1. Ransom quotes

Question 1

‘The man is a

Answer 1

fighter, but when he is not fighting he is a farmer, earth is his element.’ -Referring to Achilles

Question 2

‘He had entered

Answer 2

the rough world of men, where a man’s acts follow him wherever he goes in the form of story.’ -When Achilles loses his connection with his mother (storytelling, identity)

Question 3

‘It will end

Answer 3

end here on the beach in the treacherous shingle, or out there on the plain. That is fixed, inevitable.’ -Achilles’ fated death (fate)

Question 4

‘too proud to admit …

Answer 4

that he might be in the wrong’ -When Achilles refuses to fight with the Greeks because of his pride (identity)

Question 5

‘It was another,

Answer 5

more obdurate self that found its way back; and stood unmoved, unmoving’ -Achilles’ soul has been damaged by the loss of Patroclus (identity, mortality, humanity)

Question 6

‘Himself like a

Answer 6

dead man. Feeling nothing.’ -Achilles can no longer feel because of Patroclus’ death (identity, mortality, humanity)

Question 7

‘He was waiting for the ra

Answer 7

ge to fill him that would be equal at last to the outrage he was committing.’ -Achilles is unable to move past his grief (identity, humanity)

Question 8

‘They no longer

Answer 8

know what authority they are under.’ Achilles’ grief has changed him (identity)

Question 9

‘still it was

Answer 9

not enough. Still his grief was not consumed.’ -Achilles is unable to move past his grief (identity, humanity)

Question 10

‘He is waiting for the bre

Answer 10

ak … Something new and unimaginable as yet that will confront him with the need, in meeting it, to leap clear of the clogging grey web that enfolds him.’ -Achilles is unable to move past his grief on his own (identity, humanity, change)

Question 11

‘his more usual

Answer 11

role is to stand still at the centre, both actual and symbolic in the same breath’ -Priam is not meant to express his emotions as king (humanity, identity)

Question 12

‘Not the way they

Answer 12

must be, but the way they have turned out. In a world that is also subject to chance.’ -The goddess Iris appears before Priam (fate, chance, change)

Question 13

‘we have done

Answer 13

nothing, all of us, but weep and sit stunned with grief.’ -Priam presents his plan to bring Hector’s body back (chance, change)

Question 14

‘If I could get

Answer 14

my hands on that butcher I’d tear his heart out and eat it raw!’ -Hecuba desires to avenge her son’s death (revenge)

Question 15

‘To be seen as

Answer 15

a man like other men … would have suggested that I was impermanent and weak. Better to stand still and keep silent’ -Because Priam is the king, he is not meant to show emotion (humanity, mortality)

Question 16

‘Fixed and permanent.

Answer 16

Unchangeable, therefore unchanged.’ -Priam is meant to act as a ceremonial figurehead, not as a man (mortality, humanity, change)

Question 17

‘the thing that is

Answer 17

needed to cut this knot we are all tied in is something that has never before been done or thought of. Something impossible. Something new.’ -Priam wishes to experience

Question 18

‘It is possible

Answer 18

because it is not possible.’ -Priam (chance, change)

Question 19

‘The opportunity to

Answer 19

act for ourselves. To try something that might force events into a different course.’ -Priam (chance, change, fate)

Question 20

‘Words are powerful.

Answer 20

They too can be the agents of what is new, of what is conceivable and can be thought and let loose upon the world.’ -Hecuba is sceptical of Priam’s plan (storytelling, chance, change, fate)

Question 21

‘reborn

Answer 21

as NO ONE’ -Podarces had accepted his new fate as a slave (Identity, fate)

Question 22

‘Priam, the price

Answer 22

paid, the gift given to buy your brother back from the dead.’ (Identity, fate)

Question 23

‘I’ve played my

Answer 23

part, and tried to let nothing peep out of the real man inside so much empty shining.’ (Identity, humanity, fate)

Question 24

‘I have now to

Answer 24

be ransomed a second time – to ransom myself, as well as my son. By going to Achilles not in a ceremonial way, as a symbolic self, but stripped of all glittering distractions and disguises, as I am.’ (identity, chance, humanity)

Question 25

‘It contradicts everything

Answer 25

they have ever known of this grave and cautious figure who is their father.’ -Priam plans to do something new and unimaginable (chance, change, fate)