In O Brother Where Art Thou Who Represents Hermes

O' Blood brother, Where Art Thou? A Coen Brothers Odyssey

I am a man of constant sorrow,
I've seen problem all my day
I bid good day to sometime Kentucky,
The place where I was born and raised

-O' Blood brother Where Art Thou

"Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier;

I take seen worse sights than this."

― Homer, The Odyssey

In this piece, I ready out to hash out the similarities and differences between the Coens' O' Brother, Where Fine art Yard and Homer'due south The Odyssey. "Sing to me O Muse . . . ", the line at the beginning of the movie, is the first line of the Odyssey and the credits state that it is adjusted from Homer's The Odyssey. Just just how closely does the motion picture'south narrative tie into the Greek poet'due south tale? And, if you lot're woendering where the title for the Coen Brothers moving-picture show comes from, well the title of the film is related to the Preston Sturges motion picture "Sullivan's Travels," released in 1941 and not the Odyssey.  Earlier I swoop into the similarities of the two texts, I believe that it is all-time to give a summary most the tale of the Odyssey:

First off, The Odyssey is in fact a sequel; to Homer'south Iliad (yes, an I know that sequels aren't every bit skilful as the original slice of text just in this instance, this is an example of the sequel being better than the original). The verse form mainly focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus (known every bit Ulysses in Roman myths), king of Ithaca, and his journey home later on the autumn of Troy. Information technology takes Odysseus ten years to achieve Ithaca after the ten-yr Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed Odysseus has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors, who are seeking her mitt in marriage. Upon his journeying dwelling house, Odysseus encounters beautiful sirens who lure his crew to death, a cyclops who wants to kill him and a lotus plant which when digested causes amnesia.

Now upon researching, I discovered an abundance of references to The Odyssey throughout O' Blood brother Where Fine art Thou, which was a pleasant surprise. However, this realisation did not make my job any easier! At that place were in fact more than I really first realised, and sadly I tin can't list them all in great particular or else this would make for a very long article! Instead I want to focus on the principal plot points in the pic and compare them to the poem; and so we can analyse the similarities betwixt the texts.

First off I want to discuss the chief grapheme of both O' Brother Where Art Thou and the Odyssey.  The Coens' picture follows the character of Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), who is returning domicile after escaping from incarceration in Mississippi during the Smashing Low. He is chained to two other prisoners, slow-witted Delmar (Tim Blake Neslon) and hot-tempered Pete (John Turturro), so the three must escape together.

As previously mentioned the Roman's name for Odysseus was Ulysses, and the graphic symbol of Odysseus has the same personality and characteristics as Clooney's graphic symbol in O' Brother Where Art 1000. Both men are cunning, quick-witted, fast-talking and reckless in their controlling, but they are loyal to their companions and they are likeable rogues fifty-fifty if sometimes their own selfish needs for attending place others at risks. Perhaps the about obvious deviation in the two versions of the story is the fact that Odysseus is a famous king and warrior, while Everett aka Ulysses is a bedevilled con man who has escaped prison. Odysseus is oftentimes forthright well-nigh his identity and purpose, unless he is absolutely required to lie, while Everett tends to operate in the opposite mode. Normally, he is lying, unless it is absolutely necessary to tell the truth. Both characters are arrogant and self-centered, but Odysseus assumes his status as king and soldier provides him this right, while Everett just assumes a high status, with trivial reason or justification. The pride of both characters is made manifest through the presentation their fastidious nature. It is also worth mentioning that the name, Odysseus' means "trouble" in Greek, referring to bother you again the giving and receiving of trouble—equally is often the case in his wanderings trouble by name, trouble past nature!

A good example of how similar these two heroes are is in the following scenes. In the Odyssey, Odysseus requests that his men tie him to the ship'south mast but so he tin can hear the siren's vocal, despite knowing that the sirens' vocal is so powerful that information technology tin drive men crazy, this is but because our hero wants to exist the only homo alive to boast that he's heard the siren's song and has managed to survive the encounter. In O' Blood brother Where Art Thou it is Everett who addresses the iii siren like women washing dress beside the river, he talks on the behalf of the group and accepts their alcohol. The women'due south vocal distracts the men and causes them to temporarily abandon their "quest" and being by the water, they are essentially lure them to a metaphorical watery grave. Although the characters in the Coen'southward picture have a better fate than Odysseus men, and luckily wake upwardly from their hypnotism to quickly go back on their journeying.

Certain pocket-size and supporting characters which appear throughout the film are similar to the characters featured in the Odyssey.  Homer (the bullheaded poet himself) makes an "appearance" every bit the bullheaded radio man who records the Soggy Lesser Boys song, "Man of Constant Sorrow". Another character to mention would exist George "Baby Face" Nelson can be seen as an interpretation of Hermes the Greek God of thieves. Baby Face Nelson was a famous banking company robber of the depression era, therefore a thief. Perhaps one of the most recognisable characters from the poem and the nigh memorable in the film is the Cyclops who is represented past the character of Big Dan Teague (John Goodman) who has one center, but like the Cyclops. In the poem, Odysseus and his men are captured by the cyclops who wishes to consume them. The hero escapes by blinding the cyclops which is a similar fate that occurs to Big Dan, and past disguising themselves as sheep. Ulysses, Pete and Delmar end up dressing like members of the KKK in order to escape from Big Dan. Thankfully, our merry band of heroes manages to escape the evil clutches of the Klan and keep on their journeying.

Both the Odyssey and O'Blood brother cease in a similar style. Throughout the verse form, Odysseus is driven by the demand to get home after discovering his wife is existence forced to remarry. A group of 100 potential suitors accept arrived at Odysseus home, and are refusing to get out until Penelope picks a married man. In the example of O'Brother, the character of Vernon T. Waldrip (Ray McKinnon) is courting Penny (Holly Hunter) while Everett has been away. In gild to confront his married woman, Everett dresses every bit a hobo, which is the aforementioned event that occurs in Odyssey. In the motion picture, the men launch into "Human of Constant Sorrow", which gains Penny's attention and she watches as the entire audience rises to its anxiety and cheers, recognizing them as the elusive Soggy Bottom Boys.

In the Odyssey, our hero decides to take on the claiming that Penelope has ready out for the suitors in order to win her hand: the man who can string the bow and shoot it through a dozen axe heads would win. Odysseus takes function in the competition himself: he alone is strong enough to string the bow and shoot it through the dozen axe heads, making him the winner. The departure betwixt the texts is the amount of violence, in the poem Odysseus slaughters the suitors, but O'Brother doesn't bear witness Everett slaughtering Vernon, which is probably a good thing as the tone of the moving-picture show would be seriously effected by this act. Both the poem and the film ends happily, with the family unit of measurement beingness reconnected, and the main heroes have developed as an individual, and ultimately become a better human.

What makes O'Brother and then good, is the fact that the Coen's take inspiration from the Odyssey but put their own spin on the tale, and create something which is unique but as well is quite faithful to the original text. It is a cracking moving-picture show which hopefully promotes the poem which information technology is based loosely upon, and brings it to a new generation. The Coen's appreciation for the Greek myths and the films/stories that have come before is what sets them apart from other filmmakers, and that's why I love them! So, I accept reached the end of my essay, so I will cease on one of my favourite quotes from the Odyseey "There is a time for many words, and there is also a fourth dimension for sleep."

Author: Bianca Garner

Related Articles

• 

zhengsiging.blogspot.com

Source: https://filmotomy.com/o-brother-where-art-thou-a-coen-brothers-odyssey/

Share this post