Ulysses as a Victorian Role Model
Ulysses is a classical hero who reappears in the literary work of great poets such as Homer and Tennyson. During the Victorian era, Alfred Lord Tennyson was one of the most famous poets in England, he even held Britain’s prestigious position of Poet Laureate. Tennyson began writing during a period in which duty and conformity were traits that distinguished the middle class from the lower class. In a two-volume collection of “Poems,” Tennyson writes “Ulysses” after the death of a close friend, Arthur Henry Hallam. Hallam inspired the character Ulysses, while the loss of the special friendship influenced the tone of the piece. The Ancient Greek hero describes his loathing of regal position and desire to travel before his impending death. Amongst the underlying grief, Tennyson utilized the poetic form of dramatic monologue to protest the social values of the era. In the poem “Ulysses,” Tennyson expresses his view on the need for individual assertion and rebellion against bourgeois conformity, the result is the development of a very self-righteous character that places more value on himself than the external world.
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...
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...strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” (Tennyson 70), placing a romantic image in the audiences’ head of Ulysses sailing away, and hopeful.
Works Cited
Tennyson, Alfred Lord. “Ulysses.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Christ,
Carol T., Catherine Robson, and Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006.
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E. J. Chiasson, "Tennyson's 'Ulysses'—A Re-Interpretation." Critical Essays on the Poetry of
Tennyson. Ed. John Killham (New York: 1960), 164–173
Mazzeno, Laurence W. "Alfred, Lord Tennyson." Critical Survey of Poetry. Ed. Frank N.
Magill. Vol. 7. New Jersey: Salem Press, Inc., 1982. 8 vols.
Robbins, Tony. “Tennyson's ‘Ulysses’: The Significance of the Homeric and Dantesque
Backgrounds.” Victorian Poetry. Vol. 11, No. 3. West Virginia UP,
(Autumn, 1973),177-193
Another way that Ulysses fits the model of an archetype is that he has flaws.In other words he is not perfect.If he was perfect he would be boring and it wouldn"t be interesting if he does the amazingest thing.It wouldn"t be interesting because you would already expect that from someone who is perfect.One of Ulysses flaw is that he is greedy. In the beginning of the story when Ulysses won the war between Troy he had taken all the treasures. He had taken so many there ship barely had room for food. Then when they went to more places he got greedy and took more treasures now leaving no room for food.That is why Ulysses and his men went hungry. He is also a little stubborn because when he saw his men eating the cattle that was forbidden to eat he had gotten all mad but, when his men convinced him he ate.
Tennyson, Alfred Lord. "In Memoriam A. H. H." The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 3rd ed., Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1974. 1042-84.
"John William Waterhouse's Ulysses and the Sirens." John William Waterhouse's Ulysses and the Sirens. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
Everett, Nicholas From The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Poetry in English. Ed. Ian Hamiltong. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Copyright 1994 by Oxford University Press.
Alfred Tennyson breaks away from the pastoral discourse that is typical of the Romantic Age and transcends into the Victorian Age with a poem full of obsession, madness, death, love, and patriotism in his creation of Maud. In Maud, the state of the speaker’s life and his mental health are called into question from the very beginning. The speaker’s initial mental state is one of madness, a melancholic, morbidity that has been influenced by the suicide of his father into a persona that is not perfect or happy, but a disturbed man with nothing to recommend him to a higher state. We see this morbid side immediately when he says, “I hate the dreadful hollow behind the little wood, / Its lips in the field above are dabbled with blood- / red heath, / The red-ribbed ledges drip with a silent horror of blood, / And Echo there, whatever is asked her, answers / “Death.” (I,1-4). The speaker is already preoccupied with death and loss. He is all about thinking in extremes. The extremes of death, love, loss, and patriotism permeate his personality with such intensity that everything in his life is an obsession. The intensity of the character creates a situation where he never operates in the middle. He is always very high or very low either in anguish or happiness. It can be argued that his madness resonates as different phases of obsessions and that sanity at the end is not an arguable point as the reader never actually sees him operating within a sane situation. The speaker’s patriotic discourse in Part III is just one more obsession, another faucet of his internal madness that has found an alternate focus. The speaker’s is caught in a weave of madness that is present throughout ...
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.
When Ulysses and his men leave the island of the Ciconians, their ships began to leak. Ulysses knows they cannot spare food or water; it is their treasure from Troy that must go. His men are upset at this prospect, ¨But Ulysses cast over his own share of the treasure - and his was the largest - so the men had to bite back their rage . . .¨ (p. 8) This example shows that Ulysses' mindset is selfless; he knows if they want to get home, they will have to sacrifice something that is important to them - the treasure. This also shows Ulysses as an effective leader because he is leading by example. Ulysses, by throwing away his own large share of the treasure, is showing his men that getting home safely is more important that treasure Another example of Ulysses' selflessness is when they must pass by the Sirens. Ulysses protects all his men by stuffing their ears with wax so they will not hear the deadly song of the Sirens. However, he knows that to sail the ship, he must be aware of his surroundings, particularly the wind, so Ulysses tells his men ¨'First you must bind me to the mast. Tie me tightly, as though I were a dangerous captive. And no matter how I struggle, no matter what signals I make to you, do not release me . . .'¨(p. 86) This shows Ulysses selflessness because he is willing to suffer for the greater good; he is willing to have himself tied up to protect his men and steer the ship
Ulysses’s heroism is hown in his wisdom and knowledge of outcomes. One example of this quality in the book is when Ulysses commands “no matter how I struggle, no matter what signals I make to you, do not release me, least I follow their voice to destruction, taking you with me” (87 Evslin). This makes Ulysses an epic hero because he is wise in the sense of giving his men precautions and is preparing for the worst outcome to possibly happen. It is also wise for Ulysses to warn and prepare his men for this, because knowing the importance of teamwork, Ulysses’s command requires dependance and effort from every crewmate.
As former first lady Michelle Obama once said “You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it's important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages,” (Michelle Obama). Odysseus faced much adversity in his journey back from troy and in his home life back on Ithaca. The Odyssey is an epic poem created by Homer that highlights Odysseus's journey from Troy to Ithaca. “Ulysses” is a poem by Lord Tennyson Alfred about Odysseus's thoughts after he returns to Ithaca from Troy. Homer and Tennyson both use figurative language when speaking of Odysseus’ travels, and his thoughts when he get back home. People undertake journeys to immerse themselves in the
... days the about life span of his characters-as Joyce world do in 'The Dead' in Ulysses, and perhaps in Finnegan's Wake." (Atteridge p.65) There was an increasing concentration on form and language in Joyce's five novels. In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce in a few lines, describes Stephan, Dedalues's mood and characters.
In James Joyce’s Dubliners, his writing establish many feelings of escape from reality and life throughout the story of “The Sisters.” The characters tend to escape through journeys. To begin, in the “The Sisters,” after the death of Father Flynn, the boy realizes as he takes a long walk that he has fantasized of being away from everyone and everything: “As I walked along […] I felt that I had been very far away, in some land where the customs were strange – in Persia, I thought. … But I could not remember the end of the dream” (Joyce 5-6). The boy dreams of being away from reality in an entirety where he journeys alone to escape everyday life in Dublin. A second journey which introduces the theme of escape is when Eliza remembers the time that her brother, Father Flynn, spoke o...
Southam, B.C. “Tennyson.” Writers and Their Works : NO 218. London: Longman Group, 1971. p.6. print.
330-337. Tennyson, Alfred, Lord of the Lord. The Lady of Shalott. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed.
Tennyson brings out the agony felt by Ulysses at his old age, The influence of the Industrial age can be seen in Tennyson's usage of the word 'profits' in the very first line . The character calls himself 'idle' showing his disillusionment at this ripe stage of life .The "still hearth" and "the barren crags" symbolize death. He continues complaining about his hapless state and the reader begins to detect the shallowness of character of this otherwise larger than life legend. He is so self-centered and full of self pity that he shows scant respect for those close to him and those that he rules as seen in lines 4-5. His pride keeps him from calling himself old, in that many words ; He has to allude to his wife's age to let the reader in on his own advanced years.
Homer's Odyssey depicts the life of a middle-aged, while Tennyson's "Ulysses" describes Ulysses as an old man. The character's role in his son's life shifts. With maturity, Telemachus does not require as much guidance from his father. However, time does not alter the caring fellowship the man has with his crew, nor the willpower that he possesses in achieving his goals.