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The characterization of women in the Odyssey
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Recommended: The characterization of women in the Odyssey
The Fight For Equality “When Zeus had punished men by giving them women, he turned his attention to the arch-sinner himself.”(74). The Odyssey, which is written but Homer is an exceptional book that is able to change the views of people all around the world because it demonstrates the struggle of a man attempting to get back home to his wife and environment. Throughout the length of the book we are able to see how women are able to take on a major role in the book and setting, which is unlike any other book, because the women takes the dominant role in this book, which is surprising. We take into consideration how women are able to do amazing things throughout this book, for instance Penelope is able to control men with her beauty, Calypso is able to control men with the dominant role she plays by imprisoning Odysseus, and Circe …show more content…
Penelope's role as women in The Odyssey shows how she could easily overpower men with her beauty and could immediately manipulate the suitors with her looks. It was clear that Penelope’s beauty and ability to deceive was her suitor’s weakness. Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, was known to be faithful but deceiving at times of need and to keep her from getting married to any man that was not her husband. Penelope loved Odysseus religiously; she would do anything possible so that she would not be forced to marry one of the suitors that claimed to be the rightful and perfect next husband. The excuse that Penelope used was that she would marry one of the suitors as soon as she finished weaving the burial shroud for Laertes, which she would then unweave at night, in order to extend the timeframe in hopes of her husbands, Odysseus’, return. During the time Penelope had to do the weaving, she was plotting a manipulative plan to cease the suitors from
Penelope serves as his motivation and aids in his characterization as a loving husband as well as a vicious, ruthless warrior. Back in Ogygia, he explicitly states in his farewell to Calypso that he longs for his wife: “ ‘My lady goddess, there is no cause for anger. My quiet Penelope-how well I know-would seem a shade before your majesty, death and old age being unknown to you, while she must die. Yes it is true, each day I long for home, long for the sight of home’ ”(V. 224-229). He refers to Penelope as “my quiet Penelope,” meaning she is most beholden to him and is his. Though he degrades Penelope by saying she is less beautiful than Calypso, he has a great love for Penelope, that brings out Odysseus’s true feelings. Even though
One important characteristic that Penelope and Odysseus share is their loyalty to each other. Odysseus failed to return home seven years after the Trojan war. Because he is assumed dead, 108 wealthy noblemen and princes invade his palace and refuse to leave until Penelope has married one of them. By marrying her, the suitors hope to gain control over Odysseus’s wealth and power. However, Penelope remains faithful to Odysseus. But, as a woman, she is powerless to remove the suitors from the palace. And without a man in the household, she is subject to her father’s decisions. However, despite his wish for her to remarry, Penelope clings to the hope of Odysseus’s return and remains faithful to him. She waits and gathers information by asking strangers who arrive in Ithaca about Odysseus. She goes through the stories of their encounter point by point, and asks about every detail while tears stream down her eyes. Although the suitors promise her a secure future, Penelope continues to wait for Odysseus. Without Odysseus, she does not believe that she will ever be happy again.
“A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view” (Ibsen). This saying also applied to the times of the Odyssey, an epic constructed by the blind, eight century B.C.E. poet, Homer. As one of the few representatives of ancient Greek social order, the blind, Homer witnessed women as substandard to men, regardless of their actions; many of them existed as seductresses, prostitutes, or slaves. He engraved into his poem women’s roles; the roles of women, as mothers, wives, seductresses, and goddesses are exemplified in this epic, when shown in comparison to the men of that era.
In the era of Homer, women played a very specific role in society, and even in literature. Women of this time were basically put in a box, and expected to never step out of line. If they did go against the arbitration of men, then they were faced with serious consequences. However, female characters play a huge role in both aiding, and delaying Odysseus’s journey home. I will proceed to analyze, and interpret the actions and intentions of every major female character in The Odyssey.
Women play an influential role in The Odyssey. Women appear throughout the story, as goddesses, wives, princesses, or servants. The women in “The Odyssey” dictate the direction of the epic. Homer the blind creator may have contrived the story with the aim to depict a story of a male heroism; but the story if looked at from a different angles shows the power women have over men. The Sirens and women that posses the power of seduction when ever they are encountered take the men off their course, and lead many to their death. The power women in the Epic pose can be seen from the goddess all to the wives. From The nymph Calypso who enslaves Odysseus for many years posses all the way back to Penelope who many argue is of equal importance to
She waits patiently for her husband to return home even though it is highly likely that he is dead and she rejects all of the other offers that the suitors have given her. She remains fiercely faithful to Odysseus for twenty years while he is off at war. However, Odysseus fails to remain monogamous with Penelope and he sleeps with “several women on his way home” (Barnes 137). Even though Penelope is cherished by Greek society more than the other seductresses, she is still considered an untrustworthy woman because of her weaving scheme to trick the suitors. Odysseus is valued by Greek society, yet he has all of the characteristics that make most of the female temptresses hated by society.
The Odyssey exemplifies a society organized and controlled by men where males consistently treated women unequally depriving them of true freedom. Homer’s male characters often saw women as second-hand citizens who had not true voice in society. One example of a women who is oppressed by men in the text is Odysseus’ wife Penelope. Although Penelope is queen of Ithaca her power in the kingdom is limited. Her life is controlled by her son Telemachus and the Achaean suitors who have been taken advantage of the kingdom for several years. At one point in the text Telemachus tells his mother “Words are for men, for all, especially for me; for power within this house rest here” (Homer, 7). This shows how men regarded themselves as the ones with power over society while they...
She is faithful to Odysseus for twenty years, devoted, and loving. Yet she is also strong, clever, and crafty. Penelope is so faithful, that she would rather die than never see Odysseus again, "How I wish chaste Artemis would give me a death so soft, and now, so I would not go on in my heart grieving all my life, and longing for love of a husband excellent in every virtue.” While some might consider this problematic, Penelope is faithful out of her Penelope devises brilliant plans to buy herself time for Odysseus to come home, such as her scheme with the loom and the contest she creates, which she knows only her husband can accomplish. Despite everything, Odysseus and Penelope have a strong relationship. When Odysseus is captured and tempted by Calypso in book five, he decides to go back home with Penelope. Calypso tries to change his mind, yet he says, “Don't be angry with me, please. All that you say is true, how well I know. Look at my wise Penelope. She falls far short of you, your beauty, stature.” This illustrates that Odysseus is truly in love with Penelope. He loves her for more than her looks and he doesn't mind if she isn´t more beautiful than Calypso or if she has gotten
Such a society obviously places severe restrictions on the position of women and what is considered to be acceptable behaviour for women”. (Whittaker 39) Penelope is forced to step out of the typical Homeric Greek woman role in order to make sure Odysseus has a success homecoming. She does this by proving to be clever, like her husband, when she tricks the suitors, claiming that she will choose one once she finishes a burial shroud for Laertes. Every night she undoes the weaving she has done for the day. This works until some of her house servants catch her. Another example of this trickery, is her promise to marry any suitor that can string and shoot Odysseus 's bow. Penelope knew no one but Odysseus could do this. There are many different interpretations of Penelope 's role as a woman in this moment of the epic. Homer has Penelope show a role that isn’t what you would normally see in a Homeric Greek woman. She depicts that she can be just as manipulative as a man can
Since the beginning of time, men have always been portrayed as stronger and beyond more powerful than women. Throughout the epic poem, The Odyssey, women's role in society is made clearly evident. Homer wrote the poem somewhere between 1200-500 B.C.E in Ancient Greece. During that period, women weren’t seen and treated extremely differently than they are today.
On the surface, Penelope may be seen as an emotional woman that does very little other than wish “Blessed Artemis sent me a death as gentle, now, / this instant - no more wasting away my life, / my heart broken in longing for my husband [Odysseus].... / He had every strength, / rising over his countrymen, head and shoulders.” (Homer 382). However, Penelope is more than just an emotional, frail, weak woman for her cleverness and crafty personality as demonstrated in three episodes throughout The Odyssey. The first episode involves Laertes’ shroud, the first trick Penelope plays on her doting suitors.
However, it was up to her alone to assure a viable as well as opportune future for the kingdom of Ithaca. Penelope uses her wits to continuously outmaneuver the suitors until
It was a very different world back then, women were not as powerful as men, so even though Penelope was the queen of Ithaca, the suitors were still trying to marry Penelope. Penelope was a good match for Odysseus and very clever because she unwove the burial shroud every night, made the men string a bow and shoot an arrow through the ax heads, and tricked Odysseus to reveal that it really was him after twenty years. While Odysseus was on his twenty-year-long journey, Penelope was facing problems with the suitors. The suitors wanted to marry Penelope, so she started to come up with excuses that would hold off the men. Penelope said she was going to
When Odysseus left for the Trojan War, Penelope did not expect him to be gone for 20 years, and she, among others in Ithaca, believed Odysseus to be dead. Due to this belief that Odysseus was dead, she was forced to choose from a crowd of suitors for a new husband because of the ancient patriarchal hierarchy. Penelope, not wanting to marry one of the brutish suitors, devised a plan to delay the impending wedding by utilizing a skill that was meant to oppress her. She told the suitors that she was weaving a shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes, and when she finished, the wedding could proceed. “There she was all day long, working away at the great web; but at night she used to unravel it by torchlight. .