Sisyphus lives an absurd life. He fights against the gods. He attempts to cheat death, destroying the natural end that the gods made for us. However, in the end, this life accomplishes nothing. Indeed, Sisyphus did fight the gods themselves, but his efforts bore no fruits. He was then punished to live in a scenario where again, no reward comes from his suffering. Doomed to push a boulder up a mountain, only for it to fall back down, Sisyphus cannot leave this monotony for eternity. Albert Camus, brilliant writer, and author of the philosophical essay The Myth of Sisyphus, argues that one can only imagine Sisyphus to be happy. In that single moment, that single pause, where Sisyphus reaches the top only for the boulder to fall back is the …show more content…
In his book, Existentialism and Human Emotions, Jean-Paul Sartre argues that man is “condemned to be free.” Friedrich Nietzsche, proprietor of the phrase “God is dead,” would likely agree. Because man is so radically free, man is doomed to find his own purpose and lot in life. With no God, no higher power, no magical fateweaver to lead us along, man must spend his entire life searching for that fate, becoming his own higher power. Man, unlike any tool used for labor, is born without any plan in place, no notion of any guiding force to lead us. In this vein, the only logical viewpoint of Sisyphus is that he must be happy. No other outcome could possibly exist from his punishment. While Sisyphus may be destined to do the same absurd work, over and over, without any form of reprieve, he has the benefit of being a “tool.” He knows his purpose, it was given to him by something beyond our mortal understanding. He, like a hammer destined to hammer a nail, is locked into his fate. Thus, he can find enlightenment in his undertaking. Unlike the rest of us, Sisyphus is not so incredibly free, not “condemned to be free.” In avoiding this condemnation, Sisyphus can truly find
Because Sisyphus betrayed “divine secrets to mortals”, he was sentenced to continuously rolling a stone up a hill and when it came down, he would have to roll it up again for an eternity. “We have the picture of meaningless, pointless toil, of a meaningless existence that is absolutely never redeemed” (Taylor p 20). Sisyphus struggle cannot even be redeemed through death or exhaustion. His sentenced is irreversible and there is no way out of this depressing and dark life. There is absolutely no hope for him, just more of the same. His reality is his nightmare that he can not be awoken
In this long narrative poem, Odysseus changes from being disrespectful to the gods by explicitly saying that he doesn’t need them, to longing forgiveness later by stating that he is nothing without them. After the success with the Trojan Horse, Odysseus considered himself higher than the gods because he, a mortal, was able to accomplish something even the gods couldn’t. He boasted to Poseidon and the others about how he is overpowering, and how his power and abilities were far beyond their limits. His epic boasting to the gods had lead him to create his own obstacles as, he is one who essentially was the cause. This disrespectful attitude is the personality which shows how Odysseus behaved at the beginning of the story. It not only demonstrates what he was once like, but how his obstacles get much more precarious. As this is the attitude in the beginning, by the end of this epic, Odysseus understands the value of gods and their power, even if it’s for good or bad. At the end of book twenty-two, page 1160, on lines 107-109, Odysseus finally accepts the fact that he is not the biggest thing
Odysseus encountered many hardships, yet still continued to try to get back home. A great example of this was when he was on Calypso’s island. Calypso gave him the choice of staying with her forever in exchange for eternal life. This would mean not being able to go back to Penelope and his kingdom. Rather than being lazy and taking the easy road, Odysseus chose to continue on his journey back home. This also applied in The Alchemist. Santiago never stoped even when life gave him “lemons”. Instead he took those lemons and made lemonade with them and drank it. An example of this was when his money was stolen by a thief. Yes, he was discouraged, but he kept going and persevered and used the situation as a learning
“Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame on us gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given,” (1.32-34) is a simple quote reminding us the entities in charge of all characters in the poem The Odyssey – the gods. Hubris, or excessive human pride, is most detested by the gods and likewise is most punishable by them. The Odyssey is a story about Odysseus and Telemachus, two heroes who throughout their adventures meet new people and face death many times. Telemachus goes to find his father after he learns from Athena that he is still alive. The two meet, and Odysseus attempts to go back to Ithaca after he was lost at sea, and on his way there becomes one of the most heroic characters in literature as we know it. Like all heroic characters, Odysseus began to display hubris as he learned how true of a hero he was. James Wyatt Cook, a historian and an expert on The Odyssey, wrote about how hubris can affect the characters that display it. He says, “Because Homer’s Odyssey is essentially comic, that episode [opened wind bag destroys ship] is only one of a series of setbacks Odysseus experiences before reaching his home in Ithaca and recovering his former kingdom and his family. Such, however, is not the case for those who display hubris with tragic outcomes.” (Cook 1) Initially, Odysseus learns about Aias who died as a cause of the excessive pride he portrays. Proteus warns Odysseus when he says, “…and Aias would have escaped doom, though Athena hated him, had he not gone widely mad and tossed outa word of defiance; for he said that in despite of the gods he escaped the great gulf of the sea, and Poseidon heard him…...
Odysseus’ character is challenged in many ways throughout books 5 through 12. In some instances he holds strong, and in others he fails. His sense of adventure sometimes overwhelms him. The length of time Odysseus spends away from Ithaka also dilutes his desire to return, and possibly dilutes his desire to live. Under certain circumstances, any man can succumb to the evils to which he despises. A perfect example is Akhilleus in the Iliad. He started out an honorable man. With the death of his friend, he turns into a maniac who wants nothing but death for the enemy. Odysseus starts out wanting nothing but to return to his family and his homeland. Over the course of the many years away, this feeling dwindles and he is left with nothing but adventure to prolong his reason for living.
In the intricate and complex epic poem, “The Odyssey”, Odysseus’s main goal was to reach his home, Ithaca. Even though all of his thoughts were turned towards his family and home, he learns many lessons along the way. Odysseus's greatest learning experiences were in his journey, not his destination. The quote “the experiences of the voyage itself were more meaningful for Odysseus than his arrival home,” truly depicts that Odysseus’s experiences and confrontations with others throughout the journey contributes to his moral values and life lessons.
Sisyphus knows his fate. He to Because he has the opportunity and does rationalize his fate, he has consciousness. As the rock rolls back down, he is able to look back upon his life and analyze it. Nothing could be more existentialist. Sartre’s Garcin wants to meet his fate face to face. So, Sisyphus, embodies this desire of Garcin, and is thus a hero to him. Similarly, Charles Dickens’ scrooge has the unique opportunity to become an observer to his fate in the past, present and future. While Camus’ Meursault does not care about his past, he expresses the same feelings as scrooge and Garcin in their desire to confront their fate. Indeed, this is why they are every man and Sisyphus is our hero - he has and will always confront his fate. He has the conscious power to contemplate and control his fate. Therefore, if we know that everyone faces death as their fate, consciousness equals the ability to deal with ones fate.
These few instances of revenge: Orestes’ revenge on Aegisthus, Zeus’ revenge on Odysseus and his men, and Poseidon’s revenge on Odysseus in The Odyssey, lay the background for Odysseus’ story of struggle in his journey home from Troy. Revenge proves to be the main reason not only as to why Odysseus cannot return home, but also as a means of proving the importance of the gods’ role in the epic journey. Without these occurrences of the gods getting revenge on Odysseus and other mortals, there would be no passionate tales of the perseverance that Odysseus had in achieving his goal: getting home to Ithaca.
Taylor is careful to identify exactly which features of Sisyphus predicament account for the lack of meaning. He argues that the facts that Sisyphus task is both difficult and endless are irrelevant to its meaninglessness. What explains the meaninglessness of Sisyphus’s life is that all of his work amounts to nothing. One way that Sisyphus’s life could have meaning, Taylor proposes, is if something was produced of his struggles. For example, if the stone that he rolls were used to create something that would last forever then Sisyphus would have a meaningful life. Another separate way in which meaning might be made present is if Sisyphus had a strong compulsion for rolling the stone up the hill. Taylor points out, though, that even given this last option, Sisyphus’s life has not acquired an objectives meaning of life; there is still nothing gained besides the fact he just ...
Jean-Paul Sartre claims that there can be no human nature, or essence, without a God to conceive of it. This claim leads Sartre to formulate the idea of radical freedom, which is the idea that man exists before he can be defined by any concept and is afterwards solely defined by his choices. Sartre presupposes this radical freedom as a fact but fails to address what is necessary to possess the type of freedom which would allow man to define himself. If it can be established that this freedom and the ability to make choices is contingent upon something else, then freedom cannot be the starting point from which man defines himself. This leaves open the possibility of an essence that is not necessarily dependent upon a God to conceive it. Several inconsistencies in Sartre’s philosophy undermine the plausibility of his concept of human nature. The type of freedom essential for the ability to define oneself is in fact contingent upon something else. It is contingent upon community, and the capacity for empathy, autonomy, rationality, and responsibility.
...is how life in Odysseus’s world works and by the end of the epic, he has acknowledged this and accepted this fact of life.
In Homer’s Odyssey Odysseus shows his yearning for adventure and that challenging himself brings him happiness through his actions not his thoughts. Even in the clutches of a raging cyclopes Odysseus’ accepts the challenge at hand and persevere through the loss of some of his men. “My name is Nohbdy,” he tells Polyphemus who is drunk from the liquor Odysseus had given him before. The giant “reeled and tumbled backward,”. He son fell asleep and the next stages of his plan fell into place. When the sharpened log was hot enough for his liking he and a few other men “bored that great eye socket,”(380). Instead of letting his men die while he cracked under the pressure Odysseus remained calm and allowed himself to think. Having achieved his goal of defeating the mighty cyclopes he rejoiced in his valiancy. Odysseus exuded happiness when most of his men got out alive. Odysseus’ habits of getting his men into seemingly inescapable predicaments continues on the island of Cersei. At the gate of the witch’s island his need for adventure takes the best of his judgement. Against the advice of Eurylochus Odysseus “rushes to save his men from the enchantress,” (387). Odysseus’ need for thrill and excitement draws him onto the island. He knows that he will suffer the same fate but makes a decision in the heat of the moment that could've made him unable to return home, but he wasn’t thinking of home, he purely wanted to get his men back. Throughout his journey Odysseus perfectly represents the bond between a man’s adventures and the challenges they bring to
Several philosophers have made differing viewpoints regarding the outlook of life. Richard Taylor and Albert Camus are notably known for presenting their thoughts on whether life is meaningless or not through the use of the Greek myth of Sisyphus. The two philosopher’s underlying statement on the meaning of life is understood through the myth. The myth discusses the eternal punishment of Sisyphus who was condemned by the Gods to take a large boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down, forcing him to repeat this task endlessly. Each conceive the myth in their own way and ultimately end with a conclusion that differs from each other. Taylor’s ideals and his take on the meaning of life contrast with what Camus presents in his argument. While Taylor suggests that there is a subjective meaning to life, Camus states that life is ultimately meaningless.
When Sartre says, “We are left alone, without excuse. That is what I mean to say that man is condemned to be free” (Sartre 32), he is speaking of man’s autonomous life; which is human independence and freedom to will one’s actions. Because God, according to Sartre, did not create man we are self-creating. Through human intelligence comes essence, the intrinsic nature or indispensible quality of something, but essence only comes after human existence. Creating ones own essence allows man to be free because we create what we are, rather then our identities being given to us. The only guidance man gets is from themselves because man is left alone in the universe, which in-turn makes man responsible. Man has no one telling him what to do, there may be laws but they are man made and because they man made no one has true control over man.
He used the ancient myth of Sisyphus to explain the futility of human action, how ultimately all human struggle is useless. Nihilism was born of this idea, coming from the Latin word “Nil” meaning “nothing”; nihilism is a belief that rejects belief. Nihilism rejects moral and religious belief stating they are all equally wrong and futile beliefs. For those of us who deny the existence of a God or a set of Gods, it becomes surprisingly easy to fall into such a bleak belief. Without an omniscient power, where does moral authority and direction come from?