Penelope proves herself to be a “mistress of her own heart” by (1) exercising commitment and loyalty to her departed love and (2) employing deceit and pity to manipulate her suitors, buying her time to remain independent from men other than Odysseus although she fears for the possibility of never reuniting with Odysseus and faces constant temptations from the suitors. To be a “mistress of her own heart” means that she is in control of her emotions. Penelope controls her emotions by remaining loyal to Odysseus, despite the many challenges presented to her.
Penelope exercises commitment and loyalty to Odysseus by demanding the respect for Odysseus and his counterparts and being skeptical of his return. Penelope is constantly seeking balance between being perceived as ready for marriage and taking
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Gifts are especially tempting as they play with human natures desire to obtain value, yet she demands for them, controlling her temptation, to restore Odysseus’s house. Penelope compares the suitors abuse of her courtship to the minimum standards of manners, after making herself seem deprived of joy in life. When referring to the average woman who is courted she says, “Her friends out to be feasted, gifts are due to her; would any dare to live at her expense?” (18.346-348). By using the word “ought” she implies a moral obligation to provide her with splendors. In addition she uses the word “due” to insinuate that they are in debt to her, therefore, the house of Odysseus, and are obligated to repay this. The use of the rhetorical question accentuates the unlikelihood of this treatment in the abstract. Specifically, the use of the word “dare” implies that there is risk involved in their malpractice towards her which is an assertion of her confidence derived from her trust in either her ability to or that Odysseus’s son will be able to deal out
Odysseus says that he is “a man of sorrows”, so he can’t answer these questions. Penelope describes that she also has sorrows because she really doesn’t want to marry any of the suitors (185). Odysseus later
Let us explain: When Odysseus didn't come, Penelope devised a plan to delay having to marry one of these suitors. To stall, she said she wouldn't marry until she'd finished weaving a funeral shroud for Lacerates, Odysseus' father. Now, weaving is slow, but it's not that slow.
In Homer’s Poem, The Odyssey, Penelope is the exceptionally patient and clever spouse of the infamous hero, Odysseus, and the mother of Telemachus. One poignant factor of Penelope’s character is her patience and devotion which is displayed throughout the poem. With her husband absent for a great majority of her life for the later of twenty years and his location unknown, Penelope stays, patiently awaiting Odysseus’ return, all whilst preserving their estate and raising her son by herself. Throughout this time, she had many persistent suitors in pursuit of her, abusing her husband’s absence.
Penelope, his wife, is greatly affected; as many greedy suitors disrespect her and move into their home to try and win her hand in marriage. Throughout ‘The Odyssey’, the greed and folly of men play a huge part in increasing the difficulty and severity of Odysseus’s situations and ultimately change his fate and the directions of his journey. The greed and folly of men are largely represented by Penelope’s suitors. In the very first book of The Odyssey, the disgusting actions of the suitors were introduced to the readers.
They both uphold the general values society places on their sexes, but through their hardships they are able to gain a fluidity in these roles not often given in their society. Odysseus was able to express emotion without undercutting his masculinity, and was able to appreciate his wife for more than her domestic accomplishments. While Penelope became a paradigm of fidelity, she also embodied inner-strength as she dealt with the turmoil of her missing husband, rowdy suitors, and the destruction of her kingdom; which allowed Odysseus to come to appreciate her ingenuity and his marriage in
Imagine landing in a difficult situation... getting stranded from home, encountering beautiful woman at the same time, but you have a wife. You have to choose your wife, or a beautiful woman. This is exactly what happened to Odysseus on his travels in The Odyssey, by the Greek poet Homer. In this epic poem, Odysseus is married to his wife Penelope and has a happy family, who lives in Ithaca. Even though Odysseus has been stranded from home for many years, he still remains loyal to his wife.
Although Odysseus is a famous, intelligent and heroic figure, his loyalty to Penelope is nonexistent. This is revealed by his affairs with other woman, his extended journey home, and by the fact that he failed to make Penelope his priority. Loyalty is not a difficult concept, all Odysseus had to do to fulfill this was avoid other women, and put Penelope above his selfish ways. His failure to do this proves him to be an unreliable husband, who does not deserve his selfless and trustworthy wife. Loyalty is an essential part of marriage or any relationship and requires both people involved in the relationship.
Every day she sows a death shawl for her father in law, and each night she unwinds her progress, telling the suitors that she will choose a husband when she is done sowing. She tricks the cunning Odysseus into revealing himself. Penelope knows that as a woman in her own right, she has no political or economic power. It is, ultimately, her father’s decision whom she will marry, and her own son pressures her into remarriage so he can inherit his father’s land. If Penelope had been able to be a powerful single woman, would she have remained loyal to Odysseus?
However, for a woman in Homer’s society, who belongs to either her father and her husband, she is the head of the household for 20 years in the absence of Odysseus. She does not preserve peace in the household, but she takes actions to prevent the destruction of ranks of the household by delaying her marriage so that when Odysseus come back home, he can reclaim the kingship, or when Telemachus is old enough, he can take the throne which is rightfully his. In the position where women have no power, she uses her intellectual strength to control the suitors. Penelope promises the suitors that she will choose one of them to marry after she finishes weaving the shroud for Laertes because it is shameful if she does not do anything for her father-in-law. The suitors eagerly comply to her request without knowing what Penelope plans to do.
However, Penelope still loves Odysseus and remains loyal to him by stalling the marriage. She still continues to persist in being hopeful and refuses to believe that Odysseus will never return to her, so she creates several excuses to help her evade marriage for as long as possible. She presents tasks to keep the
Everyday women like Penelope were believed to have no purpose in common society other than being confined to a kitchen each day and complete domestic house duties. The name Penelope was deliberately selected as it translates to mean pulling, or spinning which is an allegorical phrase in itself, the first meaning associates her cunning weaving of plots and schemes which proves her to be sly and the secondary referring to cloth which was a part of an everyday life duty for women, producing articles of clothing. Being a hospitable host to guests was also a key function, which is first noticed when she offers help to Odysseus in disguise “Give him a wash and spread a couch for him here, with bedding and coverlets and with shining blankets”. It is argued that Penelope is secretly a spider, weaving her own web of lies getting stuck in her own trap which is hidden from the public as women were not meant to be clever or be known for any kind of crafty intelligence. In contrast to this old way of societies expectations, Atwood utilizes Penelope’s strength in character to warn women not to follow in her footsteps by giving them the advice of “Do not look the other way”, “Tell them (referring to males) what you think”, “Argue with them”, and “make them squirm”, these pieces of wisdom create a stronger emphasis on having equal respect and appreciation for women which also conflicts the differences between Ancient and Modern times and highlights the evolution of society.
Penelope comes up with a lot of ways to say no to the suitors about having affairs with her. By these actions the reader can infer that Penelope will not have affairs with the suitors because she loves Odysseus and no one
However, these contrasts between their personal thinking built most of valuable points in Odysseus' epic journey, and making a more intense story. To some extent, these women are not foolish at all because at least they are successful at leading people to believe that waiting is meaningful. The whole story happened during the dark centuries of women in Greece, when their value was limited behind men. However The “Odyssey” gives an opportunity to horror their role, also rejecting all erroneous preconceptions about the woman. Penelope -- a typical woman who represents for an image of a devoted wife, a mother of family and she is also an image of how women was treated at Greece.
To accomplish this analyzation I have structured this paper into an intro paragraph, four body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph. The first body paragraph explains how Penelope’s forced marriage with Odysseus supports the patriarchy. The second paragraph analyzes Penelope’s character, and how the story diminishes her character to make men seem more powerful. The third paragraph dives into the relationship with the suitors and Penelope. I analyze how Penelope uses her situation to her advantage, and how that undermines the patriarchy.
(5. 277). In contrast, Penelope is powerless without the presence of her husband by her side, even begging to “be blown out by the Olympians!/ Shot by Artemis” so that she “still might go and see amid the shades/ Odysseus in the rot of underworld” (20. 89-92). She also becomes emotionally unstable in the wake of Odysseus’ disappearance, becoming easily swayed by her son’s words and reaching brief moments of clarity, before regressing back to “weeping/ for Odysseus, her husband”... when she mount[s] to her room again” (1. 410-412). But despite Penelope’s fragile state, she is still seen as being preferable over Kalypso due to the belief that it was good for women to depend on men.