'Lawrence of Arabia' - hero or fraud? Or what mixture of the two?

Question

No dwelling on his sexuality please - may be interesting to some, but not relevant.

Answer 1

He was a very complex man. Like all real people he was a mixture. He was undoubtedly a hero, he achieved a lot although maybe not as much as is sometimes credited to him. The campaign against the Turks would have been won without him but it may have been longer, more costly but it did have some negative results. Because of the promises he made, the Arabs felt betrayed when Israel was created as they were given the impression the West would support them in return for their aid.

He was a fraud in as much as he claimed a lot of the credit due to Allenby. In all though, I think he was a man, plain and simple. There was good and bad in him.

Answer 2

Lawrence was a product of upper class English family life and education but was a rebel. He might be called a misfit who condemned the social conventions of the day and in that he was not alone. I would say he was a hero rather than a fraud. He was sent into the Middle East to meddle with the politics of the day and found himself respecting the culture of desert nomads that his upper class conditioning had taught him to despise. His knowledge of the terrain he covered was ignored by the Foreign Office who were bent on their own imperialistic plans which have resonance even today. For example, the problems of Iraq now, find their origin in the political decisions of the day when they redrew the maps.

I believe that Lawrence has been demonised in history. Too much has been made of his sexuality and too little of the remarkable mind that grasped an understanding of Middle East politics that still elludes us today.

Answer 3

It took individuals like Lawrence to make the first tentative moves in diplomacy, as opposed to the gunboat diplomacy that was the norm for the British. Empire.

As a lone individual he was able to make approaches to the Arab chain of command in such a way that no high ranking official could do.

In the movie we were able to see the snobbery and superciliousness that was prevalent in the overseas puryeyors of the BE. TE usurped their supposed dignity when he went "native" with the Arabs. (In the movie "Dances with Wolves" Kevin Costner's character did that and suffered the consequences)

His ability to deal with the Bedouin - man to man - was fundamental to his success.

With the Arab army, he took, Al Aqabah and eventually breaking the Ottoman Empire's grip he achieved what the British commanders failed at Gallipoli.

By his victories he would have fallen victim to the envious spite inherent within the hierarchy of the British Establishment.

Leading to slander and defamation.

If his sexual prefernces were leaning to homosexuality then so what. Mankind's historical heroes and heroines down through the ages used their charms sexual and otherwise to achieve political ends.

However, the real attraction in the middle-east at that time was tweo-fold, creating a land for the Zionists and getting closer to the vast oceans of oil.

Answer 4

Lawrence became a mythic figure in his own lifetime even before he published his own version of his legend in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. His accomplishments themselves were solid enough for several lives. More than a military leader and inspirational force behind the Arab revolt against the Turks, he was a superb tactician and a highly influential theoretician of guerrilla warfare. Besides The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, his sharply etched service chronicle, The Mint, and his mannered prose translation of the Odyssey added to a literary reputation further substantiated by an immense correspondence that establishes him as one of the major letter writers of his generation.

Answer 5

Good Question, well he was a hero and probably a bit if a fraud too, all in all a strange man, not dwelling on his sexuality, it's a fact that homosexuals do tend to try and impress their fellow comrades by deeds of "bravery" in battle.
It's strange that he died in relative obscurity. I have an early copy of "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom", try it , it's a good read!

Answer 6

Hi there.
Lawrence was a complicated character and more than a bit mad, very prone to overestimate his own influence - but I cannot see him as a fraud, sorry. Very much a hero, very much a man of honour, as many of his contemporaries agree.
Cheers, Steve.

Answer 7

One of the world's great eccentrics whose sexuality was unimportant. He was a great man who has had a lasting impression on history. It is a great pity that modern day sexuality seems to dominate everthing but what the hell difference does it make?

Answer 8

A very great movie. L-A-W-R-E-N-C-E !!!!!

Answer 9

bigger than life..