Civ 500 words in MLA format, focus on the theme

Al Afifi 1

Ahmed Al Afifi

Dr. Lars Jones

CIV1

July 16, 2020

The character of Achilles in Iliad

Achilles is the main character in an epic poem Iliad. Iliad is all about the Trojan war and how Achille's wrath and anger impacted it. He is a complex warrior who ignores society's norms because he viewed it in a fallacious way. He is the greatest fighter among the Achaians. In this essay, I will discuss his character and its relation to Aristotle’s thoughts that a man who does not embrace working with others does not belong to a community.

Achilles is a great warrior but is also portrayed as selfish and ruthless (Evzonas, 1165). He is also portrayed as a terrible man. For instance, in Patroculus and Nestor's conversation, they reveal a character of Achilles. Patroclus, his great friend, says that he is a terrible man and leaps to accuse a friend without a fault. Nestor agrees, stating that as brave as Achilles is, he has no pity and does not care about Acheans. Here they characterize him as a heartless man who does not care about his friends or his community. Another example is the fact that Achilles refused to fight for the Acheans who greatly depended on him despite all the gifts that Agamemnon had offered him showed that he is a selfish man since he had left the battle to prove a point that he is not the kind of person to be treated poorly. This goes well with Aristotle's statement because it shows Achilles's incapability to work with others because of his pride. Achilles preferring to focus on his wounded ego and refusing to go back with the messengers, Ajax tells Odysseus that Achilles is a savage and has no remorse. He adds that he cares nothing about the love his comrades lavished upon him more than on all others. He says that he is implacable (Stein, 447) This shows Achilles incapability to respect others and does not consider other people’s feelings and to return the love that he is showered with hence lack of ability to work with others.

Achilles' anger shows that he is a violent man (Perez, 27). In this epic, his wrath is much portrayed. For instance, after the death of his great friend Patroclus, he started mortally viewing things. He realized that his action was causing the death of many Trojans. He goes back to the battle to avenge his death. Joining the battle is of so much help, and he slays Hector, who is his friend’s murderer, and he continues to torture his body. His violence is also evident in the scene where he gets into a battle with the river. This is when he decides to punish the Trojans for Patroclus's death by denying them the chance to perform the rites of burial for Hector. The river god then tries to drown him and bury him in the mad and deny him a decent burial. The river god is the only one that dealt with Achilles without pity and excess cruelty. Later the other gods started viewing Achilles in the river god's way. Achilles' trial to punish everyone in the community by keeping Hector's body shows his wicked way of expressing his feelings and his lack of compassion for Hector and the whole community. However, his anger ends after mutilating Hector's body. Achilles gets exhausted, and when he is persuaded, he finally accepts Zeu's will and gives up the corpse.

Works Cited

Evzonas, Nicolas. "Achilles: A Homeric hero enamoured with the absolute." The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 99.5 (2018): 1165-1185.

Perez, Angel Ruiz. "The anger of Achilles in The Iliad and of Francis Marion Tarwater in Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away." Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics 40.2 (2017): 27-40.

Stein, Charles D. "The Life and Death of Agamemnon's Scepter: The Imagery of Achilles (Iliad 1.234–239)." Classical World 109.4 (2016): 447-463.