Pride Fueled Rage: Achilles

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Achilles, the hero and great warrior of the Trojan War, is son of the goddess Thetis and mortal Peleus. He is extremely courageous and has tremendous honor, within his character however, is a juxtaposing inherent flaw of pride entwined with anger. Is it a necessary pride? Do all heroes have this character flaw? In The Iliad, the anger of Achilles is presented from the first line, “ Rage: / Sing Goddess, Achilles’ rage / Black and murderous…” (Line 1-3; p. 107). Here Achilles’ anger is described as rage, a term suitable to describe the anger of a God. Throughout the poem we see the triggers that set Achilles’ rage in motion. Certainly we see that this pride is what drives his rage and need for vengeance. This rage defines Achilles and sets the theme of the epic work. He isolates himself because of his rage when he decides to spite his comrades by withdrawing from the war. He becomes a character that is dimensionally narrow-minded, and before the end the reader only witnesses mere instances of another side, yet it is this rage that makes him a great warrior. Achilles, although tremendously valiant in the face of danger, at times allows himself to be blinded by his hubris.
Achilles’ rage begins with “the clash between [he and] Agamemnon” (7; p.107). A plague has been cast upon the men because Agamemnon refused to return Chryseis to her father the humble priest Chryses. Ten years into the siege of Troy and ten days into the plague cast by Apollo, Hera planted a thought and Achilles decides to speak up. He and Agamemnon argue about returning the girl and even after Agamemnon decides that he will, Achilles still abuses him. It would seem that Achilles is harboring some ill feelings toward his commander calling him a “…greedy glory-hou...

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Achilles may have been the hero of The Iliad, but it is clear he was prone to the weakness of anger from his honor being challenged. His pride causes him to make bad choices, but equally this same pride is necessary in the heroic code, one has to prove himself a hero. Despite this, in the end he is quite changed. The death of Patroclus and his isolation has caused him to see the heroic code he has been living by in different light. He even gives the Trojans time to have a proper funeral for Hector. Achilles in the end is a different Achilles from the beginning of the tale, he has slowly returned to a civilized state and a more developed character.

Works Cited

Lawall, Sarah N. "The Iliad." The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 107-205. Print.

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