Explication Of Ulysses
In this poem, Tennyson reworks the figure of Ulysses by drawing on the ancient hero of Homer's Odyssey. Homer's Ulysses learns from a prophecy that he will take a final sea voyage after killing the suitors of his wife Penelope. Ulysses finds himself restless in Ithaca and driven by "the longing I had to gain experience of the world”.
Ulysses says that there is little point in his staying home "by this still hearth" with his old wife, handing out rewards and punishments for all of his subjects who live in his kingdom.
Still speaking to himself he proclaims that he "cannot rest from travel" but feels required to live to the fullest and swallow every last drop of life. He has enjoyed all his experiences as a sailor who travels the seas, and he considers himself a model for everyone who wanders and roams the earth. His travels have exposed him to many different types of people and ways of living. They have also exposed him to the "delight of battle" while fighting the Trojan War with his men. Ulysses declares that his travels and encounters have shaped who he is: "I am a part of all that I have met," he says. And it is only when he is traveling that the "margin" of the world that he has not yet traveled shrink and fade, and stop to push him.
Ulysses declares that it is boring to stay in one place, and that to remain at a standstill is to waste rather than to flourish; to stay in one place is to pretend that all there is to life is the simple a...
Dramaturgy is a view of social life as a series of dramatic performances akin to those taken place in a theatre (Ritzer, 144). Much of Goffman’s dramaturgy is concerned with the processes by which such disturbances are prevented and dealt with (Ritzer, page 144). In the Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman developed a new approach to the sociological study of human interaction, due to a mental health court scenario, of what he referred to as “dramaturgical” because of the analogy it had of the theatre to describe how an individual engages in social interaction with others in a performance (Staton et al, page 5). This performance was a way for actors to influence their audience in a given situation. In the addition of the mental health scenario, age, gender, and race relevant. The human relationships observed in the mental health court was analyzed was theorized so Goffman could explain characteristics of human interactions.
Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman) was one of the great Pan-Hellenic heroes of Greek mythology. Famous for his courage, intelligence and leadership he was most recognized through his resourcefulness and oratory skills. Throughout classical literature and through many authors Odysseus’ characteristics have changed as much as the stories that surround him. The epic and tragedy I will focus on in particular is The Odyssey by Homer and Hecuba by Euripides. The defining characteristics of Odysseus ranges widely as is shown in Homer’s The Odyssey and Euripides’s Hecuba. The figure of Odysseus in homers The Odyssey is the antithesis of the Odysseus in Euripides Hecuba due to their historical contexts and respective audiences.
“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” includes a young, not Gary Busey, George Clooney at his finest playing, Ulysses Everett McGill. Ulysses is a fun character with a conman personality leading his crew to the treasure of a life time. The story takes place during the time of the great depression and Ulysses and his two fellow convicts escape from prison at the start of their journey. Throughout the movie, the three main characters go on an adventure to “secure the treasure”, with Ulysses depicted as their leader. He makes the men believe that fortune is in their future when, in reality, they are helping Ulysses get back to his wife before she remarries. The clock is ticking for our adventurers, as they do everything possible to make it on time. The
In "The Tell-Tale Heart" the action is filtered through the eyes of a delusional narrator. The narrator fixates upon the old man's eye and determines to commit a conscious act of murder. He prides himself on his careful planning and mastery at deceiving others. While he acts friendly towards the old man and the police, dark secrets are hidden deep inside of him. This leads to a false confidence. He insists on seating the policemen in the very room where he had slain the old man just a few hours before, the old man's body was revealed to be beneath the floorboards at the narrator's own admission and admits his crime because of the loud beating of the heart.
The police show up at his door, with a neighbor’s claim of a loud noise heard. The man, overflowing with confidence, cheerfully allows the police to search the entire house, as he had previously dismembered the body and hidden it under the floorboards. Finding nothing, the police and him chat for a while in the old man’s room, when suddenly the man hears a faint beating. Quickly becoming louder, the man loses his cheerful disposition and starts to panic. He claims the police were toying with him; they knew all along. Claiming the noise emanated from the dead man’s heart, the man succumbs to the noise, yelling, “Villains! Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!” (Poe).
Human nature is a conglomerate perception which is the dominant liable expressed in the short story of “A Tell-Tale Heart”. Directly related, Edgar Allan Poe displays the ramifications of guilt and how it can consume oneself, as well as disclosing the nature of human defense mechanisms, all the while continuing on with displaying the labyrinth of passion and fears of humans which make a blind appearance throughout the story. A guilty conscience of one’s self is a pertinent facet of human nature that Edgar Allan Poe continually stresses throughout the story. The emotion that causes a person to choose right from wrong, good over bad is guilt, which consequently is one of the most ethically moral and methodically powerful emotion known to human nature. Throughout the story, Edgar Allan Poe displays the narrator to be rather complacent and pompous, however, the narrator establishes what one could define as apprehension and remorse after committing murder of an innocent man. It is to believe that the narrator will never confess but as his heightened senses blur the lines between real and ...
The “Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and serves as a testament to Poe’s ability to convey mental disability in an entertaining way. The story revolves around the unnamed narrator and old man, and the narrator’s desire to kill the old man for reasons that seem unexplainable and insane. After taking a more critical approach, it is evident that Poe’s story is a psychological tale of inner turmoil.
Homer’s epic Greek poem, The Odyssey, in which Odysseus and his men must fight their way home to Ithaca after battling in the ten-year Trojan War, can easily be compared to a journey of life. Odysseus and his men begin their journey with their departure from Troy, aiming for Ithaca to be their final destination. Along the way, the men are forced to overcome unsurmountable obstacles, are faced with grueling decisions and are postponed by many strenuous stops throughout their voyage. Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, is like a journey of life because in it Odysseus must undertake an exciting, perilous journey over a long period of time to reach his goal of getting home and is also faced with many stops, obstacles, and decision along the way.
In the poem "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the readers are shown a great king in the later years of his life. The reader finds Ulysses reflecting on the glorious days of his youth and planning that by some means he will obtain those glorious times again. He refuses to accept a future of growing old and ruling his kingdom. Ulysses will not let the rest of his life pass him by just sitting still on his throne, doing the mundane job of ruling a kingdom. Ulysses has reached the twilight years in his life and yet he refuses to give in to the fate that time has for all men.
The fixation on the old man's vulture-like eye forces the narrator to concoct a plan to eliminate the old man. The narrator confesses the sole reason for killing the old man is his eye: "Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees - very gradually - I made up my mind to rid myself of the eye for ever" (34). The narrator begins his tale of betrayal by trying to convince the reader he is not insane, but the reader quickly surmises the narrator indeed is out of control. The fact that the old man's eye is the only motivation to murder proves the narrator is so mentally unstable that he must search for justification to kill. In his mind, he rationalizes murder with his own unreasonable fear of the eye.
The Tell-Tale Heart is a horror story about a man who murders his landlord because of his pale blue ‘vulture eye’. Every night at midnight the murderer goes into the old mans room and shines a thin ray of light on the old mans eye. On the eighth night the murderer went into the old mans room and wakes the man up. Yet again the murderer shines the light on the eye to see that it is open, the murderer then suffocates the landlord within his bed. He later confesses, due to his own guilt, that he had done the deed when police come round to his house to investigate.
Ulysses longs for a journey of the mind and soul “to follow knowledge like a sinking star” (Tennyson 31) and leaves behind the responsibility of his kingdom. Ulysses seems to feel unimportant when he is at home by his “still hearth”, “among barren crags” (Tennyson 2). He would rather be experiencing “the drunk delight of battle” (Tennyson 16) than spending time with his “aged wife” (Tennyson 3). Ulysses explains his motivation: “I cannot rest from travel, I will drink/ Life to the lees” (Tennyson 6-7). Ulysses feels he is living without truly being alive and only memories from his pa...
...old age or barriers, he will always strive to fulfill his goals. The experiences of Odysseus and Ulysses are tributes to the power of the human spirit; one can achieve much if they are determined.
The Tell Tale Heart is a story, on the most basic level, of conflict. There is a mental conflict within the narrator himself (assuming the narrator is male). Through obvious clues and statements, Poe alerts the reader to the mental state of the narrator, which is insanity. The insanity is described as an obsession (with the old man's eye), which in turn leads to loss of control and eventually results in violence. Ultimately, the narrator tells his story of killing his housemate. Although the narrator seems to be blatantly insane, and thinks he has freedom from guilt, the feeling of guilt over the murder is too overwhelming to bear. The narrator cannot tolerate it and eventually confesses his supposed 'perfect'; crime. People tend to think that insane persons are beyond the normal realm of reason shared by those who are in their right mind. This is not so; guilt is an emotion shared by all humans. The most demented individuals are not above the feeling of guilt and the havoc it causes to the psyche. Poe's use of setting, character, and language reveal that even an insane person feels guilt. Therein lies the theme to The Tell Tale Heart: The emotion of guilt easily, if not eventually, crashes through the seemingly unbreakable walls of insanity.
He was seeking something beyond death is evident in "for my purpose holds .To sail beyond sunset."What does he mean by " seek a newer world"(57).When we see Ulysses in this light we realize that the faults we sought in him in the initial stages of the poem are failings only as perceived by a society "centered in the sphere of common duties"(39). Otherwise they were not faults but relentless endeavors of a restless soul to seek that which is beyond the realms of human thought.