ipl-logo

Edgar Allan Poe To Helen Comparison

668 Words3 Pages

Helen of Troy
Helen is the most beautiful woman in Greece and married to King Menelaus of Sparta. People consider her as the daughter of the most puissant god, Zeus. However, her captivating beauty causes prince Paris to elope her. The poem, To Helen, by Edgar Allan Poe, reveals his love and affection for Helen’s beauty. Whereas the second poem, Helen, by H.D. Greeks revile the beauty and attractiveness that Helen possessed. These two poems referring to Helen of Troy reveals the two speakers’ attitude dealing with Helen’s astonishing beauty.
In the first poem, Edgar Poe writes his poem in the first person which lauds Helen’s beauty even more. He also uses adjectives like “gently…perfumed sea” (Line 3), where Helen is being compared to a sea that represents serenity, tranquility within her beauty. In the narrator’s point of view, Helen helps a man stabilizes …show more content…

The Greeks greatly despise her beautiful “eyes in [her] white face… [and] white hands” (Lines 1-5). Even though, Ancient Greeks back then believe that having a pale skin is prestigious and admirable. However, Helen is an exemption, in fact, they neglect the truth that Helen’s competence of alluring every man in their country. In like manner, they criticize her smiles and expression of sadness because it makes them remember the “past enchantments and past ills” (Lines 10 -11). They think that Helen’s superficial beauty just gives misfortunes to them and will never be blind to it again. In the same way, Helen’s charm is the main factor of the Trojan war, which results in a disastrous event for the Greeks. Furthermore, the Greeks wish that Helen lays on a “white ash amid funereal cypresses” (Lines 15 -16), which provokes an image of death. Since Helen is the cause of the Greeks’ tragedy, they want her to vanish away from this world. Otherwise, their resentment and repugnance on Helen will last

Show More
Related
1207 Words | 5 Pages

The Essential Homer translated and edited by Stanley Lombardo, depicts the story of the famous Trojan war. Helen even though not being a central character in the story her role throughout the epic is important. She is created as a suffering figure who is constantly striving for independence and a sense of belongingness among the many different restraints that she faces. Even with the limited amounts of appearances in the epic each encounter with her character the reader is able to learn more about her personality and the way her character evolves in obtaining autonomy and being part of the society she feels excluded from. Helen is time after time blamed as the women for who the famous Trojan war was fought for.

Read More
518 Words | 3 Pages

Helen’s character is balanced by personal guilt and self-preservation which together define her as a woman with her own agency and power to act. In the initial chapters of the Iliad, Helen is wracked by intense guilt and self-loathing that stems from her involvement in the conflict between the Achaians and the Trojans. Her shame is first displayed after she is called sit beside Priam and view the duel between Paris and Menelaus. When Priam asks Helen to identify the leader of the Greek forces, she takes a moment to express her remorse and mentions that she wished she had chosen “bitter death” over departure from her homeland (Iliad 3.173). Helen admits her culpability in this conflict and reveals that the extent of her shame is so great

Read More
342 Words | 2 Pages

During the Great Depression there was huge separation of wealth. This is one of the key problems in The Grapes of Wrath. Many families, including the Joads, were forced into starvation, homelessness, and migration because of the economic and natural problems facing the United States. Today this problem still exists. While it does not affect citizens in such a drastic way, many families are forced to live off of a lower income and suffer while the few hold a high percentage of wealth.

Read More
522 Words | 3 Pages

“The Odyssey,” written by Greek poet Homer is an epic tale depicting the brutally enduring quest home of the Greek hero, Odysseus. Within this heroic story, women play a very large and pivotal role in Odysseus’s trip home from the Trojan War. In his attempt to get back to his wife, Penelope, Odysseus’s progress is constantly hindered by the intervention of women who will do anything in order to either convince the heroic figure to stay with them or have him killed. The intentions of the women in the epic are all very different but one of the most prominent roles lies in the seductresses and the alluring women who will deeply influence Odysseus. Most importantly, Penelope plays a large role in portraying the importance of women’s roles in the story.

Read More
512 Words | 3 Pages

Odysseus, just like the woman, has to live with the losses and the suffering of the war, while his dead comrades, like the widow’s husband, do not. In this instance, the woman is representative of all the women in the Trojan War who lost their husbands due to Odysseus’ wrath. He does not cry for his own glory, but rather he empathizes with the widow, and therefore, identifies with all of his victims. Alcinous, through this similarity between Odysseus’ tears and the tears of the female victims of war, is able to see that Odysseus’ connection to the Trojan War is one filled with the pain of losses and guilt, but also the pain of having to carry these memories. These two aspects of pain can only coexist in a person if his identity is the Odysseus being portrayed in these songs.

Read More
357 Words | 2 Pages

Homer’s epic, “The Odyssey” includes many fascinating and intriguing characters that readers can become engaged upon. Although not entirely fascinating or in any way praised, Penelope’s suitors are characterized in a stupidly ignorant and egotistical manner. Upon Athena first encounters in Ithaca, she sees the suitors abusing xenia as the “Heralds poured water over their hands for rinsing, serving maids brought bread heaped high in trays and young men brimmed the mixing-bowls with wine” (171-173). The suitors are living luxuriously as if they are the true ruler of the house, who has lived there all their lives, due to the heralds’ obedience in “rinsing” their hands and their wine “brimmed” to their mixing-bowls. A very disorderly tone is surfaced in this image, due to the suitor’s presumptuous demeanor.

Read More
568 Words | 3 Pages

I watched Good Luck Charlie for my bias assignment. It is a Disney series about a family that likes to have fun but also has everyday problems. This episode was about the mother going back to work after having her fourth child and she needed help from her family to keep an eye on the baby. The second child is a girl name Teddy and she was pretty much put in charge over her dad while her older brother got to go out with his friends she also wanted to go on a date that night but her dad made the boy come to the house for the first date. The third son named Gabe felt that his family forgot about him ever since the new baby came, his older brother and sister insured him they all still love him.

Read More
1514 Words | 7 Pages

But when the future of Helen and Troy’s relationship comes into play Martinez no longer holds our hands as we dip our toes in the cool water. Now we must sink or swim as Helen lays herself bare to the confines of society’s expectations when she says “We don’t live in a culture where regular guys, even amazing one, have seven-foot tall girlfriends… It’d be different with the genders reversed. Everybody gets beauty and the beast. But this thing between us, it’d be weird to most people” (256).

Read More
704 Words | 3 Pages

To begin with, in the Iliad, a woman 's role depends on her beauty and position in the society, making them look more like a “prop”. For instance, Briseis used to be a respected princess and the wife of Mynes. However, her great beauty made herself became a reward between Achilles and other warriors in the Trojan War—she is no longer a dignified queen but a belonging whose role being manipulated by men. Another example is Helen. She was taken away from

Read More
1813 Words | 8 Pages

It is clear that Helen 's behavior in book 3 is in almost direct correlation to that of Andromache in book 6, in terms of transgressive behavior. To understand this and to analyze any transgressive behavior further, it must first be established that there are very clear and strict gender divisions in the society portrayed in the Iliad. Hector states, "War is man 's business"1 and a women 's business is the "loom and the 2 spindle." ItisthereforemadmorethanobviousbyHectorthatthereshouldbenocrossingof,or ignoring of your responsibility. Transgression therefore, in the context of the Iliad, and gender is the abandonment of your duties and ignoring society 's expectations of you and the people around you.

Read More
245 Words | 1 Pages

describe and characterize her even with him. She consideres herself to be humiliating because she knows she will always fail to do something heroic which is not the case with Augustus. He does not want to be forgotten, and he wants to be remembered in the history of consciousness and culture. He imagines himself saving innocent children. But it is important that she loves, and that she is loved,

Read More
1007 Words | 5 Pages

The fourth and final paragraph compares Helen to Penelope to show how the patriarchy is so quick to put cruel diminishing labels on woman. Finally I have a work cited page containing the Odyssey, where I found all the supporting quotes for my paper. Penelope is one of several woman characters in

Read More
1355 Words | 6 Pages

Countless of these tearful songs have been written, describing the image of the woman behind a hero’s victory. In The “Odyssey”, Homer transforms the audience’s perspective about women significantly. All of them, whether beautiful woman or powerful goddesses, are occupied by sorrows. Especially, Penelope and Calypso--the two most influential women in both appearance and the complicated relationship with the guile hero. Although they have very different personalities and backgrounds--one is the queen of Ithaca, and the other is a magnificent goddess.

Read More
805 Words | 4 Pages

Upon being left by her husband during a decade-long journey, Penelope’s depressed character, like Hecuba’s character, accentuates the misery of women during that time. Once stripped of the only source of power and happiness they had—men in society—women were deemed miserable, useless, and awful in society. Penelope spent years waiting for Odysseus, and the audience watches as a beautiful, popular woman, weeps over her missing husband and lives a long, melancholy life. Penelope grows impatient and stagnantly miserable; she begins to wish for death, for life was not worth living without her husband in her life. She begs, “How I wish chaste Artemis would give me a death so soft and now I would not go on in my heart, grieving all my life and longing for love of a husband excellent in every virtue.

Read More
1540 Words | 7 Pages

Sethe and her daughter are isolated from the community due to Sethe’s killing of her youngest child, an action Sethe justifies as “put[ting] my babies where they’d be safe” but one which Paul D sees as a love “too thick” (Morrison 193). Her misjudgment fits Aristotle’s description of the fatal flaw. The trauma she experienced as a slave made her justifiably determined to not let her children return to slavery, but her panicked actions resulted in her isolation the community. As her isolation is caused by herself rather than an external force such as slavery, she is a fitting model for a Greek tragedy protagonist. Sethe’s “thick love” continues to linger after the killing, as she says she wanted to die alongside her youngest child after she killed her so she can continue to take care of her daughter, and states “[Beloved] is mine” after her realization that Beloved is her daughter (Morrison 241).

Read More

More about Edgar Allan Poe To Helen Comparison

Related Topics

Open Document