Oh Brother Where Art Thou Comparison to the Odyssey
O' Brother, Where Fine art Thousand? A Coen Brothers Odyssey
I am a man of constant sorrow,
I've seen trouble all my solar day
I bid good day to old Kentucky,
The place where I was built-in and raised-O' Brother Where Art Yard
"Be potent, saith my heart; I am a soldier;
I have seen worse sights than this."
― Homer, The Odyssey
In this piece, I set out to discuss the similarities and differences betwixt the Coens' O' Brother, Where Art Thou and Homer'southward The Odyssey. "Sing to me O Muse . . . ", the line at the beginning of the film, is the first line of the Odyssey and the credits land that it is adjusted from Homer's The Odyssey. But just how closely does the film's narrative necktie into the Greek poet's tale? And, if you're woendering where the title for the Coen Brothers film comes from, well the championship of the film is related to the Preston Sturges film "Sullivan's Travels," released in 1941 and non the Odyssey. Before I dive into the similarities of the two texts, I believe that it is best to requite a summary about the tale of the Odyssey:
First off, The Odyssey is in fact a sequel; to Homer'southward Iliad (yes, an I know that sequels aren't equally good every bit the original piece of text but in this case, this is an example of the sequel being amend than the original). The poem mainly focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus (known as Ulysses in Roman myths), king of Ithaca, and his journey dwelling after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to accomplish Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absenteeism, 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 home, Odysseus encounters beautiful sirens who lure his coiffure to decease, 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' Brother Where Art Chiliad, which was a pleasant surprise. Withal, this realisation did non make my task any easier! There were in fact more than than I actually first realised, and sadly I can't list them all in peachy detail or else this would make for a very long article! Instead I want to focus on the main plot points in the picture show and compare them to the verse form; so nosotros can analyse the similarities between the texts.
Kickoff off I want to discuss the primary grapheme of both O' Brother Where Art K and the Odyssey. The Coens' movie follows the character of Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), who is returning home after escaping from incarceration in Mississippi during the Cracking Depression. He is chained to 2 other prisoners, slow-witted Delmar (Tim Blake Neslon) and hot-tempered Pete (John Turturro), so the three must escape together.
Equally previously mentioned the Roman's proper name for Odysseus was Ulysses, and the character of Odysseus has the same personality and characteristics as Clooney's character in O' 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 fifty-fifty if sometimes their own selfish needs for attending identify others at risks. Perhaps the most obvious difference in the two versions of the story is the fact that Odysseus is a famous king and warrior, while Everett aka Ulysses is a convicted con man who has escaped prison. Odysseus is oft forthright about his identity and purpose, unless he is absolutely required to lie, while Everett tends to operate in the reverse fashion. Normally, he is lying, unless information technology is absolutely necessary to tell the truth. Both characters are big-headed and self-centered, only Odysseus assumes his status as rex and soldier provides him this correct, while Everett simply assumes a high condition, with little reason or justification. The pride of both characters is fabricated manifest through the presentation their captious nature. Information technology is also worth mentioning that the name, Odysseus' means "problem" in Greek, referring to bother you once again the giving and receiving of trouble—as is often the case in his wanderings trouble by name, trouble by nature!
A good instance 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's mast just so he can hear the siren's song, despite knowing that the sirens' song is so powerful that it can bulldoze men crazy, this is simply because our hero wants to be the only man alive to boast that he'southward heard the siren's song and has managed to survive the meet. In O' Brother Where Art Thou it is Everett who addresses the three siren like women washing wearing apparel abreast 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 carelessness their "quest" and beingness past the water, they are substantially lure them to a metaphorical watery grave. Although the characters in the Coen's moving-picture show have a amend fate than Odysseus men, and luckily wake upward from their hypnotism to speedily go dorsum on their journey.
Sure small-scale and supporting characters which appear throughout the pic are similar to the characters featured in the Odyssey. Homer (the blind poet himself) makes an "appearance" as the blind radio man who records the Soggy Bottom Boys song, "Man of Abiding Sorrow". Another character to mention would exist George "Baby Face" Nelson tin be seen as an estimation of Hermes the Greek God of thieves. Babe Face up Nelson was a famous bank robber of the low era, therefore a thief. Perhaps one of the near recognisable characters from the poem and the near memorable in the motion-picture show is the Cyclops who is represented past the character of Big Dan Teague (John Goodman) who has ane eye, just like the Cyclops. In the poem, Odysseus and his men are captured past the cyclops who wishes to consume them. The hero escapes by blinding the cyclops which is a similar fate that occurs to Large Dan, and by disguising themselves equally sheep. Ulysses, Pete and Delmar terminate up dressing like members of the KKK in club to escape from Large Dan. Thankfully, our merry band of heroes manages to escape the evil clutches of the Klan and continue on their journey.
Both the Odyssey and O'Brother finish in a similar way. Throughout the poem, Odysseus is driven by the need to get home afterwards discovering his married woman is beingness forced to remarry. A group of 100 potential suitors have arrived at Odysseus dwelling, and are refusing to leave until Penelope picks a husband. In the case of O'Brother, the grapheme of Vernon T. Waldrip (Ray McKinnon) is courting Penny (Holly Hunter) while Everett has been abroad. In order to confront his wife, Everett dresses as a hobo, which is the same upshot that occurs in Odyssey. In the film, the men launch into "Man of Abiding Sorrow", which gains Penny's attention and she watches every bit the entire audience rises to its feet and cheers, recognizing them as the elusive Soggy Lesser Boys.
In the Odyssey, our hero decides to take on the challenge that Penelope has prepare out for the suitors in order to win her paw: the homo who tin can cord the bow and shoot it through a dozen axe heads would win. Odysseus takes part in the contest himself: he lonely is strong plenty to cord the bow and shoot information technology through the dozen axe heads, making him the winner. The difference between the texts is the amount of violence, in the poem Odysseus slaughters the suitors, only O'Brother doesn't show Everett slaughtering Vernon, which is probably a practiced thing as the tone of the film would be seriously effected by this human action. Both the poem and the motion picture ends happily, with the family beingness reconnected, and the main heroes have developed every bit an private, and ultimately become a better man.
What makes O'Brother so good, is the fact that the Coen'southward accept inspiration from the Odyssey but put their ain spin on the tale, and create something which is unique but too is quite faithful to the original text. It is a great film which hopefully promotes the verse form which information technology is based loosely upon, and brings information technology to a new generation. The Coen's appreciation for the Greek myths and the films/stories that have come before is what sets them autonomously from other filmmakers, and that's why I dearest them! So, I have reached the end of my essay, so I will stop on one of my favourite quotes from the Odyseey "There is a time for many words, and there is also a fourth dimension for slumber."
Author: Bianca Garner
Source: https://filmotomy.com/o-brother-where-art-thou-a-coen-brothers-odyssey/#:~:text=The%20difference%20between%20the%20texts,seriously%20effected%20by%20this%20act.
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