A person who is said to have a stiff upper lip displays
fortitude and
stoicism in the face of adversity, or exercises great
self-restraint in the expression of
emotion.[1][2] The phrase is most commonly heard as part of the
idiom "keep a stiff upper lip", and has traditionally been used to describe an
attribute of British people in remaining resolute and unemotional when faced with adversity.[1]A sign of fear is trembling of the upper lip[citation needed], hence the saying keep a "stiff" upper lip.[3]
Examples
The following have often been cited as exemplifying the "stiff upper lip".
During the sinking of
HMS Birkenhead in 1852, soldiers famously stood in ranks on board, allowing the women and children to board the boats safely and escape the sinking.
In 1912, during the
Terra Nova Expedition, Captain
Lawrence Oates, aware that his own ill health was compromising his three companions' chances of survival, calmly leaving the tent and choosing certain death saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time."
In 1982, Captain Moody aboard
British Airways Flight 9 from London to Auckland, on realising that all engines of the aircraft had stopped because of
volcanic ash, announced to the passengers, "We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."
In 1989,
United Airlines Flight 232 suffered a catastrophic engine failure that rendered all hydraulics inoperable, resulting in the aircraft being virtually uncontrollable, with the exception of the engine throttles. Captain Al Haynes kept a healthy sense of self-deprecating humour throughout the ordeal, which could clearly be heard on the
cockpit voice recorder. The crew, along with passengers who were off-duty pilots and flight engineers, managed to crash land the aircraft at
Sioux Gateway Airport in
Iowa. In simulation scenarios, no crew has ever been able to make it to the airport, and the event is often cited as one of the best examples of
crew resource management in an emergency situation.
Origins
The idea of the stiff upper lip is traced back to
Ancient Greece – to the
Spartans, whose cult of discipline and self-sacrifice was a source of inspiration to the
English public school system; and to the
Stoics. Stoic ideas were adopted by the Romans, particularly the Emperor
Marcus Aurelius, who wrote, "If you are distressed by any external thing, it is not this thing which disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now."[5] The concept reached England in the 1590s, and featured in the plays of
William Shakespeare. His tragic hero
Hamlet says, "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so".[1]
Poems that feature a memorable evocation of Victorian
stoicism and a stiff upper lip include
Rudyard Kipling's "
If—" and
W. E. Henley's "
Invictus".[5] The phrase became symbolic of the British people, and particularly of those who were students of the English public school system during the
Victorian era. Such schools were heavily influenced by stoicism, and aimed to instil a code of discipline and devotion to duty in their pupils through 'character-building' competitive sports (as immortalised in the poem "
Vitai Lampada"), corporal punishments and cold showers.[5]