Penelope In The Penelopiad

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Recommended: The role of Penelope in Homer's Odyssey

The portryal of Penelope in the Penelopiad is completely different to the Odyssey as she is now the main character and has been given a voice. Penelope retells her story of how she experienced Odysseus being away. We are shown her emotions other than sadness and weeping . We see her grow from a teenage girl with no responsibility to a women with responsibility of the farm and servants and a young child. The Penelopiad probably gives us a more accurate representation of the way she was feeling throughout the dissapearance of her beloved husband.”I myself developed friendly feelings towards him-more than that, loving and passionate ones” (pg 48). Atwood sets this novel from a modern day perespective. She wanted to tell Penelope’s background …show more content…

In the Penelopiad the story of he maids is given some historic perspective. She uses the maid’s chorus for them to discribe their lives “I fetch and I cary, I hear and obey, Its yes sir and No ma’am the whole bleeding day; I smile and I nod with a tear in my eye, I make the soft beds in which others lie” (pg 52) The Penelopiead uses the trial to further explain the actions of the maids through the words of the judge “…So, in effect, these maids were forced to sleep with the Suitors because if they resisted they would have been raped anyway, and much more unpleasantly?” and highlights the changes in attitudes towards women over time but Odyseus’ behaviour was explained away by the judge “ however, your client’s times were not our times. Standards of behaviour were different then. “ meaning that back then it was judged as acceptable to murder the maids for sleeping with the suitors. When the judged declares Odysseus free to go the maids are given a voice to express the anger they wouldn’t have had the chance to do in their time “ The maids, we demand justice! We demand retribution! We invoke the law of blood guilt!...” (M.Atwood. 183)

Discuss the scope/range of attention paid to these women by each author and the cultural expctations that effect the respective portrayal of these

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