How Is Hector A Foil To Achilles

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Death of Hector was pictured differently in the poem and in the film. In the Iliad, Hector behaved cowardly, running from Achilles around the walls of Troy several times until the gods tricked him into fighting. Alternatively, in the movie Hector behaved bravely, fighting until his last breath. This is because Hector is used as a character that the audience could sympathise and identify with: a mature family-oriented man, future king of Troy, responsible leader who regrets killing Patroclus because of his young age. He acts as a foil to Achilles’ outbursts of emotion and his extremes and excesses. Running from a fight would be a pathetic end for a heroic character and it doesn’t correspond with the codes of masculine behaviour, so Wolfgang …show more content…

Achilles shows no mercy: “I wish I had the heart and strength to carve you up and eat you raw myself for what you’ve done to me.” (Iliad, Book 22). There are multiple theories of why Achilles wishes he would be able to eat Hector. Achilles’ implication of cannibalism can be explained by his own words: “That’s idiotic, like a faithful promise between men and …show more content…

Perhaps Achilles’ threat didn’t implicate cannibalism because he did not see Hector belonging to the same species as himself (i.e. men and lions, wolves and lambs). Alternatively, perhaps making an analogy between predatory animals and himself might have propelled Achilles towards near-bestial behaviour. Then, there is another reason for Achilles’ treatment of Hector’s corpse. Achilles, being from Thessaly, reenacted the Thessalian custom of dragging the corpses of murderers around the tombs of their victims. In this way, Achilles assigned Hector to a hateful class of murderers. Moreover, by dragging the corpse face down, he enacted the defacement, aiming to remove the features of Hector’s face. Overall, Achilles’ brutality was exceptional and even the gods took pity on Hector which demonstrates the severity of Achilles actions as the Greek gods were amoral and rarely showed sympathy towards the mankind. This demonstrates the extent of Achilles’ fury and hate towards Hector for killing Patroclus.

Another important aspect of the Iliad is involvement of gods in comparison to their almost total absence in Troy. In the

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