“I Believe… That the Thing That Is Needed to Cut This Knot We Are All Tied in Is Something That Has Never Before Been Done or Thought of” How Are Priam and Achilles Altered by Priam’s Unusual Course of Action?

1418 Words6 Pages
“I believe… that the thing that is needed to cut this knot we are all tied in is something that has never before been done or thought of” How are Priam and Achilles altered by Priam’s unusual course of action? The novel Ransom, by David Malouf, is the unusual story of the King Priam, who does what no other king had done before; he stripped himself of all his royalty so he resembled an ordinary man and went to the enemy’s camp to ransom his son’s body. By this action both Priam and Achilles are changed for the better; Priam’s heroic gesture to risk his own life for the memory of his son causes him to reflect on, and reconsider his familial relationships. Priam is not only altered by his decision to personally exchange treasure for Hector’s body, the subsequent journey to Achilles camp provides him with the tools he needs to appeal to Achilles so that through Priam’s action, Achilles is able to find peace and come to terms with his own grief and guilt. Priam’s heroic gesture to risk his own life for the memory of his son causes him to reflect on, and reconsider his familial relationships. Priam risks his own life to take a chance and retrieve Hectors body, he is old and frail and doesn’t have the stamina to be travelling across the country to get to the Greek camp, and he knows that he wouldn’t be able to fight off anyone or thing that could attack them “I know I am an old man, feeble in body and ill-equipped to go venturing out at this late date into a world of change and accident” However he is willing to risk his life for his dead son, no matter what the consequence. While on the journey to the Greek camp, Somax his carter talks constantly about what would be known as nothing in his palace, yet Priam realises that Somax is filling up the empty silence with pleasant talk; “Interest”. He introduces Priam to small wonders in life like the scenery, feelings of

More about “I Believe… That the Thing That Is Needed to Cut This Knot We Are All Tied in Is Something That Has Never Before Been Done or Thought of” How Are Priam and Achilles Altered by Priam’s Unusual Course of Action?

Open Document