Discuss how Tennyson has presented the Victorian age/spirit in Ulysses.

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

Or,

Discuss Tennyson as a representative poet with reference to his poem Ulysses.

Alfred Tennyson is often called the most representative poet of Victorian England. Perhaps this is one of the main factors that worked behind his enormous popularity during his life time. Even in Ulysses the main characteristics of Victorian period are clearly visible. Ulysses (published in 1842) was written to console himself after the death of his best friend Arthur Hallam. It is pertinent to mention here that the character of Ulysses has been taken from ancient Greek Mythology. The name Ulysses is the sign of mobility, of refusing limits. Tennyson’s own grief and his resolution not to yield to it find their mythic translation in Ulysses.

At the outset the main characteristics of Victorian Period (1832 – 1901) should be determined. In politics poor people particularly the working class was pressing for more and more democratic rights. So, there was eventual conflict between the working class and their rich employers. Even in religion, after the publication of Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, scientists were questioning about the exactness of the Bible and what the Christians believed. The Victorians were famous for their passion for morality. They did not like extreme feeling. So, in short, they were very conservative.

In this connection it may well be mentioned that Tennyson’s poetry, keeping pace with the Victorian age, dealt often with the doubts and difficulties of the age in which the old religious sanctions and the traditional assumption about man’s nature and destiny were increasingly called into questions; it dealt with them, moreover, as the intimate personal problems of a sensitive and troubled individual inclined to melancholy.

This is a preview of the whole essay

The conflict in the age created restlessness in the society. This very feeling is presented throughout the poem through Ulysses whom the poet has presented/used as his mouthpiece. Ulysses is always in a state of restlessness. The conflict of being a king and an adventurer simultaneously is an important thing here. Ulysses prefers passing his days in action, excitement, adventure, not in quiet, peaceful and unexciting manner as a king.

Victorian age was the age of new and newer invention and discovery. The conflict between religion and science had greatly persuaded the people to seek new knowledge. The desires to see the unseen, to know the unknown, the unquenchable thirst for knowledge were very prominent features of the Victorian age. Ulysses has presented us the active spirit of adventure, thirsting for knowledge and experience. Tennyson’s Ulysses is, in fact, an embodiment of passion for knowledge for the exploration of its limitless fields, for the annexation of new kingdoms of science and thoughts. In that sense, Ulysses is a typical Victorian whose aim is –

“To follow knowledge like a sinking star

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.”

He is never satisfied and wants to acquire more and more knowledge and experience through adventure and voyage of exploration. He is a man who wants to drink life to the lees or enjoy it till the last moment. To Ulysses it is very dull to pause, to make an end, and to rust un-burnished because he has a hungry heart. As to his purpose he announces –

“For my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset and the baths

Of all the western stars until I die.”

We find the boldness of his will in the following lines –

“…but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.”

In English literature, dramatic monologue became very popular through the efforts of Browning and Tennyson. Ulysses itself is a vivid example of dramatic monologue. Here he is delivering a speech to his mariners standing on the shore. He urged them to advance more and more in life despite all setbacks.

The Victorian period is the time of transition from the pre-modern to modern age. In politics, science or social attitude everywhere a mode of change is taking place. Tennyson has presented his own age through Ulysses and his Ulysses seems to be more Victorian than Homeric. In this poem, Ulysses stands for the spirit of noble, untiring effort that is an important aspect of Victorian England.

We may, therefore, rightly regard Tennyson as the perfect mouthpiece of his age, both in its merits and in its shortcomings.