Is Penelope powerful,weak, or just complicated? In Homer’s The Odyssey, Penelope is a character that is cast to the side as a grieving wife, but she is much more than that. Penelope is a strong character because she’s wise and thoughtful in her actions, and she has an unbreakable will. She might be labeled as a weak character because allows the suitors to squander her resources but at that time women had little power without a man by their side.
The first reason for Penelope being a strong character is that she is wise and thoughtful in her actions which are characteristics shown in book 19 (lines 163-177) where she describes how she has tricked the suitors and evaded a marriage with the power-hungry suitors. She evaded marriage by
Penelope and Penny are both Strong Independent Women and deep thinkers. Penelope spent twenty years alone with her son when Odysseus left and she had to be loyal the entire time. In addition, Penelope had to think about everything very thoroughly during the time when Odysseus was away. For example, she thought of the great idea of weaving a loom and when it was finished she would
Penelope is cunning because she stops the suitors from marrying her for a long time. In book one and two her plan was to make a burial shroud for Odysseus, because he was assumed dead, but every night she would unwind the burial shroud so it would never finish. “So by day she’d weave
Good morning Ms. Rummel, my sole purpose today is to convince you of Penelope’s complete innocence. In the book the Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, the tale of the Odyssey was retold through the eyes of Penelope, Odysseus’s wife. Towards the end of the book, when Odysseus returns to his home, Ithaca, he orders for Penelope’s twelve handmaidens to be hung, as a punishment for sleeping with the suitors during the twenty years when he was away. Many people believe that Penelope caused the murder of the twelve maids; however, if you pay close attention to the book and its subtext, there are many other people besides Penelope that have a larger claim to the responsibility of the maids’ murder. Through thoroughly analyzed evidence from the book itself,
Everyone falls in love in their lifetime. Whether that’s with another person, their career, their hobbies, it happens to everyone. In The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus, and his wife Penelope are the main couple. Odysseus does not truly love Penelope because he does not have loyalty to her, respect her, or trust her. Odysseus indicates no loyalty in regards to Penelope.
This quote is a really small quote but impacts my topic sentence a lot. One of the reasons are because that quote is true, every single mom in this world as well as Penelope, have trouble taking care of their kid especially their son because their dad is not there for them most of the time and son’s usually take advice from their dad. Which means that their mom would basically be a mom and a, “dad.” This quote relates to the book, “The Odyssey,” because Penelope was a single mom and had to take extra care for Telemachus due to the fact he doesn’t see his dad as much as his mom. In conclusion, Penelope is a good mother and good at taking care of him because she is trying to act like Telemachus’ second
In the Odyssey Penelope tries hard to embrace all the things women are given in life. She can do anything about the fact that Odysseus has been gone for almost twenty years, that her son does not know his own father and who he is supposed to take after, and that her home is almost in ruins because of all the suitors refusing to leave the house and trashing the house. Penelope is forced to choose a suitor, remarry and probably have more kids too. Penelope is not allowed to say if she wants that or not. We, as readers, can tell she is putting things off for as long as she can, but what if her alone was not enough.
Penelope’s power does not only derive from her position in her household, it also derives from her character. Her worth is measured by her action and choices and what others thinks of her. She is praised by men and placed on a level of status only equaled to men. The obvious role she played was to help her husband and his return, but the more complex one is her impact on the society and its rules that Homer depicted. Penelope was in the epic a woman who was wielding power in a misogynistic society, and she had to bend and break rules to gain and justify the authority she had over
She takes care of the island, rules in his stead, and does her best to fend off the suitors advances. Penelope’s archetype is the caregiver. She takes care of Telemachus, her son, and the island. She fits the
If Penelope were to be the one to sleep with a suitor I assure you she’d be killed among the other maids like in book 22. But of course, that wasn't the case and in book 23 lines 417-422, Penelope tells Odysseus, “Think what difficulty the gods gave: they denied us life together in our prime and flowering years, kept us from crossing into age together. Forgive me, don't be angry. I could not welcome you with love on sight”. Penelopes questioning if Odysseus was actually who he claimed he was, was the epitome of her character.
In the odyssey, Penelope is very loyal. She waited for Odysseus for a long twenty years. She would only chose a suitor to take his place only after she knew Odysseus was dead. Somehow she new Odysseus would come back, alive and well.
In many societies today, individuals are led to believe that the concept of women possessing their own strength or independence is abnormal. As a result, women experience the world in a constrained way in comparison to men, even if they are in higher classes of society. However, these extensive aspects of females are contradicted in some ancient Greek literature. In the epic poem, The Odyssey, Homer portrays women as a vital and powerful force through the characters Penelope and Circe, who counter the normality of misogyny in Homer’s time. Penelope’s character displays how some women are able to exceed society’s standards and show strength and cleverness when it is necessary.
She references something they would only know to make sure it is actually her husband. This proves that she is smart. In the Odyssey, the main characters portray the ideal male and female roles in their society. Men are supposed to be strong and respectable like Odysseus, and women are expected to be loyal and strong like Penelope.
In an epic poem, The Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus struggles to come back home while his wife, Penelope, faces barbarous suitors who plague her house to court her for the marriage in order to claim the kingship of Ithaca. With an absence of the man of the household and a son who is not old enough to rule over the country and handle the domestic complications, Penelope endeavors to keep the household orderly and civilized. In order to prevent further chaos in the household, Penelope maintains her role as the Queen of Ithaca and Odysseus’s wife through her loyalty and cunning. For a woman who does not know when her man will return home, Penelope is extremely strong to keep hope and wait for her husband; thus, her unwavering loyalty to her husband
Yes, Penelope struggles greatly with a very important decision throughout the course of the story. In the background of the main plot, Penelope struggles with a very important decision throughout the time Odysseus remains lost at sea. After many years without Odysseus’ return, the prospect of a new marriage inclines itself onto Penelope. The sons of the noblest families come to live with Penelope in order to court her for marriage.
Despite the uncertainty of whether her husband and son were dead or alive (Homer 151), she continues to display strength and independence while patiently awaiting their return. Penelope is a beautiful example of an ancient Greek woman who upheld the traditions and values of woman during her time period. Despite the absence of her family, she continued to maintain and uphold her family name – bringing dignity and honor to her family. Each household duty that she completed was part of a larger goal, maintaining the value and meaning of their family name. While each one of these duties she accomplished might have appeared small in comparison to the achievements that the rest of her family obtained in native lands, she never lost faith.