The Duality Of Achilles In Homer's The Iliad
First Chapter David Malouf in Ransom has taken a Greek myth (The Iliad, by Homer) and appropriated it to today’s problems, which have transcended time. The purpose of the first chapter is simple but crucial to understanding the character of Achilles. From the first chapter Achilles dual personality is evident. Also via Achilles in the first chapter Malouf emphasises the notion of fate and destiny.
In the opening pages of the first chapter the narrator reveals Achilles dual personality. From the beginning there is a constant conflict between his dual personalities. On one side his immortal mother Thetis (Goddess of the sea) and in contrast his mortal father. Although Achilles is mortal he longs to live an immortal life and join his mother …show more content…
One day, he knows, he will go back to it. All the grains that were miraculously called together at his birth to make just theses hands, theses feet, this corded forearm, will separate and go their own ways again. He is a child of the earth. But for the whole of his life he has been drawn, in his other nature, to his mothers element" Pg4
Against his will “Somewhere in the depths of sleep his (Achilles) spirit had made a crossing and not come back, or it had been snatched and transformed” Pg6. This quote refers to the crossing from the womb of his mum in the sea to the land with his father. Although he has this stand out dual personality he is always incognito and stoical about his feelings. “He had always grieved. But silently, never permitting himself to betray others what he felt” Pg5. Throughout just the first chapter Achilles anonymity is revealed allowing the rest for the book to be …show more content…
Himself like a dead man. Feeling nothing. When they were done (soldiers stabbing hector) and had stepped away, he roused himself and approached the body. Stood staring down at it. Then taking a knife from his belt, he fell to one knee, and swiftly, as is he had always known that this was what he would do, slashed one after the other from ankle to heel the tendons of Hectors feet… Unwinding from his waist an oxhide thong, he lifted the feet and lashed them together: then… dragged the corpse to his chariot… Then, like a man obeying the needs of some darker agency, he leapt onto the platform, dashed the sitting sweat-drops from his eyes, touched the horses lightly with the traces and wheeled out onto the plain… Behind him the body… already grey with dust, leapt and followed, the hip bones and the shoulder blades of the massive back dashing hard against sharp-edged flinty stones and ridges” Pg
In the opening pages of the first chapter the narrator reveals Achilles dual personality. From the beginning there is a constant conflict between his dual personalities. On one side his immortal mother Thetis (Goddess of the sea) and in contrast his mortal father. Although Achilles is mortal he longs to live an immortal life and join his mother …show more content…
One day, he knows, he will go back to it. All the grains that were miraculously called together at his birth to make just theses hands, theses feet, this corded forearm, will separate and go their own ways again. He is a child of the earth. But for the whole of his life he has been drawn, in his other nature, to his mothers element" Pg4
Against his will “Somewhere in the depths of sleep his (Achilles) spirit had made a crossing and not come back, or it had been snatched and transformed” Pg6. This quote refers to the crossing from the womb of his mum in the sea to the land with his father. Although he has this stand out dual personality he is always incognito and stoical about his feelings. “He had always grieved. But silently, never permitting himself to betray others what he felt” Pg5. Throughout just the first chapter Achilles anonymity is revealed allowing the rest for the book to be …show more content…
Himself like a dead man. Feeling nothing. When they were done (soldiers stabbing hector) and had stepped away, he roused himself and approached the body. Stood staring down at it. Then taking a knife from his belt, he fell to one knee, and swiftly, as is he had always known that this was what he would do, slashed one after the other from ankle to heel the tendons of Hectors feet… Unwinding from his waist an oxhide thong, he lifted the feet and lashed them together: then… dragged the corpse to his chariot… Then, like a man obeying the needs of some darker agency, he leapt onto the platform, dashed the sitting sweat-drops from his eyes, touched the horses lightly with the traces and wheeled out onto the plain… Behind him the body… already grey with dust, leapt and followed, the hip bones and the shoulder blades of the massive back dashing hard against sharp-edged flinty stones and ridges” Pg