30. RANSOM: KEY QUOTES

‘He was waiting for the rage to fill him that would be equal at last to the
outrage he was committing. That would assuage his grief, and be so
convincing to the witnesses of this barbaric spectacle that he too might
believe there was a living man at the centre of it, and that man himself.’ (p.27)

Malouf suggests the divided nature of Achilles’ character here, his tremendous inner
conflict following the death of Patroclus, who is in some ways described as his ‘other
half’. The idea of an inconsolable grief that leads to barbaric acts is clearly portrayed,
as is the idea of war as a type of spectacle. The question of identity is posed,
whether or not Achilles himself can see a real man as responsible for such an
atrocity. This anticipates much of the suspense and tension as the reader speculates
about what type of reception Priam will receive from a man capable of such
barbarism.

‘What Priam is speaking of is a dream. Dreams are subtle, shifting, they are
meant to be read, not taken literally. Hidden away in what they appear to
present are signs that must be seized on by a mind that can see past mere
actualities to what hovers luminously beyond.’ (p.55)

The nature of dreams and visions is at the heart of Ransom, expressing the deep
yearnings and struggles of the characters, a connection that exists between both
Priam and Achilles. Priam’s dream/vision represents a way of penetrating what
appears to be the impenetrable reality of events such as war. The sense of a deeper
reality in human affairs, what was previously referred to as Priam’s discovery of the
role of chance in human affairs, is also suggested here.

‘I had experienced something I could never forget. What it means for your
breath to be in another’s mouth, to be one of those who have no story that will
ever be told.’ (p.75)

Priam recounts the unforgettable trauma of his own earlier experience of war and the
sack of Troy in which he was taken prisoner, disguised as a slave. Priam reflects on
the nature of having his identity stripped from him and being plunged into the
anonymous world of those whose stories will never be told. This experience clearly
marks Priam as an individual with a heightened sense of the need to have a clear
narrative of identity, to have that identity placed in a chronicle that can be told,
understood, recognised. This passage laments the absence of narrative
commemoration for the masses of people who never receive the recognition of
heroes or kings.

‘ “But the truth is, we don’t just lie down and die, do we sir? We go on. For all
our losses. But I’d’ve been walking around, strong as I am, with a broken
heart.” ’ (pp.131–132)

Somax expresses in uncanny fashion a philosophy of life that almost exactly mirrors
the ethic of persistence that is driving Priam to the camp of Achilles. The expression
of human endurance in the face of immense suffering becomes one of the novel’s
principal concerns. Somax articulates many of the central issues that Priam himself
embodies, but in a colloquial style. In this, he signals the legendary storyteller he is
later to become.


‘Look, he wants to shout, I am still here, but the I is different. I come as a man
of sorrow bringing the body of my son for burial, but I come also as a hero of
the deed that till now was never attempted.’ (p.209)

Priam’s triumph is described here, his transformation from a king back into a man,
with all the sense of achievement that an individual is capable of. This image is not
one of diminishment; on the contrary Priam voices this change from a king into ‘a
man of sorrow’ as the fulfilment of his vision of ‘bringing the body of his son for
burial’. What may seem an apparently simple act, burying a son, the reader of
course knows has taken on epic proportions which paradoxically have only been
made possible by Priam returning his self to the status of a mortal, ordinary being. All
the themes of transformation, identity, loss, chance and ordinary heroism are
suggested here.