How Does Atwood Present The Character Of Penelope In The Odyssey

In The Penelopaid, Penelope openly shares her flaws and weaknesses of herself and is consequently reliable. Attwood presents Penelope, the wife of Odysseus and her cousin Helen of Troy, in the Underworld reflecting on her life. She has been dead for a few thousand years and now has the opportunity to tell her side of the story. Attwood gives Penelope a voice, allowing her to tell her side of the story from her own point of view. Through the retelling of her story, Penelope discusses her childhood, the time when she learns self-sufficiency the hard way. Penelope’s mother is very coldhearted, and her father tried to drown her when she was still a child. Attwood presents Penelope as more than just a waiting, weeping, and weaving figure she is

known to be from the Odyssey. Penelope has no reason to lie to the reader because she is now in the underworld where no one can hurt her for speaking the truth, as she says: “but who cares about public opinion now? The opinion of the people down here: the opinion of shadows, of echoes. So, I’ll spin a thread of my own” (4).

Penelope is now in the underworld where the truth of many comes out because the past is all gone from now on and no one can do anything about it. Penelope was not given much attention in the Odyssey. She was described as loyal and faithful, but now Atwood gave her a voice and let her tell her own story. Penelope is left alone for twenty years alone without Odysseus. She manages to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and to keep over a hundred suitors at bay. In The Penelopiad, she is not only the wife of Odysseus, but also a mother of Telemachus but also for the twelve maids, and is a queen taking over business when Odysseus is gone. Penelope uses her appearance to have control and power over her male-dominated surroundings after the small amount of power through her relationship with her powerful husband. Penelope feels implicated in the maids’ deaths, but cannot tell the truth during her lifetime due to the potential repercussions. Later on, in the book Penelope reveals the choices she made in the past with the suitors. Penelope discusses the rumors about her sleeping with Amphinomus and then explains, “The songs say I found his conversation agreeable, or more agreeable than that of the others, and this is true; but it’s a long jump from there into the

bed. It’s also true that I led the suitors on and made private promises to some of them, but this was a matter of policy” (143). Penelope does not just discuss all the positive things about her but admits to the truth and reveals unflattering things about herself. She admits decisions that she made in her life were her fault and takes the blame. Throughout the story, she explains she was not perfect. She is in the underworld a place where no one is judging or doing anything about what one says. Penelope, after years and years of keeping her mouth shut, has the opportunity to say what she has always wanted to say. The loss of voice the women suffered is drawn through the songs of the maids and Penelope’s words because they could not posthumously express what they saw when they were alive.