Similarities Between An Ancient Gesture And The Penelopiad

Penelope, a leading character from the legendary epic “Odysseus” is also illustrated in “An Ancient Gesture” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and an excerpt titled “Waiting” from “The Penelopiad” written by Margaret Atwood with the use of mood and tone. These two sources demonstrate the development of Penelope with the feeling of sympathy and a hopeful mood. While some views are different from the poem and the novel, there are several similarities as well. Nonetheless the development of this character is shown through both of these references. Furthermore, various of these points will be explained more in depth as we go along in detail with the poem and novel.

In “An Ancient Gesture”, the poem starts out as Penelope waking up for another day, a day the same as yesterday, and the day before. A day where she waits and thinks about nothing more except her husband. In addition, the poem continuously elucidates the audacity of Penelope, the courage of this character to stay strong until the end, though she seems weak throughout the poem. Additionally, the character says “And more than once: you can't keep weaving all day and undoing it all through the night; Your

arms get tired, and the back of your neck gets tight” (Millay 3-5). The quote visualizes Penelope as a weak individual and almost as someone who is in a state of depression. Even so, she had been weak for so long, years in fact, which doesn’t make her weak at all but represents her as a strong person in the end.
Summarizing an excerpt from “The Penelopiad”, the part of the novel is in Penelope’s point of view, while she explains how the years without Odysseus felt like for her.

She mentions that all she would wait for was for the news of her husband. Therefore, it had given the story a hopeful tone, she didn’t doubt her husband since she patiently waited all the years for him to return instead of getting remarried. Penelope also gives her perspective of the daily routine she carried out once hearing the news that the Greek ships had set sail for home. “Day after day I would climb up to the top floor of the palace and look over the harbor. Day after day there was no sign. Sometimes there were ships, but never the ship I longed to see” (Atwood 6). She was loyal to her husband, enduring each day without him until he

returned.
Both “An Ancient Gesture” and “The Penelopiad” demonstrate how Penelope felt as time went on for Odysseus to come back from Troy. In the same way, the sources show how Penelope grew to be sadder as time went on. Furthermore, they show how she had grown stronger by waiting for so long. On the other hand, the poem seemed to give off the effect that life goes on in the end. Be that as it may, the excerpt presents the message that almost all life for Penelope was paused. She didn’t care for anything in the world except to see Odysseus once more.
In conclusion, both of these references indicate that Penelope is a brave, bold woman. However, Penelope is someone who mourns and grieves for most of her life without Odysseus. Perhaps that also creates the outcome that she is unstable. How has Penelope developed over both “An Ancient Gesture” and “The Penelopiad”? She was shown as a weak character who becomes stronger as time passes by enduring the loss of someone who had played a large role in her life.