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Ulysses Vs Lady Of Shalott Essay

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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

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