Odyssey Compare/Contrast

Penelope was left behind when Odysseus left for the trojan war, but he didn’t come back after that. Penelope had to take care of their son, their estate, and their servants for 20 years. On top of all of that she had suitors demanding her attention. In all of this she stayed strong and independent, and despite the pressure of the suitors she stayed loyal to Odysseus, even when she didn’t even know if he was alive or not. Penelope’s character is also very clever and sly. She told the suitors that she would remarry after she finishes her weaving project, but each night she undoes everything she did that day. When the suitors find out about it they demand she choose someone to remarry. Penelope uses her intelligence and slyness again as she tells them whoever wins an archery contest using Odysseus bow, which only he could use, she would marry. Penelope is also very kind, which we see when she interacts with the servants and her son. Penelope is a very well portrayed character and she is needed in the story to be someone Odysseus could always be someone to come back

Penelope is a great example of how Greek women should act in early society. Penelope was loyal to her husband, she was clever, and she was a good mother to her son Telemachos. Penelope honored her husband and didn’t go against him even though he was gone for over 20 years. She also had to face over 100 suitors while Odysseus was gone. Penelope showed her cleverness when she told the town she would remarry when she finished weaving the rug. Every night Penelope would undo the work she weaved so she could buy time for her husband. She was very faithful to her husband and believed him that he would return to her. These traits that Penelope show are how other Greek women should act in society. The roles women played in society was that they

      Penelope and Helen are the real human women who can steal men's hearts with their own feminine ways and they never let their man go.  Helen stole the heart of Paris and later married Menelaus-the love that Paris had for Helen began the long Trojan War.  Even with her shaded past, Helen is able to live her life as a proper adjusted middle-class matron.  Penelope and Odysseus were only together for a few years before he was sent off to war and, while he was gone for over twenty years, his love for her lasted.  Penelope is the symbol of marital fidelity, of trust, honor  and devotion.

After Odysseus “dies”, Penelope is forced to remarry because women were supposed to be wives and listen to the head of the household. She takes action to delay her forced remarriage by weaving a loom, but was caught in the act and did not succeed in canceling the wedding: “They rush the marriage on, and I spin out my wiles./ […] So by day I'd weave at my great and growing web-/ by night, by the light of torches set beside me,/ I would unravel all I'd done. Three whole years/ I deceived them blind, seduced them with this scheme./ Then, when the wheeling seasons brought the fourth year on/ and the months waned and the long days came round once more,/ the suitors caught me in the act and denounced me harshly./ So I finished it off. Against my will. They forced me./ And now I cannot escape a marriage, nor can I contrive/ a deft way out” (19.152-177). Penelope was mourning her husband and did not want to be married to anyone but him, and drastically fooled her suitors for almost four years before the maids relayed that she had been unweaving her loom by night. Here, Penelope is not given the choice of remarriage, she is forced to remarry because of her beauty, status, and lack of a man to take care of her, which was normal in these times but is completely outrageous nowadays. Although Penelope was Telemachus’ mother, it made no difference in how she was treated by him and it was made clear his status of superiority over the household: “So, mother,/ go back to your quarters. Tend to your own tasks,/ the distaff and the loom, and keep the women,/ working hard as well. As for giving orders,/ men will see to that, but I most of all:/ I hold the reins of power in this house”

Odysseus's wife, Penelope plays a crucial role in Homer's ‘The Odyssey’, with not only providing the motivation for Odysseus's return to Ithaca, but she is also the center of the plot involving the suitors and the fate of Telemakos and Ithaca itself.  Therefore the objective of this essay is to analyze the importance of Penelope’s role in ‘The Odyssey’.

While traditional readers of Homer’s, The Odyssey, view Odysseus as a hero, they often reduce Penelope to Odysseus’s helpless wife, but Penelope is more than just a damsel-in-distress. Penelope proves to be Odysseus’s heroic equal, as through her resilient, witty and strategic actions she ensures Odysseus fighting advantages over the suitors.

The amazing epic poem by Homer entitled “The Odyssey” shares many similarities and many differences as well with the Hallmark movie of the same name. The epic poem is about the hero Odysseus who has spent twenty long years filled with toil and loss, through war and sea desperate to return to his home of Ithaca. Odysseus has angered some of the gods and goddesses of a Greek Mythology with his destruction of the mighty city of Troy. Odysseus is represented in the poem and the movie, but there are several differences between the two in the events he encountered. There are also numerous similarities

Penelope may not have as exciting of a life as some of the other characters in Homer’s The Odyssey, but she makes up for it by being very clever, which makes her a good match for her husband, Odysseus. Penelope plays a very important role in Odysseus’s journey home, in fact, she is the main reason for his return to Ithaca. When the suitors begin invading her house and asking, then demanding, her hand in marriage, Penelope knows she must handle them herself. Being a woman in ancient Greece, she does not have the ability to force the suitors to leave her house, and neither does Telemachus. This means that Penelope must continue to allow them to abuse the hospitality that was expected at that time, and all she can do is try to outsmart the suitors until her husband comes home. In Homer’s The Odyssey, Penelope is a good match for Odysseus because she is clever, and she shows that cleverness when she stalls the suitors by weaving the burial shroud, when she devises the contest with

Penelope is also shown to have been very sought after, by the band of suitors that inhabit Odysseus's palace in Ithaca while he is away. All the while Odysseus is away; suitors are constantly trying to force Penelope to choose one of them as her new husband.

In direct contrast with the seductress is the good hostess or wife. Penelope, Odysseus' wife, is the most important of these characters. She is the image of steadfastness, waiting and hoping for years for Odysseus'return. Even the intimidating suitors do not bend her from her constancy. Along with Penelope is Eurykleia who matches

            Penelope did not have any idea whether her husband was alive for most of the twenty-years he was gone.  She had promised Odysseus that she would not marry until their son, Telemakos, reached the age of adulthood.  Just

She discovers that it was Odysseus when she advises Eurycleia to move the durable bedstead out of the their wedding chamber. Odysseus answers by saying "Lady your words, they slice me profoundly! Who could move my bed, outlandish errand, notwithstanding for some gifted craftsman."(Page 461 line 205) that is the point at which she knows its him. There relationship gets from where they exited it years back. Neither does she ask Odysseus addresses that may tear up there relationship/marriage. At the point when Everett returns he too needs to begin where he cleared out off with Penny. Penny wasn't exceptionally sympathetic at first; she would not like to give him a shot. When she at last allows him to re-wed Everett, she needs her significant other to get her old ring, as long as he doesn't get her old ring she won't wed him. Penny is to some degree an egotistical individual; on the off chance that she doesn't get her direction then every other person endures with her. It appears like Everett tries to make Penny cheerful, however it generally comes up short. Its like Penny sees his exertion in any case, until the point when everything is immaculate and the way she needs it to be at that point, everybody will endure with her. The motion picture Penny is a similar individual, who knows her better half Everett is attempting his

To begin, Penelope thinks of Odysseus and immediately lets her emotions out: “Odysseus—if he could return to tend my life / the renown I had would only grow in glory. / Now my life is torment … / look at the griefs some god has loosed against me!” (The Odyssey, 18.285-288). Furthermore, Homer expresses Penelope’s sadness by making her sink “on her well-built chamber’s floor” and through her “sobbing uncontrollably” (The Odyssey, 4.810-813). Clearly in Penelope’s mind, Odysseus’ absence is not something she can easily forget. Homer introduces Penelope as a very caring and devoted wife.

            There were far more restrictions placed on the women of the ancient world than on the men.  To many, this may appear to be an obvious fact.  However, the comparison of women to men in the Odyssey does not show such a discrepancy.  The women created by Homer had certain characteristics that set them apart from ordinary women.  Penelope was a woman who did not give in to the demands of her surroundings.  She suffered throughout the twenty year absence of her husband, Odysseus.  She maintained her dignity and her chastity through her refusal of the hoards of suitors that flocked to her home. Penelope represents the ideal woman for balancing her refusals of marriage and the preservation of her respect.  When ready to address her suitors, Eurymachus, a suitor himself, speaks out from the crowd in praise of Penelope.  He states, "Ah, daughter of Icarius, wise Penelope . . . You surpass all women in build and beauty, refined and steady mind" (18. 276,280).  The acts of Penelope would not have been allowed of an ordinary woman of those times.  Her loyalty to Odysseus was unflagging and quite contrary to Clytaemestra's loyalty, another character in the Odyssey, though she is never mentioned by name.

After Odysseus becomes enraged when Penelope asks the maid to make his bed outside, she realizes that he knows the secret that only Odysseus and her share. She embraces him and praises his homecoming. Once again, Penelope is wise and patient in her decision-making. The suitors pursued her, overtook her home and aggressively pushed her to remarry as she was supposed to. If Penelope would have given in, The Odyssey would not have ended with Odysseus returning to a loyal home. Through cunning, independence and loyalty, Penelope is able to create a positive image as a woman. Chaucer’s Wife of Bath has similar independence and cunning, but she makes her name as a domineering lady that chooses who she wants, and when she wants them.