ENGL200B Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Victorian Era, Old Age, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Document Summary
The story of ulysses involves him travelling, specifically the feat of surviving and travelling home after the war of troy. This is not a ulysses heroically leaving for war, but a ulysses coming home and suffering from. His kingdom has survived without him for a decade. He outlives himself, and is now restless you and i are old; / old age hath yet his honour and his toil (49-50) A sense in the victorian age at this time that it (the war) is all over. The aim of the poem is to remember and understand the war and contain it in nostalgia. He does not want to seem to reform to the laws of ithaca. Ulysses is a murdering, terrifying, blood-soaked guy he"s a criminal. He should not stay home; ithaca would be better off without him. One of the most brilliant anti-war poems you can read.
