سیر قهقرایی شخصیت‌های سلم، تور و رستم در شاهنامه بر اساس اصل تخاصم مک‌کی

1. Introduction
   • Statement of the problem

In Shahnameh, sometimes characters step towards sublimity and sometimes they backward into retrogression. This research aimed to investigate the retrogression of Salm, Tour, and Rostam characters based on the McKee's principle of antagonism using a documentary method to show whether the characters in Shahnameh's stories move towards  the ultimate limit of human experience (negation of the negation) or not, and whether this retrogression affects the realization of the character, and if yes, how?

• Literature review

So far, various studies in the form of books, theses and articles have been conducted on the personality element, especially the characters of Shahnameh like e.g., the article entitled "Rostam and Sohrab: The tragedy of the ideal and emotions encounter" in which Doustkhah (1974) has interpreted the war between Rostam and Sohrab as the war between the ideal and emotions. In the article entitled "Rostam and Sohrab and the logic of epic narrative in Shahnameh", Omidsalar (1990) investigated the logic of epic narrative in Shahnameh. Altogether, it can be said that so far, Salm, Tour, and Rostam characters have been investigated from various aspects; but none of these studies has comprehensively paid attention to the issue of their retrogression.

2. Discussion

In the story of Iraj, the justice's desired value prevails at first, and then, the contrary value (discrimination), the contradictory value (injustice in breaking the laws of society), and finally negation of the negation (tyranny of Salm and Tour) are created. Finally, with the administration of justice, the story returns to a positive point in a complete cycle. The retrogression of the character is also negative in this story. In the story of Rostam and Sohrab, Rostam resists against the opposition forces; but as these forces are stronger than him, the reader identifies with Rustam and does not hold him responsible for what happened, and therefore does not hate him. As the hero of the story, Rostam thinks he is powerful, as is known among others with such a characteristic, in the opening scenes. However, the more he confronts the opposing forces, the more his power and authority are diminished such that his demonish power decreases as he confronts Kavous. In the first battle with Sohrab, he reaches the point of defeat - in the field of his heroic power - and in the end, after Sohrab's death, he reaches the point of helplessness - the inability of his solution seeking force.

3. Conclusion

In the story of Iraj, Salm and Tour ignore justice as the desired value of the story. They discriminate by protesting against the division of the world by Fereydoun and making an alliance against Iraj. They reach the point of injustice by violating the law and practically protesting against Fereydoun, and finally they show their tyranny when they kill Iraj. The retrogression of these characters is negative.

In the story of Rostam and Sohrab, power and authority are the desired values of the story. Rostam, as the introducer of its positive load, takes distance from this point when is confronted by opposing forces such that his demonish power has been limited as he confronted Kavous. Rostam reaches the defeat point by losing the battle to Sohrab and realizes his weakness in terms of physical strength. Finally, in conflict with the death of his child, Rostam reaches the helplessness point by showing his ultimate inability- regarding the solution seeking power.