How Does Tennyson Use and Establish Characterisation in ‘the Lotos Eaters’ and ‘Ulysses’?

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Tennyson uses a variety of narrative techniques to establish and use characterisation in two of his poems ‘The Lotos Eaters’ (Text 1) and Ulysses (Text 2) ‘The Lotos Eaters’, begins in media res as an unknown figure shouts, “Courage”, which is most likely Odysseus himself pointing “toward the land” giving his sailors guidance and hope that they shall return home to Ithaca, after travelling the “weary…sea”. We are not told the tales of how the sailors ended up in the place they did, aiding the narrative by shifting the readers focus not on their previous adventures but their current state of mind, tired and anxious to reach home after their long adventure and to see their loved ones. “In the afternoon they came unto land”, however it is not their intended destination but one “which it seemed always afternoon”, a timeless dream-like island where there are waterfalls which seem “to fall and pause and fall” as if disobeying the laws of gravity. The setting of the island is described for quite a few more stanzas which adds to the narrative as it shows that all of the sudden, the characters have forgotten of their true destination, they are mesmerised by their surroundings and it is as if they are within a dream as “the languid air did swoon, breathing like one that hath a weary dream.” In ‘Ulysses’, we take the perspective of Odysseus having finally returned from his journey, he seems unsettled by his return to his throne as he explains that “it little profits an idle king” to sit around and “mete and dole”, giving out rewards and punishments, to a “savage race” that “know not me”. He feels that it is pointless for a king to be a dormant figure, to rule a race that does nothing but “sleep, and feed”. He decides to himself that he “cannot rest from travel”, that he will make the most of what “little remains” and “drink life to the lees”. He comes to the conclusion that

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