Theme Of The Penelopiad

The major themes of The Odyssey are loyalty, hospitality, revenge and Disguise. Penelope stays loyal to Odysseus for 20 years, waiting for him to return home and Eurycleia is loyal to Odysseus and tells him who had been disloyal to him while he was away. When Homer recorded The Odyssey, members of the household and staff were loyal to the paterfamilias. Loyalty was expected in ancient Greek times out of respect. Women and servants were submissive to the paterfamilias and their loyalty demonstrated

Explain the influence of Homer’s Odyssey on Margaret Atwood. Margaret Atwood said that after reading The Odyssey she had two questions; “what led to the hanging of the maids and what was Penelope really up to?”. In writing The Penelopiad, she felt she was able to answer those questions. The Odyssey is from Odysseus’ point of view, recorded by Homer, but is not the only version of the story as it was mainly handed down through generations orally, which can lead to details being changed. She wanted

Liu 1 Hilary Liu Dr. Senior IX English September 22, 2014 The Importance of Perspectives in The Odyssey and The Penelopiad Margaret Atwood writes in her novel The Penelopiad “I’ve chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and the twelve hanged maids...which focus on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of The Odyssey: what led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?” The Odyssey tells the story of the long journey of Odysseus’s return

of Homer 's Odyssey – one of the most widely read ancient literary works in the world – Margaret Atwood 's novella, The Penelopiad, retells this classic story, this time from the perspective of Penelope, Odysseus ' wife, who spent ten long years waiting faithfully for him to return form the Trojan war, and is now lameting her life from the greek underworld, Hades. The Penelopiad deconstructs the portrayal of penelope in the Odyssey, showing that instead of waiting and wasting away, she instead employed

During Homeric society and Mycenaean time there was a hierarchy within their society, men were seen as the Paterfamilias within their family, they were considered of a higher status, so they were able to enjoy more privileges. The odyssey is written from a men’s point of view so therefore the most likely readers would mainly be men as it focuses on Odysseus and how he took back his kingdom; was the paterfamilias and overpowered the women. Homer tells a story of the courage and pity of one man's life

based off the same social context as Homer recorded the epic poem during Homeric society (when he was alive) however when the story was composed the literary context is completely different in comparison to Atwood, as Atwood wrote her novella - The Penelopiad, in the 21’st century and homer recorded the epic poem during 8th C BCE. The difference between each time period meant there were societal differences which had different impacts on each of the stories literary context. The odyssey is a historical

There is a common theme in Greek Mythology of children fighting with, overthrowing, and often killing their parents. Zeus kills his father Cronus to rise to power as the king of the Olympian gods. Prior to this, Cronus had killed his own father, Uranus, which lead to the rise of the Titans. Perhaps you’re confused. No one kills their parents in the books we read in class, you’re probably thinking. In this, you are correct. However, Telemachus’ relationship with his mother Penelope still fits some

Myth and Mythology have always been among the elements which shape the lives of individuals and the working mechanism of societies. Margaret Atwood uses in her works every possible material that enables one to trace her experiences back to the social, historical, cultural, and natural aspects of her ‘identity’. Her familiarity with the Canadian wilderness can be detected in her employment of nature and animal imagery in her poems and novels. Her novel’s The Penelopid and Surfacing to discover some

one’s destiny. “He who could master the hearts of men and their secrets is well on their way to mastering the fates and controlling the thread of his own destiny, not that any man could really do that, not even the Gods” (43) the characters of The Penelopiad believe heavily that the fates control what happens in their life, especially the bad things, and are well aware that they cannot change each other’s destiny. Margaret Atwood’s societies are chauvinistic to show that there was no universal law

‘The Penelopiad’ is a novella by Margaret Atwood, published in 2005 in the Canongate Myth Series where contemporary authors rewrite ancient myths. Atwood often portrays female characters dominated and oppressed by patriarchy in her novels. Atwood believes that the feminist label can only be applied to writers who consciously work within the framework of the feminist movement. The novella 's central themes include the effects of story-telling perspectives, double standards between the sexes and the