Telemachus as Hamlet

One of the things that's neat about James Joyce is the parallels he drew between Homer's and Shakespeare's stories.  Peter and I were talking not too long ago about the famed supposed "indecisiveness" of Hamlet, which is the "indecisiveness" of someone who would know exactly what his duty was - if only he what his situation was.  But he doesn't, because the reports he's getting are in need of verification (i.e. he can't run off and kill Claudius or try to have him executed and then say "a ghost told me to do it," particularly when he himself isn't sure whether that apparition is from God or the devil).

Telemachus and Penelope are likewise in a bind.  Not exactly the same situation, but more alike than Joyce's Ulysses and the Odyssey.  Penelope has an extremely important and binding social duty - she just doesn't know what that is.  Odysseus is nowhere to be found.  If he's alive, she has to remain faithful until he arrives (they didn't do divorce in absentia).  If he's dead, she has to marry.  But she doesn't know if Odysseus is alive or not, which makes the situation a little difficult.  Meanwhile, she's being pressed by a horde of Claudiuses (Claudii?) who, banking on the fact that Telemachus is still just a bit too immature to take the throne himself, are jockeying to get hitched to her.  Meanwhile, Telemachus - theoretically he could take over the throne from his father, but there is the problem of his youth.  And then Telemachus has an apparation which purports to give him certitude.  In his case, not his father's ghost (his father, unlike Hamlet's, is alive), but Athena disguised as a man.  Same deal.

But, you may object, doesn't the father being alive instead of dead spoil the likeness?  No, I don't think so.  It's the same sort of thing, just left-handed instead of right-handed; seen in a mirror.  I think Joyce understood this, and this is why so many of the likenesses to Homer in his Ulysses are not straight likenesses, but "anti-likenesses," if you will.  If you've read both of them you know the sort of thing I am referring to.

Comments

[Serena]

I'm curious what you mean and I guess I don't remember much about the three stories. I have Hamlet but please follow up and elaborate if you ever get the chance.
I took several tries to get the plot and some of the subtleties of Ulysses; I had the advantage of a professor to help me with the Odyssey; I only assume I understand Hamlet. I loved all three tales.