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Analysis Of Dorothy Parker's 'Penelope And The Suitors'

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The “Brave” Journey Home Greek mythology has had a profound impact on the world of literature and art. Tales that were created to explain natural phenomena and to teach moral lessons have gone way beyond their original purpose. For example, the story of Queen Penelope and King Odysseus is the tale that depicts the importance of loyalty. Penelope is the wife of Odysseus and the mother of their son Telemachus. At this point in time Odysseus has been gone for 20 years and is trying to make his way back to Ithaca, the country of which they rule. While Odysseus attempts getting back to his family, his wife Penelope has been left in control of the country. In the painting Penelope and the Suitors, John William Waterhouse uses the depiction of Penelope working on a tapestry while ignoring her suitors to show her loyalty, sense of duty, and faithfulness. While in her poem “Penelope”, Dorothy Parker uses the same scene to show while everybody praises Odysseus on his brave journey home, Penelope is the brave one keeping things under control and remaining faithful while her husband is away. On August 22, 1893 in West End, New Jersey Dorothy Parker (Rothschild) was born (Biography.com). According to Anderson, Parker’s childhood “was far from happy”. During Parker’s young life she suffered a great a deal of loss with her mother dying when she was four, her stepmother when she was ten, and after a lifelong illness her father in 1913 (Rathbone). Parker was never taught how to

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