In The Song of Achilles, novelist Madeline Miller seeks to instill a wellspring of empathy within her readers. She achieves this by empowering her audience to engage with an array of characters from the first-person narrative perspective of a profoundly empathetic young man named Patroclus.
Through Patroclus’ eyes, readers bear witness to an assortment of relationships characterized by differing levels of empathy. His interactions with the enslaved Briseis, for example, illuminate her humanity despite the societal marginalization that she endures. Furthermore, Patroclus’ relationship with Achilles elucidates the empathy prevalent in their ill-fated romance in spite of societal homophobia, warfare, and death. Lastly, the parental relationships that exist in the lives of Patroclus and Achilles also reflect varying levels of empathy as evident through these characters’ respective interactions with Menoitius and Thetis. Overall, Miller’s character renderings and relationships ultimately challenge her audience to gauge the extent to which they exhibit empathy in their own lives.