Tithonus by Lord Tennyson : ISC Rhapsody Long Answer Questions

  Tithonus  : The Causes for his Immortality and his Unhappiness 

Question : Who has made Tithonus immortal ? Why is he unhappy ? What does he long for?

 Answer:  Tithonus has made immortal by his beloved goddess of dawn – Eos. In the past, Tithonus used to be a handsome, young and glorious prince of Troy. The goddess of dawn Eos has fallen for him and chose him as her lover rather than any other god. This made him feel like he was a special person, singled out for greatness. The poet says – 

  “To his great heart none other than a God !” 

        Inflated with the pleasure of being  “chosen” by a gorgeous goddess, Tithonus started to feel himself better than other people on earth. This feeling evoked his desire to become immortal like a god. Apart from this he wanted to become immortal to fulfill his desire for her forever. So he himself asked the Goddess Eos to “give (him) immortality”.

    Eos also wanted him to be immortal and remain with her forever so that she could fulfill her own desire for him. So she easily and readily granted his wish without thinking about the consequences of the immortality for a mortal man. 

        This gift of immortality made Tithonus unhappy. Their desires blinded them to reality and led Eos to make a critical mistake when she granted Tithonus immortality without perpetual youth to go along with it. Due to his hubris and desire to become an immortal, he transgresses a grave boundary, the law that says all mortals must one day die. He tried to go beyond the  “goal of ordinance” or the natural limits of human life. Now he suffers its consequences.

     The gift of immortality has become a curse to him. Tithonus tells Aurora, that he grows old slowly in her arms like a “white – haired shadow” roaming in the east. The  “strong Hours” of time has worked against Tithonus and  “beat him down” and  “marr’d” and  “wasted” him. Time has ruined the young and handsome prince to a “grey shadow” of himself. His immortality has become cruelty for him as he is bound to live with the goddess of dawn who has eternal youth and beauty while he is a withered old man.

   “To dwell in presence of immortal youth /

   Immortal age beside immortal youth” 

       Tithonus is not only suffering from his old age but it makes him feel isolated from all, even from his beloved goddess of dawn. He can no longer enjoy the pleasure of in his broken old body. Where once he used to share in Eos’s mysterious “change” as she glowed and renewed every morning, now he feels alienated from that gorgeous eternal  youth. As a result of this gift of immortality without the eternal youth, Tithonus did not die and become crippled and deformed old man.

    Tithonus thinks that the only way to escape from this eternal suffering is death – so he longs for death. He begs Eos – 

    “Let me go  : take back thy gift “.

    Tithonus realises that he belongs to this  “dark world” – mortal earth and immortality is not meant for human being and every living  being has to die. Tithonus laments – why should man try to trespass beyond the reasonable limit of life, where everybody should stop and do not cross this limit. 

     Tithonus tells Eos not to keep him in his immortal stat anymore, as their natures do not match, she is an immortal goddess whereas Tithonus is a mortal human being by nature. She is forever young and beautiful while he is adversely impacted by old age.

      Her “rosy shadow” bathe him cold and his “wrinkled feet” tremble when he finds himself at er cold threshold. His immortality with this withered old state, makes him crave for mortality. When he sees steam floating from the homes of mortal men he feels jealous. He says – 

   “…….happy men that have the power to die” and even those who lie in the “grassy barrows” are happier than him. He is envious of these mortal men and even their dead.

    Tithonus pleads with Goddess Eos that 

    “Release me, and restore me to the ground”. 

    He expresses the desire to die and get rid of this sorrowful existence as being a human being he is meant to die and leave this earth while the goddess will continue to live and enjoy her immortality.