Theme Of Idealism In The Odyssey

Idealism has long been debated throughout time in all cultures. To some cultures, there may be an ideal form of love or even an ideal form of a human being with correct morals and values for said culture. In ancient literature, the concept of idealism has long been used when it comes to the development of their characters.
In Ancient India, the Ramayana is the perfect example to describe the ideal Indian man and woman and, in a sense, the ideal love between a man and a woman. Rama, one of the main characters in the Ramayana, is the ideal Indian man because he possesses all the “proper” behaviors and traits that a man in that culture should possess. He stays true to his duty, rather than his interests. Rather than go against his father’s wishes …show more content…
In the Odyssey, Homer has the character of Odysseus go through several trials or obstacles in order to finally reach his family in Ithaca. Odysseus is the ideal man not only in the physical sense, as he is a very strong and powerful individual, but also in the mental sense. As the saying goes, Odysseus relies more on his brains rather than his brawns, or his strength while possessing both ideals of the Greek man. His intelligence is displayed much more often throughout the epic poem and more often praised and noted. He is able to deceive multiple characters throughout the epic through his deception and intelligence. For example, through his quick wit. Odysseus is able to outsmart the Cyclops and trick him into saying that ‘nobody’ was trying to kill him by stabbing his eye. In the same way, he deceives the suitors when he arrives back in Ithaca by posing as one. In that scene, there is a clear distinction between the ideal (Odysseus) and the non-ideal (the other suitors). They are described as an old and rowdy cluster of men whereas Odysseus is a strong and intelligent person who has previously survived the tricks of Poseidon. The Cyclops and the suitors share something in common. Throughout their encounter with Odysseus, the two enemies rely on their physical strength rather than on their intellectual strength. The suitors fight Odysseus after discovering his true identity and in …show more content…
The poet and playwright synonymous with poetry and romance, William Shakespeare “often portray[ed] with some approval an idealism that is not too saintly to compromise itself,” as Klause describes in his article (Klause 310). In his sonnets, Shakespeare, or the narrator in the sonnets, wrote of a partner that he loved, his beloved. More specifically, in sonnet 130, Shakespeare described how his partner, his mistress, is perfect in every way for him. With every description of how his mistress’s eyes “are nothing like the sun,” to make them seem as if they were not as bright, actually portrays both the mistress and the partner (the narrator) an as ideal. The narrator is seen as an ideal for praising their mistress in such a high regard that can be seen through the couplet, the final two lines of the sonnet, as his love described “rare” and the other woman he compared his mistress to were all of “false compare” because his mistress is perfect in his eyes (Damrosch 1088). In the same way, the mistress is seen as more ideal when compared to conventional ‘ideal woman’ that the narrator refers to throughout the sonnet. It is when she is compared to these other standards of beauty that the narrator emphasizes not only the mistress’s uniqueness in terms of beauty. She is a woman with lips not as red as any other woman and dull eyes however she remains loved by the