Ulysses Characterization Assignment

The College Board recommends Tennyson's poem "Ulysses" as a useful poem for students to study as they work on developing their skills in analyzing characterization and how writers communicate the nature of a character to us.

The poem is on pp. 329-331 in your poetry anthology. This piece is a dramatic monologue written about the same time as Browning's "My Last Duchess."

Do the following:

1. Identify the different "characters" in the poem are (a list is sufficient).
2. Write a paragraph explaining the occasion for this speech by Ulysses. To whom is he speaking and why? What seems to be the intended purpose of the speech.
3. Write a paragraph describing Ulysses as a character in the piece. Point to specific passages that form your understanding.
4. Write a paragraph describing Ulysses' son, Telemachus, based on the things Ulysses has to say about him. How is he different from Ulysses?