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Character traits of Telemachus in the Odyssey
Character traits of Telemachus in the Odyssey
Character traits of Telemachus in the Odyssey
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Telemachos: Maturing
Telemachos has not seen his father since he was just a baby. He has had to grow up and live the first Twenty years of his life with out a father. Through these years Telemachos grows and develops a lot but I think the most growing when he begins to look for Odysseus.
The first four books of The Odyssey are all about Telemachos and him figuring out hat he is going to go out and look for his father. He has many dangers because there are 120 or so suitors at his house looking for his mother’s (Penelope) hand in marriage. They disrespect the rules of hospitality, eat his family’s cattle, and drink all of his wine. The suitors have begun to come up with a plot to kill Telemachos because they believe that he is in the way of marrying his mother. The leader of the suitors Antinoos concocts this conspiracy; he is the most manipulative of them all. At the beginning of book one, Telemachos is being taken advantage of and is very passive. But he finally takes a stand when he tells the suitors that they must leave after the next day’s assembly. Not only is Telemachos growing from confronting Antinoos, but also he is growing from calling the assembly. In this part of the book he takes responsibility and leadership roles that he has never done before. He has always been in the shadow of his mother and fallowed her lead, but now he is beginning to break away from that. By doing thins he is becoming more of his own person.
In books two and three Telemachos matures by separating himself from his mother. He scolds her when she becomes upset. This separation shows him becoming more of a leader figure in the house. He is now doing what he wants to, even though she wants him to stay with her because she thinks that is...
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...tive outlook on things, he shows his emotional strength to handle things in an adult manner.
If Odysseus were to come home in books 1-4 they would find Telemachos to be completely different then the type of person he would be when he actually does return home. Telemachos and Odysseus return home roughly around the same time and they both stay at the Swineheards house. This shows a likness between them. Odysseus tests his son by offering his son a seat. Telemachos declines and odysseus is impressed by the maturity that he has. Telamachos’s ability to grow and mature through this whole book on his own is really a self-achievement. And he matures even more when he fights along side his father. I think this is the final stage of him becoming a man. This is because he is no longer timid, he can be supported by himself, and he no longer is in the shadow of his mother.
At the beginning of the book Telemakhos is troubled with the suitors trying to marry his mother. He tries to keep them in line but they are rampant, especially when they're drunk. They kill Odysseus's herd for their own feedings and disrespect the house of Odysseus. So Telemakhos is obliged to search for his father because he is his last and only hope of keeping the suitors away. He is determined to search for his father and must find him at all costs. When Odysseus is stuck on the island of Kalypso, Athena had obliged him to leave the island in search of his home, Ithaka. She tells him of the memories he had there and he remembered how much he had longed for Ithaka. So he was determined to get home. Just like how Telemakhos was determined to find his father. They were destined by the gods to come together. In book 16, it talks about Telemakhos and his father talking to each other planning how they were going to take over the suitors. They talked and talked and were happy to see each other.
He also finds something he least expected: his father alive and well. Telemachus is overjoyed to see Odysseus, the man who could not be there to help him grow into a man. Even though he did not have a father, though. Telemachus has grown up in a very short amount of time due to his faith in the gods and the help of Athena. Together, Odysseus and Telemachus come up with a plan to take revenge on the suitors by killing them. One part of this plan was to make sure that the suitors did not get any weapons by closing the door to the room in Odysseus’ house where weapons were stored. Telemachus, however, accidentally leaves the door open. He shows his maturity in this situation by telling his father that he had left the door open, rather than keeping quiet about it. A real man will always confess his mistakes. Then, Odysseus set to work on taking vengeance against the suitors, and Telemachus, with his new-found courage, helped
In Odyssey, Homer creates a parallel between Odysseus and Telemachos, father and son. The two are compared in the poem from every aspect. One parallel was the quest of Telemachos, in correlation with the journey of his father. In this, Odysseus is developed from a childish, passive, and untested boy, to a young man preparing to stand by his father's side. This is directly connected to the voyage of Odysseus, in that they both lead to the same finale, and are both stepping-stones towards wisdom, manhood, and scholarship.
At some point in their life, many people experience feelings of inadequacy or uncertainty. In “The Odyssey” by Homer, one of the main characters Telemachus experiences both of these feelings. He feels that he is not good enough, especially compared to his father, Odysseus, who many people refer to as a great leader. In the beginning of “The Odyssey”, Telemachus’ home has been taken over by suitors, each with the goal of winning over his mother, in hopes to marry her and become king. Telemachus is not fond of these men in his home, but does not have the confidence to get rid of them. Lastly, at this point in the story, Odysseus, Telemachus’ father, has been gone for approximately twenty years, most of Telemachus’ life. Telemachus has been
His ability to discuss his problems instead of resorting to immediate violence indicates he is changing. His readiness and persistence after he is denied is
The most important lesson that Telemachus stands to learn from the Telemachy is that not everyone in Ithaca wished for the safe return of his father. This is because while Telemachus was moaning for the loss of his father, the suitors were devouring his father’s wealth and wooing Penelope, Telemachus’s mother. In his moaning, Telemachus says “But evil days the gods have brought upon it, making him vanish, as they have, so strangely. Were his death known, I could not feel such pain” (Robert Fitzgerald translation, Book one, page, 270). Telemachus is distraught because he does not get closure on his father’s dead but his distress is not shared by everyone in his Ithaca. Only his other and a few people remain
The relationship between Odysseus and Telemakhos is a blind love. That is because they never really got to know each other because Odysseus has been gone for most of Telemakhos’ life. One example of this blind love is when Odysseus hears about how the suitors are mistreating and stealing from Telemakhos. Odysseus gets so irate that he was then even more determined than ever, to return to his family. Telemakhos also exhibits the same kind of blind love towards his father. Even though people have told him that his father was dead, he never believed it. He felt that his father was alive and was willing to sacrifice his life to prove it. Telemakhos was inexperienced at directing a boat, but he was willing to try because he felt something inside of him that gave him the strength to go on. Thus, this relationship between Odysseus and Telemakhos gave both of them the courage to overcome the hardships ahead of them.
All in all, Odysseus’ maturity can be seen through his words and actions involving Xenia, encounter with Polyphemus, Circe, and Alcinous. Odysseus reflects back on his growth of a person as he tells his story to Alcinous. In reality it is a process that one goes through to become mature. As Odysseus realizes what he should not have done, he learns from his
The whole point of Telemachus speech is to encourage the people to help him on a voyage to find his father so that they can bring him back so that his father can protect them from the suitors
The first step in any hero’s journey is the Call to Adventure, or the seperation from the pack. For Odysseus this call happened while he was on Calypso’s Island. Up on Olympus Athena had convinced Zeus of her case and Hermes was dispatched to free Odysseus from Calypso’s grasp. Odysseus was settled here for quite some time and had no way of escape until Calypso was forced by the gods to let him go. This is where his journey begins. At first Odysseus is very skeptical of this freedom and thinks that it is a trick by Calypso, which is the denial stage that follows the call to adventure. This stage seperates Odysseus once agaian from what has become familiar to him. He is called to journey alone once again to gain what it is that he has wanted for so long. For Telemachus his call came due to the perils he was facing in his own home with suitors competing for his mother’s love. They started to eat him out of house and home and began to disrespect his mother. Before this Telemachus had stayed quiet, and had not taken action. Telemachus got summoned to branch out from his mother and his home to venture out on a journey of his own. It was now his time to become a man.
Odysseus’ and Telemachus’ journeys or nostos were both very similar and different. They parallel each other in some ways but they are also completely different at other times. Telemachus starts as a younger, less mature boy, and without the presence of his father during his childhood, he becomes a timid, shy and spineless boy who is greatly pampered by his mother. He has even more to achieve, being the son of a world-famous father, and this is a very difficult reputation to live up to. His journey, and after that the killing of the suitors who took advantage of him really show how his journeys and problems throughout the book mature him from being a shy, timid boy into a mature man. Odysseus’ journey also taught him about many things which he had never really experienced before, including suffering, poverty, and other things of that nature. Telemachus and Odysseus have parallel, but different journeys, which drastically change them throughout the epic and they are influenced by many different forces, both human and supernatural. Telemachus matures into a man while Odysseus becomes more wise, and both journey through Greece in search of one another.
The reader first finds the character of Telemachus sitting among the suitors in his father’s palace. This seemingly unimportant detail yields information regarding his temperament. The suitors, whom Homer portrays as malicious usurpers, continue to take advantage of Telemachus’ hospitality. Instead of defending his home, his mother, and his belongings from these men, Telemachus numbers among them. This lack of assertiveness displays his frailty and his helplessness given the overwhelming circumstances. At this point, Athena, disguised as Odysseus’ old friend Mentes, visits Telemachus in order to “inspire his heart with courage” (I.105). The two share a meal and engage in a lengthy conversation. The goddess discusses how Telemachus should handle the troublesome suitors and suggests a journey to try to ascertain the whereabouts of Odysseus. The conversation appears to immediately galvanize the young man’s resolve. In fact, immediately after her departure, he summons the courage to confront the suitors, demanding that they are to leave his house at once. The assertiveness that Telemachus displays in this instance is a dramatic departure from ...
In the Odyssey, Telemachus, son of great hero Odysseus, who grows up in the world of greed and disrespect where the suitors take over his palace and court his mother, is one of the most significant character throughout the whole epic. His father, Odysseus, leaving the land Ithaca for 20 years, is the only warrior alive in Trojan war who hasn’t make his return home. During Telemachus’ expedition to search for the news of his father, he is under a process of maturation from the beginning in which he is mere a shadow of his father to the end in which he becomes more and more like him in terms of initiative, sensitivity and socialization.
...a, escaping Calypso and the island of Ogygia, and Telemachus from Ithaca to Pylos and Sparta in search of his lost father. While The Odyssey tells of the courage both men demonstrate during their respective travels, their quests are the results of the intentions and desires of gods. Odysseus is trapped in exile on Ogygia by the will of Poseidon, whose anger Odysseus attracts when he blinds the Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, and by the love of Calypso, who wishes to make Odysseus her husband. He is released from Ogygia and permitted to return to Ithaca only by the command of Zeus, as delivered by Hermes. Telemachus, rather than being trapped physically, was detained emotionally, feeling helpless to repel the suitors wooing Penelope. Only through the motivation of the goddess Athena did Telemachus find the will and courage to embark in search of Odysseus.
While Odysseus and his son are united and face the world together, Ulysses sees himself and his son as two different people living separate lives. When he returns, Odysseus has a close, personal relationship with his son; he becomes Telemachus' mentor. Odysseus realizes Telemachus' resemblance to himself - both are noble men of action who value justice. Together, they devise a plan to avenge the arrogant suitors who have abused their household for the past three years. Finally, "he [Odysseus] found the whole company lying in heaps in the blood and dust..." (Homer, 22.383). Father and son are victorious together. Conversely, as Ulysses ages, he and his son are disunited. Ulysses is confident that he has trained his son to be a benevolent ruler. He praises Telemachus's patience, gentleness, and prudence - all outstanding qualities that he is lacking. Ulysses acknowledges that he and his son are opposite people. He is adventurous, while Telemachus is sedate. "He works his work, I mine" (Tennyson, Line 43) suggests acceptance of a destiny; the father and son must lead separate lives because of their differences. Despite changing roles the man plays in Telemachus' life, he successfully raises his son to become a respectable leader.