What Role Does Penelope Play In The Odyssey

Women in literature are often depicted as inferior to men, both by authors and critics. Female characters are often used as objects that further the male characters’ storylines. They are reduced to one-dimensional stereotypes, like a damsel in distress or a seductress. However, in The Odyssey, Homer demonstrates respect for women by writing them as courageous and brave, traits which are valued in classical heroes. Athena and Penelope specifically are complex characters with agency and individual storylines.

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 The Odyssey by Homer, Penelope’s wit not only causes suitors to live in her house but also caused a happy reuniting between her and Odysseus. The poem begins after the Trojan War, where Penelope’s husband , Odysseus, is cursed with a twenty year trip back home to Ithaca. The kingdom as a whole believed that Odysseus was dead and was not going to be returning home. While Odysseus was away, Penelope, his wife, was being forced by her parents to start looking for a suitable husband to run the kingdom. Penelope was able to use her wit in order to come up with a plan not get married and to save time in case Odysseus was to survive and return home: “Young men- my suitors, now my lord is dead,/ let me finish my weaving before I marry” (Homer 1324- 1325).

            Despite this high opinion of Penelope, before he left, Odysseus and Kalypso " . . . retired, this pair [He and Kalypso], to the inner cave/to revel and rest softly, side by side."(Homer V:235-238)  This was not the only time Odysseus "retired", with another woman.  On the island of Kirke "[he] entered Kirke's flawless bed of love"(Homer X:390).  Despite these few instances, Odysseus remained faithful to Penelope in their twenty years apart.  He never loved either Kalypso or Kirke as he did Penelope, and thusly chose not to stay with either of the two.  Although the principle might get lost in the tale, Penelope played the part of the goal for Odysseus to obtain, or re-obtain by the end of the Odyssey.

Women: A.K.A. Powerful Manipulators Thesis: Men seemingly have more power in The Odyssey, but Homer portrays the women as manipulators and influencers, which allows them to gain control and power. In The Odyssey, Penelope is able to manipulate men using her sexuality, symbolizing that women have the true power and control in society. With many suitors at home, Penelope chooses to seduce them only to lead them on, “For three years now, getting on to four,/ she’s played it fast and loose with all our hearts,/ building each man’s hopes–/ dangling promises, dropping hints to each–/ but all the while with something else in mind” (Homer 2.96-100).

Penelope’s Hints Through Penelope’s hints, Homer suggests that Penelope does know that the beggar Aethon is actually her husband Odysseus. To begin with, Penelope was speaking with the beggar and asking really specific questions about Odysseus. She was asking about the kind of clothes he wore, who he was with while away from Ithaca, and questions only Odysseus himself could answer: “His words renewed her deep desire to weep, recognizing the strong clear signs Odysseus offered” (19.285-286). Throughout the book, Odysseus has been known for having a way with words to express and benefit himself: such as when he was granted his release from Ogygia and, by use of his words, received help from Calypso.

Connie is like most young women these days. She has an idea of what to do for career just has not yet put enough thought into it to feel good about a decision. Connie is a smart seventeen year old young woman. Her mother is struggling to provide for Connie as a single mother working two jobs and only wants the best for Connie. Her mother is often quoted as saying, “I don’t want Connie to make the mistakes I have.”

While the lash marks from whippings remain on their skins, the former slaves within Toni Morrison’s Beloved are scarred most by their mental trauma. While connecting to the community is used as part of the healing process, Morrison abolishes the concept that all communities are healing. Specifically, communities in which the relations of power are equal and members treated as ends in themselves are critical in overcoming adversity, while an imbalance of power, as well as seclusion, can incite the trauma from the beginning.

Odysseus’ actions in the hall can be explained through his strong feelings towards his wife and queen, Penelope. Odysseus clearly loves Penelope, to the point of doing radical things for her becomes expected out of such love. This point of love and desperation to be with Penelope is shown when Odysseus was held captive by the lustrous goddess Calypso, where “he’d sit on the rocks and beaches, wrenching his heart with sobs and groans and anguish, gazing out over the barren sea through blinding tears” (Fagles 157 line 173). The intensity of his emotion in Ogygia is that of a sad movie. The minute details of imagery in the quote correlate to the minute details of a scene, contributing to the drama and emotion of a work. This level of sadness must

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.

Unlike Odysseus Penelope is confined by the gender roles of her time and cannot use physical strength against the suitors or even direct verbal rejection, instead Penelope resorts to her emotional resilience and wit in order to challenge the suitors. She wrongly reassures the suitors that once she finishes weaving a gift for Odysseus’s father, she will choose someone to marry her, “’Young men, my suitors, let me finish my weaving, before I marry’…every day she wove on the great loom but every night by torchlight she unwove it.” (II. 103-104, 112-113) Penelope’s actions are strategic and well calculated. Her main goal, like Odysseus, is to successfully overcome her situation. She understands that she may not be able to physically fight the suitors but she can trick them until Telemachus or Odysseus are able to. By crafting a lie that delays the suitors from marrying her immediately, Penelope restrains the suitors from seizing Ithaca, her household, and posing a threat to Telemachus or Odysseus. Her lie gives Odysseus a crucial advantage in the physical fight against the suitors as he comes back to a city and household where Penelope

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’.

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.

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”

"For my mother, against her will, is beset by suitors... (Odyssey 2.50)."  Assuming that Odysseus had died in the course of the war, they wish to marry her, although no news has yet been delivered as to Odysseus' true fate.  Meanwhile, the suitors are eating all her food, killing off all her livestock, and generally using up all the resources of the household (Odyssey 1.248-251).  Elders of the town suggest Penelope forget her pride and go home to her father and for him to arrange a new wedding for her.  "Let him urge his mother to go back to her father's, / and they shall appoint the marriage and arrange for the wedding presents... (Odyssey 2.195-196)"  Thus, the suitors pose multiple dangers for Penelope.  If the suitors ruin all the household's resources, or if one were to successfully persuade her to marry him, she would lose her power position.  Likewise, if the resources run out and she is forced to move back in with her father, she would lose both her power position and her autonomy.