The Mortality in Immortality in Tithonus by Tennyson - Book Report/Review Example

The Mortality in Immortality in Tennyson’s “Tithonus” As long as mortality is in immortality, immortality is useless. Tennyson’s “Tithonus” laments figurative death in immortality. The poem is a dramatic monologue that effectively explores the conflict between desire and reality. Tithonus gets what he desires the most, but when he becomes undesirable, he understands the shortcomings of immortality. He is an immortal in a mortal’s body, a paradox that kills his will to live. Tennyson uses non-rhymed iambic pentameter with language, alliteration, enjambment, and conceit, to describe Tithonus’ deep regret for immortality because of the dramatic irony that mortality resides in immortality, for the quantity of life does not cause its quality. Tennyson uses language, specifically repetition, alliteration, and grammatical division, to exhort the lamentations of a blessed curse. The first four lines depict the limitations of mortality. Mortality ends with an ugly, unattractive death: “The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,/The vapours weep their burthen to the ground” (Tennyson 1-2). The repetition of the “wood” emphasizes the natural cycle of life, where old age reflects the physical aspect of immortal living, which is decaying, and death results to the burial of the flesh, which is the continued stage of physical decay. After repetition, alliteration follows the words “wood” and “weep,” “summer” and “swan.” Tennyson compares the death of animals and humans: “Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,/And after many a summer dies the swan” (Tennyson 3-4). The wood makes Tithonus weep because it is precisely this consequence of mortality that he wishes to banish. He wants to be a swan in summer forever, not a man, who, one day, will fertilize the fields. Wienfield explores the meaning of the grammatical division in the first stanza of the poem (360). He describes the purpose of combining the lamentation for mortality and immortality: “…within the space of a few lines a lament for mortality should merge with a lament for immortality, as if there were no contradiction and the two were one and the same” (Wienfield 360). Mortality and immortality are the same because mortality can exist within immortality. These two opposing conditions of existence are similar because mortality and immortality both have drawbacks: “Me only cruel immortality” (Wienfield 5). Instead of using “I,” “me” is used to suggest not agency, but the object of the actions of others because as he grows old and never dies, he realizes the lack of depth in his eternal life, where he accepts only what is given to him, without being given the opportunity to live a mortal life again. His immortal life is a curse for not seeing the beauty of dying, where people have the agency to live as they want to live before they die. Enjambment underscores the lack of appreciation for a mortal life, which Tithonus regrets. Youth must be enjoyed, not wasted because of immortality. Tithonus remembers his beauty that attracted the goddess Aurora: “Alas! for this gray shadow, once a man-/So glorious in his beauty and thy choice/Who madest him thy chosen, that he seemed/To his great heart none other than a God!” (Tennyson 11-14). His youth is his boon and bane, for because of it, he wanted more life, without realizing that life is in the present choices that make him happy. Increasing the length of life does not guarantee its happiness. Furthermore, Tithonus learns that being as immortal as the gods is insufficient to one’s happiness because wishes that cannot be reversed can have fatal consequences. The tears of Aurora seal the wish for immortality: “Why wilt thou ever scare me with thy tears,/And make me tremble lest a saying learnt,/In days far-off, on that dark earth, be true?/ ‘The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts’” (Tennyson 46-49). The enjambment highlights that because he did not appreciate his mortal life, he enjoys a gift that he no longer wants, but cannot return. Tithonus explores his regrets that he will ironically bewail, not until he dies, but as long as he lives. Since Tithonus becomes more appreciative of mortality, he feels resentful and unhappy of his immortality, for the longer he lives, the longer he dies. The hours of life used to be good, when Tithonus was once young. As an old man, the youth of others affront him: “And though they could not end me, left me maimed/To dwell in presence of immortal youth,/Immortal age beside immortal youth” (Tennyson 20-22). The repetition of the word “immortal” stresses the parallel between mortality and immortality that Tithonus pays for with the steep price of endless unhappiness. He lives on, but he dies further because his youth is more important to him than immortality. Tithonus could never have imagined that he can be an immortal who is dead inside. Tennyson highlights the inner coldness for a wasted life that Tithonus feels: “How can my nature longer mix with thine?/Coldly thy rosy shadows bathe me, cold/Are all thy lights, and cold my wrinkled feet” (65-67). He is cold because the warmth of youth surrounds him and makes him bitter. The envy for the youth he can never have and forever only witness exterminates his will to breathe. Moreover, the effect of the enjambment and meter is to produce a conversational pattern that allows readers to empathize with Tithonus. Mortals may not find it easy to empathize with a blundering immortal fool. Tennyson employs enjambment that makes it easier to read the monologue, as it seeks to relate to the troubles and joys of mortal being. He illustrates how Tithonus loves Aurora, who talks about his love: “Changed with thy mystic change, and felt my blood/Glow with the glow that slowly crimsoned all/…Mouth, forehead, eyelids, growing dewy-warm/With kisses balmier than half-opening buds” (Tennyson 55-56, 58-59). He changes when his love is present, and he forgets his anxieties, although temporarily, thereby reconnecting to the mortals whom he betrayed, when he asked for immortality. Aside from the enjambment, the iambic pentameter emphasizes love that springs from both mortal and immortal hearts. Tennyson humanizes the immortal with images of love: “Thy cheek begins to redden through the gloom,/Thy sweet eyes brighten slowly close to mine” (37-38). The stress on the cheek, redden, gloom, eyes, and mine are sweet words of love that people who have been in love can connect with. The impact of the enjambment and meter underlines that one does not have to be an immortal to feel and to enjoy the passions of loving and being loved back. Finally, Tennyson employs conceit to sharpen the difference between the quality and the quantity of human life. Time continues to flow for the aging Tithonus; he is dying while alive. Tennyson compares immortality to being consumed: “Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms” (6). Conceit shows that immortality is not about winning over the weaknesses of mortal life, but about recognizing that life ends because it must be lived, and Tithonus, he breathes forever, but he cannot choose to live anymore. The withering is not physical, but spiritual and emotional. Emotionally, he feels alienated from the human race. He is one of them, but he is not: “Why should a man desire in any way/To vary from the kindly race of men,/Or pass beyond the goal of ordinance/Where all should pause, as is most meet for all?” (Tennyson 28-31). He knows that he is ignorant for wanting to oppose human nature, when it is enough to bring him happiness. The thirst of immortality consumes him first, and then the thirst for mortality; hence, Tithonus never finds happiness because he missed the lesson of living a full life as one lives. The poem is written with iambic pentameter and enjambments to connect to mortal beings, especially those who feel that an eternal life is better than a mortal one. The cycle of human life, as well as general life, has a deep purpose and meaning. It is not the kind of meaning that will unravel across eternity because it does not have to. Tithonus realizes that happiness does not rely on the length of one’s life, but on the will to choose whatever that makes one truly happy. He does not want anyone else to feel what he feels, where he desires to be mortal again and to die because that is what life should be: to live as one lives, and to die as one dies. Works Cited Tennyson, Alfred. “Tithonus.” 1859. Web. 24 Mar. 2013. Weinfield, Henry. “’Of happy men that have the power to die’: Tennyson's ‘Tithonus.’” Victorian Poetry 47.2 (2009): 355-378. Web. 24 Mar. 2013. Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Read More