In conclusion, despite the inspiration that Ulysses clearly exhibits, many readers find that the arrogance Ulysses displays towards his subjects, his wife and son damage the inspiration intended. His identity is discovered with each word, but along the way, readers see him in different lights. Some see him as a grand, noble man that refuses to give in to the stereotypes of old age and death, while others see him as arrogant and conceited. Tennyson focuses on the honor in perseverance, the virtue and courage it takes, but Homer’s Odysseus and Tennyson’s Ulysses want the honor that comes with conquering other lands and other people. “Ulysses” is a complex poem with two main interpretations. The first is that Ulysses is the great hero going out to one last great adventure, and the other is that he is simply an old man running away from his family and friends. Some even believe that Ulysses is on his death bed when speaking this monologue. Ulysses demonstrates this through his views on his son, Telemachus, saying that life at home is not for him, but for his son (ll. 30-33 & ll. 39-43). Again, the reader can see how Ulysses is devoted to experiencing the world, rather than taking care of his family. Tennyson’s version of Ulysses story is Victorian in the sense that Ulysses’ restlessness is like the restlessness of the Victorians in their brutal work ethic and interest in productivity. They did not believe in retirement or relaxation, and would work until they could no more, just like Ulysses not wanting to stay at home and enjoy a peaceful life after so much excitement. The character Ulysses is from a time when the world was flat, and so sailors never sailed past a certain point. The Ulysses of the romanticized poem is willing to take this risk to satisfy his curiosity, since it is nothing in comparison to fighting for twenty years to return home. Basically, Tennyson believes that after twenty years of adventure, domestic life would have become too boring, and Ulysses would have become restless. Ulysses prefers to die heroically than in peaceful dullness, following his human instincts to strive, than to sit still. With his flaws, Ulysses is made to seen as heroic and therefore, inspirational when he tells his audience: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”, placing a romantic image in the audiences’ head of Ulysses sailing away, and hopeful.

Most importantly, the poem is also about Tennyson’s own personal journey, because it was written a few weeks after the death of his best friend, Arthur Henry Hallam. The poem is an elegy for his deeply cherished friend, with Ulysses symbolizing as the grieving Tennyson. Ulysses proclaims his resolution to push onward and brave the struggle of life, in spite of the awareness that “death closes all” (line 51). It also reflects his mid-life crisis and his yearning for a stable world. The Victorian era was a time of constan

Some topics in this essay:
Tennyson Ulysses, Queen Victoria, Indeed Ulysses, Tennyson’s Ulysses, Mandelbaum Dante, Roman Ulysses, Dante’s Inferno, Basically Tennyson, Trojan War, Ithaca Tennyson, strive seek, “to strive, “to strive seek, strive seek yield”, seek yield”, hero homer’s odyssey, hero homer’s, homer’s odyssey, dante’s inferno, “dim sea”, meaning life, life fullest, gain experience,