American International University Bangladesh

Submitted by:
Course name: Victorian Literature.
Section: A
Department: English

Submitted To:
Course Instructor: Shibaji Mridha (Assistant Professor)
Department: English

Date of submission: August 9, 2020

Comparison between the character of Ulysses and Tithonus with reference to

the poems “Ulysses” and “Tithonus”.
"Ulysses" and "Tithonus" this two poem are written by Lord Alfred Tennyson where he portrait
two famous mythological character. Both of the poem were written after the death of his best
friend Arthur Henry Hallam. The messages of these two poems are complete opposites. But the
poet talks about one major common thing in this two poem and that is the idea of death, which is
patriated through the protagonist Ulysses and Tithonus in a different way by showing their
different perception about death. The protagonist of Ulysses is a optimistic person, who loved to
explore throughout his whole life. On the other hand the protagonist from Tithonus is a frustrated
person who has been locked in the cage of life and obsessed with death. Although this two
characters has been taken from Greek mythology but their perception about life is contradictory.
In this essay the contradictory perception of Ulysses and Tithonus will be compared with
reference to the poems "Ulysses" and "Tithonus".

Both of the character Ulysses and Tithonus are opposite to each other. Tennyson portrait the
character of Ulysses as a spiritual or aesthetic character but he highlighted Tithonus as a
materialistic character. Ulysses was the king of Ithaca, who loved to explore knowledge.
Throughout the whole poem Tennyson shows how Ulysses was obsessed to experience new
things every time. Ulysses always searched for inner peace and he got peace by experiencing
new things. His peace was not to staying at home with family and to do only the king's duty. He
has Aim to experience new challenges till death. As a character Ulysses is full of life. On the
other hand Tithonus is lifeless. He never thought about inner peace which a human needs the
most and he only cares for power, which made him happy. His only motto was to be immortal.
So he asked his beloved Aurora to give him immortality but after experiencing immortality for a
long time he lost the test of his life. But for a certain time he enjoyed immortality as he thought
that immortality can make him powerful as Gods and he will remain youthful as Aurora, the
Goddess of dawn. Tithonus realized his fault when he was aging with immortality and Aurora
has her eternal youth. He never experience new things without immortality and his sufferings.
His peace was connected with immortality which later on pushed him in a painful life where he
got stuck for lifetime without aims and dreams.

By reading the whole poem "Ulysses" readers can observed that Ulysses is a character who was
restless. Poet portrait Ulysses as an energetic character who never got tired of experiencing new
things or difficulties of life. Poet shows Ulysses as resolute and heroic, who was a warrior. He
highlighted the characteristics of Victorian heroes through Ulysses. As a great warrior Ulysses
fight for ten years in Trojans war and he used to live life like this. So, when he get back to his
kingdom after ten years, he was sad rather than being happy and started reminiscing past days
which gave him peace. The long Trojan War could not make him tired neither it made him stop
to experience more. According to him, it is dull to pause. For him pause is the ultimate death. He
hate to stop following dream and he expressed it with the word dull. On the other hand poet
shows Tithonus as a hopeless person who lost taste of life and lives in the ever silent place.
Tithonus character could be compared with a suffering bird who got stuck in a cage. He have no
way left to experience the test of life like Ulysses. Ulysses was active but Tithonus decays, will-
less, a gray shadow, once a man. Tithonus life was became paused when he got immortality as a
gift, this immortality with which he continued aging and the gift became a curse of his life which
stopped him to experience new things or to experience the life like a human.

Adventure is another theme which pointed out the difference between the two character Ulysses
and Tithonus. Ulysses was an adventurous king who has thirst for knowledge and desire to
explore. The Trojan War made him thirst to seek more knowledge rather than made him tired. He
became accustomed with that life where he fought for ten years as a great warrior and learned
new things every day. He took the Trojan War as an adventure which encouraged him to
experience more new things till death. Ulysses was a king but he gave the responsibility of the
kingdom to the right hand as he believed his son Telemachus was a better ruler than him and
then he again went out to gather knowledge as he thought he have short time but there are more
to experience. He wanted to experience new things till he meets the eternal silence. On the other
hand Tithonus was cautious who had no dream in his life after being immortal. Immortality made
his life pause and closed the door of adventure forever. He got stuck from where he could not
explore new things. This situation of Tithonus suggest that, people should exist within their
boundaries.

Tennyson highlighted the idea of death in both poems. But it carried different message and
shows different perception of the two protagonist Ulysses and Tithonus about life and death.
Death was more accepting in "Tithonus" than "Ulysses”. Because Ulysses has desire to explore
more and accept death as a fate or goal of ordinance but Tithonus was obsessed with death to end
his sufferings. According to Ulysses death is a part of nature and another door of adventure. An
adventure of eternal silence. Ulysses wants to explore more before he become the part of eternal
silence. Tithonus longs for death where Ulysses craves life piled on life but he will happily
accept death once his thirst for knowledge will quenched. On the other hand, according to
Tithonus human suffers when they pass the Goal of Ordinance. Because it is a human law and
life became more painful outside the circle or boundary of human rules or the universal laws.
The poem "Tithonus" is about death but it did not glorified death. Tithonus perception about
death was, it should be accept as a gift which ends human sufferings. Life is not a bed of roses.
But if it considered as a bed of roses than there is also thorns. So, Life is a circle of happiness,
sadness, good times and hard times. And the happiness faded away when people tried to step out
from the boundary. Tithonus was a normal human but he wanted to be immortal which is out of
human law and because of immortality he suffers lifetime and could not reach the threshold of
death. He suffers because immortality could not make him God.

In conclusion it can be said that, Though Ulysses and Tithonus both were mythological character
but they had contradictory perception about life and death as they were going through different
situations. The poem "Ulysses" stands for positivity where Ulysses stands for bravery, who was a
great fighter but was restless and want to experience more new things in his whole life. He was
ambitious. But Tithonus life became pause after a certain time of his immortal life. He was
desperate to die to ends his sufferings. Ulysses had an adventurous mind with hungry heart
where Tithonus experienced the life and his sufferings beyond the thoughts or out of human
reach and want to quit life to get freedom.

Reference:

-https://ardhendude.blogspot.com/2012/10/lord-tennysons-tithonus-contrast.html?m=1

- https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/tennyson/section4/