Character Pride In The Iliad

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Recommended: Achilles' character in the iliad

Terrence Alexander
Coach Jubenville
English IV
May 1, 2014
Character Pride in the Iliad
In the barbaric world of the Iliad, pride is what makes the characters of the book motivated and yet deceived. In the Iliad, a majority of all the male characters are driven and inspired in various way by concern of their popularity and image. This pride is often displayed as the biggest flaw of the characters. Agamemnon’s pride makes him a power greedy king. Hector’s pride makes him an honorable man. Achilles’ pride will never let him lose. This same pride also give these men an advantage. On the battlefield, the characters always think of their popularity which makes them fight harder which saves men of their men in battle. Pride is however the demise of all of these characters in the Iliad.
The Iliad features the great warrior Achilles. Achilles is born by a mother who was a god and a mortal man which makes him a demi god. Being a demi god Achilles had great strength and character but he is not immortal. He is also the best Greek solider. The king of the Greeks is Agamemnon. Agamemnon and Achilles are constantly causing problems for one another. These problems are just a distraction because they are already fighting the city of Troy. Agamemnon annoys Achilles extremely when he wants Achilles to provide for him his lady Briseis, whom Achilles cherished deeply. Achilles withdraws from the fight realizing that the Greek armed forces can't win without his help. This enraged Achilles and brings out one of his biggest flaws which is trying to contain his anger and pride. This cause Achilles to be too proud and deny the apologies from Agamemnon for taking his lady Briseis. (ENotes.com)
Hector is thought to be the future king of Troy. ...

... middle of paper ...

...e that shall be my own, lest I only
Among the Argives go without, since that were unfitting.'” (Book1.116-120)
The actions of these characters all had their consequences. Agamemnon shouldn’t have taken away the girl of Achilles. That could have potentially helped the Greeks because their best warrior would have been all in. Hector could have backed out of the fight with Achilles for another time. I think that if he would have backed out he could have saved his city because he would have been able to still command his army. And Achilles should have swallowed his pride and taken the bribes from Agamemnon and he would have been able to control his anger. These acts of pride made these men all fail. Pride was the determining factor when it comes to the biggest enemy in the book and for all of these men, it was pride that destroyed them all.

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