Reflections on the experience of Odysseus as related to Jean Houston’s The Hero and the Goddess: The Odyssey as Mystery and Initiation and Alicia LeVan’s Calypso and Circe On the lush, luxuriant island of Ogygia, Odysseus spends seven years of his ten year journey home with the beautiful seductive nymph Calypso, who virtually possesses him and compels him to live a sensual but vegetative existence. For ten years, surrounded by men, he lived out the male heroic ideal of warrior, then spent several years further testing himself against otherworldly obstacles. In the process, he lost all of his companions, and has nothing left but the little that remains of himself.
Here on Calypso’s isle, he lives in paradise:
“Thick, luxuriant woods grew round the cave,
alders, and black poplars, pungent cypress too,
and there, birds roosted, folding their long wings,
owls and hawks and the spread beaked ravens of the sea,
black skimmers who make their living off the waves.
And round the mouth of the cavern trailed a vine
laden with clusters, bursting with ripe grapes.
Four springs in a row, bubling clear and cold,
running side-by-side, took channels left and right.
Soft meadows spreading round were starred with violets,
lush with beds of parsley. Why, even a deathless god
who came upon that place would gaze in wonder,
heart entranced with pleasure.
Homer, The Odyssey, V:71-82, Fagles translation
Odysseus is now embraced by Mother Earth, in all her verdant fertility, and also living deep within caverns that are only reminiscent of the womb. For seven years, Calypso protects him from Poseidon’s wrath. As the devoted and devouring mother, AND the seductive and engulfing mistress/lover, she is both what men most desire, and most fear.
Alicia LeVan wrote:
Perhaps the ‘necessity’ he has for unity with the feminine, coupled with his yearning for home, (an embodiment of the feminine principle representing relationship, community, cooperation, and non-aggression) represents a need for integration of the feminine principle within his psyche after years of functioning in war, with the constant testosterone of destroying, killing, raping and surviving in the most inhumane, strife torn, blood drenched, barren plains of Troy. After ten years of functioning as a killer and destroyer,he must heal his numbness and desensitivity by connecting with his feelings.
Conflicting Value Systems in Everyman, Dr Faustus and Hamlet
Conflicting Value Systems in Everyman, Dr Faustus and Hamlet
Conflicting value systems are always around, especially where death is involved. So in the tragedies of Everyman, Doctor Faustus and Hamlet there are many conflicts to face. These include personal moral conflicts with individual characters of the plays and also opposing values between the different characters in the play. Conflicting value systems may even stretch to how the audience interprets the play and the beliefs and culture at the time.
In Everyman, we can see that the character ‘Everyman’ faces a moral dilemma as God summons Everyman by offering Death to take him as his own. This creates to conflicting value systems. One is whether Everyman should go with Death.
O wretched caitiff, whither shall I flee
that I might escape this endless sorrow? (l.171-2)
Here Everyman is questioning whether or not he should go with Death. He is finding it very difficult to come to a decision in his mind. The play, Everyman is about whether he will make the right decisions.
The other question is with Everymans’ friends. Should they go with Everyman?
That is matter indeed. Promise is duty;
But and I should take such a voyage on me,
I know it well, it should be to my pain;
Also it maketh me afeared certain. (l.248-9)
Here Fellowship declines from taking part in Everymans’ journey, though he feels ashamed and weak to do so. Kindred, Goods, Knowledge, Confession, Beauty, Strength, Discretion and Five-wits also decline to go with Everyman, after facing a personal moral conflict.
The whole of Everyman consists of dramatic conflict and abstract argument as Everyman struggles for his soul. This is called Psycho Machia. This means that b…
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…ow what to do for the best, this is when society often causes conflict by taking different sides of the argument.
The tragedy , however, does not mean that evil always wins out. Sometimes good does win over evil.
Bibliography
Anonymous Everyman in ed. Worthen, WB (1996) The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama, 2nd edn, Texas: Harcourt Brace
Gillie, C (1977) Longman Companion to English Literature, London: Longman
Jump, J (1962) Introduction to Marlowe, Christopher Doctor Faustus, Kent: Methuen
Marlowe, Christopher Doctor Faustus in ed. Worthen, WB (1996) The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama, 2nd edn, Texas: Harcourt Brace
Shakespeare, William Hamlet in ed. Worthen, WB (1996) The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama, 2nd edn, Texas: Harcourt Brace
Wynne-Davis, Marion (1989) The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature, London: Bloomsbury