The Book The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, A Paragraph

“She wishes she had asked him to explain more of what he meant. But she was impatient…to be done with sewing. With doing everything for three children, alone…” (1125, 3), and “Respect, a chance to build. Her children at last from underneath the detrimental wheel. A chance to be on top” (1124, 2) both reveal the motives behind getting married to this man, despite the religious conflict. She is torn between the pros and cons of this new life. It’s although she is trying to convince herself, but the negative thoughts just keep surfacing.

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.

In stanza 12, she tells us that he has “bit her pretty red heart in two.” Next, she states that he died when she was ten, and when she was twenty years old, she attempted suicide - “…I tried to die, to get back back back to you.” In stanza 13 is where she starts talking about her husband. She says that instead of dying, her friends “stuck her together with glue,” and since she could not die to get back to her father, she would marry someone who was similar.

This can be highlighted by contrasting Rhiannon’s influence during the wedding feast, with Rhiannon’s influence after her son’s disappearance. During the wedding feast Prince Pwyll grants Rhiannon to the man she did not want to marry “You better not say anymore for I have never seen such a feeble-witted performance” Rhiannon is aware that as a woman in Welsh Medieval society she must conform to the role of a wife and following marriage produce an heir, therefore her impatient nature towards Prince Pwyll is down to her feeling like she has not been able to work the system to her benefit to the result of having the husband she desires. This is a reflection of Welsh society as women were held to a fairly high status by Welsh Law regarding property, rights over their children, and to an extent marriage due to the three grounds of divorce, unlike other regions of European society. As the tales’ progress the influential power Rhiannon exerts is diminished, this can be exemplified with the chambers maids lack of faith in Rhiannon. “Poor souls, you will come to no harm for telling the truth.” However, no matter

The stories found in Greek mythology are often the subjects of both visual and literary works. The myth of Penelope and Odysseus and their eventful marriage is one such story. Penelope is the daughter of Icarius and Periboea and the wife of Odysseus. Odysseus was sent to fight in the Trojan War the day his son was born. After the war, he angered the gods by not thanking them, so he was lost at sea for ten years after the war while trying to get back to Ithaca. Their son, Telemachus, helps her protect their house from the suitors who are trying to take Odysseus’s throne. In the painting Penelope and the Suitors, John Williams Waterhouse uses the scene where Penelope is being harassed by the suitors to show that she is irritated with the

The Odyssey, written by Homer, tells the story of Odysseus after the Trojan War. It not only includes an insight on the adventures and return of Odysseus, but it also includes the stories of Telemakhos and Penelope. Telemakhos is the courageous son of Odysseus who goes on a quest in search for information about his father’s whereabouts. Penelope is an extremely clever woman who could match Odysseus in his wit. Penelope is able manipulate the suitors that have come to pursue her in Odysseus’s absence. Though Penelope often spends many nights weeping over the absence of her husband, it seems as if she never loses faith in her husband, and she truly believes that he will return to her and punish the suitors that have taken over their

In Homer's epic, The Odyssey, Odysseus is an epic hero with an epic wife, Penelope. Penelope is also the Queen of Ithaca, a vital role indeed. Penelope's love and devotion towards Odysseus is proven when she waits nineteen years for her husband to return from the wine dark sea, rather than losing faith and marrying another man. Penelope's character is strong and solid, and her personality remains consistent throughout Homer's Odyssey.

By all means the suitors has ate all of their food and will not leave and Penelope thinks Odysseus can only stop them. Penelope said to her maids, “There is no man like Odysseus in command to drive this curse from the house.”(17.598). This shows that she thinks that the suitors are weak and are not suitable to marry. Also Penelope was crying because of Odysseus. Penelope was sad that she has not seen Odysseus in 20 years: “Sitting up in her soft bed, returned to tears.” (20.64). This show that Penelope still has feelings for Odysseus and she misses him. Penelope had all the suitors and she never slept with any of

Though Penny Wharvey McGill is portrayed as a “Southern 1930’s” version of Penelope, this heroine has many contrasting characteristics compared to the wife of Odysseus from Ancient Greece.

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.

?I simply can?t see you doing it. You haven?t the experience. You know why he?s marrying you don?t you? You haven?t flattered yourself he?s in love with you? He admitted?he just cannot go on living there alone?? This makes her feel even more insignificant which is portrayed through her thoughts in the novel and her speech, especially towards Maxim. The attitude of self-degrading belonging to the narrator accurately reflects the corresponding convention of the romantic genre.

Penelope, a loyal, faithful and patient wife is faced with suitors pressuring her daily to remarry. She uses her wit and cleverness to hold them off. She assures the suitors that she will remarry as soon as she finishes the burial shroud for her husband, which she has no intention of finishing until her husband returns. Upon realizing that her husband had returned she makes an announcement to marry the winner of the archery contest.

The discussion of the Wife’s five husbands describes her evolving role as a woman and how she overcame the most ridiculous obstacles to maintain this idea or illusion of marriage. The Wife’s depiction of her marriages was that three were good and two were bad. The initial marriages were to older rich men where she kept up this idea of marriage in order to receive money, but was not faithful by