Ulysses is a Tennyson’s work: it is a dramatic monologue in which the main character, Ulysses, presents his considerations and thoughts. Ulysses of Tennyson belongs to the Victorian poetry because the period in which the poem was composed was the Victorian Age (the nineteenth century). The features of the Victorian poetry are the development of Utilitarianism, Puritanism and Darwinism.

The mythological figure of Ulysses is used in literature a lot of times. In particular, we can find the Mythological figure in Homer’s  Ulysses, in Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia, in James Joyce’s Ulysses and in this work. Ulysses is described in different ways in these works: In Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia, Ulysses is a man interested in the knowledge of the world. So he travels a lot and his curiosity brings him to the transgression of an order: he tries to go beyond the Hercule columns. Instead, in Tennyson’s Ulysses, the character is presented as an old man that considers the island in which he lives such as a corrupted place, based on unequal laws. In particular, in this work, we can find Ulysse’s speech formulated after his arrive to the island of Ithaca, before his last marine voyage. In the first lines of the poem, Tennyson provides to present the main character: Ulysses. The character expresses his considerations through the dramatic monologue. In the first part Ulysses says that the place in which he lives is characterized by inequalities, so it is necessary to actuate a change to create a society based on equality. In the following part, Ulysses informs the reader that he is ready to start a voyage. He considers that life should be lived and so he is determinated to start a new experience. It follows a consideration about life. Ulysses says that life is characterized by pleasure and pain and he tries all the two aspects of life: he suffered in the past but he even enjoyed himself. So the reader can notice that Ulysses had a full life. Tennyson expresses these aspects through figure of speech: he uses the language of sense to convey a message. Ulysses underlines that the events of our life should be lived in two different ways: some actions should happen in the presence of other people, other should be done solitarily. At this point of the poem, the character provides to give a series of actions that indicate the beauty of life: during his life Ulysses saw and knew a lot of different things (people, landscapes, cities, costumes, climates). Besides he lived in first person the joy of the battle.  In the first part of Ulysses’s monologue, reflections about life come into surface. Besides Ulysses affirms that it results difficult to live a life without a purpose: it is necessary to have some aims in our life because they permit to have a real life, characterized by joys and sorrows. So the reader can understand the message of Tennyson: we should live intensely. In the central part of the poem, Ulysses presents a character, his son Telemachus. He has an important role in the poem: in fact he has to control and bring order to the island of Itacha after the father’s death. The successive part comprehends a description of the inhabitants of the island. They are a rude folk and the primary thing to do is to educate them. In the final part of the poem, Ulysses explains to the reader his vocation: he must voyage to know all the world. In this part, there is the semantic field of the sea: the words “port, sail, vessel, mariners” can be linked to the word “sea”. Tennyson introduces new characters: mariners. They have begin the voyage with Ulysses. So they are the helpers of the main character of the poem. In fact Ulysses invites mariners, people that pass a lot of their existence on ships, to start a voyage with him. They must row to permit the movement of the ship: their role is fundamental in the realization of the voyage. Ulysses hopes to explore the world even if he is aware that years are passed and it is more difficult to carry out his mission. In this sense, time and fate are the aspects that make more difficult the voyage, but the will of strive, the will of seek and the will of find, lead Ulysses and the mariners to continue their  voyage and their search.

Considering the connotative aspects, I find very interesting the use of a particular form of the language that in some cases are not entirely correct. In my opinion Tennyson creates these errors voluntarily, because he wants to attract reader’s attention. Besides Tennyson uses a specific language and he uses some figures of speech to produce an aulic language. Tennyson wants to put in evidence the historical distance between his period and the period in which Ulysses’s actions happened, through a specific and different language. In addition to this, I consider that, the dramatic monologue puts in evidence the character’s features rather than his actions.