Comparison of Tom Doniphan and Ransom Stoddard

Tom Doniphon and Ransom Stoddard are the two key characters in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, directed by John Ford and filmed in 1962. Tom Doniphon is played by John Wayne, while Ransom Stoddard is played by Jimmie Stewart. In this movie Ransom Stoddard is a well educated attorney from the East who comes to the West to find new opportunity and a place to practice law. He finds out real soon while traveling to the town of Shinbone that the West doesn't really care about law or city folk. Liberty Valence played by Lee Marvin gave Stoddard a dose of reality by robbing him and beating him till he was close to death the first time they encountered one another. So this brings us to the place that we know there has to be a hero to save the town from the tyrant Liberty Valence.

Ransom Stoddard's character plays a very untypical role of hero. It was very unconventional in a western that a man from the East would be a hero on the western frontier. The character of Ransom Stoddard was a very book-learned attorney who had very little knowledge of the real world that was the West. He also was portrayed in the movie as very thin, gangly, and somewhat a bumbling man. The camera shots make the audience feel as if he was less of a man or not able to even be compared to the statue of Tom Doniphan.

Ransom's situation is simple. He was a recently qualified lawyer from the East, suffered a brutal introduction to his new home. His stage was jumped by outlaws, resulting in a savage beating as he defended a female passenger. To me this shows a lot of strength of his character and that he was no coward. Luckily he was found by Doniphon, a hard-bitten and sharp-shooting character, and brought into the town of Shinbone. Here Ransom finds out a few facts, a gun is the only law in the area and that the town is in dire need for a man like himself. The result is that Ransom vows to put Valance in jail, using the law not a gun, by using his education and principles. This is hilarious to the people of Shinbone and they feel that Ransom has to be out of his mind and doesn't understand the laws of the West. But it does eventually come to be seen that the people of Shinbone respect and admire his ideas and beliefs. Soon Ransom has the whole town learning to read and write. This is the point where the movie takes an unusual twist and Hallie who is considered to be Tom's girl becomes fond of Ransom.

Tom Doniphon on the other hand is a man who knows and believes the law has to be handled by every man for himself. In regards to his character he is a very silent, laid back, let his actions speak for him type of person. He wants everyone to know he is the toughest man in town and aint no outlaw going to ever scare him or cause him to back down. He is a big, tough, but sentimental hero who talked straight and met the bad guys head on. The camera shows him as being bigger than life and a man who is unconquerable.

The other side of Tom shows him as a real caring, honest, and fair person. His relationship with Hallie allows us to see that he isn't a man who just cares for himself. In my opinion Tom had to show a lot more emotional and physical courage than Ransom Stoddard. The physical part and gun-slinging just came natural for Tom. But the sacrifices he had to make were enormous. Since Tom was in love with Hallie, every time a situation arose that may have been hazardous to Ransom's life she ran to the only man she came crying to Tom because he could defend himself and Ransom. This made Tom uneasy about the relationship that Hallie and Ransom had but nevertheless each time that Ransom got himself into a situation she called Tom to save him from being killed. Tom goes out of his way to show Ransom how things operated in Shinbone, where the marshal (Andy Devine) is cowardly and spineless, the only way to have true justice served is with a bullet to the other man, killing him. Shinbone's law requires a gun, not a book. This is what makes Tom one of the most revered and respected men in Shinbone.

The most important thing about the movie is how it uses the rough, tough, large Tom Doniphon to play on our hearts. It lets us see him in a different perspective because he is also seen as a man who cares more about the woman he loves than he does his own personal feelings. It leads us to think he is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the person he loves. He puts his own morals aside, his feelings for a woman he loves to make sure she is happy and helps the man who would eventually have the woman he cares most about it. His life is totally changed by the sacrifice he made and not for the better.

It leads us to believe that Tom was the ultimate selfless hero. He breaks the code of the West that