Ahab + Sheriff Bell

In a sense, Sheriff Bell from No Country For Old Men is a sort of opposite of Captain Ahab.

Both men are entering old age, both are faced with a decision: To pursue a larger-than-life foe, to act in the role of the youthful hero(or anti-hero), driven by passion and fire. Or, to choose a milder route, to discard the youthful hubris which lets us believe that we can take on the world. To leave the battles with inscrutably evil psychopaths and allegorical leviathans to strapping young knights and to take instead the equally challenging road of finding peace in old age.

In a way, Barry Corbin's character from No Country is a better fit, I suppose. Like Ahab, he too was partly crippled in the course of duty, he too struggled with a desire to allow himself to become the vehicle of fiery vengeance. But as he grew older, he discovered that wasn't who he was anymore. As did Bell. Ahab did not, and his pride and Faustian passion transformed him into a daimon of an idea, a titanic figure filled to the brim with Luciferian pride.