(THE CONVERSATION) President Joe Biden’s current fraught situation, showcasing both his weakness and his determination, is dramatic because it touches upon more than the political moment and more than one man’s character.

After his disastrous debate performance sparked calls for him to step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate, Biden’s position is not only inextricably entangled with issues of temperament and family dynamics. There’s also the challenge of making a crucial decision swiftly, at a moment when no decision is easyor clearly right.

…Biden has come to symbolize both the biological challenges and the existential poignancy of aging… The pressure of all these factors makes Biden a tragic figure.

Others reluctant to step down

To see this clamorous moment in the light of the past doesn’t make living in the present easier, but it does widen the perspective. Biden is far from the first person in a position of power who has been reluctant to step down – even when common sense or sheer weariness might dictate otherwise.

Literature has always been concerned not only with people in power but also with the life cycle and the complexities of family relationships.

The immense cohort of aging baby boomers, of whom I am one, is likely to sympathize with Biden because he has come to symbolize the vulnerability of aging – vulnerability to humiliation and, more subtly, to isolation.

In Homer’s ‘Iliad’, the elderly Nestor endlessly reminisces… Priam, the old king of Troy, heartbroken after the death of his son Hector, still finds the energy to berate his surviving sons… The subsequent moment of recognition between Priam and Achilles is one of the most poignant in literature… Achilles might be expected to be enraged, but seeing Priam turns his anger to grief. Achilles knows he won’t see his father, Peleus, again…

In Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV’, the once jovial and resilient Falstaff, publicly rejected and insulted by Prince Hal, is old, vulnerable – and alone… King Lear opens the tragedy named for him by ostensibly retiring… But Lear refuses to cede control. Finally, as he sinks into confusion, he discovers humility and compassion – too late…

Political commentator Bill Maher has called ageism the last respectable prejudice.

It’s hard even to imagine President Biden alone; on the contrary, he is apparently surrounded by loyal familyand advisers. But the vulnerability of old age was on full display in the first presidential debate.

One of the countless contrasts between Biden and Donald Trump is Biden’s almost sphinxlike unknowability, especially now…

Age has been traditionally associated with wisdom, yet the wisdom old age can bestow seems out of reach for a figure still in the thick of politics… Only withdrawing from the fray might bestow some tranquility. But the vision to make the difficult decision to withdraw requires a kind of detachment that seems to be very rare in history, and not common in literature either.

Greek tragedy does offer an eloquent example of just such wisdom. [In] Sophocles’s ‘Oedipus at Colonus’ the aged, self-blinded and self-exiled former king Oedipus, guided by his loyal daughter, finds himself in Colonus… When Theseus, the ruler of Athens, arrives on the scene, Oedipus’s words to him transcend both the immediate situation and Oedipus’s dire backstory.

“The immortal Gods alone have neither age nor death! All other things almighty Time disquiets. Earth wastes away; the body wastes away; Faith dies, distrust is born. And imperceptibly the spirit changes Between a man and his friend, or between two cities … but time goes on, Unmeasured Time, fathering numberless Nights, unnumbered days …”

Oedipus knows that he has come to Colonus to die, and his words convey a vision that seems to issue from beyond the grave. His detachment has an authority that now seems almost out of the reach of any of us, let alone a politician. But it’s good to remember that such qualities exist.

Of course this is a different moment. The looming juggernaut that Trump represents makes it hard for Biden’s supporters, or any Democrats, to be calm. Nevertheless, it’s useful to think about the potential strengths, as well as the vulnerabilities, of age.

The widespread anxiety now rampant among Biden’s supporters is sometimes mocked as unjustified panic. Time, as Oedipus might remind us, will tell… In the ugly spectacle of American politics, it’s hard to keep humanity in sight. Literature can remind us of what we already know about growing old, about change, and about mortality.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.