Similarities Between O Brother Where Art Thou and the Odyssey
O' Brother, Where Art Thou? A Coen Brothers Odyssey
I am a human of constant sorrow,
I've seen problem all my mean solar day
I bid farewell to old Kentucky,
The place where I was born and raised-O' Brother Where Fine art Thou
"Be potent, saith my heart; I am a soldier;
I take seen worse sights than this."
― Homer, The Odyssey
In this piece, I fix out to hash out the similarities and differences between the Coens' O' Blood brother, Where Art One thousand and Homer's The Odyssey. "Sing to me O Muse . . . ", the line at the beginning of the flick, is the start line of the Odyssey and the credits state that it is adapted from Homer'southward The Odyssey. But just how closely does the picture show'southward narrative necktie into the Greek poet'due south tale? And, if you're woendering where the title for the Coen Brothers picture show comes from, well the title of the film is related to the Preston Sturges film "Sullivan's Travels," released in 1941 and not the Odyssey. Before I dive into the similarities of the two texts, I believe that it is best to give a summary about the tale of the Odyssey:
First off, The Odyssey is in fact a sequel; to Homer's Iliad (aye, an I know that sequels aren't as practiced as the original slice of text but in this example, this is an instance of the sequel beingness better than the original). The poem mainly focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus (known as Ulysses in Roman myths), rex of Ithaca, and his journey habitation afterward the fall of Troy. Information technology takes Odysseus 10 years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is causeless Odysseus has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors, who are seeking her hand in marriage. Upon his journey abode, Odysseus encounters beautiful sirens who lure his crew to death, a cyclops who wants to kill him and a lotus found which when digested causes amnesia.
At present upon researching, I discovered an abundance of references to The Odyssey throughout O' Brother Where Art Yard, which was a pleasant surprise. Still, this realisation did not brand my job whatever easier! There were in fact more than than I actually get-go realised, and sadly I can't listing them all in swell detail or else this would make for a very long commodity! Instead I want to focus on the main plot points in the moving-picture show and compare them to the verse form; then we can analyse the similarities between the texts.
First off I want to discuss the primary grapheme of both O' Brother Where Art K and the Odyssey. The Coens' flick follows the character of Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), who is returning dwelling house after escaping from incarceration in Mississippi during the Great Depression. He is chained to 2 other prisoners, dull-witted Delmar (Tim Blake Neslon) and hot-tempered Pete (John Turturro), so the 3 must escape together.
As previously mentioned the Roman'south name for Odysseus was Ulysses, and the character of Odysseus has the same personality and characteristics as Clooney's graphic symbol in O' Blood brother Where Fine art Thou. 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 even if sometimes their own selfish needs for attending place others at risks. Perchance the near obvious difference in the ii versions of the story is the fact that Odysseus is a famous king and warrior, while Everett aka Ulysses is a convicted con homo who has escaped prison. Odysseus is oft forthright about his identity and purpose, unless he is admittedly required to prevarication, while Everett tends to operate in the opposite manner. Normally, he is lying, unless it is admittedly 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 loftier condition, with fiddling reason or justification. The pride of both characters is fabricated manifest through the presentation their fastidious nature. It is also worth mentioning that the name, Odysseus' ways "trouble" in Greek, referring to carp y'all once more the giving and receiving of trouble—every bit is often the case in his wanderings trouble past name, trouble by nature!
A practiced instance of how similar these ii heroes are is in the post-obit scenes. In the Odyssey, Odysseus requests that his men tie him to the ship'southward mast only then he can hear the siren's vocal, despite knowing that the sirens' song is then powerful that it can drive men crazy, this is merely because our hero wants to be the only human alive to boast that he's heard the siren's song and has managed to survive the encounter. In O' Brother Where Art Thou it is Everett who addresses the iii siren similar women washing clothes beside the river, he talks on the behalf of the group and accepts their alcohol. The women'south song distracts the men and causes them to temporarily abandon their "quest" and being past the water, they are essentially lure them to a metaphorical watery grave. Although the characters in the Coen'south moving picture have a improve fate than Odysseus men, and luckily wake upward from their hypnotism to quickly go dorsum on their journeying.
Sure small and supporting characters which announced throughout the film are like to the characters featured in the Odyssey. Homer (the blind poet himself) makes an "appearance" as the blind radio human who records the Soggy Bottom Boys song, "Human being of Constant Sorrow". Another character to mention would be George "Babe Face" Nelson can be seen as an estimation of Hermes the Greek God of thieves. Baby Face Nelson was a famous bank robber of the depression era, therefore a thief. Perhaps one of the most recognisable characters from the poem and the most memorable in the film is the Cyclops who is represented past the character of Big Dan Teague (John Goodman) who has i eye, just like the Cyclops. In the poem, Odysseus and his men are captured by the cyclops who wishes to eat them. The hero escapes by blinding the cyclops which is a similar fate that occurs to Big Dan, and by 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 continue on their journeying.
Both the Odyssey and O'Brother cease in a similar fashion. Throughout the poem, Odysseus is driven by the need to get abode subsequently discovering his wife is existence forced to remarry. A group of 100 potential suitors have arrived at Odysseus home, and are refusing to leave until Penelope picks a husband. In the instance of O'Brother, the character of Vernon T. Waldrip (Ray McKinnon) is courting Penny (Holly Hunter) while Everett has been away. In order to confront his wife, Everett dresses every bit a hobo, which is the same outcome that occurs in Odyssey. In the motion-picture show, the men launch into "Man of Constant Sorrow", which gains Penny'south attention and she watches equally the entire audience rises to its feet and cheers, recognizing them as the elusive Soggy Bottom Boys.
In the Odyssey, our hero decides to take on the challenge that Penelope has set out for the suitors in order to win her manus: the human being who can string the bow and shoot it through a dozen axe heads would win. Odysseus takes part 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 deviation betwixt the texts is the amount of violence, in the poem Odysseus slaughters the suitors, but O'Brother doesn't show Everett slaughtering Vernon, which is probably a expert thing equally the tone of the movie would be seriously effected by this act. Both the poem and the motion picture ends happily, with the family unit existence reconnected, and the main heroes accept adult as an individual, and ultimately become a better man.
What makes O'Blood brother so adept, is the fact that the Coen's take inspiration from the Odyssey but put their ain spin on the tale, and create something which is unique just also is quite faithful to the original text. It is a great motion picture which hopefully promotes the verse form which it 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 honey them! And so, I have reached the end of my essay, and then I volition end on one of my favourite quotes from the Odyseey "There is a time for many words, and there is as well a time for sleep."
Author: Bianca Garner
Source: https://filmotomy.com/o-brother-where-art-thou-a-coen-brothers-odyssey/
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