Tarzan (John Clayton,Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, aferal child raised in theCongo Basin by theMangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer.
Created byEdgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novelTarzan 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.
Tarzan is the son of British aristocrats who were marooned on the coast ofWest Africa by mutineers. When Tarzan was an infant, his mother died, and his father was killed byKerchak, 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 theMangani,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.
"Tarzan" is the ape-name of John Clayton,Viscount Greystoke, according to Burroughs'sTarzan, Lord of the Jungle. (Later, less canonical sources, notably the 1984 filmGreystoke, make him Earl of Greystoke.) The narrator inTarzan 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".[4] Though the copyright onTarzan 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 ofTarzana, Los Angeles, occupies the former Tarzana Ranch, owned by Burroughs and named for Tarzan.[5]
As an 18-year-old, Tarzan meets a young American woman namedJane 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 the United States, Tarzan leaves the jungle in search of her, his one true love. InThe 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 nameKorak (the Killer). Tarzan iscontemptuous of what he sees as thehypocrisy ofcivilization, so Jane and he return tosub-Saharan Africa, making their home on an extensive estate inBritish East Africa[6] that becomes a base for Tarzan's later adventures.
As revealed inTarzan's Quest, Tarzan, Jane, Tarzan's monkey friendNkima, and their allies gained some of the Kavuru's pills that grant immortality to their consumer.
Tarzan's agility, speed, and strength allow him to kill a leopard in 1921'sThe Adventures of Tarzan.
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 fromvines 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 theanthropoid apes.
His strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, and swimming skills are extraordinary; he has wrestled not just full-grown apes, but alsogorillas, lions,rhinos,crocodiles,pythons, leopards,sharks, tigers, giant seahorses, and evendinosaurs (when he visitedPellucidar). Tarzan is a skilled tracker, and uses his exceptional hearing and keen sense of smell to followprey or avoid predators.
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.[7] 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 has been called one of the best-knownliterary characters in the world.[8] 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 infilms,radio, television,comic strips, andcomic books. Numerous parodies and pirated works have also appeared.
WhileTarzan 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 toRudyard Kipling (who himself wrote stories of a feral child,The Jungle Book'sMowgli), Burroughs wroteTarzan of the Apes just so he could "find out how bad a book he could write and get away with it."[9][10]
While Burroughs was not a polished novelist, he was a vivid storyteller. Most of his novels are still in print.[11] In 1963, authorGore 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."[12] Critical reception grew more positive with the 1981 study by Erling B. Holtsmark,Tarzan and Tradition: Classical Myth in Popular Literature.[13] Holtsmark added a volume on Burroughs for Twayne's United States Author Series in 1986.[14] In 2010, Stan Galloway provided a sustained study of the adolescent period of the fictional Tarzan's life inThe Teenage Tarzan.[15]
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.[16]
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 ofCharlton Comics). As a result of legal action byEdgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., they were taken off the market.[17] Similar series appeared in other countries, notably Argentina, Israel, and some Arab countries.
In 1972,science-fiction authorPhilip José Farmer wroteTarzan Alive, a biography of Tarzan using theframe device that he was a real person. In Farmer's fictional universe, Tarzan, along withDoc Savage andSherlock Holmes, are the cornerstones of theWold Newton family. Farmer wrote two novels,Hadon of Ancient Opar andFlight to Opar, set in the distant past and giving further knowledge of the antecedents of the lost city ofOpar, which plays an important role in the Tarzan books. In addition, Farmer'sA Feast Unknown, and its two sequelsLord of the Trees andThe 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.
The first Tarzan films weresilent pictures adapted from the originalTarzan novels, which appeared within a few years of the character's creation. The first actor to portray the adult Tarzan wasElmo Lincoln in 1918's filmTarzan of the Apes. With the advent oftalking pictures, a popular Tarzan film franchise was developed, lasting from the 1930s through the 1960s. Starting withTarzan the Ape Man in 1932 through twelve films until 1948, the franchise was anchored by formerOlympic swimmerJohnny Weissmuller in the title role. Tarzan films from the 1930s on often featured Tarzan'schimpanzee companionCheeta, his consortJane (not usually given a last name), and an adopted son, usually known only as "Boy." However, productions bySy Weintraub from 1959 onward dropped the character of Jane and portrayed Tarzan as a lone adventurer. Later Tarzan films have been occasional and somewhatidiosyncratic.
There were also several serials and features that competed with the main franchise, includingTarzan the Fearless (1933) starringBuster Crabbe andThe New Adventures of Tarzan (1935) starringHerman 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.
Weissmuller and his immediate successors were enjoined to portray the ape-man as anoble savage speaking broken English, in marked contrast to the culturedaristocrat of Edgar Rice Burroughs's novels (thepidgin English being more linguistically plausible). With the exception of Burroughs's co-producedThe New Adventures of Tarzan, this "me Tarzan, you Jane" characterization of Tarzan persisted until the late 1950s, when Weintraub, having bought thefilm rights from producerSol Lesser, producedTarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959) followed by eight other films and a television series. The Weintraub productions portray a Tarzan that is closer to Burroughs's original concept in the novels: a jungle lord who speaks grammatical English and is well educated and familiar with civilization. Most Tarzan films made before the mid-1950s wereblack-and-white films shot on studio sets, withstock jungle footage edited in. The Weintraub productions from 1959 on were shot in foreign locations and were in color.
Tarzan was the hero of two popular radio programs in the United States. The first aired from 1932 to 1936 withJames Pierce in the role of Tarzan. The second ran from 1951 to 1953 withLamont Johnson in the title role.[18]
The Tarzan book series was later modernized and parodied in an authorized 2021 golden-age radio styled podcast program entitledThe Adventures of Tarzan, produced by the Freshly Squeezed Pulp comedy troupe of Duke University.[19]
Television later emerged as a primary vehicle bringing the character to the public. From the mid-1950s, all the extant sound Tarzan films became staples of Saturday morning television aimed at young and teenaged viewers. In 1958,Gordon Scott filmed three episodes for a prospective television series. The program did not sell, but a different live actionTarzan series produced bySy Weintraub and starringRon Ely ran onNBC from 1966 to 1968. This depiction of Tarzan is a well-educated bachelor who grew tired of urban civilization and is in his native African jungle once again.
The latest television series was the short-lived live-actionTarzan (2003), which starred male modelTravis Fimmel and updated the setting to contemporaryNew York City, with Jane as a police detective, played bySarah Wayne Callies. The series was cancelled after only eight episodes.
Tarzan, a musical stage adaptation of the 1999 animated feature, opened at theRichard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway on May 10, 2006, and closed on July 8, 2007.
The show, aDisney Theatrical production, was directed and designed byBob Crowley. The same version of Tarzan that was played at the Richard Rodgers Theatre is being played throughout Europe and has been a huge success in the Netherlands.
A game under the titleTarzan Goes Ape, with little connection to the franchise, was released in 1991 for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum byCodemasters.
Throughout the 1970sMego Corporation licensed the Tarzan character and produced 8"action figures which they included in their "World's Greatest Super Heroes" line of characters. In 1975 they also produced a 3" "Bendy" figure made of poseable, malleable plastic.
Several Tarzan-themed products have been manufactured, includingView-Master reels and packets, numerous Tarzancoloring books, children's books, follow-the-dots, and activity books.
Tarzan has appeared in many comic books from numerous publishers over the years. The character's earliest comic book appearances were in comic strip reprints published in several titles, such asSparkler,Tip Top Comics andSingle Series.Western Publishing publishedTarzan inDell Comics'sFour Color Comics #134 & 161 in 1947, before giving him his own series,Tarzan, published throughDell Comics and laterGold Key Comics from January–February 1948 to February 1972; many of these issues adapted Burroughs's novels.
DC took over the series in 1972, publishingTarzan #207–258 from April 1972 to February 1977, including work byJoe Kubert. In 1977, the series moved toMarvel Comics, who restarted the numbering rather than assuming those of the previous publishers. Marvel issuedTarzan #1–29 (as well as threeAnnuals), from June 1977 to October 1979, mainly byJohn Buscema.
Following the conclusion of the Marvel series the character had no regular comic-book publisher for a number of years. During this period,Blackthorne Comics publishedTarzan in 1986, andMalibu Comics publishedTarzan comics in 1992.Dark Horse Comics has published variousTarzan series from 1996 to the present, including reprints of works from previous publishers like Gold Key and DC, and joint projects with other publishers featuring crossovers with other characters.
There have also been a number of different comic book projects from other publishers over the years, in addition to various minor appearances of Tarzan in other comic books. The Japanesemanga seriesJungle no Ouja Ta-chan (Jungle King Tar-chan) byTokuhiro Masaya was based loosely on Tarzan. Also,manga "god"Osamu Tezuka created a Tarzan manga in 1948 entitledTarzan no Himitsu Kichi (Tarzan's Secret Base).
Tarzan'sprimitivist philosophy was absorbed by countless fans, amongst whom wasJane Goodall, who describes the Tarzan series as having a major influence on her childhood. She states that she felt she would be a much better spouse for Tarzan than his fictional wife, Jane, and that when she first began to live among and study thechimpanzees she was fulfilling her childhood dream of living among the great apes just as Tarzan did.[22]
Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli was a likely influence on Tarzan, including his ease with non-humanprimates
Rudyard Kipling'sMowgli has been cited as a major influence on Burroughs's creation of Tarzan. Mowgli was also an influence for a number of other "wild boy" characters.
Tarzan's popularity inspired numerous imitators inpulp magazines. A number of these, likeKwa andKa-Zar were direct or loosely veiled copies; others, likePolaris of the Snows, were similar characters in different settings, or with different gimmicks. Of these characters the most popular wasKi-Gor, the subject of 59 novels that appeared between winter 1939 to spring 1954 in the magazineJungle Stories.[25]
Tarzan is often used as anickname to indicate a similarity between a person's characteristics and that of the fictional character. Individuals with an exceptional 'ape-like' ability to climb, cling and leap beyond that of ordinary humans may often receive the nickname 'Tarzan'.[26] Examples are retiredAmericanbaseball players pitcherRoy Parmelee and outfielderJoe Wallis[27]
ComedianCarol Burnett was often prompted by her audiences to perform her trademarkTarzan yell. She explained that it originated in her youth when she and a friend watched a Tarzan movie.[28]
Bookplate of Edgar Rice Burroughs, showing Tarzan holding the planet Mars, surrounded by other characters from Burroughs's stories. Made between 1914 and 1922[30] and designed by Studley Oldham Burroughs, the author's nephew[31]
Maude Robinson Toombs wrote a novelization of the film serialThe Adventures of Tarzan published as a 15-part serial for newspapers in 1921, it was collected and published as a released as a trade-paperback (ISBN978-1-4357-4973-3) by ERBville Press in January 2006.
Arthur B. Reeve wrote a novelization of the film serialTarzan the Mighty published as a 15-part serial for newspapers in 1928, it was collected and published as a released as a trade-paperback (ISBN978-1-4357-4971-9) by ERBville Press in 2005.
Barton Werper – these novels by the pseudonymous "Barton Werper" were never authorized by the Burroughs estate, were taken off the market and remaining copies destroyed.
Tarzan and the Silver Globe (1964), the novel was rewritten as "Zamba and the Silver Globe" (ISBN978-1-4357-4973-3) and published by ERBville Press in October 2014.
Tarzan and the Cave City (1964)
Tarzan and the Snake People (1964)
Tarzan and the Abominable Snowmen (1965)
Tarzan and the Winged Invaders (1965)
Fritz Leiber – the first novel authorized by the Burroughs estate, and numbered as the 25th book in the Tarzan series.
Philip José Farmer (also wrote a novel based on his own fascination with Tarzan, entitledLord Tyger, and translated the novelTarzan of the Apes intoEsperanto).
The Dark Heart of Time (1999) this novel was specifically authorized by the Burroughs estate, and references Tarzan by name rather than just by inference. The story is set betweenTarzan the Untamed andTarzan the Terrible.
In the 1950s, Byrne wrote the novelTarzan on Mars under the pen name John Bloodstone, the novel is a crossover of the Tarzan series and theBarsoom series, John Carter's adventures onMars, however, he did not obtain a license to publish the novel, which had unauthorized editions.[32]
In herManliness and Civilization, Gail Bederman describes how various people of the time either challenged or upheld the idea that "civilization" is predicated on whitemasculinity. She closes with a chapter onTarzan of the Apes (1912) because the story's protagonist is, according to her, the ultimate male by the standards of 1912 White Americans. Bederman does note that Tarzan, "an instinctively chivalrous Anglo-Saxon," does not engage in sexual violence, renouncing his "masculine impulse to rape." However, she also notes that not only does Tarzan kill black man Kulonga in revenge for killing his ape mother (a stand-in for his biological White mother) byhanging him, "lyncher Tarzan" actually enjoys killing black people, for example the cannibalistic Mbongans.[33]
Bederman, in fact, reminds readers that when Tarzan first introduces himself to Jane, he does so as "Tarzan, the killer of beasts and many black men". The novel climaxes with Tarzan saving Jane (who in the original novel is not British, but a southern White woman fromBaltimore, Maryland) from ablack ape rapist. When he leaves the jungle and sees "civilized" sub-Saharan Africans farming, his first instinct is to kill them just for being Black. "Like the lynch victims reported in the Northern press, Tarzan's victims—cowards, cannibals, and despoilers of white womanhood—lack all manhood. Tarzan'slynchings thus prove him the superior man."[33]
According to Bederman, despite Tarzan embodying all the tropes of white supremacy espoused or rejected by the people she had reviewed (Theodore Roosevelt,G. Stanley Hall,Charlotte Perkins Gilman,Ida B. Wells), Burroughs, in all probability, was not trying to make any kind of statement or echo any of them. "He probably never heard of any of them." Instead, Bederman writes that Burroughs proves her point because, in telling racist and sexist stories whose protagonist boasted of killing black people, he was not being unusual at all, but was instead just being a typical 1912 White American.[33]
The Tarzan books and movies employ extensive stereotyping. With changing social views and customs this has led to criticism, including charges of racism since the early 1970s.[34] The early books give a pervasively negative and stereotypical portrayal ofNorth Africans, includingArabs and possiblyBerbers. InThe Return of Tarzan, North African Arabs are "surly looking" and call Christians "dogs", while sub-Saharan Africans are "lithe, ebon warriors, gesticulating and jabbering".
In regards to race, a superior–inferior relationship with valuation is implied in virtually all interactions between white and black people in the Tarzan stories, and similar relationships and valuations can be seen in most other interactions between differing people. According toJames Loewen'sSundown Towns, this may be a vestige of Burroughs's having been fromOak Park, Illinois, a formerSundown town (a town that forbids non-white people from living within it).[35]
Tarzan is a European male who grows up with apes. According to "Taking Tarzan Seriously" by Marianna Torgovnick, Tarzan is confused with thesocial hierarchy that he is a part of. Unlike everyone else in his society, Tarzan is the only one who is not clearly part of anysocial group. All the other members of his world are not able to climb or decline socially because they are already part of a social hierarchy which is stagnant. Turgovnick writes that since Tarzan was raised as an ape, he thinks and acts like an ape. However, instinctively he is human and he resorts to being human when he is pushed to. The reason of his confusion is that he does not understand what the typical white male is supposed to act like. His instincts eventually kick in when he is in the midst of this confusion, and he ends up dominating the jungle. In Tarzan, the jungle is a microcosm for the world in general in 1912 to the early 1930s. His climbing of the social hierarchy proves that the European male is the most dominant of all races/sexes, no matter what the circumstance. Furthermore, Turgovnick writes that when Tarzan first meets Jane, she is slightly repulsed but also fascinated by his animal-like actions. As the story progresses, Tarzan surrenders his knife to Jane in an oddly chivalrous gesture, which makes Jane fall for Tarzan despite his odd circumstances. Turgovnick believes that this displays an instinctual, civilized chivalry that Burroughs believes is common in white men.[36]
^InBurroughs, Edgar Rice (1914). "Chapter XXV".Tarzan of the Apes.Somehow, even against all reason, I seem to see him a grown man, taking his father's place in the world—the second John Clayton—and bringing added honors to the house of Greystoke.
^This practice was established with theJohnny Weissmuller films and continued with the films ofLex Barker, but during theGordon Scott era of the 1950s, the character returned to speaking normal English; some 1930s films (such as one starringHerman Brix) also depicted him speaking normally.
^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.
^Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011).The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp.ISBN978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Tarzan", pp. 260–261).
Egan, Sean. 2017.Tarzan: The Biography. London: Askill Publishing.ISBN978-0-9545750-7-6.
Wannamaker, Annette, and Michelle Ann Abate, eds. 2012.Global Perspectives on Tarzan: From King of the Jungle to International Icon. 216 pages. (Includes studies by scholars from the United States, Australia, Canada, Israel, the Netherlands, Germany, and France.)
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