Rockstar's modern masterpiece, harshness of the American West. Despite being romanticized by popular fiction, the 19th century's American West was a brutal place to live, with death ever present. This uncomfortable truth comes across no more clearly than with Arthur Morgan, whose tragic fate mirrors that of an iconic real-world outlaw.
[Warning: Spoilers for end of Red Dead Redemption 2, for tuberculosis was a death sentence in the 19th century.
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Around the time that Arthur died (1899) a famous gunslinger also perished from the same deadly disease in real life. In 1887, gambler, gunslinger, and dentist Doc Holliday succumbed to tuberculosis and died at the age of 36, the same age as Arthur Morgan. Doc Holliday is an icon of the American West and his tragic trajectory probably helped shape Arthur's character in Red Dead Redemption 2.
Why Doc Holliday Is An Icon in American History
Gunfight At The O.K. Corral & Hunting The Cowboys
Born in Georgia, Doc Holliday was the son of a dual veteran of the Mexican-American and Civil Wars. At the age of 19, he moved to Philadelphia, where he studied dentistry at what is now the University of Pennsylvania. After obtaining his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree, Holliday started a dental practice in Atlanta. Only a couple of years later, at 23, Holliday was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He was told, much like Arthur Morgan, that there was no cure for his disease, but that moving to a warmer, drier clime could slow its progression and prolong his life.
Holliday took that advice and moved to Dallas, Texas, where he started work at a new dental practice. He and his partner would go on to win several awards for the quality of their false teeth, but Holliday's health continued to decline. As coughing spells began to interrupt his procedures, Doc Holliday knew he couldn't continue. Gambling soon became his sole source of income, and when he was fined for the crime, he left for greener pastures in Denver, Colorado.
His penchant for gambling frequently got Holliday into trouble, with Holliday often engaging in gunfights with saloon keepers and bartenders who got in the way of his winnings. He later followed the Gold Rush to Wyoming, where he met the famed lawman Wyatt Earp. Earp was investigating the robbery of a Santa Fe Railroad construction site in Kansas, perpetrated by the outlaw posse of "Dirty" Dave Rudabaugh. Holliday had earlier played a game of cards with Rudabaugh, and suggested to Earp that Rudabaugh had set out for Kansas. This turned out to be true; Rudabaugh was soon arrested outside Kinsley, Kansas.
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But Doc Holliday is most famous for his involvement in the shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Doc Holliday eventually became a friend of Wyatt Earp, another icon of the American West, and was deputized by the Tombstone Marshall Virgil Earp, Wyatt's brother. Soon after, Doc Holliday got involved in the famous shootout when he, Wyatt, Virgil, and others tried to arrest of a gang known as the Cowboys. Following the fight, the remaining Cowboys retaliated, severely wounding Virgil Earp and killing Morgan Earp, Wyatt's other brother.
In search of justice, Wyatt, a U.S. Marshall, sought the help of Doc Holliday, and together they hunted down the remnants of the Cowboy gang. These events made Doc and Wyatt icons, and they have both been lionized in pop-culture via many stories, including 1993's Red Dead Redemption 2's Arthur Morgan did.
Doc Holliday Represents The Same Idealized West & Gray Morality As Arthur Morgan
Life Imitating Art
Although the two figures differ greatly, Doc Holliday and Arthur Morgan represent the same idealized vision of the American West that's a prevalent theme in RDR2. Both have become the stuff of legends, contributing to the archetype of the noble gunslinger by doling out frontier justice to outlaws. In film, TV, and pulp fiction, Holliday is often (though not always) portrayed uncritically as a hero, a brave vigilante who took matters of justice into his own hands.
RDR2 takes this concept to task, challenging Dutch's (and to a lesser extent, Arthur's) perception of the old west as a bygone utopia and his own gang as the last bastion of American freedom, while the encroachment of big government gradually erodes the viability of their lifestyle. In reality, though, Dutch and his gang are thieves and killers - the same as the ruthless capitalists they so despise. They're not all Robin Hoods, either; Strauss targets the poor and downtrodden as much as Dutch targets the rich, and frankly, it often seems like all Dutch cares about is the size of the score. All that differs is who each of them is trying to protect.
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Whether or not that makes them heroes, though, is up for debate. Much like RDR2's sliding Honor scale allows Arthur to be, Doc Holliday was a complicated figure for whom morality was muddy. He was an educated man, a doctor, but also a belligerent one, a murderer. Eventually, his violent tendencies led him to become an outlaw, a person of the very same profession he had once devoted his life to fighting against.
Doc Holliday was not an outlaw in the same vein as Arthur Morgan, however. He did not take part in any crimes outside of Wyatt's quest for vengeance, and is only believed to have killed a few people. However, Doc Holliday is an icon whose exploits have shaped many fables of the American West, with his untimely death serving as a harsh reminder of the brutal realities of life inherent within the time period. In mimicking Doc Holliday's grandeur and tragic death, while also finding his own sense of meaning, Red Dead Redemption 2's Arthur Morgan has become an icon in his own right, depicting the potential of personal transcendence in a time of utter despair.
Red Dead Redemption 2
-
- Top Critic Avg: 95/100 Critics Rec: 94%
- Released
- October 26, 2018
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Engine
- RAGE
Did you love the original Red Dead Redemption back in 2010? Check out this prequel to the first game, Red Dead Redemption 2. Players explore the complex Western world as Arthur Morgan, a member of the Van der Linde gang. Get ready to find an adventure in the western frontier in the 1800s, fighting against government figures and famous rivals. While some controls are difficult to manage at first, after some practice mounting and dismounting your horse, you should be ready to meet more characters. The stunning graphics are to be expected with Rockstar Games, as they created other popular open world games such as Grand Theft Auto.
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
- N/A
- Cross Save
- N/A
- Franchise
- Red Dead Redemption
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- yes
- Platform(s)
- PS4, Stadia
- How Long To Beat
- 50 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- yes
- Metascore
- 97
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra &
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