Analysis Of Albert Tennyson's Ulysses

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The Story of a Dying Name
The legend of The Iliad and The Odyssey are two of the most famous works of fiction ever created. They depict the king of Ithaca, Odysseus - Ulysses in Latin - as he travels the world on adventures. He battles great monsters, defeats enemy empires, and befriends and angers gods, before triumphantly returning home. It is easy to close The Odyssey and feel content that the story is over. However, Ulysses does not stop there. He continues to rule Ithaca for years afterwards. While it took hundreds of years, eventually a great author was able to take the complex character of Ulysses and continue his story in ways that people will most likely be studying and analysing for just as long as the original story. Albert Tennyson’s …show more content…

The narrative of the poem is told disjointedly according to some, and even to what audience, if any, the poem is being presented can be confusing. T.S. Eliot, along with other critics, says that it does not give a sense of clear story. “[F]or narrative Tennyson had no gift at all,” Eliot went so boldly as to say (Napierkowski and Ruby 283). However, other critics argue that the structure of the poem, through its meandering way, is one of its greatest strengths. Ian Scott-Kilvert claims that the flowing structure and lyricism of "Ulysses" “illustrates… that Tennyson’s essential classicism is in his view of the poem as a work of art, with form as its distinguishing characteristic,” (Scott-Kilvert 328). He is saying that the structure is meant to represent an emotional landscape, instead of a literal one. However, similar to Eliot, no specific examples are used to support this claim. Meanwhile, Charles Mitchell argues that the poem’s strange narrative style has a purpose within the plot, and suggests it is not a monologue at all. “It has been generally assumed that the poem is formally a dramatic monologue. However, that assumption is not easily established, for the disclosure that Ulysses faces an audience comes gradually and belatedly,” (Mitchell 289). He argues that the poem is spoken …show more content…

It is key, in this interpretation, to look at the context of when the poem was written. "Ulysses" was written in 1933, part of a ten year break of Tennyson from publishing, following the death of his close friend Arthur Hallam. The man’s death had a huge influence on Tennyson’s life and thinking (Napierkowski and Ruby 277). Critics claim that themes of death worked their way into most of Tennyson’s works at this time. “Tennyson related death to this tale of Ulysses’ desire to return to a life of adventure,” (Napierkowski and Ruby 277). This statement seems strange, until one looks at what many interpretations of the poem suggest his final voyage truly represents. Charles Mitchell says that he “feel[s] that Ulysses’ major tension is… fixed in the outer conflict between his will and death.” Mitchell thinks that Ulysses is about to die, and is struggling with his own legendary status, and how the two can mesh (Mitchell 289). Mitchell brings up the line “I am become a name” again, claiming that it is Ulysses reasoning that since he is a legend, he cannot truly die, he has been immortalized (Mitchell 292) (Tennyson). “[I]n the first paragraph Ulysses implies that he has explored the known world, in the last paragraph, which deals with the future, he goes to “seek a newer world.” Mitchell claims that this new world is the after life, and after all that Ulysses has been

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