Conformity and Rebellion

A detailed Summary of Conformity and Rebellion

The poem I chose to write about is "Ulysses", by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It is a poem based on Homer's Odyssey, which is the story of Odysseus (Ulysses) and his journeys. Odysseus was King of Ithaca and leader of the Greek army. The Greeks sailed into Troy to fight what turned out to be a lengthy battle. After ten years at war, Odysseus and the Greek army conquered Troy and set out on their voyage home. On their journey they encountered a series of adventures. I plan to discuss what the poem "Ulysses" is about, why it was written and what it means.

"Ulysses" is a speech Odysseus gives to his sailors, rebelling against his life and conformity, after he reclaimed the throne in Ithaca. According to Dante, Ulysses never returned to Ithaca because of his love for adventure. Tennyson combines Dante's ending with Homer's to show Ulysses' rebellious nature. In his speech Ulysses explains why he wants to leave Ithaca forever. He says that he has returned home and found his wife is old and his duties as King are only to make sure the laws are kept. He does no

The speech is ended by Ulysses telling his men "not to yield", but to rebel and never conform to society. This poem was Ulysses' rebellion against conformity. He was a man who traveled the seas and had new adventures every day. Ulysses feels that if he were to give that up, his life would have no point. He could not live a life that he felt was meaningless. Tennyson shows that Ulysses does not want his life to end this way when he states, "My purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset, and the baths of all the western stars, until I die"(284).

The poem "Ulysses" is very different from most poems in that it is the speech of one man, written by another. I feel this approach by Tennyson, was very successful in creating a powerful image of Ulysses' speech. The poem emphasized Ulysses rebellion against conformity. At the end of the poem, Ulysses placed his son in charge of Ithaca and set his sails west to an untold adventure.

t want to live a life of conformity, instead he wants to "drink/Life to the lees" (283). Lees are the sediments left at the bottom of wine when it is made.

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Approximate Word count = 737
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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