Short Notes Oenone

Oenone

Lord Alfred Tennyson sketched the character of Oenone with an ironic twist. The character Oenone laments her fate and is portrayed as a victim to outside circumstances. Her passionate song involves us strongly. There is, at the same time, an irony that is crucial but that can be perceived only by suspending our involvement. Our judgment is in constant tension with the vision of Oenone as a completely innocent victim. Paris had to choose among Hera, Pallas Athena, and Venus as "the most fair". Oenone hoped that he would choose either Hera's offer or Pallas' better promise of 'Self-reverence, self- knowledge, self-control'. But swayed by venereal beauty and erotic desire, he chose Venus's gift of the fairest and most loving wife in Greece'. At this she is dominated by her emotions in the same way Paris is dominated by his own. Her actions are closer to those of Aphrodite, the goddess that Oenone competes against for Paris's affection. Oenone's surrender to her emotions begins to look like that of her ostensible betrayer. Thus, we see her as something other than a simple victim of Paris or the arbitrary power of the goddesses. She is also victimized by her own passion, perhaps finally by the absurdity and irrationality that rule in human affairs. Ironically, she too has been denied the gift of 'self-reverence, self knowledge self-control".

Paris

Paris was the Trojan prince. He fell in love with the mountain nymph, Oenone. They got married and lived in the most perfect tenderness. But their conjugal bliss was soon disturbed. At the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, he had to choose among Hera, Pallas Athena, and Venus as "the most fair". Oenone hoped that he would choose either Hera's offer of "royal power, ample rule / Unquestioned, overflowing revenue/ Wherewith to embellish state" or Pallas' better promise of "Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self- control". But swayed by venereal beauty and erotic desire, he chose Venus's gift of the fairest and most loving wife in Greece'. Since each of the goddesses proffers to Paris a means of his own self- aggrandizement, they are really bribing him and corrupting the ideal of a disinterested judgment turning solely upon reason and merit. Yet among several alternatives in life, a most loving wife could be a wise decision for a man to make and could lead to his greatest happiness. Paris's selecting Aphrodite and a loving wife, however, illustrates the ambiguity of circumstances in which he had to make choices. His selecting Aphrodite fills Oenone's life with sorrows and sufferings.

Dramatic Monologue

Although dramatic monologue has very few features of a drama, it is not a component in a play. It is a lyric poem which is believed to be perfected by Robert Browning. However, it is dramatic because it begins abruptly and in the development of its thought it takes several sudden turns which impart dramatic dimension to the poem. In this poem, a single speaker speaks throughout the entire poem in a specific situation, especially at a critical moment. The speaker should necessary not be the poet himself though the speaker often gives out the poet's beliefs and philosophy. The speaker addresses and interacts with an audience consists of a single person or more other people. The listeners' presence can be understood from the clues we find in the speaker's words. The words of the speaker of this lyric poem is chosen and organized in such an interesting way that they reveal the speaker's temperament and character. This revelation leads the readers to probe deep into the psyche of the speaker. For this reason, a dramatic monologue is said to be psycho-analytical or soul- dissecting. Therefore, a dramatic monologue is a kind of poem which comprises lyrical strains, abrupt beginning, single speaker, silent listener or listeners, psychological analysis and so on.

"Oenone" as dramatic monologue

"Oenone" is the simplest dramatic monologue of Alfred Tennyson having some substantial aspects to be categorized under the genre of dramatic monologue. Oenone, a single person, speaks throughout the poem lamenting her fate and telling her story. We can understand from the speaker's words the presence of a silent listener or listeners. She describes how her spouse chooses among Hera, Pallas Athena, and Venus as "the most fair". Swayed by venereal beauty and erotic desire, he chose Venus's gift of "the fairest and most loving wife in Greece". Though the dominant current of the poem is Oenone's lament, a passionate song that involves us strongly, there is, at the same time, an inner contradiction that is crucial but that can be perceived only by suspending our involvement. This psychological aspect elevates the poem to the level of a successful dramatic monologue. Oenone is dominated by her emotions in the same way Paris is dominated by his own. Her actions are closer to those of Aphrodite, the goddess that Oenone competes against for Paris's affection. Her speech reveals her jealousy and possessiveness. The poem "Oenone" is a passionate lyric. It is, therefore, evident that "Oenone" is a dramatic monologue though its beginning is not so startling and it lacks psychological probing.

Short Notes Oenone

The moral message of the poem "Oenone"

In this poem, Oenone, a mountain nymph who is Paris's beloved, recounts the events. We hear each goddess advances the arguments for the attribute which she represents: power, wisdom, and beauty. Tennyson as a poet does not emphasize the decision that Paris should have made for wisdom and self-control instead of for beauty. The commentary occurs in the jealous and psychologically valid interior monologue of Oenone. War and the sacking of Troy by the Greeks is, of course, the outcome that the ending of the poem foreshadows but does not state. While the flaw in Paris's decision may seem obvious, we should not overlook the symbolic significance that the myth gives to the necessity of choices in human life and to the fact that such choices always bear consequences which can be fatal to individuals and to society. Moreover, the title character Oenone represents the absolute contrary of the self-control, self-knowledge and self-reverence that characterizes the main message of the Idylls. Her actions in letting her emotions control her is similar to the actions that Paris, her betrayer, committed. She, like him, is a victimiser to herself. When he refuses, she is dominated by her emotions in the same way Paris is dominated by his own. Her actions are closer to those of Aphrodite, the goddess that Oenone competes against for Paris's affection. Thus, the poem teaches the fatal consequence of excessive passion.

The gifts that each goddess - Athena, Aphrodite and Hera

In this poem, Oenone, a mountain nymph who is Paris's beloved, recounts the events. We hear each goddess advances the arguments for the attribute which she represents: power, wisdom, and beauty. Each of them tries to bribe Paris with the gift of power, wisdom and beauty respectively. Oenone hopes that Paris would choose either Hera's offer of "royal power, ample rule / Unquestioned, overflowing revenue/ Wherewith to embellish state" or Pallas' better promise of 'Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control'. But swayed by venereal beauty and erotic desire, he chose Venus's gift of "the fairest and most loving wife in Greece". Paris accorded the apple to Aphrodite, abandoned Oenone. Here Tennyson as a poet does not underline the decision that Paris should have made for wisdom and self-control instead of for beauty. The commentary occurs in the jealous and psychologically valid interior monologue of Oenone. War and the sacking of Troy by the Greeks is, of course, the outcome that the ending of the poem foreshadows but does not state. While the flaw in Paris's decision may seem obvious, we should not overlook the symbolic significance that the myth gives to the necessity of choices in human life and to the fact that such choices always bear consequences which can be fatal to individuals and to society.

Human passion in "Oenone"

In "Oenone" Tennyson deals first with the imaginative treatment of the landscape. Human interest, human passion, must be greater than Nature, and dominate the subject. Indeed, all this lovely scenery is nothing in comparison with the sorrow and love of Oenone, recalling her lost love in the places where once she lived in joy. This is the main humanity of the poem. But there is more. Her common sorrow is lifted almost into the proportions of Greek tragedy by its cause and by its results. It is caused by a quarrel in Olympus, and the mountain nymph is sacrificed without a thought to the vanity of the careless gods. That is an ever-recurring tragedy in human history. Moreover, the personal tragedy deepens when we see the fateful dread in Oenone's heart that she will, far away, in time hold her lover's life in her hands, and refuse to give it back to him--a fatality that Tennyson treated before he died. Despite this classical theme the tone is consistently modern, as may be gathered from the philosophy of the speech of Pallas, and from the tender yielding nature of Oenone. There is no hint here of the vindictive resentment which the old classical writers, would have associated with her grief. Thus, Tennyson instils human interest or human passion in the poem.

Symbolism in "Oenone"

In many of the classical poems on which Tennyson worked during the years following Hallam's death, the period known as the Ten Years' Silence, the presence of either Troy or Thebes is used symbolically to corroborate the relationship of personal and social, and to point the far-reaching implications of personal actions and decisions. "Oenone," for example, is pervaded with a consciousness of the impending fall of Troy, an event which occurs as a direct result of the choice amongst the three goddesses Paris makes in the poem; for Aphrodite is offering him Helen, wife of Menelaus, whose abduction by Paris precipitated the Trojan war. The background of the fall of Troy remains constant throughout the many revisions of "Oenone." It is wholly characteristic of Tennyson that he should present intimations of a major social disaster from the viewpoint of an individual who is powerless to do anything about it, an innocent bystander whose personal tragedy is only part of a larger tragedy, but while Oenone's life weariness may well be both a projection of Tennyson's temperamental melancholy and a dramatization of his lifelong political pessimism, the symbolic aura of the city of Troy extends Oenone's emotions into a broader social context. The visual climax of the poem's opening is thus, appropriately, the poem's climactic symbol.

Oenone as an innocent victim

In the poem, Oenone laments her fate and is portrayed as a victim to outside circumstances. However, her actions in letting her emotions control her is similar to the actions that Paris, her betrayer, committed; she, like him, is a victimiser to herself. The refrain, "Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die", reveals Oenone's imprisonment to both the situation she finds herself in and to her emotions. When Paris is offered "self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control" by Pallas, Oenone cries out for him to accept the gifts above the others. When he refuses, she is dominated by her emotions in the same way Paris is dominated by his own. Instead, her actions are closer to those of Aphrodite, the goddess that Oenone competes against for Paris's affection. The jealousy and possessiveness of Oenone is similar to other goddesses who were angered by Paris for denying gift of the golden fruit. Oenone's surrender to her emotions begins to look like that of her ostensible betrayer. Thus, we see her as something other than a simple victim of Paris or the arbitrary power of the goddesses. She is also victimized by her own passion, perhaps finally by the absurdity and irrationality that rule in human affairs.