Previous
Dramatic Irony
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Achilles and Patroclus:
Achilles and Patroclus, though lovers, are also foils in many ways. Patroclus has always been a disappointment to his father, weak and exiled. Achilles is a bright and shining star of potential, the pride of his father. Patroclus remarks on their difference in Chapter 3:
Across the room I caught the flash of bright hair in lamplight. Achilles. He sat with a group of boys
whose mouths were wide with laughter at something he’d said or done. That is what a prince should be. I stared down at my bread, its coarse grains that rubbed rough against my fingers.
As a young boy, Patroclus often recalls the words of his father, spoken to compare Patroclus and Achilles: this is what a prince should be. This unsubtle juxtaposition implies that Achilles is everything Patroclus is not; that Patroclus has failed somehow to be excellent or worthy of fatherly pride. Achilles is Patroclus's lover, but he is also everything Patroclus wishes he could be.
Achilles appears godlike; Patroclus does not. Achilles is gifted in battle; Patroclus is not. Achilles is driven to cruelty by his wartime circumstances; Patroclus is not, and in fact protests against Achilles's loss of honor. Achilles may be godlike, but with godliness comes hubris—a quality Patroclus does not envy but rather wishes to counteract.
Related Themes:
