Social Studies, 15.10.2019 02:00 xoxomiaa1

When beggar odysseus talks to his wife, he was a dramatic?

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Where is dramatic irony in The Odyssey and what does this show about Odysseus' character?

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Much of the second half of Homer's The Odyssey is crafted to take advantage of a literary device called dramatic irony.

Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something that one or more of the characters do not. It is a way for writers to create a certain kind of suspense on the part of the reader. However, this suspense technique requires more skill to achieve than the typical kind of “whodunit” suspense that we often encounter in stories.

Since the audience already knows the important information, the suspense comes from wondering how characters will react to the situation at hand. This is only effective if we are interested in the characters, and this requires good characterization on the part of the writer.

In The Odyssey, Homer creates dramatic irony in several places, especially late in the story when Odysseus has returned to Ithaca, disguised by Athena (also referred to as Minerva), as a poor beggar. This situation is ripe for some fine dramatic irony, because the reader already knows that the beggar is Odysseus, while most of the characters do not.

At one point, Odysseus is in his house as a beggar. No one except Telemachus knows his true identity. One of the maids, Melantho, who has proven to be unfaithful to Penelope in favor of the suitors, has the opportunity to treat Odysseus with kindness, but says this to him instead:

Stranger, do you mean to plague us by hanging about the house all night and spying upon the women? Be off, you wretch, outside, and eat your supper there, or you shall be driven out with a firebrand.

To hear Odysseus’ servant speak to him this way creates tension for the reader. What will happen to Melantho as a result of this behavior? How does this make Odysseus feel? Later, Melantho and several other unfaithful servants will be hanged as a result of their behavior.

Perhaps the most emotional dramatic irony comes when Odysseus (also called Ulysses in some translations) reveals himself to Telemachus as his father. In situations like this, dramatic irony has heightened impact, as the reader anticipates the climactic scene, which is delayed for a while. The reader has seen Telemachus interact with the disguised Odysseus for awhile. Naturally suspense has been building during this time, as the reader wonders when and how Odysseus will reveal himself, and how Telemachus will react. When Odysseus finally does reveal his true identity, Telemachus doesn’t believe him, and Odysseus responds with:

Telemachus, you ought not to be so immeasurably astonished at my being really here. There is no other Ulysses who will come hereafter. Such as I am, it is I, who after long wandering and much hardship have got home in the twentieth year to my own country. What you wonder at is the work of the redoubtable goddess Minerva, who does with me whatever she will, for she can do what she pleases. At one moment she makes me like a beggar, and the next I am a young man with good clothes on my back; it is an easy matter for the gods who live in heaven to make any man look either rich or poor.

Answer from: Quest

early settlements on the subcontinent. both the indus and the ganges rivers carried rich silt from the mountains to the plains. when the rivers flooded, the silt spread over the plains and made the soil in the river valleys fertile for farming.

Answer from: Quest

among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. the friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice. he will not fail, therefore, to set a due value on any plan which, without violating the principles to which he is attached, provides a proper cure for it. the instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished; as they continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious declamations. the valuable improvements made by the american constitutions on the popular models, both ancient and modern, cannot certainly be too much admired; but it would be an unwarrantable partiality, to contend that they have as effectually obviated the danger on this side, as was wished and expected. complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority. however anxiously we may wish that these complaints had no foundation, the evidence, of known facts will not permit us to deny that they are in some degree true. it will be found, indeed, on a candid review of our situation, that some of the distresses under which we labor have been erroneously charged on the operation of our governments; but it will be found, at the same time, that other causes will not alone account for many of our heaviest misfortunes; and, particularly, for that prevailing and increasing distrust of public engagements, and alarm for private rights, which are echoed from one end of the continent to the other. these must be chiefly, if not wholly, effects of the unsteadiness and injustice with which a factious spirit has tainted our public administrations.

explanation: the latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society. a zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good. so strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts. but the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. a landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. the regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the governmen

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