History Literature / Tarzan

* SecretUndergroundPassage: In [[Literature/Tarzan ''The Return of Tarzan'']], Tarzan finds the walled-up entrance to a long-forgotten passage in the room where the Oparians had imprisoned him. The passage leads him to the city's equally-long-forgotten TreasureRoom, and eventually to a way out of the city completely.

* TreasureRoom: In the process of escaping Opar (the first time), Tarzan comes across a room filled with metal ingots. The light is bad, and there are so many of them he assumes they must be some base metal. He takes one along anyway for later examination. It's solid gold; since the Oparians have long since forgotten it even exists (not that it would do them much good if they ever found it), Tarzan has a convenient lifetime source of fabulous wealth, ''above'' [[OldMoney what he inherits]] as the true Lord Greystoke.

* TookALevelInBadass: Jane, over the course of the series. In the first two books she mostly faints in the face of danger. By the third she's still getting kidnapped all the time, but now she's bashing men's heads in, bullying sailors at gunpoint, shooting villains, hijacking ships and running her ''own'' rescue. By book 8 or so, she's a full-on JunglePrincess[=/=]LadyOfAdventure.

* KnifeNut: In the very first book, the boy Tarzan discovers under extreme KillerGorilla pressure how to use his father's hunting knife. This is his first weapon, and it remains his favorite throughout the Burroughs stories.

The earlier Tarzan novels are [[PublicDomainCharacter out of copyright]] in the US, but not in Europe, and Wiki/TheOtherWiki suggests he's also trademarked by the author's company. Altogether, that explains why ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' only refers to him as [[CaptainErsatz "Lord Greystoke"]].

* AcidRefluxNightmare: Tarzan experiences one after eating some bad meat (from an elephant that had died of an illness and then been scavenged by a nearby tribe of natives) in the short story "The Nightmare" in ''Jungle Tales of Tarzan''. The incident marks the first and ''last'' time he ever eats elephant meat.

* BlueBlood: Tarzan eventually becomes the latest Lord Greystoke. This is obviously important in England, but Tarzan's noble pedigree comes into play a couple of times in the (then) mysterious heart of Africa, notable in ''Tarzan and the City of Gold'' and ''Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle''.

* LightningBruiser: Tarzan's strength is matched by his speed; several times Burroughs explicitly compares him to "Are the lightning."

* ChangelingFantasy: Meriem in ''Son of Tarzan'' is really Jeanne Jacot, the kidnapped daughter of a French general, and is reunited with her parents in the end after being raised by an Arab who kidnapped her out of revenge, then rescued by Korak and living in the trees for a while. (She's also a [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses princess]], at least her father says she's one "in her own right".)

** The bestial menfolk of Opar are a straighter example.

* InterspeciesRomance: Tarzan develops a crush on Teeka the she-ape in ''Jungle Tales of Tarzan'', but soon realizes it won't work; he does remain friends with her, and becomes protective of her and Taug's son Gazan.

* SexyDimorphism: The people of the lost city of Opar consist of a tribe of stunted, hairy, almost apelike men ruled over by beautiful, entirely human-looking women. It's implied that the inhabitants degenerated by mating with great apes, but somehow the degeneration didn't affect females the way it did males. Also justified -- it's mentioned once or twice that the Oparians have deliberately selected for this by killing male babies who were too humanlike and female babies who were too apelike.

* TookALevelInBadass: Jane, over the course of the series. In the first two books she mostly faints in the face of danger. By the third she's still getting kidnapped all the time, but now she's bashing men's heads in, bullying sailors at gunpoint, shooting villains, hijacking ships and running her ''own'' rescue. By book 8 or so, she's a full-on JunglePrincess / LadyOfAdventure.

* BizarreSexualDimorphism: The people of the lost city of Opar consist of a tribe of stunted, hairy, almost apelike men ruled over by beautiful, entirely human-looking women. It's implied that the inhabitants degenerated by mating with great apes, but somehow the degeneration didn't affect females the way it did males.
** It's mentioned once or twice that the Oparians have deliberately selected for this by killing male babies who were too humanlike and female babies who were too apelike.

* WouldntHitAGirl: Tarzan goes even further; not only he refuses to harm women, but he ''always'' considers his duty to save them. In ''The Return of Tarzan'', he saves La of Opar from an Opar man who went berserk and attacked her, even though La was just about to sacrifice Tarzan. In ''Tarzan the Untamed'', Tarzan cannot bring himself to kill Bertha, nor even let harm befall her, despite the fact that he hates all Germans and considers himself on a lifelong mission to exterminate them all.

** ''Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle''

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: In ''Tarzan and the City of Gold'', Tarzan has to contend with Nemone, the beautiful but jealous and temperamental queen of Cathne, the City of Gold. She became queen at the age of 12 and was manipulated and blackmailed by an old black woman name M'duze who, it was speculated, was Nemone's mother. The queen was considered a bit mentally unstable. She was jealous of her beauty and had all good-looking women wither mutilated or killed.

** The Waziri, the African tribe whom Tarzan befriends and of whom he eventually becomes chief, are portrayed as even more noble and far less savage, especially given the stories' origin in TheEdwardianEra.

* AcidRefluxNightmare: Tarzan experiences one after eating some bad meat in the short story "The Nightmare" in ''Jungle Tales of Tarzan''.

* ChangelingFantasy: Meriem in ''Son of Tarzan'' is really Jeanne Jacot, the kidnapped daughter of a French general, and is reunited with her parents in the end after being raised by an Arab who kidnapped her out of revenge, then rescued by Korak and living in the trees for a while. (She's also a [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses princess.]], at least her father says she's one "in her own right".)

* GreatWhiteHunter: (''Return of Tarzan'') Tarzan goes undercover as an American big-game hunter.

* InstantWakingSkills: One of Tarzan's talents.

* LotteryOfDoom: In "Return of Tarzan" Clayton, a Russian spy, and a sailor are in a lifeboat with no food or water, and they hold a lottery to determine [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty which of them should die so the others may live]]. The sailor loses his nerve and jumps overboard while the spy cheats, but is too weak to kill Clayton afterwards.

** The Waziri, the African tribe whom Tarzan befriends and of whom he eventually becomes chief, are portrayed as even more noble and far less savage,]] especially given the stories' origin in TheEdwardianEra.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Tarzan's upbringing has made him stronger, faster, and more agile than any other human (in the Wold Newton universe, [[Franchise/DocSavage his cousin]] excepted), and he commonly defeats ordinary human strongmen and fighters with ease. Burroughs spends much time on his physical feats; however, Burroughs also slightly averts this, by often and explicitly emphasizing that it is Tarzan's superior ''reason'' that makes him the Lord of the Jungle.

* SpyFiction: Much of ''The Return Of Tarzan'' can fairly be classed as a Dirty Martini story; Tarzan's first civilized job is as a secret agent for France, and the Arabic section of the story deals entirely with his espionage work. Further, his entanglement with the utterly loathsome Russian spy Rokoff drives all the rest of the book.

** ''Return of Tarzan'': The Countess Olga de Coude, Kadour ben Saden's daughter.

** ''Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar'': Jane, La

** The Waziri, the African tribe whom Tarzan befriends and of whom he eventually becomes chief, are portrayed as even more noble and far less savage,]] [[FairForItsDay especially given the stories' origin]] in TheEdwardianEra.

* SpyFiction: Much of ''TheReturnOfTarzan'' can fairly be classed as a Dirty Martini story; Tarzan's first civilized job is as a secret agent for France, and the Arabic section of the story deals entirely with his espionage work. Further, his entanglement with the utterly loathsome Russian spy Rokoff drives all the rest of the book.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Tarzan is stronger, faster, and more agile than any other human - and even the apes he lives amongst - to the point where he can fight with dinosaurs and come out on top.

** Athne & Cathne, the Cities of Ivory and Gold, respectively, in "Tarzan and the City of Gold" (1932) and "Tarzan the Magnificent" (1939). The mutually-dependent-hereditary-enmity society of these semi-Greco-Roman cities is one of the few "lost worlds" that Tarzan visits twice, and it is the home of the evil Queen Nemone.

* NatureHero: Tarzan.

* PapaWolf: Tarzan.

* ContrivedCoincidence: More than once. The one that brings all the key players together at the end of ''The Return of Tarzan'', at a significant location none of them had particularly been aiming for, is especially {{egregious}}.

The earlier Tarzan novels are [[PublicDomainCharacter out of copyright]] in the US, but not in Europe, and TheOtherWiki suggests he's also trademarked by the author's company. Altogether, that explains why ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' only refers to him as [[CaptainErsatz "Lord Greystoke"]].

* BizarreSexualDimorphism: The people of the lost city of Opar consist of a tribe of stunted, hairy, almost apelike men ruled over by a beautiful, entirely human-looking woman. It's implied that the inhabitants degenerated by mating with great apes, but somehow the degeneration didn't affect females the way it did males.

* ''Tarzan and the Foreign Legion'' (1947). The novel covers Tarzan's adventures while serving in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during WorldWarII.

* WorldWarI: ''Tarzan the Untamed'' is set during it. Tarzan wages [[JustForPun guerrilla]] warfare against the Germans using apes and lions.

* KillerGorilla: Gorillas, referred to as ''bolgani'', are portrayed very large and aggressive, and deadly enemies of Tarzan's family, the ''mangani''. However, the ''mangani'' themselves apply too.

* ChangelingFantasy: Meriem in ''Son of Tarzan'' is the kidnapped daughter of a French general, and is reunited with her parents in the end after being raised by an Arab who kidnapped her out of revenge. (She's also a [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses princess.]])

* ChronicHeroSyndrome: [[ExaggeratedTrope Good lord]]! In just the first two books, Tarzan saves every single one of Jane's party at least twice; Jane herself three times before the exchange a word. He then rescues the French officer who left to rescue Jane. Then he rescues Jane ''both'' from a wildfire and an AbhorrentAdmirer. It's so bad that after he makes an enemy of some Russian spies (because he rescued a woman from them) they [[ExploitedTrope lure him to an ambush]] using the cries of a distressed woman.

* MightyWhitey: Tarzan was shown to be far better suited to life in the African wilds than any of the black natives. The first novel points out that his ancestry is where he inherited his physique (the potential of which was developed by his jungle upbringing) and his extraordinary intelligence. His European heritage was not presented as making him somehow "better" suited to the wild than the indigenous tribes.