While The Odyssey might, upon first glance, involve godly intervention against humans to advance its plot, the true conflict that drives the whole story is the selfish and arrogant nature of men against other men. The human-on-human conflict is the very cause of all the other three classical conflicts, as a conflict between humans often escalates to a conflict against the Greek gods, a war against oneself, and finally a war against the powerful forces of nature. Human arrogance and pride are the sole causes of the situations that the characters, both mortal and immortal, face in The Odyssey.
The human-on-human conflict in The Odyssey is the driving factor behind godly intervention, which means that a conflict involving humans and gods is, in …show more content…
This conflict is the underlying cause of the death of all of Odysseus’s crew with the exception of Odysseus by the wrath of Zeus. In short, the gods would not have intervened against Odysseus’s ship had the disagreement between Odysseus and his crew not happened. Thus, the conflict between the gods, particularly Zeus and Poseidon, and the humans in The Odyssey really is simply the result of the natural tendency of humans to war against each other.
Conflict between humans also is the true cause of the characters’ internal struggle, and this is seen especially with Penelope’s situation in Ithaca. Here, the conflict between the suitors and her brews an intense internal struggle as one part of her, edged on by all the suitors, believes that Odysseus is dead and she probably should comply with the suitors while the other side of her believes that there is still hope out there, and taking the shame and the torture from the suitors would be a much better option than marrying. This moment of insecurity, where she is unsure whether she should cling on to the character and life she had with Odysseus or abandon the semblance of the former life she had, is shown in book 17-18. Her internal crisis is
The human-on-human conflict in The Odyssey is the driving factor behind godly intervention, which means that a conflict involving humans and gods is, in …show more content…
This conflict is the underlying cause of the death of all of Odysseus’s crew with the exception of Odysseus by the wrath of Zeus. In short, the gods would not have intervened against Odysseus’s ship had the disagreement between Odysseus and his crew not happened. Thus, the conflict between the gods, particularly Zeus and Poseidon, and the humans in The Odyssey really is simply the result of the natural tendency of humans to war against each other.
Conflict between humans also is the true cause of the characters’ internal struggle, and this is seen especially with Penelope’s situation in Ithaca. Here, the conflict between the suitors and her brews an intense internal struggle as one part of her, edged on by all the suitors, believes that Odysseus is dead and she probably should comply with the suitors while the other side of her believes that there is still hope out there, and taking the shame and the torture from the suitors would be a much better option than marrying. This moment of insecurity, where she is unsure whether she should cling on to the character and life she had with Odysseus or abandon the semblance of the former life she had, is shown in book 17-18. Her internal crisis is