Ulysses as a dramatic monologue Essay Example

sections, each of which comprises a distinct thematic unit of the poem. In the poem ‘Ulysses’, Ulysses is supposed to be speaking and expressing his thoughts and feelings to the silent listeners. He is standing before the royal palace of Ithaca and speaks before the mariners, who had been his fellow sojourners during his long journey to Troy. The monologue begins with his cynical remarks towards life. “It little profits that an idle king By this still hearth among these barren crags, That hoard and sleep and feed and know not me”.

Ulysses, the man of nimble wit, is not satisfied with his life among his subjects, who are unaware of hi heroic mould. His aged wife Penelope also cannot understand his heroic soul. But his intention is not clear until he says. “I cannot rest from travel, I will drink Life to the lees”. Here by the word ‘travel’ he means the journey which he made to rescue Helen from Paris and the perilous journey after the destruction of troy. But he refuses to take rest and in determination to take a life of adventure to the very end.

He compares life to a cup of wine. Just as a man drinks till he has reached the sediment at the bottom, Ulysses also will taste all aspects of life without leaving anything behind. Through these words, Ulysses’ insatiable passion for knowledge is expressed. He is the man who can never rest from pursuit of knowledge. Ulysses has become old but it is the knowledge and experience which he has gathered so long urges him on even in the old age to sail in

the quest of knowledge. He knows that the life spent in idleness is not life at all.

Sword loses its polish and gets rusty when it is kept out of use for a long time. So, vigor and energy will be blunted if we do not exercise them always. He is perfectly aware that knowledge is vast and unlimited and our life on earth is too short to learn everything. Even a number of lives taken together would be too short for gaining all knowledge. So far he is considered he has a single life to live. And of this single too a greater part has already been spent. Only a few years of life are left to him.

Hence he is determined to make the best of every moment of the remaining years of his life. To him an hour spent in some profitable work means an hour saved from the silence of the death. The monologue of Ulysses reached to the point of climax, when he inspires his sailors and makes appeal to them to enter upon a life of exploitation with great courage. He says, “Death closes all, but something era the end Some work of noble note, may yet be done”. Ulysses knows that he and his sailors being old are near death.

But, he has not given up hope and believes that old man also can earn great glory and achieve great deeds. So, he inspires his sailors to achieve some great deeds even in their old age before they die. The paths of knowledge may be full of dangers, but he is strongly determined. And finally

he makes a noble resolution to carry on his quest. He is not upset by the passing away of his youth and body strength. He knows that even old age cannot rob great men of their courage, bravery and other spiritual qualities. Therefore he asks his sailors to show the same courage that they had in youth.

He reminds them that every one of them is brave and strong willed, every one of them knows how to labor, how to struggle hard and how to pursue a great aim. Every one of them will teach out any bad situation and never bow his head before hardships or troubles. Thus in his monologue Tennyson portrays the character of Ulysses. His portrayal of the character Ulysses deserves huge appreciation for there is a consonantal moment of thought, pervading the character Ulysses from beginning to the end. Every word of Ulysses teaches readers that life is short and knowledge is unlimited.