The Victorian era was a time of contradiction. While England lamented its traditional values, it also saw the potential for a better quality of life through industrialization. Tennyson presents this paradox, between traditional acceptance of life and a progressive need for enhancement, in his poems "Ulysses" and "The Lady of Shalott". Both of these poems express a want for self-revolution while each protagonist has duties and societal expectations that are holding them back. Tennyson uses experience, gender, and identity in "Ulysses" and "The Lady of Shalott" to explore the idea of personal revolution. Ulysses' wish for change is greatly fueled by his past experiences. Ulysses states "I am a part of all that I have met" (18), showing the reader he feels a strong connection to experiences of the …show more content…
Ulysses feels his job as a king is not very rewarding. He talks about being an "idle king" in the very first line of the ballad, so the reader knows immediately how mundane life as a king is for Ulysses. He continues to say, "I mete and dole / Unequal laws to a savage race" (3-4), this line expresses how hopeless Ulysses feels when it comes to his duties as king. Ruling over his kingdom is not important to Ulysses because he feels like being a good ruler is impossible. Opposed to how Ulysses speaks of his life as a king, he sees his life as a traveler as what made him who he truly is saying, "I am become a name / For always roaming with a hungry heart" (11-12). Here Ulysses is relating his most basic identifier, his name, with roaming the world. Ulysses desires to "sail beyond the sunset, and the baths / Of all the western stars, until [he dies]" (34-35), this lets the reader know that Ulysses' wish is to see the world. Self-transformation is important to Ulysses so that his life will match how he identifies himself as an
After 9 days of sailing, him and his men are close to arriving home. But is betrayed by two of his men who open his bag and the ship is blown back to where they started. Instead of giving up he tries to find a way back to Ithaca as quickly as possible. He asks Aeolus to help him again by giving him gift of the west wind again but is rejected. Instead of giving up Ulysses starts ordering his men and tries to sail back to Ithaca. "...He stood on deck, barking orders, making them mend sail, patch hull, rig new spars, and keep rowing. He took the helm himself and swung the tiller, pointing the bow westward toward home, which, once again, lay at the other end of the sea." (40) This shows that Ulysses does not waste time and strives to get back to
This transfer of the power of voice to Penelope’s perspective plays out similarly in Waddington’s diction choices as pitched against those of Tennyson. While “Ulysses” refers in detail to its hero’s “drunk delight” and “roaming with a hungry heart,” the same marvels are offered less glory or attention in the words of Waddington (Tennyson 16, 12). These events are mentioned, but in passing, not in Ulysses’ terms of conquest and action. While Ulysses takes the place of a passive character and only performs deeds in coming home and “climbing the stairs,” Penelope fills the seat of active rescuer and change-maker as she weaves his story (Waddington 25). Thus it is within Waddington’s diction choices for the actions of Penelope, not Ulysses, that her stanzas best reflect the gallant rhetoric akin to Tennyson’s work. From when “her stitches / embroidered the / painful colors / of her breath,” to her creation of Ulysses as “a medallion / emblazoned in / tapestry,” Penelope’s labors in the retelling of her husband constitute the most dynamic language in the work (Waddington 37-40, 30-32). Here, the facade of incapable “blind hands” falls away to reveal Penelope’s potency to create a new myth (Waddington 33).
Ulysses is a poem based on the life of the Greek hero Odysseus, Ulysses being the Roman name. Odysseus was believed to have lived over 2,500 years ago in 700BC. His life is believed to be legendary, it being stated that he travelled the world, as well as conquered kingdoms during his time serving in the Trojan War. After years of adventure and exploration, Odysseus settles down as the King of Ithaca. Despite this being the dream life of many people, Odysseus wasn’t pleased.
Lady Macbeth is a deep and complicated character. She has many inner demons that she never comes to terms with, which inevitably lead to her suicide. She is seen as an evil, conniving woman but she goes so much deeper than that. She has high hopes for herself and uses her husband and his love for her to obtain them. All of the things she wished eventually lead to tragedy though.
In the play Macbeth, ambition, strength, and insanity play major roles in how the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth behave and react. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth present all 3 of these behaviors at one time or another during the play. However, there behaviors progress in very different ways. While Macbeth gets stronger and more ambitious, Lady Macbeth does the opposite. She starts out strong and ambitious, but becomes weaker and more reserved.
The themes of loneliness, exile and escape from reality are important aspects that characterize the works of Alfred Lord Tennyson. During the 1800s, these aspects differentiated him from other Victorian poets, distinguishing him as one of the most popular poets of the Victorian era. In Tennyson's poems Mariana, and The Lady of Shalott, the artists express loneliness in their isolation from the rest of the world. The following essay will compare and contrast the displays of temporary and permanent loneliness of these artists through Tennyson's use of imagery, repetition, and word painting.
While Browning emphasizes on rhyme, Tennyson focuses on the thoughts of the old and retired pirate, Ulysses. He uses words more to convey the message than to follow grammatical rules. He also uses simple words to describe the profound contrast of his retirement to his kingdom, distanced from the adventurous life he once lived. Thus, the structure uses a mixture of flashback and foreshadowing – Ulysses life during the Trojan War, and his son’s life after his (Ulysses’) demise.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson was a favorite poet of generations. Made Poet Laureate of Great Britain by Queen Victoria, he dominated the literary scene during his time. He also came--for better and for worse--to represent that generation 's taste, both during his life and after it. Tennyson 's rich __Victorian language__ can seem daunting to modern readers. In reading ‘’Maud’’, it 's a good idea to just embrace the exaggerated concepts. Experimental in style, laden with intense symbolism, and full of __social criticism__, ‘’Maud’’ was not a popular poem at first, despite its author 's status. Tennyson himself was proud of the work, and retaliated against criticism by reading it aloud whenever he could. Reportedly, this won over many critics due to the beauty of the poem 's language.
Indeed there are multiple events that one could argue as the Call to Adventure. One is when Ulysses remembered everything about his journey prior to when Nausicaa found him lying on the sands by the ocean. He reminisce about his trip from when he and his men tricked the one-eyed giant -- son of Neptune -- by making the giant drunk and blinded him, and why Ulysses was tied on his boat and why all his men couldn’t hear anything when the Sirens were singing on the wandering rocks, then his journey to the witch, Circe, that looked like Ulysses’ wife, Penelope, along with how all his men died. I think this is the Call to Adventure because he got informations of what his mission is and what happened to him before.
Lady Macbeth is the most interesting and complex character in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth. She is, in fact, the point on which the action pivots: without her there is no play.
When we look at Tennyson as content with his seclusion, we see also see a man who also desired his poetry to be heard. . Perhaps it was the voice of disapproval foe materialism to be heard from by the public, torn by the materialism brought with fame. He had been said to have a desire to be famous, and was called "the most instinctive rebel against the society in which he was the most perfect conformist" (p.1911). The need for fame could be the temptation for materialism, or perhaps the recluse giving into materialism gave leverage for his poems to be heard. The conflict can be thought of as Tennyson's curse, causing opposing feelings. The curse is reflected in "The lady of Shallot." At first, the lady is content in seclusion. She becomes mesmerizes by materialism of glittering gold of the Red Crosse Knight. His
According to the classical view, tragedy should arouse feelings of pity and fear in the audience. Does Macbeth do this?
5. She decides to enter a nunery and live alone if she cannot marry Lysander.
When Ulysses and his men go on the journey, one of the islands they go on is the land of
In this essay I am going to answer the question above and I will do this by saying whether or not I feel sympathy for lady Macbeth and I go through different parts in the play. After reading parts of the play and watching the video I don’t’ feel very much sympathy for lady Macbeth, although I do feel some sympathy for her in some parts in the play. Over all I think that lady Macbeth is a fiend as she says stuff that’s not very nice to make Macbeth do the things that she is too scared to do herself. I also think that she is a caring person really but she needed to be made evil by witchcraft, as she would not be able to do what she does through out the play in her normal person.