Essay

[Thompson]

<br><br><br>“Odyssey Essay”<br><br> In this essay, I will identify a technical, and three dramatic climaxes leading up to it, using passages from the book. I will explain how each of the climaxes affects the emotional significance of the story. The first of the body paragraphs will be devoted to the technical climax, and explaining why it is a technical climax and what part, it plays in the story. The second body paragraph will reveal the three dramatic climaxes and relate each of them to the technical climax. The concluding paragraph will sum up the essay by restating the climaxes and how they affected the story.<br><br> One of the technical climaxes in the story is the final battle between Odysseus and all the suitors. This is a technical climax because it resolves the conflict between Odysseus and the suitors. It begins with Odysseus shooting Antinoös in the throat: <br><br>“But Odysseus, aiming at this man, struck him in the throat with an arrow and clean through the soft part of the neck the point was driven.” (pg.321) <br><br><br>The conflict is resolved when the last of the suitors, the diviner, had his head cut off by Odysseus:<br><br> “Then looking darkly at him spoke Odysseus: “If you claim to be a diviner, you must have prayed that I would never return, so that my wife would be yours and so she would bear you children.” Therefore, he spoke and he picked up a sword, which he used to cut Leodes, the diviner’s, head off.” (Pg. 329)<br><br> This is one of many technical climaxes in the book.<br><br> The three dramatic climaxes leading up to the technical climax are: 1) the scolding of the disguised Odysseus by Antinoös, 2) Odysseus inspecting and stringing the bow and 3) The disguised Odysseus shooting an arrow through the Ax heads. The first dramatic climax, the scolding of disguised Odysseus, shows how much hatred that there is between the suitors and anyone who might threaten their chances of marrying Penelope and becoming king: <br><br>“Now Antinoös scolded him and spoke out and named him” “Ah, wretched stranger, you have no sense, not even a little. Is it not enough that you dine in peace, among us, who are violent men, and deprived of no fair portion listen to our conversation and what we say? … So I announce great trouble for you, if you ever you string this bow, and you will meet no courtesy from our group of men, but you will be sent away to a mutilator of men….” (Pg. 317)<br><br>The second dramatic climax, the stringing of the bow, starts to hint to the suitors that the beggar is no ordinary man, but one of extraordinary strength and in the back of their minds, they start to get the slightest realization that this might be Odysseus returning from troy.<br><br>“…so, without any strain, Odysseus strung the great bow….A great sorrow fell now upon the suitors, and all their color was changed, and Zeus showing forth his portents thundered mightily.” (Pg.319)<br><br> The final climax before the technical climax, the flight of the arrow through the ax heads, is the point of realization that Odysseus is definitely back and that the suitors were in for it now.<br><br>“Taking the string and head grooves he drew to the middle grip, and from the very chair where he sat, bending the bow before him, let the arrow fly, nor missed any ax heads from the first handle on, but the bronze-weighted arrow passed through all, and out the other end.” (Pg. 320)<br><br> All of those climaxes were the stepping-stones to the death of the suitors.<br><br>There would be no technical climax without the support of the dramatic climaxes, to lead up to and provide the story line for it. If there were no technical climax, there would be no story. If there were no technical climax in the story, the reason for the death of the suitors and the plot would never be resolved. Dramatic climaxes in the story support the need of a technical climax. Those three dramatic climaxes, the scolding, the stringing of the bow, and the shot were the support for the technical climax of the battle.<br>