha-est male who ever did alpha. Translation: he's a manly man. In many ways, this dude is presented as the ideal person in The Revenant, a man at once capable of awful violence and incredible compassion. As usual, the lesson for us is to not judge a book by its cover—especially when that cover's been ripped off by a cranky bear.

A Renaissance Man

In order to understand Glass's incredible story, we need to look back on his quirky life experiences. There's the time he spent as a merchant on the high seas. There's that weird detour when he became a legit pirate, much to his own personal dismay. And then there's the year he spent with a Pawnee tribe after being brought to their village to be killed.

Not exactly your typical LinkedIn profile, huh?

As it happens, these experiences play a big role in Glass's survival. While on the sea as both a trader and pirate, he gained a measure of toughness that few men can match—and he also got his hands on the Anstadt, his prized rifle. "From his time with the Pawnee, Glass possessed a broad familiarity with the plants of the plains" as well as a host of traditional survival techniques (1.8.24). It seems like these skills, when combined with Glass's natural Glassness, leave our man better equipped to survive the frontier than pretty much anyone else alive.

Broken Glass

Of course, Glass is also basically a killing machine—after all, we totally watch him take down a bear, right? Glass is also characterized by the angerand desire for revengethat drive him onward after the attack: he's not in it just to survive and live on; he's in it to get back at the fools who left him to die. That's important.

Of course, we should not that Glass is more pained by the theft of his rifle, the Anstadt, than anything else—he treats that gun "with the tender affection that other men might reserve for a wife or child" (1.2.46). But whatever the specific reasons for his lust for revenge, this dude is pretty much a walking, talking personification of LUST FOR REVENGE.

Despite his hardened exterior, though, Glass proves himself to have a deep reserve of compassion. We see this most prominently in his interaction with the old, dying Arikara woman. He could have easily gone about his day and ignored her cries for help, but instead chooses to fill "the cup three times before the old woman stopped eating" and adjust "the blanket to cover her bony shoulder" (1.13.15). It's a moving gesture, and one that Glass surely would have appreciated from Fitzgerald and Bridger back when he needed it.

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Now, even knowing Glass's compassionate streak, we're still kind of shocked when he actually forgives Bridger. Bridger had clearly been conflicted about abandoning Glass, true, but that kind of thing hasn't stopped our guy before. Still, when Glass looks down at Bridger mid-beatdown and sees "not malice, but fear; not resistance but resignation," he just can't go through with it (2.21.92).

We do think Glass so readily forgives Bridger at least in partbecause Bridger reminds him of a younger version of himself, but the point us that either way, Glass somehow understands where Bridger's coming from.

As it happens, Fitzgerald also escapes Glass's vengeance, although in a very different way. Fitzgerald is now in the U.S. Army, and this new status affords him a certain degree of protection from civvies like Glass. Fitzgerald thoroughly exploits his advantage, of course. After it becomes clear that he'll be found innocent in military court, however, Glass pulls out his gun and blasts the dude in the shoulder.

Yeah, if it were us, we would have probably just looked for more evidence, but different strokes for different folks and all that.

Revenge or Renewal?

After a brief imprisonment following the shooting, Glass is left with a very big decision: should he keep hunting Fitzgerald, or should he just keep moving? It's a tough call, but he's given a pretty stern talking-to by Kiowa Brazeau, who had bailed him out of jail. Check it out:

"Why did you come to the frontier? [...] To track down a common thief? To revel in a moment's revenge? I thought there was more to you than that."
Still Glass said nothing. Finally Kiowa said, "If you want to die in the guardhouse, that's for you to decide." (2.27.33-34)

Although we don't see Glass explicitly make a decision, we're pretty confident that he gives up on his quest for revenge. After all, the dude has just survived an experience that a human has no business surviving—he deserves some serious rest and relaxation at this point. Now, we doubt he'll be taking a vacation to Cancun anytime soon, but we're glad that Glass at least looks at his "second life" as a gift to be enjoyed, not something to be wasted on petty violence.