Use of Dramatic Monologue in Comparing Ulysses and Not My Best Side

Use of Dramatic Monologue in Comparing Ulysses and Not My Best Side

A dramatic monologue is a poem in which a single speaker who is not

the poet utters the entire poem at a critical moment. The speaker may

have a listener within the poem, but we too are his/her listener, and

we learn about the speaker's character from what the speaker says. In

fact, the speaker may unintentionally reveal certain aspects of

his/her character. The reader often perceives a gap between what that

speaker says and what he/she actually reveals, which is subject to

interpretation.

Ulysses, by Alfred Tennyson, is a dramatic representation of a man who

has lost his faith in the gods and in the necessity of preserving

order in his kingdom and his own life. The whole monologue takes place

on Ulysses' death bed. It is a kind of dream, a means of momentary

escape from the unwelcoming environment of Ithaca. It is merely the

expression of a hero indulging himself in the fantasy that his beloved

mariners are still alive. In this case, he can greet his dead sailors,

and thus he can look forward to exploring the last great mystery -

death.

The Victorian's tended to read this poem fairly straight-forward, as

an expression of unruffled confidence in the necessity of striving

ever onward, even to death. If we look at this monologue in

present-day terms, and realize that Tennyson wrote the poem in the

first few weeks of learning of his friend Arthur Henry Hallum's death,

we become conscious that it may represent Tennyson revealing his own

ideas and concerns about deat...

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...ings through three distinct monologues. It is light

hearted, even as the dragon criticizes the artist. The language is

easier for a modern-day reader to understand and may, therefore,

capture the reader's interest more strongly.

There is one strong similarity between the two poems, however. Just

like in Ulysses, Not My Best Side shows the idealism of the artist.

Fanthorpe has said of her poems, "What's important to me is people -

even landscapes are important because of what people have done to them

and so on. I'm particularly involved with people who have no voice:

the dead, the dispossessed, or the inarticulate in various ways." Just

as knowing that Tennyson was mourning at the time of writing Ulysses,

so does knowing Fanthorpe's idealism behind her works show us deeper

insight into the content of Not My Best Side.