Achilles Will Return After These Messages Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Achilles Will Return After These Messages - Essay ExampleThere ar three traditional levels of conflict in fiction soldiery against the world, man against man, and man against himself. The distinguishing characteristic of soap opera is that it takes place entirely on the second level. A soap opera character may eat up a job or a role in society, or inner conflict, but the most important thing about them will perpetually be their relationships with other people. A soap character might be introduced via an external event, such as a murder or a incorporated merger, but they will be defined entirely by their friends, lovers, enemies, grudges, and so on.Soap operas subordinate all other concerns to personalities and interpersonal conflict. To take a youthful example (SoapCentral.com) from popular daytime soap Guiding Light Desperate to redeem himself as a father, Alan convinced Phillip to undergo the bone marrow transmit with Alan as the donor. The phrasing is key this isnt a medica l drama or even about saving a life, its about Alan essay to redeem himself. In soap opera, the character felt it personally necessary, and no other considerations need enter. Achilles behavior through much of the Iliad, that is to say hiding in his tent doing nonhing, is often described as that of a sulky adolescent ignoring his responsibilities out of pique. While that reading isnt far off base, another weight would be to point out that his behavior is that of a soap opera character. Is he tired of the war, or does he devour many larger chore? No, he has simply been personally affronted by Agamemnon over the matter of Briseis, and so refuses to fight. Truly the son of Atreus, wide-ruling Agamemnon has dishonoured me for he has taken and keeps my prize through his own absolute act. (Book 1, line 355) His feelings are of paramount importance, and the war can go hang. Indeed, within the context of a soap opera, the war is irrelevant. The questions of offense and personal honor are where the story lies. Of course, Achilles does return to the war in time, but why he does so is further as telling. He does not rally heroically just as the Trojans are about to overrun the Achaean positions, as would happen in a war story. He does not come to the realization that some things are more important than his hurt feelings, as might happen in the story of a personal journey. Rather, he charges back into battle when the Trojans fall in the temerity to kill his lover, Patroclus. To put it another way, he left the war because the Achaeans hurt his feelings, and reentered it because the Trojans hurt his feelings even worse. neither doth my own heart bid me go on and abide among men, unless Hector first, smitten by my spear, shall lose his life, and pay back the price for that he made spoil of Patroclus, son of Menoetius. (Book 18, line 90) If this is not soap opera characterization, it is difficult to say what else it might be. The Iliad is often described as one of t he founding documents of Western literature. It is certainly one of the earliest stories to have come down to us roughly intact, and its influence on other works is incalculable. To point out that it is, effectively, a soap opera is not to someways demean the Iliad, but rather to ennoble the concept of a soap opera. I find it hard, today, to read the Iliad and not think at