The Role Of Suffering In Homer's Odyssey

The grief and depression that is caused by the loss of loved ones in war greatly affects family members in Homer’s epic. Menelaos is one person who suffers loss caused by war. After fighting in the arduous Trojan war and achieving victory, the violent sea shipwrecks him and his companions on their way home. As a result of the loss of all of his friends, Menelaos feels “...nothing but grief...for

After completing the task with ease, Odysseus and Telemachus battle and kill all the suitors and Odysseus’ bravery shines brightly after successfully completing multiple challenges. The Land of the Dead is a place no man wants to end up and is described as a “‘...place of death and sorrow.’”; this is his abyss. He is forced to recognize his mortality and he realizes how much he misses his family. Long before this, Odysseus met the first of two temptations, Calypso. She attempts to persuade him to leave Penelope and stay with her, but she is only enchanting him.After seven years, Hermes finally frees him from her island.

As well as creating pain and suffering from pain, Odysseus also causes trouble. Odysseus causes problems with the gods, creating tension, and anger. Odysseus and poseidon had a problem, because poseidon supports the trojans, and odysseus was a member of the greek war. They defeated the trojans in battle. Odysseus also causes problems with his anger.

Even though Odysseus has been stranded from home for many years, he still remains loyal to his wife. Odysseus is truly loyal to Penelope because he leaves Ogygia (where he was trapped) as soon as possible, puts all of his effort into making it home to his wife, and even flirts with Princess Nausicaa to get him home. Even though Odysseus has been through

Since Calypso delayed Ulysses and got him off course, he runs into some major disasters. This puts his life and his crew’s lives into danger as well. They run into calamities such as a six headed monster, Neptune’s storm, Jupiter’s attack, and cyclopes. Calypso’s narcissistic enterprise also costed Ulysses more time without his son, the next time Ulysses would see his son he’d be much older. This puts a lot of stress on Telemachus because he’s trying to keep his mother and Ithaca stable, while handling his father’s disappearance, trying to hold on to his father still being alive, hearing from Minerva that his father could still be alive.

“Yet, it is true, each day I long for the sight of home”(Homer, 117-118), he tells Calypso. She responds to his confession by allowing him to leave, as Zeus wished. Odysseus builds a raft and enters Poseidon’s watery domain again. After being trapped by the beautiful nymph for so long, it is a testament to Odysseus’ loyalty to his wife and to Ithaca that he did not succumb to her

When Odysseus killed the ring leader of the pact of suitors, he was approached by them asking to be spared, “let’s make amends ow. We’ll replace all that we have consumed, and make gifts above and beyond…... Let there be no more bloodshed.” (Homer pg.214) This however, would have been too easy and forgiving for a Greek story. Of course, when Odysseus heard these demands he could not even think of this choice, the only way to even the score was to make sure they got what they deserved. To kill them all. The only way they this story could have ended was that all the suitors had to die, and this was the only way that Odysseus could see justice.

Further in the text, it slowly becomes more clear that oedipus’s flaw is his own pride. Oedipus’s pride can be seen when he learned from the oracle of delphi. That he will kill his father and marry his mother. He runs in a desperate attempt to defy fate and the gods, but nobody can just run from their fate. As the story progresses his fate becomes reality when he learns everything towards the end of the play.

That is the reason the situational irony works very well. The familiar story makes the ignorance of both characters real situation turn to be the irony of whatever they speak. Their chances to lead the society give the ‘attackers’ more power to ruin the people. For instance, the Apollo gained power over the city of Thebes in Oedipus the King while Lago over the individual who did not support him (Yeats, Clark, & McGuire, 1989). Therefore, the central theme in both Oedipus the King and in Othello is the uncertain vision, and is treated in a different manner in Othello than in Oedipus the King.

He is Hamlet’s love interest’s brother who implicates Hamlet’s success through conflict. Hamlet sparks the rivalry between the two families by killing some of the family members. By executing Laertes father and Polonius, this causes Polonius’ son, Laertes, to seek vengeance for his father. Consequently, Hamlet’s family goes against him and his love, Ophelia, kills herself. This demonstrates that family ties, even if not blood related, have serious impacts on Hamlet’s life which causes misery to overwhelm his life; this misery prohibits his success.