Textual analysis of an extract that belongs to the Tennyson's Ulysses

In the present text I'm going to analyze an extract of the poem “Ulysses” by Tennyson. In order to carry out the task, I will focus my attention on the title, the structure, the content, the connotation, the overall effect and the ideal reader.

Right from the start, I will take into consideration the title. It refers to a mythological and historical character who is an hero of the ancient Greece. Generally the poets in their works tells the reader Ulysses' entire life start from his first voyage faraway from Ithaca, his island. Despite of them, Tennyson tells the reader about Ulysses when he came home,as an old man who experienced lots of different situations, in order to express his feelings returning at home. The hero presented by Tennyson is not the strong and young hero presented by the other poets but he is an old and wise man who is opening his soul to tell the reader how he feels after a long time spent faraway his island. In this way, Ulysses is presented as a dramatic and romantic character. In addition he is the speaking voice of the text, so that he can involve the reader in his deep thoughts and share with him his intimate reflections. The text could be divided in different parts. The reader can distinguish five part: the first in which Ulysses introduces himself, the second in which he tells the reader about his past life, the third in which he starts doing a reflections about what is life and how a person has to live it, the fourth in which he introduces his son and the last in which he concludes his reflection. The text is full of hidden meanings and metaphorical expression. One of these is the expression “I can rest from travel”. Historically, life has always been compared with a travel because of its features: during life everyone meets people, countries, situations, personalities, cultures, languages and so on. At the same time during a travel everyone can discover the unknown. So, saying this expression, Ulysses wants to tell the reader that he wants to know more and more, without stop it. He wants to live consciously a life full of meanings. This is interesting because he is old but, even if he is conscious of his age, he is sure there is more outside himself and he wants to find it and makes him wiser. This is what makes him a modern character. Going on the text the reader can notice other expression that remark the same concept. In the second part of the text, the speaking voice tells the reader about his experience and recognizes that he is a summary of the people, cultures, landscapes, he met. This is a postmodern concept by which a person is the summary of his past experiences and his future expectations. An other consideration the reader can do is that Ulysses is aware of the idea by that life is made by good and bad, paradise and hell, positive and negative, because he says that he lived greatly and at the same time he suffered greatly too. So he recognized suffering as a fundamental part of life, according to the Manichean thought. Ulysses comes out the text as a person who is guided in life by his passions and desires, who wants to live consciously and takes care of his past. By living a life in this way, he manages to become a name. Become a name means to give sense to your life and to be what you deeply desire. Now, lets focus your attention on the Ulysses' son introduction, Telemachus. Telemachus, young and wise man, comes out the text as Ulysses' opposite character. He has all the Victorian's qualities: he is sensible, he cares about profits and administration and, last but not least, he acts in order to subdue his citizens. The only thing he seems to share with his father is the respect and adoration for the Gods, as a perfect Greek character. Ulysses and his son are two very different characters. Ulysses is a romantic and dramatic one, Telemachus is a typical Victorian character devoted to the useful. That contradiction makes the reader reflect on two different approaches to life: the one of Ulysses and that of his son. Finally, the reader can say that Tennyson writes these verses to makes the reader reflect on the position he wants to take in his life, on what his desires are and on what he is and knows about himself, remembering that everyone is made up by his life experiences. So, the much everyone lives, the more he knows about himself. In conclusion, the ideal reader of the text is not a Victorian one. The possible ideal reader is someone who let passions be part of his life.