Is Tennyson’s Ulysses basically the expression of the personality or of a philosophy?
Tennyson's "Ulysses" is basically an expression of a philosophy, a "set of beliefs or an outlook on life that is a guiding principle for behaviour." Ulysses expresses Ulysses's outlook on life which is a guiding principle for his behaviour, and his beliefs. And Ulysses's is Tennyson's considered philosophy of life. Ulysses is Tennyson's mouthpiece.
The outlook on life revealed in Ulysses is one of ceaseless activity and motion-"to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield"-till death. This activity does not cease in old age, when physical strength and vigour fail a man. Even in old age "some work of noble note may yet be done," as Ulysses says to his mariners. This endless toil on the part of a man is necessary in view of death which closes all. When a man is fated to die sooner or later, he should spend his time in activity till the last day of his life, because every hour spent in activity is not only something saved from the eternal silence of death, but also something that may prove "a bringer of new things."
Ulysses, now quite an old man, made weak by time and fate, is reluctant to live at home the life of comfort and ease, ruling a savage people and enjoying the sweet company of his aged wife. He thinks it dull to rest from exploration "to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnished, not to shine in use." His grey spirit yearns to "sail beyond the sunset and the baths of all the western stars" until he dies.
Knowledge is limitless, while the life of a man is short. Knowledge is so vast that life piled on life is not sufficient for acquiring all the knowledge that there is in this world. In one life a man can learn only a fraction of this vast and limitless knowledge if he devotes every hour to activity. If he wastes his time in idleness and rests from the pursuit of knowledge in his old age, he will learn almost nothing. That is why a man must toil and toil whether he is in his youth or old age. Knowing that "life piled on life were all too little" for mastering all the knowledge of the world and gaining all the experience the world has in store, Ulysses yearns,
"To follow knowledge, like a sinking star
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought."
He is so drunk with the desire to know the unknown, to see the unseen, to explore the unexplored that it does not matter to him if "the gulfs will wash us down."
The attitude to life revealed in this poem is a complete contrast to the attitude revealed in The Lotos-Eaters. The lotos eaters' attitude is one of idleness one of rest and inactivity. They find no meaning in toil in view of the fact that death closes all. Death being inevitable the narcotized mariners of Ulysses find no pleasure "in ever climbing up the climbing wave." They say to Ulysses, "Give us long rest or death, dark death or dreamful ease."
To conclude Ulysses expresses Ulysses's philosophy,- his outlook on life.
Character Sketch of Elizabeth Bennet.
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