Troy PDF

Understanding the
world and key ideas of the text
Whilst viewing the film Troy take notes and respond to the
following questions and activities to deepen your
understanding of Ransom
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Learning Intention
There are only a few scenes in Troy that are directly referenced in Ransom. These have been identified through the
activities below.
A close viewing of the film however will allow you to deepen your understanding of the characters in both The Women of
Troy and Ransom, make connections between the texts and strengthen your understanding of the context and
background.
Success Criteria
Write sustained responses that demonstrate an understanding of
o Key themes and ideas including leadership, identity, legacy, grief, sacrifice
o Reference specific moments in the text using quotes and structural devices from Ransom
o How both texts are centred on responses to grief
o How the central protagonists in Ransom can be compared and contrasted with those in The Queen
Achilles
Pay attention to these moments in the film and use the following key passages in Ransom to
complete each of the writing tasks below.
**Extend your responses through making wider connections to other parts of the texts.
Opening Achilles & his mother Achilles slaying Achilles desecrating Hector’s love & grief for
Achilles vs Boagrius (Goddess Thetis) Hector Hector’s body Patroclus
How do the film & novel establish Achilles as the archetypal Greek warrior & hero who is
considered the ‘most formidable of them’ all p15?
Read p.35 Ransom from ‘Swiftness of foot is his special distinction…….under the wind’ and p.6 ‘He
had entered the rough world of men, where a man’s acts follow him wherever he goes in the form of
a story’.
Compare these descriptions with the opening scene of the film in which Achilles kills Boagrius (this is
not mentioned in Ransom btw) and write a short response to the prompt above using evidence from
the texts.
Contrast the characterisation of Achilles as a heroic warrior with his more sensitive nature
explored in the passages below. How is Achilles’ duality explored in the texts?
Compare Achilles the warrior with Achilles’ grief for Patroclus for whom he ‘Wept without restraint.
Sitting cross legged on the ground, rocking back and forth in anguish, pouring fistfuls of dust over his
head’p.20 and longing for his mother on pp.3-5 ‘The voice this man is listening for is the voice of his
mother…she was his secret…a dual self that had allowed him’
(Note in the film his mother appears before he sets of for Troy whereas in Ransom he is waiting for her by the sea at the
start of the novel. He is seeking her out to help him assuage his grief)
Achilles’ rage, grief and lust for revenge are portrayed with graphic imagery in both texts. What is
motivating this behaviour and how are his men and the Trojans responding to it? Focus on the
Myrmidons and Priam in your response.
Read Achilles’ recollection of his slaying of Hector pp22-23 ‘And Hector’s death when it
came….where Hector’s own breath gave out and what replaced it was the voice of a god’
Read how Achilles desecrates Hector’s body pp.26-7 as he ‘drives up and down underneath the walls
of Troy.. as they watch from every vantage point’
Read Hecuba’s characterisation of Achilles as ‘a jackal & noble bully’ p57 & ‘ a wolf & violator of
every law of gods and men’p.58
What sacrifices has Achilles made? Think about the family he has been separated from, his home,
what he would like to be rather than a soldier, as a leader of the Greek army at Troy, knowing his
fate. This will require a range of textual evidence and references across the text.
Priam
Priam watches Hector’s death from Achilles torments Hector for eleven days Priam comes to the Greek army
the walls of Troy dragging his body around the walls of camp to ransom himself to retrieve
Troy Hector’s body for burial
Priam is the protagonist of Ransom, most of the novel focuses on his spiritual, emotional and
physical journey to retrieve Hector’s body from Achilles. In the Illiad and the film Troy this is a
relatively minor moment in the text.
Ransom is David Malouf’s fictional imagining of what motivated Priam to ransom himself and how
that journey and his exchange with his enemy Achilles changed him. There are many parallels and
contrasts between his response to the death of Hector with Elizabeth’s response to Diana’s death.
(Note Somax is a figment of Malouf’s imagination)
Compare Priam’s reaction to watching Achilles desecrate Hector’s body in the film and the novel on
pp.44-5 ‘after eleven days of watching…half mad with grief he rushed down to the gates.. sunk down
in the dirt’ with Achilles response to Patroclus’ death (see above). How is Priam expected to
respond as a King?
Why is Priam’s decision to ransom himself not supported by his family? Read pp.81-88
Read pp172-201 from ’A figure..has begun to take shape’ to the end of this act. How and why is this
scene both in the text and film treated as having a dreamlike quality? What is the significance of
this climactic moment in both texts? What is it about Priam’s presence and words that moves
Achilles? What do they have in common and what does this agreement between them allow each
man to do?
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Understanding the

world and key ideas of the text

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