Throughout Homer's Odyssey and the Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?, both main characters, Odysseus and Ulysses respectively, are shown to have rather large egos that often end up getting both themselves and their crew in trouble. Whether inducing the wrath of Poseidon by letting Polyphemus know exactly who it was that tricked and blinded him or leaving behind a trail of "Dapper Dan" products for the police to follow to keep his hair neat, both characters end up in tight spots from their egotistical antics.
It makes sense for the characters to have similar egos; O Brother, Where Art Thou? is based upon the Odyssey, and Ulysses likewise is based upon Odysseus. However, the difference between Odysseus's ego and Ulysses's ego is that Ulysses often has humor associated with the problems his narcissistic antics, while Odysseus in general has tragedy associated with his such antics. As a result, I ended up liking the character of Ulysses more than that of Odysseus.
Why is this? The two characters are extremely similar in terms of their narcissism. Both of them multiple times end up getting their crews into deep trouble in various ways, resulting in the death or injury of crew members. How is it, then, that I find Ulysses more likable than Odysseus?
At first, I thought that it was the comedic aspect of Ulysses. He is able to be a very humorous character to watch in spite of the trouble his selfishness causes. On the other hand, the Odyssey is not a comedy, and as such the trouble Odysseus causes is more epic than funny. As such, I could laugh my way through Ulysses's problems, while I was able to stop and think about Odysseus's problems.
For example, when Ulysses's need for Dapper Dan products gives the police a trail to follow and find them, I was too busy being amused at how they had been found to worry about how vanity had caused the downfall of everyone Ulysses was with. On the other hand, when Odysseus bragged about who he was to Polyphemus, there was nothing humorous about it; all I was able to see was the ego of Odysseus causing Poseidon's wrath to crash down upon the crew.
However, taking aside the humor, some of what Ulysses does is really stupid and detrimental to his "crew", such as baiting them with the promise of a nonexistent treasure. So, it cannot just be humor that makes me not mind Ulysses as much in terms of egotism. What I think pushes Odysseus over the edge towards being a character I don't like as much is the narrator. In the Odyssey, Odysseus is the only survivor of the events he talks about. As such, he is able to narrate them however he pleases. Therefore, there is a lot of room for doubt in his story, and his ego and ability to easily lie is offsetting for me. On the other hand, none of Ulysses's crew actually dies; he has sources that he can corroborate with. They can get mad at him, and we can see them getting mad, and we can see such fights being resolved. The humor in O Brother, Where Art Thou? along with the credibility of watching that story unfold makes the ego of Ulysses much more bearable compared to that of Odysseus.
Good post, Nathan. I totally agree. Odysseus has this constant thirst to have attention, but in a rather annoying way in comparison to Everett. I think what makes Everett more of an appealing character than Odysseus is that he doesn't take things as far. Thous Everett does risk the lives of Pete and Delmar by lying to them, he never directly harms someone.
ReplyDeleteWhereas in Odysseus' case, the fact that he told Polyphemus his name led to a chain of events which led to the Phaeacians getting their ship sunk. And then there's of course that merciless scene where he executes all the women just to assert dominance.
I agree that Ulysses' narcissism doesn't seem to have as bad an effect on the crew and their situation as Odysseus' does. I also liked Ulysses more than I did Odysseus, but I think that's because I actually got to know more about Ulysses in the movie than I did reading about Odysseus. Maybe that's because, like you said, Ulysses' stories are corroborated and we actually get to see the problems being worked out, as opposed to in the Odyssey where Odysseus and biased Homer are telling the story slewed in favor of Odysseus. On a more basic level, I also feel like Ulysses' narcissism isn't as extreme as Odysseus'; he mostly just cares about his hair whereas Odysseus is more concerned with proving he is the ultimate man.
ReplyDeleteGood post Nathan! I like that you commented on the fact that even though both Ulysses and Odysseus have similar egos, Odysseus's ego results in the death of his crew among other innocent people who help him. I think since Ulysses's actions don't really result in actual consequences so I am able to laugh through his problems and not really dwell on his ego.
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