Penelope In The Odyssey

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.

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.

A significant virtue Homer’s story covers is the importance of loyalty. The most notable exudation of loyalty is when Odysseus’ wife, Penelope, waits faithfully for ten years for the return of her husband. While many others tell her that Odysseus was most likely dead and that she should move on, she ignores them and never loses hope. She also concocts a clever scheme so she does not have to remarry. Saying that she would remarry once she finishes making a burial shroud for her late father-in-law, Laёrtês, she undoes the stitches every night so she would never finish, hence never remarry.

Several instances of strong allegiance to Odysseus can be seen as Odysseus returns to Ithaca and interacts with Eumaeus under disguise. Odysseus’ wife, Penelope, is one of the reoccurring examples of continued loyalty to Odysseus throughout the epic. Eumaeus mentions that anytime someone comes to Ithaca proclaiming “news” concerning Odysseus, Penelope will welcome them and ask for details, only to be disappointed and continue grieving. Even ten years after his disappearance, she shrugs off her suitors in hopes that he will someday return to her. She has come up with numerous schemes to avoid marriage, thus preventing another from ruling Ithaca in Odysseus’ absence through marriage to her.

. In facing the suitors, Penelope and Odysseus achieve success through slyness and their eagerness to reunite. For three years, Penelope beguiles the suitors, who describe her as “cunning of a sort we never hear about” (Book 2, l. 157). The long amount of time she spends on her trick shows her unwavering dedication to not succumb to the suitors. When Odysseus punishes someone, he has them “suffer in agonizing pain” (Book 20, ll.

Homer says, “So every day she wove on the great loom / but every night by torchlight she unwove it; / and so for three years she deceived Akhaians.” (II, 112-114). In this quote, it shows in detail what and how long Penelope tricked the suitors into waiting for her. Much like Penelope, Juliet had an offer for someone to marry her after Romeo left. Paris offers to marry Juliet and her dad finally chooses himself that she will and sets a date.

Redemption is the act of being saved from sin. “Ind Aft” by Fay Weldon is a tawdry tale of a vapid mistress’s redemption. A woman does not become a mistress because she loves herself. In an affair, there is rarely more than lust between the two adulterers.

As we note, there appears to be a clear progression of feeling Catullus experiences towards Lesbia - initially he is enamored by her and their apparent love for each other. With time, Lesbia's betrayal leads Catullus to become bitter towards his former lover, which then manifests itself into slander, mockery and invective to demoralize her image. As we touched on earlier, women in Roman society during this era, possess no public persona except for those that are assigned by rumores. Due to this social construct, any negative account circulated among the public about Lesbia lends to her role and image within society; Catullus takes full advantage of this ideology and openly disgraces Lesbia for her betrayal. Lastly, Carmen 11, solidifies this distaste Catullus has developed for Lesbia.

She weaves the loom every day and unweaves her stitches in the evening to stall from picking a suitor. Penelope does not know if he will make it home but remains hopeful anyway. In times of vulnerability, Iphonious and Ceria will always have each other as auxillary. They can look to the other and seek motivation out of devotion. The power of love supports people in times of strife.

Contrary to popular belief, Lady Macbeth is not an evil character. She is simply a misguided woman who is extremely determined to have her way. Although she took a lot of wrong turns, she did realize in the end that what she did was horrifically wrong. Lady Macbeth was not a bad person, She only wishes greatness for her husband and also wants to be part of his greatness, though she does let her guilt get to her in the end. During the play, Lady Macbeth only wanted to help her husband achieve greatness- even if it meant she would have to murder some people.

Penelope, wife of Odysseus is the paradigm woman. After the Trojan war, there is no news of Odysseus. No one knows of his whereabouts or what his plans were. Odysseus stays lost at sea for nearly twenty years, yet Penelope still says faithful and has no skeptic thoughts. Suitors come to wed Penelope and amass Odysseus’s treasure, however when asked when she would marry she says the time would come soon; it never did.

Ismene eventually does come around to her sister’s side, however Antigone stops her from taking the blame in her place. Happy loman is Ismene’s counterpart in Death of a Salesman, he is unwittingly the archetypical product of the system that Willy subscribes to. Happy is a serial womanizer, regarding them more as consumables than equals,

(23.202-205) Because of this test, Odysseus began to think that Penelope stepped out on their marriage. This angered Odysseus, thus revealing his true identity to Penelope. Penelope is an extremely clever woman who could match Odysseus in his smarts. In the end, her cleverness is what saved her and her marriage.

She was a very nice and caring person, but war brought out her bad and competitive side. During the Trojan war, Athena was extremely upset with Paris because he did not name her as the fairest of all goddesses. She never got over the anger and embarrassment that Paris had put on her name (Parada). The fairest goddess would be rewarded with the golden apple. This competition involved Athena and triggered her competitive side because she wanted to win.

Odysseus is portrayed as a handsome man in the Odyssey because during the Mycenaean and Homeric period men that had any trace of an athlete in them were considered to be good looking because of their masculinity, strength and toned bodies. Whereas in the Penelopiad, Odysseus is portrayed to be the opposite of that. Because Atwood has drawn from the information given in the Odyssey, there is not a clear picture drawn of Odysseus excluding the influence of society’s views during the time, so Atwood has portrayed Odysseus in a way that she sees him. In the 21st Century BCE most men whose strength is in throwing events, like Odysseus, are seen to be short and stocky which is what is seen of where Atwood draws Odysseus’ looks from.