After the years of suffering and trials he has gone through, Odysseus is reflecting on his own triumphs and failures and on the generally imperfect life that he, or any man, inevitably leads. In some sense, Odysseus blames himself for the length of time it has taken him—ten years—to return to Ithaca. This also needs to be seen in the context of not having wanted to leave Penelope and his infant son, Telemachus, in the first place to go to war. He spent years living with another woman, namely, the goddess Calypso, and he became the lover of the sorceress Circe all while still being in love with Penelope and wanting to return to her and his son. He must also feel that some of his decisions during the return journey backfired, such as the blinding of the cyclops Polyphemus and, as a result, making an enemy of the cyclops's father, Poseidon.
After twenty years of both the war and the return journey, Odysseus has experienced literally everything that the gods and general misfortune could inflict upon him. He has learned more about himself, the world of men and women, and the gods than even the other participants in the war, both the Greeks and Trojans, have been able to learn. These experiences have developed his inner psyche to the point that the statement about being a man reflects the turmoil, contradictions, and imperfections of the human condition in the intensified form in which he has seen them.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
How does Odysseus's quote, “I am a man no more no less,” show how he has developed over the course of the hero’s journey?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
Lionel Wallace is the subject of most of "The Door in the Wall" by H.G. Wells. The narrator, Redmond, tells about Wallace's li...
-
Resourceful: Phileas Fogg doesn't let unexpected obstacles deter him. For example, when the railroad tracks all of a sudden end in India...
-
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
Friar Lawrence plays a significant role in Romeo and Juliet's fate and is responsible not only for secretly marrying the two lovers but ...
-
Back in Belmont, the place of love contrasted with the sordid business arena of Venice, Lorenzo and Jessica make three mythological referenc...
-
The poem contrasts the nighttime, imaginative world of a child with his daytime, prosaic world. In the first stanza, the child, on going to ...
-
I would like to start by making it clear that this story is told from the third person omniscient point of view. At no point is the story to...
No comments:
Post a Comment