Telemachus And Odysseus Analysis

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Now that Odysseus has been gone for almost 20 years, Telemachus is coming of age and is growing his first beard. As the prince of Ithaca, he is unsure whether he should inherit his father Odysseus and become a king or wait for a little longer in case Odysseus returns. What is more, Telemachus has grown up listening to stories about how great his father is and has been waiting his whole life for the great Odysseus to come back, which makes it that much harder for Telemachus to stop waiting and become a king. Other than being indecisive and not having a father figure in his life, Telemachus also has to deal with suitors that are wasting his goods daily and are trying to marry his mother Penelope to overtake the throne. In addition, Penelope has…show more content…
From the words of his father, Telemachus is prudent since he makes the “rugged” people “mild,” which is the only way to be a good and useful leader (Tennyson). Furthermore, Telemachus is guiltless and “decent not to fail in offices of tenderness” (Tennyson). In other words, not only is Telemachus a good leader, but he is also kind to his people. Last but not least, Telemachus is pious and will continue to worship the gods of the household when his father is gone. Unlike Homer who compares Telemachus to Odysseus through the words of multiple characters, Tennyson distinguishes the two. In the Tennyson’s poem, Odysseus finishes his talk about Telemachus by saying: “He works his work, I mine” (Tennyson). In other words, Odysseus has lived under different circumstances than his son and the two should not be compared. In addition, Telemachus should not be expected to live up to the standard set by his father in the Trojan…show more content…
In “The Odyssey,” Odysseus first sees his son after long twenty years in Eumaeus’s hut. He manages to hold back the tears, but as soon as Eumaeus leaves, Odysseus starts crying. He feels empathy towards his son, who has grown up without a father and has “bore a world of pain, the cruel abuse of men” (Homer 16.214). Odysseus also shows trust in Telemachus when he reveals his identity. Although suspicious at first, Telemachus chooses to believe that the man standing in front of him is his father as he says. One of the most memorable scenes in “The Odyssey” follows: Odysseus and his son Telemachus weep like birds for all the moments they have lost in twenty years (Homer 16.247). Their weeping shows how much love they have for each other even though they have been separated for a long time. They again show mutual trust when they start planning a conspiracy against the suitors. Similarly, in the “Ulysses”, Odysseus says that he is ready to leave his “well-loved” Ithaca to Telemachus, which again demonstrates Odysseus’s trust in his son. He also describes Telemachus as a leader, person, and a believer in the gods with a lot of admiration. What is more, Odysseus begins a description of his son by calling him “my son, mine own Telemachus,” which implies how prideful Odysseus is of his
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