The Myth, Curse and Aging, Essay Example

In literature, every single work of art symbolizes something deeper than literal sense of its plot. In order to achieve expressiveness and present hidden values authors frequently use metaphorical figures or mythical motives. But sometimes mythical figures may be the main characters of literary work. The following works are based on myths and they are discussed in the current paper: “Ulysses” and “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred Tennyson, “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood, and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Though these poems and story are absolutely different, either in means of expressiveness or in subtext, they share two notable similarities – the ideas of aging and myth.

In the short story that is claimed to be a tale for children the theme of myth is present through the character of the very man with enormous wings. Also, there is a woman who was turned into spider when she was young for going to a dance without permission. In the story, the man is frequently referred to as an angel who does not understand the language of people around. When he fell to the earth, sick and motionless, he was perceived by Pelayo, Elisenda and other villagers as a heavenly person, a miracle. They thought that he could resolve their problems and rule the world. Goodwin (2006) explained that Marquez tried to create a picture of theocratic government by means of the mythical winged man.

If villagers are to be associated with Colombians, and the angel is to be associated with religion, then words of people about the angel reflect the idealized views of Colombian people of religion as a government (Goodwin, 2006). But at the same time those people showed absolutely no respect to the “angel”. This can be interpreted as a real attitude of people to theocratic power – they were just interested in it, but were not afraid.

In the middle of the story a cursed woman that is cheaper and somehow “comprehensible” distracts public attention from the old man with enormous wings; Pelayo’s family got enough money from him to lose interest to the angel, too. Two mythical figures replace one another on the agenda. Notably, in this story there was mentioned an acrobat who tried to capture audience’s attention but failed. Inexplicable things attract more attention, and they also capture the attention of the readers. So in the “Enormous” Marquez used mythical angel and spider maiden to concentrate superficial attention on the idea of “angel” not being accepted by public, and hide political implications.

An idea of aging is very clear here, as the main character is a person of very old age and the story covers the period of about seven years. The winged man cannot chare his thoughts or reminiscences of sailor and accepts everything with compliance. In the end of the story we learn – he knew that some day he will gain the power and get off the ground to fly. His behavior slightly changes as the story line approaches its end – he does not sit in chicken coop and watch everything with his antiquarian eyes, yet he drags himself about here and there. It happens when the child of Elisenda and Pelayo has gone to school. Taking into account that the story began when the child was a newborn baby one can conclude that the angel lived with villagers for six or seven years. We know nothing in particular about that long period, but readers feel the change in the attitudes to formerly odd creature. This change contributes to the idea of the religion that may not satisfy or interest people, but nevertheless can live its life.

The “Siren Song” is a rather short poem. There is no rhyme but the poem is captivating. Margaret Atwood pretended to reveal the secret of the song of mythological sirens that claimed the lives of every sailor who sail by. Sirens were mythical creatures whose bodies were composed of top half of the women and bottom half of the bird. According to myths, their song was irresistible and even though everybody knew that it is deadly hazardous to listen to them, men listened to them and died.

The only exception was Odysseus – his sailors stuffed their ears with wax and he himself was tied to the mast. “Anyone who has heard it / is dead and the others can’t remember” (Atwood, ll. 8-9) – the words were unknown. And Odysseus knew what the song was about, but Homer did not mention its words. This song unsettled many minds through history, although it is a clear myth. What can attract man’s attention so unfailingly?

Strong idea is challenging, but Margaret Atwood dares to propose what the song of dangerous sirens could be about. According to her, the song was a “cry for help” (l.22), for salvation. The siren pretended that she hated her lifestyle and wanted to be saved by this only sailor. In the end of the poem there is a phrase – “Alas, / it is a boring song / but it works every time (ll. 25-27)”. It is a challenge to those who tried to imagine the words of the song, and it is a challenge to the ancient myth. Though this poem is controversial, it is psychologically explicable.

The aging motive, or perhaps, more correctly – sense of time passing – can be felt through several places in the poem. One is a line about “beached skulls” (l.6) – it makes a reader think of hundreds of sailors, who passed by; sailing was not as large-scaled as now, so the age of sirens in indefinable. Another place that makes reminiscence with time passing is sirens’ call for salvation, because she complains about her life and her tiredness. And in the end, three last lines show that in fact all of them are bored of singing and seducing sailors, but they have no objections to it.

Though the aging is sensible in this poem, the main emphasis must be placed upon mythological nature of the poem and the words of song itself. They have arguable sense and a lot can be said about their sexual or motivational sense, but this paper concentrates on myth and aging.

The two following poems of Tennyson differ greatly. “The lady of Shalott” tells about the lady who was held captive in the castle of Camelot. Her story and occupation took Tennyson eight lines to explain: “she weaves by night and day / A magic web with colours gay / She has heard a whisper say, / A curse is on her if she stay / To look down to Camelot. / She knows not what the curse may be, / And so she weaveth steadily.” (ll. 37-44) Here the myth theme interweaves with curse and aging one. The isle of Camelot and sir Lancelot are legendary objects, so this poem is undeniably connected with myths. Her age cannot be derived from the poem. And her curse is in focus of the whole story.

What is so different about her curse? Vast majority of legendary heroes and characters suffered from their curses when somebody performed certain actions. But the lady of Shalott had yet another curse. She was the person that could avoid her curse because it depended on her, whether to be cursed or not. In fact, she could live forever by looking into the mirror and weaving her web. The falling of curse could happen only if she wanted it and did distract from her occupation.

When the Lady saw sir Lancelot on his horse singing, she “left the web, / she left the loom, / She made three paces through the room, / … / She saw the helmet and the plume, / She looked down to Camelot. / Out flew the web and floated wide; / The mirror crack’d from side to side;

‘The curse is come upon me,’ cried” (ll.108-16) she. The very fact of breaking the rule and consciously “undergoing” curse seems like performance of art – when you know that everything may go wrong you still do it for the art’s sake. Gray called claimed that the situation “when the Lady leaves her loom to put herself under the curse, she is not renouncing her life as an artist, but becoming an artist” (2009).

Whether artistic or not, the mythical figure of the Lady and of Lancelot opens the story for interpretation. Though the lady suffered because of her sudden attraction to the sir Lancelot, it is not clear whether he is worthy of that or not. His beauty was external and his song was simple and senseless. And only in the end did he pay attention to the Lady by saying that God had lent her grace.

Indefinite term of Lady’s life in Shalott underlies the tragedy of the curse. Her aging is unnoticed by the poet. Her song that used to be quiet and mysterious sounded loud and mournful when she died; this emphasizes her mysterious grief. As a legendary figure she contacted nobody in her life, and we do not know why she was cursed. Nobody knew who she was and only her sign “The Lady of Shalott” made it clear. And only after death did her blood freeze and smooth face sharpen slowly (as written in earlier version of the poem). So here the themes of myth and curse are indivisible; aging theme lingers on the poem and gives it a notion of a legend, of a fairy tale.

Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses” tells us about Odysseus who left his home to his son, Telemachus, and went to seek fortune and use: “How dull it is to pause, to make an end, / To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!” (ll.22-23). Unlike “The Lady of Shalott”, in “Ulysses” the prevailing theme is not curse, but aging and myth. Odysseus’ figure is both historical and legendary, thus allowing different interpretations of his life. So this poem is a presentation of thoughts that consume him while he is travelling “somewhere beyond” (Nohrnberg, 2009).

As Nohrnberg claimed in his article “Eight reflections of Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’,” the concept that governed Odysseus to travel was an idea of “something beyond”, as written in the poem: “To follow knowledge like a sinking star” (l.31). And it is not just Odysseus caprice. He explains that an idle king brings little profit, and that his life was full of battles and events: “Much have I seen and known” (l. 13). He wants to drink his life “to the lees” (l.7), and the first part of the poem reflects his motives. He understands well that he is aging and that there is much of the world still undiscovered. His age does not prevent him from long travelling; it only gives him wisdom. As Nohrnberg noticed in his article, Odysseus realized that the expansion of knowledge increases the amount of ignorance (2009).

His son represents the change of generations, when an old one should retire and the young one should learn. “This is my son, mine own Telemachus, / to whom I leave the sceptre and the isle.” (ll. 33-34) For Odysseus, it is absolutely consequential – “He works his work, I mine” (l.43). His aging is perceived as something; he is deprived of mythical indefinite age that is characteristic to lady of Shalott.

“Death closes all; but something ere the end, / Some work of noble note, may yet be done, / Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.” (ll. 51-53) The main mythical accents are in the end, where Odysseus dreams about the end of his journey and about his death. He wishes to end his life heroically, with some decent deeds – like in ancient legends. “It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, / And see the great Achilles, whom we knew” (ll. 63-64). This mythological feature emphasizes Ulysses’ legendary nature that is worthy of admiration but somehow unrealistic.

When reading his “Ulysses”, Tennyson admitted that he stroke a delicate balance between epic, ancient, mythological style and modern one (Nohrnberg , 2009). He did not want to be alike many others in attempts to copy or imitate the style of ancient authors, and there are rather few old-fashioned words. At the same time the poem should not have been too modern, because it represented the thoughts of the ancient hero. So myth theme runs all through the poem: by means of the figure of Ulysses himself and by means of Tennyson’s style.

These four literary works share common mythological spirit. In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” there are two creatures that make this story a fairy tale: a winged man who was called an angel, and a women-spider. Their fate is occasional; their nature is unknown and this enhances every word that is said about them. The aging of the old man leads him to the recovery and to the ability to fly again. “The Lady of Shalott” is a legend in a poem; it represents a mysterious woman who suffers from the curse that she willingly put herself under. In this poem the sense of time and age stands out and implies magical nature of the lady and her curse. The poem “Siren Song” is the most mythological as it is fully based on Ancient Greek myths. It is the most controversial, but here legendary creatures were unavoidable. The sense of immeasurable time and siren’s longevity is felt through the short lines. And the last poem, “Ulysses,” represents aging the best. Myth theme is present through the figure of Ulysses, his history and his goals. The motives of Odysseus’ journey are explained through his yearn of travelling and unwillingness to be useless despite his age.

Though these works are rather different, their mythological base lends them a special charm and elaborate expressiveness of awakened imagination. Every mythical figure is a complex and controversial character that made it possible to give the poems their subtext.

Bibliography

Atwood, Margret. “Sirens Song.” Literature: A Pocket Anthology. R.S. Gwyn.  Longman, 2009. 720-721.

Goodwin, John. “Marquez’s A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and Bambara’s The Lesson.” Academic Onefile. Gale, 26 Jan.2006. Web. 22 Oct. 2009. <http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/start.do?prodId=AONE>.

Gray, Eric. “Getting it wrong in “The Lady of Shalott”” Academic Onefile. Gale, 22 Mar. 2009. Web. 22 Oct. 2009. <http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/start.do?prodId=AONE>.

Marquez, Gabriel. “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” Literature: A Pocket Anthology. R.S. Gwyn.  Longman, 2009. 228-234.

Nohrnberg, James. “Eight reflections of Tennyson’s “Ulysses”.” Academic Onfile. Gale, 22 Mar. 2009. Web. 22 Oct. 2009. <http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/start.do?prodId=AONE>.

Tennyson, Alfred. “The Lady of Shalott.” Literature: A Pocket Anthology. R.S. Gwyn.  Longman, 2009. 536-541.

Tennyson, Alfred. “Ulysses.” Literature: A Pocket Anthology. R.S. Gwyn.  Longman, 2009. 542-543.