‘Priam’s quest shows that there are greater acts of courage than those
achieved in battle’. Discuss.
The novel Ransom challenges our understanding of what it means to be heroic. David Malouf shows
that there are greater acts of courage than those achieved in battle. He argues that it takes great
courage to break free of convention and expectation. Both Priam and Achilles are expected to
behave in a certain way. They have become symbols to the people who surround them, images of
the ideal king and the ideal warrior. Priam’s bold decision to put aside this royal image allows both
men to achieve a sense of peace and freedom. As the reader follows Priam’s quest they are
introduced to Somax the carter and the women who prepare Hector’s body for burial. Through these
characters, Malouf shows us that ordinary people, those who live and work away from the
battlefield, are also capable of performing extraordinary acts of bravery.
One of the greatest acts of bravery in the novel is Priam’s decision to accept the fact that he lives in
a world that is “subject to chance”. The people Priam ruled over were deeply religious. Priam himself
believed that “the gods made [him] a king”. When he tells Hecuba that there might be “another way
of naming what we call fortune and attribute to the will, or the whim, of the gods”, he goes against
centuries of tradition. Malouf uses Hecuba’s reaction to emphasise the shocking nature of this
suggestion. She can’t even bring herself to use the word “chance” and instead refers to it as “this
idea you’re so taken with”. She warns him that if it were published, such a notion could lead to
widespread panic and potentially destroy the “order” he has worked so hard to create. Despite
these warnings, Priam holds firm and tells the assembled court that he is going to venture out into
“a world of change and accident”. While it is possible to argue that Priam is acting under divine
instruction – it is Iris, after all, who whispers the word “chance” to him in the first place – his
decision to go ahead with his plan, knowing that neither he nor the gods are in complete control of
the situation, is an extremely courageous one. Achilles too breaks with convention.
When presented with a golden opportunity to capture or kill the king of Troy, Achilles puts to one
side his “hard manly qualities” and acts instead with compassion and kindness. Achilles lived in a
time of war; a time when most believed that a man’s courage was tested, his reputation made or
lost “out there on the glittering plain”. Achilles and his Myrmidons are often likened to animals. They
have “the minds of hawks ... of foxes and of the wolves”. They act on instinct are “unacquainted with
second thoughts”, so when Priam enters Achilles’ tent his attendants expect their leader to “take the
interloper by the throat”. They are truly astonished when he fails to do so. Malouf uses words like
“knotted” and “ropelike” when describing Achilles’ muscles. Here Malouf implies that Achilles’ great
strength, the source of his fearsome reputation, also binds him in a way. When Priam arrives,
Achilles welcomes the opportunity to loosen these bonds, to “break free of the obligation of being
always the hero”. In one of the most touching scenes in the novel, the two men share a meal that
Achilles has prepared. They sit quietly, talking of peace. It takes great courage and strength to put
aside the habits of a lifetime and to form “a kind of intimacy” with a man who is supposed to be your
enemy. Achilles slaughtered hundreds of men in battle, but Malouf suggests that his most
courageous act was showing mercy to a grieving father.
Somax the carter has lived a life far removed from the world of kings, warriors and battlefields, but
Ransom shows that a simple worker, “the owner of two strong black mules”, is also capable of great
courage. When Somax is brought before the Trojan nobility, he is “dazzled by the cleanness, the
whiteness”. Under normal circumstances, princes and kings would have nothing to do with a
common labourer. Somax is self-conscious and slightly fearful, aware of the fact that even his voice,
his “harsh sounding gutturals” are different and out of place. When he and Priam set out on the
quest, the king realises almost instantly that his companion has “no notion ... of what [is] proper”.
Like Priam and Achilles, Somax finds himself in “a situation that has already passed beyond anything
he has a precedent for”, but he is not overwhelmed. Rather than withdraw into himself, Somax relies
on his “native wit” and speaks to Priam as a man rather than a king. The narrative point of view
shifts effortlessly between Priam and Somax in this section of the novel, allowing the reader to see
each character’s reflections on the other’s behaviour. Somax comes to realise that the great king is
just another child of nature, a frail old man grieving for his son, and he cares for him as such. Priam is
“deeply moved” by the generosity, bravery and wisdom of his travelling companion. Even Achilles
notices the unusual bond that exists between “the two old men, who belong to such different
worlds”. Malouf also explores the strength and courage of women; an even more marginalised
group of people.
The women who prepare Hector’s body for burial demonstrate incredible bravery. The work they do
is vital and sacred, but theirs is an “unheroic” world. Achilles fought and killed Hector in broad
daylight, in full view of the people of Troy, but the women who prepare Hector’s body for its journey
to the afterlife are forced to “huddle in the shadows”. Malouf’s use of light and dark imagery seems
to suggest that these women, like so many other women in history, have been deliberately kept out
of view. When he steps into the hut, Achilles realises that he “has never till now even considered its
existence”. In Ransom, however, these women are imbued with strength and courage. They find
themselves unexpectedly in the presence of the “boldest, most ferocious, most unpredictable of the
Greeks”. Rather than quailing before the mighty Achilles, the women silently but confidently assert
their right to privacy; “So long as he stands here watching they will not begin”. Achilles is eventually
forced to admit that “the women’s presence is stronger than his own”. While the great heroes of the
age slaughter one another in a quest for glory, these women quietly and tenderly bathe the broken
bodies. On the edge of the battlefield, they restore the dignity that others have taken away.
The few battle scenes in Ransom are stripped of all their romance and glory. When Neoptolemus
kills Priam, Malouf describes his actions as “all scramble and boyish hot confusion”. Even the great
battle between Hector and Achilles, a meeting that was “sacred” for both of them, is sullied by
Achilles’ base actions. Achilles behaves like a man “obeying the needs of some other, darker
agency”, not like a brave hero. Malouf suggests that true courage resides away from the battlefield,
in small, humble acts of kindness and selflessness. He also argues that takes more courage for kings
and heroes to put aside their carefully crafted images and “take on the lighter bond of being simply a
man”.