Ransom

by

David Malouf

Hector Character Analysis

Hector is Priam’s eldest son, and thus the Crown Prince of Troy. He is also the city’s greatest warrior, so his death at Achilles’s hands essentially seals Troy’s downfall. By the time Ransom begins, Hector is already dead, and Achilles has dragged his body back to the Greek camp in revenge for Hector’s killing of Patroclus. Hector’s surviving relatives describe him as a proud and loyal defender of his father and country, but he himself appears only in a flashback to his duel with Achilles, during which he uses his final breath to predict Achilles’s own impending death. Interestingly, however, Hector appears to say this out of a sense of camaraderie rather than anger, foreshadowing Achilles’s own change of heart: after Priam’s visit, Achilles comes to see Hector as a worthy opponent and (perhaps more importantly) fellow human being.

Hector Quotes in Ransom

The Ransom quotes below are all either spoken by Hector or refer to Hector. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Fate, Chance, and Change Theme Icon
).
Part 1 Quotes

[B1] He was waiting for the rage to fill him that would be equal at last to the outrage he was committing. That would assuage his grief, and be so convincing to the witnesses of this barbaric spectacle that he too might believe there was a living man at the centre of it, and that man himself.

Related Characters: Achilles, Patroclus, Hector
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2 Quotes

This time, when I look behind me, what is glowing out from under the coverlet…is the body of my son Hector, all his limbs newly restored and shining, restored and ransomed.

Related Characters: Priam (speaker), Hector
Related Symbols: Ransom
Page Number: 56
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4 Quotes

[Death] is the hard bargain life makes with us—with all of us, every one—and the condition we share. And for that reason, if for no other, we should have pity for one another's losses.

Related Characters: Priam, Achilles, Patroclus, Hector
Related Symbols: Ransom
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:

What he feels in himself as a perfect order of body, heart, occasion, is the enactment, under the stars, in the very breath of the gods, of the true Achilles, the one he has come all this way to find.

Related Characters: Achilles, Hector
Page Number: 190
Explanation and Analysis:

This is the first world we come into, he thinks now, his world of hot-water pitchers and oil jars and freshly laundered linen or wool. And the last place we pass through before our body is done with it all. Unheroic thoughts.

Related Characters: Achilles, Hector
Related Symbols: Earth and Water
Page Number: 193
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 5 Quotes

Look, he wants to shout, I am still here, but the I is different. I come as a man of sorrow bringing the body of my son for burial, but I come also as the hero of the deed that till now was never attempted.

Related Characters: Priam, Hector
Page Number: 209
Explanation and Analysis:
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Hector Quotes in Ransom

The Ransom quotes below are all either spoken by Hector or refer to Hector. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Fate, Chance, and Change Theme Icon
).
Part 1 Quotes

[B1] He was waiting for the rage to fill him that would be equal at last to the outrage he was committing. That would assuage his grief, and be so convincing to the witnesses of this barbaric spectacle that he too might believe there was a living man at the centre of it, and that man himself.

Related Characters: Achilles, Patroclus, Hector
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2 Quotes

This time, when I look behind me, what is glowing out from under the coverlet…is the body of my son Hector, all his limbs newly restored and shining, restored and ransomed.

Related Characters: Priam (speaker), Hector
Related Symbols: Ransom
Page Number: 56
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4 Quotes

[Death] is the hard bargain life makes with us—with all of us, every one—and the condition we share. And for that reason, if for no other, we should have pity for one another's losses.

Related Characters: Priam, Achilles, Patroclus, Hector
Related Symbols: Ransom
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:

What he feels in himself as a perfect order of body, heart, occasion, is the enactment, under the stars, in the very breath of the gods, of the true Achilles, the one he has come all this way to find.

Related Characters: Achilles, Hector
Page Number: 190
Explanation and Analysis:

This is the first world we come into, he thinks now, his world of hot-water pitchers and oil jars and freshly laundered linen or wool. And the last place we pass through before our body is done with it all. Unheroic thoughts.

Related Characters: Achilles, Hector
Related Symbols: Earth and Water
Page Number: 193
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 5 Quotes

Look, he wants to shout, I am still here, but the I is different. I come as a man of sorrow bringing the body of my son for burial, but I come also as the hero of the deed that till now was never attempted.

Related Characters: Priam, Hector
Page Number: 209
Explanation and Analysis: