Research Paper

Casey Fortuna

Dr. Bondar

ENGLIT1175

6 Dec. 2019

“Tennyson’s ‘The Lotos Eaters:’ A Psychoactive Suicidal Fantasy”

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Lotos Eaters” presents a modern interpretation of Book 9 of Homer’s Odyssey. The section of the epic poem Tennyson plays on begins when Odysseus and his men arrive on the island of the lotus-eaters seeking relief from their naval journeys. But instead, the men who eat of the lotus flower refuse to leave the island. Their desire to remain with the lotus-eaters is so strong that the crewmen must be forcefully removed from the island. “The Lotos Eaters” provides a commentary on substance abuse, suicide, and the impacts of altered states of mind. Tennyson’s poem paints an ethereal dreamscape: a fragmented reality that alters physical space, revealing the malleable nature of the human perception of the universe.

Odysseus, the hero of Homer’s Odyssey, assumes a vastly different role in Tennyson’s poem; in fact, he hardly plays any role at all. True to its source material, Odysseus leads his crew to the land of the lotus-eaters, but that is where the similarities end. The fabled hero of the Trojan War barely speaks two lines of dialogue in the entire poem. His only contribution to Tennyson’s story takes place in the opening stanza, after which, his rebellious crewmen take center stage, and Odysseus seems to fade away in an anticlimactic fashion that is unfitting of his character. In an act of mutinous disobedience, all of Odysseus’s men refuse his orders to abandon the island. Their chorus song constitutes the vast majority of the poem, but rather than resolve the poetic tension or reach a satisfying conclusion, the men choose to remain in a liminal state, unable to act in any way. Their only action is their decision not to act. This revolt would ordinarily emphasize the crewmen’s autonomy and individuality as they stand against the rule of another. But these men are far from individuals: they sing in perfect unison and agree completely with one another (Fortuna nn12). None of these men has a name or any identity whatsoever. They are a collective, a hivemind, incapable of individual thought or action. These contradictory actions reveal the crewmen’s contradictory states of mind, leading to an inversion of social structure and an undermining of authority.

To understand Tennyson’s poem, it is crucial to first analyze the significance and underlying meanings of his landscapes. The landscape of the island of the lotus-eaters is described as a sleepy paradise: everything is described as lethargic; even the air itself “did swoon,/Breathing like one that hath a weary dream” (Tennyson 5-6). The gorgeous island is fruitful and invites the men to rest on its beckoning shore. But as dreamy as the landscape appears, it is far from a dream; Tennyson describes the scene with precise detail and clarity, drawing a stark contrast between the poem’s lulling meter with “hyper-realism.” Rosenburg discusses this thread of extreme precision throughout Tennyson’s works: “I know of no more uniquely Tennysonian effect than this uncanny hyper-clarity… To call such an effect ‘dreamlike…’ is misleading, for dreams suggest a blurring of outline, a hazy diffuseness which is the very opposite of Tennyson’s heightened precision” (Rosenburg 304). Rosenburg goes on to claim that the fantasies Tennyson designs are, due to their deliberately crafted subtlety, more ‘real’ than reality itself.

The fantasy, however, is undercut by the darkness lying below its dreamy appearance. The physical landscape itself serves as a metaphor for death: the crossing of the sea represents the human soul crossing over from the flesh to the afterlife (Fortuna nn17). Tennyson himself suffered from major depression following the death of his beloved friend, Arthur Hallam, which for young Tennyson was described as a “devastating bereavement” (Tennyson, Alfred. The Works), and often wrote about his struggles with intrusive suicidal thoughts. Odysseus urges his men forward, encouraging them to continue their journey home. But the crewmen have already made their choice: they are too weary to continue on. They look to the heavens and their guiding stars, which are repeatedly described as “dark” or “dull,” revealing their spiritual disconnect from God. If the island of the lotus-eaters is Tennyson’s depiction of hell, it is far more enticing then heaven. Even their fond memories of family are not enough to provide the men with the strength and motivation to leave. They convince themselves that their wives and children are, in fact, better off without them, explaining that “For surely now our household hearths are cold:/Our sons inherit us: our looks are strange:/And we should come like ghosts to trouble joy” (Tennyson 17-19). They justify their desire for eternal rest by making excuses for their selfish actions. The crewmen’s insatiable desire for peace, along with their loss of religious faith, clearly parallels an act of suicide.

On the other hand, “The Lotos Eaters” may not be an allegory for death or self-murder at all. Instead, Tennyson’s depiction of the hazy-eyed crewmen could be expressing Tennyson’s frustrations about his father’s opioid addiction, which left his family decimated. “This incident from The Odyssey,” Stevenson writes, “dramatizes the abdication of communal responsibility and the surrender to a delicious passivity… Thus it could be molded into a vehicle for the young poet’s multivalent feelings about his father’s and brother’s opium eating, about his increasing responsibility for a large, unruly family, and about his growing awareness of the need to reevaluate his Romantic heritage” (119). There are two different versions of “The Lotos Eaters.” The original poem, published in 1833, did not contain the sixth stanza nor the final stanza. Grob presents an argument that supports Stevenson’s claim that the later 1842 version of the text places a greater emphasis on the importance of interpersonal responsibility. He writes “the newly added sixth stanza… presents an image of home and family that greatly increases the pressures upon the mariners to reaffirm their obligations to society by renewing their journey and returning to Ithaca” (119). It is clear that the crewmen are not morally correct for their decision to abandon their homes and families, and they are not to be sympathized with. Their disconnect from reality creates a disconnect from the reader, forcing us to read the poem with the conception that the mariners are unreliable.

Tennyson, like many other Romantic authors, was fascinated by the human mind. His pom, "The Lotos Eaters," whether it represents a suicidal debate with the subconscious or the damaging impacts drug abuse has on families, presents a portrait of an altered psychological state. The reader travels through the crewmen's drugs and delusions, watching as the psychoactive suicidal fantasy unfolds. Tennyson's goal is to demonstrate the inner-workings of the human perception and the negative impacts of external forces on one's understanding of reality. To journey through the troubled mind allows the reader to question their own liminal values and beliefs. The constructed reality shadows the physical, creating a beautiful overlap where the reader is placed in. Tennyson's poetry shapes our perceptions of a fictional reality, establishing a tangible impact on our understanding of the physical world.