The Growth of Telemachus

Extract

Although Telemachus is not the chief character of the Odyssey, his part in the plot is of considerable importance, and in one way he seems to be unique. For he is, perhaps, the only character in Greek literature who shows any development. All the other people who appear in Homer are already fully grown and, as characters, static. For in an epic it is the story which is of first importance, and the people can be adequately described by one major trait. In Greek tragedy, also, where no doubt character is of greater moment and occupies a larger proportion of the whole, we never see the characters growing as time passes. For there was a continual obstacle to the development of character on the tragic stage from a rather unexpected quarter—the Chorus. As H. C. Baldry says, ‘Because of the chorus, a fifth-century tragedy could not easily be a serial drama, leaping from incident to incident and place to place… such plays leave no scope for the development of character. The hero's nature may be revealed to the audience step by step, but in most of the extant tragedies it does not change.’