Parvin 1

Shahanaz Parvin (Keya)

ID- 2015931011

Lecturer Sahira Islam Trisha

Victorian Literature (ENG 3003)

06 March 2022

Tennyson's Ulysses and Marlowe's Faustus, two famous characters are an illustration

of the characteristics of the ages they belong from. These two characters portray the beliefs,

the way of thinking and other attributes of a common man- Faustus as the Renaissance man

and Ulysses as the Victorian man- with the desire, will and mindset for the extraordinary. The

characters are enriched with the passion of knowledge, adventure, power and individuality.

Though the characters have a lot in common there are some differences too. But they both

possess the spirit of their ages and have earned popularity in English Literature. A

comparative analysis between the characters will provide with rich idea about the two spirits

of two different centuries.

First of all, Ulysses and Faustus, respectively, contains the Victorian and Renaissance

spirit of wanting to know more and overcoming the limitations as human beings. Ulysses

wants to “seek” knowledge and “find” the new “untravell'd world”. He reminisces his old

days of adventures and glory full of knowledge and is willing to face death in search of

unending knowledge. Even if he has grown old and “weak by time and fate” he aims to “sail

beyond the sunset”. This spirit of voyage and adventures was seen in the Victorian culture.

Faustus, too, desires knowledge beyond his limitations. His “scholarism” and “doctor’s

name” wasn’t enough for him. He wants higher knowledge that would fit his “wit”. He, for
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his desires of “power”, “profit” and “delight” is willing to suffer the eternal damnation. This

spirit and courage to face the dangers to achieve new things was seen in the European

Renaissance. So, Both Ulysses and Faustus show the curious nature of human kind to know

the unknown and to explore the unexplored things and possess the ambition to go beyond the

obstacles of their age.

A conflict is present in the characteristics of Ulysses and Faustus; in the case of

Ulysses, it is the conflict between will and death, whereas it the conflict between good and

evil in the case of Faustus. Ulysses, from the beginning seems uncertain about his will and

the result that his will might bring which is death. He is not sure of the spiritual reality

beyond death, an “untravell’d world”. But as the poem advances, he accepts to believe in the

spiritual reality and gets ready to set out for his last journey. On the other hand, Faustus

suffers from the inner conflict of good and bad. He, in one moment, considers to “repent” as

the good angel suggests him to do so, and the very next moment he is convinced by the bad

angel not to repent.

Ulysses and Faustus have different ideas of death and it effects their choices

differently. Ulysses believes in mortality; he accepts that death “closes all”. But he also

believes he can conquer death or at least can do “noble” deeds before death comes.

Moreover, his belief in spiritual reality makes him hope to meet “Achilies” after death. He

isn’t afraid of death but “to pause”. As critic Charles Mitchell stated, “one needs to

emphasize that Ulysses’s goal is not death, but is in death: that is, Ulysses seeks not death,

but life in death.” However, Faustus’s idea about death contradicts the Christian values as he

believes that there is no salvation rather than eternal damnation for everyone. Such belief

inspires him towards making the pact and blasphemous “necromancy” and he vows not to

believe or surrender to God. This belief of him and his actions leads him to hell.
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Ulysses and Faustus can be interpreted from the perspective of colonialism. Ulysses

seeks adventures, knowledge, not wealth or power. His goal is to discover, to know, to see

but not to conquer or rule. He finds ruling people “dull”, “idle”. He doesn’t even rule his own

people nether he wants to “hoard” himself with wealth. On the other hand, Faustus shows

colonial mindset and is more interested in accumulating “power” and wealth. His mention of

stealing “gold” from India, chasing “Prince of Parma” off his land and building “wall”

around Germany indicates his colonial attitude.

Ulysses and Faustus show some selfish attitudes in their quest to knowledge and

discoveries. Ulysses, first of all, leaves his land and responsibilities as a king claiming that he

finds his life in homeland as “barren crags”. He leads a group of people to a voyage from

where they may never return. Despite of knowing the risk of his people’s lives he convinces

them to “sail” with him just to fulfil his own desires. This can be pointed out as jovial

agnosticism. Similarly, Faustus, after getting power for 24 years from Mephostophilis he

starts to torment people just for fun. Instead of gaining knowledge, which was his main

purpose, he makes fun of the pope, tries to steal gold from an old passenger.

Ulysses is Byronic hero, whereas Faustus is a Renaissance hero. Ulysses is an “idle”

king with a glorious past. He is “honour'd” and consider himself equal to gods as he has

fought beside the demigod, Achilies in the Trojan war. He is rebellious as well as lover of

voyages who has deep affection for knowledge and adventure. He also expresses some extent

of hatred towards his “savage” people and their “common duties”. This rebellious,

melancholy, proud, cynical characteristics makes him a Byronic hero after all. On the other

hand, it is no doubt that Faustus is a Renaissance hero as he questions the limitations of

human kind and thrives for extraordinary things. He craves for enlightenment, knowledge,

power and is willing to pay the highest price to reach beyond the limitations imposed on

human beings.
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In conclusion, Ulysses and Faustus, reflects the characteristics of the ages they belong

to. Being written in two different centuries, they have a lot in common and also has some

signifying differences. Both of them, possess the spirits of two different developing age, the

hunger for unknown and unreached things. Both, in pursuing their goals are willing to pay the

highest price which shows the ambition of these characters. Again, they have different beliefs

and views of things which leads them to differing actions. And, both Ulysses and Faustus, has

their rising and fall of a hero, and both of them has earned the sympathy of the readers.

19151036(Batch-004)

Samiul Huda

Suppose you are a Secondary level English language teacher. You want to teach

paragraph writing to your students. Now design a task for teaching them “writing paragraph”.

Mention the name of the tasks(e.g. problem solving task, decision making task, etc.)and write

in detail on how the task will be accomplished.

With a view to instructing students how to compose a good paragraph a lots of task

can be put to pick up the target. A task based approach is suit to this purpose as students will

be face with approximations and stimulations of the kinds of the tasks they are supposed to

accomplish outside the classroom and thus learn about the quality and progressive role of

language through interactive tasks. The tasks which would be given is a work of

collaboration and reality based that means students will work combinedly so that they can

acquire the aim and their carrying out tasks will mirror the real world activities.
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Students can be given a topic for instance” Winter Morning” on which they will write

a paragraph. Then they will be directed to get on with task of listing, ordering, and sorting. It

particularly clarifies that students have to list the points that are compulsory being present

such as topic sentence, relevant details, closing sentence. As per the importance they will

mark out the listed points orderly referring that necessary points will be placed beforehand.

Then they can assert the social task called pedagogical task for the decision making

and exchanging of opinions. The students will be asked for exchanging ideas which may

include the real material and content for instance a student can share his ideas of knowledge

regarding the blossom of different flowers and otherwise a student will include the winter

festival during the period. By using exchanging of ideas as well as decision making they will

reach to define perfect content and points of the paragraph which will enable to take out best

possible outcome of well organized and well composed paragraph. Being a collaborative task

they will check out jointly their assigned content, their points which are in sorting, listing,

and ordering, and their topic sentence, relevant details and conclusion of the paragraph.

At last depending on the above discussion it can be concluded that through the

different tasks procession they will be able to write a good paragraph. As a feasible way of

learning about language a task based approach It’s directions do not cut the language into

mere pieces but receive not only functional but also comprehensive tasks which the

fundamental unit for learning activity.