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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Key Examples in Ransom
Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—Light and Darkness:
Throughout Ransom, Malouf invokes the duality between light and darkness in order to convey what ransom means in the story.
For example, when the horse Xanthus inspires Achilles to consider the nature of human identity, he speaks in the language of light and darkness:
Unlock with LitCharts A+What's he up to now—a kind of envy for how free the creature is of a self-consciousness that at times makes us strange to ourselves and darkly divided.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Unresolved Grief:
Achilles's unresolved grief is a significant motif in Ransom, symbolized by Patroclus’s spirit and Hector’s body. Throughout Chapter 1, Achilles mourns his beloved friend Patroclus, slain by the Trojan prince Hector. The closeness between Achilles and the spirit of Patroclus had been established earlier in the chapter, with the two being “darkly [mated], flesh to ghost” and Achilles “[knowing] every movement of Patroclus’s soul.” His separation from the spirit of Patroclus, therefore, amounts to an irresolvable loss for him. Patroclus’s spirit itself, in its absence, becomes a motif for this persistent grief.
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Part 2
Explanation and Analysis—The White-Dust Road:
In Chapter 2, the white-dust road emerges as a significant motif in Priam’s flashback, touching on the novel’s central themes about dual identities and fate versus chance. Priam describes the white-dust road to Hecuba as it appeared to him at the moment of his near-enslavement:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Leading away from the town, and from the place below it where we stand waiting in the dust, is a road, narrow, white, winding off across the plain, dwindling away into the smoky haze. It looks quiet. It is empty as yet. I stand looking at it. That road leads to slavery—that's what I tell myself [...] I look up now and I can still see it. It's the road my other self went down.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Names:
Throughout Ransom, names and naming are recurrent motifs, particularly as they relate to the characters’ understanding of their identities. For example, when Priam and his court give Somax a new name, Idaeus, in Chapter 2, Somax feels inwardly defiant:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But in fact, it is not 'very well' with him, not at all. His name is Somax. It fits him, he has always thought, rather well. He has been comfortable with it, warm and very much himself, for a good fifty years, give or take a little. It guarantees the breath that passes in and out of his mouth; is an assurance, after a good night's sleep, that the spirit that has left his body and gone wandering off to all sorts of places will find its way back to the particular pile of straw where he is lying, and be recognized and taken in.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Dreams:
Throughout Ransom, dreams—and visions described as “dreamlike”—play a crucial role in inspiring in the characters. For example, the novel suggests some of the characters’ choices—particularly the peculiar choices—follow the guide of a dream, as in this passage about Achilles’s desecration of Hector’s body in Chapter 2:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] he had looked on helpless as Achilles, working quickly, like a man under instruction from his daemon or following the contours of a dream, dragged the corpse to his car, secured it, knot after knot, to the axle-tree, and hauled it off through the tumbling dust.
Related Themes:
Part 4
Explanation and Analysis—Unresolved Grief:
Achilles's unresolved grief is a significant motif in Ransom, symbolized by Patroclus’s spirit and Hector’s body. Throughout Chapter 1, Achilles mourns his beloved friend Patroclus, slain by the Trojan prince Hector. The closeness between Achilles and the spirit of Patroclus had been established earlier in the chapter, with the two being “darkly [mated], flesh to ghost” and Achilles “[knowing] every movement of Patroclus’s soul.” His separation from the spirit of Patroclus, therefore, amounts to an irresolvable loss for him. Patroclus’s spirit itself, in its absence, becomes a motif for this persistent grief.
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Part 5
Explanation and Analysis—Unresolved Grief:
Achilles's unresolved grief is a significant motif in Ransom, symbolized by Patroclus’s spirit and Hector’s body. Throughout Chapter 1, Achilles mourns his beloved friend Patroclus, slain by the Trojan prince Hector. The closeness between Achilles and the spirit of Patroclus had been established earlier in the chapter, with the two being “darkly [mated], flesh to ghost” and Achilles “[knowing] every movement of Patroclus’s soul.” His separation from the spirit of Patroclus, therefore, amounts to an irresolvable loss for him. Patroclus’s spirit itself, in its absence, becomes a motif for this persistent grief.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
