Ulysses (analysis)

by Tennyson

Ulysses is a dramatic monologue written by Tennyson when one of his friends died.

The use of the dramatic monologue permits an emotional distance between the poet and the speaking voice in order to better perceive reality.

The title refers to the main character of Odyssey: Ulysses is a mythological character who sails and explores new lands. Ulysses is a recurring character in literature. Indeed, Dante had already written about him in Divina Commedia: he is a young man and he is in the hell because he tried to explore more than religion permits.

Just from the title, the reader can understand the dramatis personae is Ulysses. In the poem he is an old man (“an idle king”) who succeeded in returning to Ithaca island.

When he returns, he realizes he despises both his people (“That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.”) and the unequal laws (“Unequal laws unto a savage race”). Ulysses’ society is like Victorian society: they both are based on economic wealth and on economic growth; it is underlined through the use of economic code (“profit”).

Then Ulysses realizes he can’t rest in a place together with people who don’t know him and he understands his desire is sailing to explore unknown lands. So he presents his son Telemachus like his successor (“To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle”) underlining the distance between them (“He works his work, I mine”).

Ulysses despises his society because they haven’t the same mentality. Indeed, Ulysses’ values are different from society’s ones: he desires knowledge.

Moreover, Tennyson uses a lot of perception verbs in order to make the reader reflect about reality.