The Virtuous Iron Man

Aristotle's Virtue Ethics are more correctly referred to as Excellence Ethics. It is a less subjective middle ground than most would expect. The appropriate response to a situation simply fluctuates with the flexing extremity of the situation. It deals with what works in a given situation the best. Also, what gives man virtue is a habitual act of behaving rightly, not that virtue gives one the ability to act rightly. Virtues are considered modes of choice and involve choice. Virtues are not inherently good or bad, but lands squarely within the middle ground. The golden mean of a virtue for a given situation will change with the specific situation. What makes us who we are is what we do. Virtues are often considered a guide for the best way to behave and outline ideals for what we should hope to achieve in learning to be our best selves. There is an inherent danger of falling to either extreme and becoming stuck in that extreme either through accidental happening or over correction from a previous mistake.

Tony Stark is the epitome of ignorance and poor social choices. He is a characteristic billionaire genius who made his massive fortune by inheriting the weapons manufacturing business from his father. He is a playboy and disrespectful to everyone he meets, but he does have a few virtues that he begins with. He has no interest in selling weapons to terrorists and part of his decision, to take out the weapons that were built by Stark Industries, after he builds his better suit later in the movie are based on this initial opinion. He is supposed to grow as a person throughout the film and become a better person because of his time as a captive and his memories of the innocent people who died because of what he created.

It would be appropriate to refer to Tony Stark as a simile of a “prodigal son.” He has to go on a rather intensive journey to realize the truth about the world. He has an easily definable vice of irresponsibility. A prodigal ‘son,’ or person in general, is defined as one who ruins himself and is characterized by excessive wastefulness. Tony takes his wealth, genius, and looks for granted. He wastes his fortune on stupid gambles and drives himself to boredom by turning his fortune into expensive sports cars and extravagant parties with people who do not actually care about him. He often ducks his responsibilities as a CEO and a designer for his company due to his charm and extreme likeability. There is a great moment where he is speaking with his assistant, Pepper, and she makes the point that he cannot live without her because he is incapable of remembering basic information, such as his social security number. He proclaims he does know it and says there is a five in it before changing the subject and acting charming as a distraction.

Aristotle contemplated that what may be considered virtuous might be the lesser of two vices. Vices are impossible to avoid and are ever present. We find out during the movie that the one who was responsible for the imprisonment of Tony at the beginning and the one who had been selling Stark Industries weapons to terrorists was none other than Tony’s partner, Obadiah Stane. Stane is a character with an insatiable lust for power. He had no qualms about killing off Tony and taking over Stark Industries in order to attain this power. There was jealousy towards Tony and all of his natural ability, but Obadiah saw Tony’s genius as a chance to get ahead. The creation of the Iron Man suit was a manifestation of both of their vices. For Tony it was a manifestation of everything he took for granted and a symbol of his newfound system of justice towards righting his past wrongs. For Obidiah, the suit was the epitome of the concentrated power for which he had been searching. This was a tangible power that represented everything he was trying to achieve. Obadiah collected all of the pieces of the original Iron Man suit which Tony used to escape his captors, and stole Tony’s power source, which ironically also acted as Tony’s lifeline and kept the shrapnel in his chest from reaching his heart.

The heart is a common representation for the good in people or the inherent parts of their spirit that possess redeemable qualities. Tony’s poor decisions throughout his life could be represented by the shrapnel forever encroaching on his heart. This is his comeuppance for all of his past mistakes, which are ever present and will never go away. His captivity simply made Tony aware of his indiscretions. Obidiah, on the other hand, paid for his mistakes with his life at the end of the movie. His lack of virtue led to an end fitting for a wannabe king. Aristotle constantly refers to virtue, no as definable things, but as acts of righteousness that lead to a person being right. Moral goodness is defined by actions, not by speeches. And one can only be good as long as they behave that way. Obadiah is the opposite of moral benevolence. He spend the entirety of the movie supplying terrorists and murdering people as well as taking advantage of others and subjugating the weak. Tony realizes what he had been taking for granted and ignoring about his life and his work and tries to remedy the situation as best he can. Though technically both men in this story were not one’s who could be considered virtuous, by comparison, Tony is the virtuous hero because he attempts to right his wrongs and do right by all the people who were sacrificed in order to bring him the fortune he had amassed.

According to Aristotle, it is not those who consider how much they must pay to do a good deed, but those who perform that good deed regardless of the cost are the ones who are considered truly “good.” Tony has little concern for cost when he goes about developing the Iron Man suit and destroying the weapons held by the terrorists. Perhaps the greatest sacrifice Tony made was to put his life on the line. His attitude of taking his fortune for granted would have still been there when he built the suit and ignored how much it cost. He had been irresponsible with his spending habits from the beginning.

Aristotle’s words about ethics are guidelines to excellence. We, as humans, are never wholly perfect. It is an impossible feat. So excellence must be defined by a different set of parameters. For Aristotle, he calls those “excellent” who act virtuously within a set of moral guidelines which result in the betterment of oneself. Since Tony attempted to better himself after all of his wrongs, he too could begin to be considered “excellent,” but he still has a long way to go.

References

Aristotle. (n. d.). Nicomachean Ethics. Retrieved November 8, 2017, from http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachean.2.ii.html

Favreau, J. (Director). (2008). Iron Man [Motion Picture]. United States: Marvel.