1st essay: “...we have done nothing, all of us, but weep and sit stunned with grief.” ‘Ransom suggests that there is no glory in war, only grief.’ To what extent do you agree?
In Malouf’s novel, Ransom, we are presented with many characters who experience grief through the loss of a loved one. Although grief has the ability to render many speechless and cause people to do nothing but “weep and sit stunned with grief”, Malouf is also able to convey his view that through grief, many people are able transform and develop positively as a consequence. It can be said that Malouf is rather despondent to the idea that grief is all-consuming and no good can come of it as even the gods work to diminish this grief and allow people’s perspectives in life to change as well as allowing them to deal with their grief in a positive way and enable them to be at peace.
In Ransom, Malouf has displayed various characters who struggle to deal with their grief. Achilles, consumed by the grief of losing Patroclus, “his soulmate and companion since childhood”, believes that the only way to deal with grief is by revenge. He murders Trojan princes and attempts to desecrate Hector’s body daily. He is therefore troubled when vengeance does not assuage his grief. Malouf uses the character of Achilles to demonstrate that those who believe that violence is the only answer to diminish their grief, struggle to find any happiness for themselves, and therefore struggle to enlarge and strengthen their beliefs and grow and mature as a result. Priam, adversely, grieves for his son, “as a father” but has been “saved” from real mourning by suppressing his paternal affections and natural emotions. “Half mad with grief,” he struggles to find himself and a way in which to deal with the death of his son. He believes, that the only way he can begin to accept his death and move on, is to “ransom the body of [his] son” so that he may have a proper “burial” and be put to rest before the gods. “The simple...