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Gender interactions in relationships
Gender interactions in relationships
Gender interactions in relationships
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Marriage is a commitment taken by two people to love and honor each other for life. however, what happens when a husband and wife have been separated by unforeseen circumstances? In Homer’s “The Odyssey” Odysseus is unable to return home after Poseidon send him off course. Odysseus is then separated from his wife for over ten years. While gone, Odysseus commits adultery with other women during his marriage to Penelope. Therefore, is there a connection between Odysseus and Penelope’s marriage in today’s society? Men during Odysseus time and today’s society are adulterous, while most women like Odysseus’ with Penelope remain chaste. In the early centuries, in a relationship men were the unfaithful ones in dating and also in a marriage, women didn’t have the equality in rights as a worthy person. “Men did not commit infidelity more than women, and no sex differences were found regarding the type of …show more content…
“Though he was longing to return to his wife and country, was detained by the goddess Calypso, who had got him into a large cave and wanted to marry him” (Homer Book1). After, he left Calypso and ended up with a witch goddess, Circe, which he been with for a year. While all of this happening, he have a wife and child in Ithaca. Odysseus is intelligent, strong, and brave man some people will call him a hero, but he is also a cheater and a liar. When he left to go fight in the Trojan War, he left behind his wife and his only son. While he lived the double life sleeping with Calypso and Circe; Penelope was being a thoughtful wife. She stayed faithful to her husband because she could not see herself being with anyone else. Penelope husband was gone for twenty years, so she became celibacy until her husband came back. When suitors came to her door for her hand in marriage, she turn them down because she knew she took a vow to stay commit “in sickness and in heath through death do us
Because of his resourcefulness, he is able to thrive away from his homeland. He is able to use his cunning ways to avoid trouble. Odysseus loves his wife Penelope and never ceases to find her. In book V, Calypso offers her hand in marriage to Odysseus, however, he declines because of his love for Penelope. Then, Calypso offers immortality if he stays but still, he refuses. “Well, I wish you luck all the same. If you knew what troubles you will have before you get to Ithaca, you would stay here and keep this house with me, and be immortal, however much you might want to see your wife whom you long for day in and day out.” (The Odyssey Pg.
In that regard, it was no wonder Odysseus’s is such an atrocious leader. A great example of Odysseus being disloyal is on Calypso’s Island. “…He lay with her each night, for she compelled him.” (892) This quote shows how Odysseus is disloyal to his grieving wife, and sleeps with a goddess daily. A leader cannot expect loyalty when the leader is notorious for being unloyal. “Now Circe, ‘loveliest of all immortals,’ persuades Odysseus to stay with her.” (903) This is another quote that shows Odysseus cheating on his wife, while his wife is at home is at home distraught over her missing husband. A great leader leads by example. By that philosophy, it should not be expected of Odysseus’s men to be loyal to him, when Odysseus cannot stay faithful to his own wife. Consequently, Odysseus is also extremely selfish, on top of being incredibly
In Homer's epic The Odyssey, Odysseus returns to the island of Ithaka disguised as a beggar. He reveals his real identity to his son, Telemakhos, as well as a few others who he would need to help kill the suitors. However, Odysseus does not reveal himself to his wife, Penelope. She recognizes the beggar as her long lost husband and chooses not to unveil his true identity. Penelope does this because she realized that her husband would be in danger, in his current surroundings, if she was to reveal who he really was. Therefore she acts as if she does not know the beggar is Odysseus. However, it is portrayed subtly in the book that she does indeed know that the beggar is her husband.
Now comes the part where he puts Penelope to the test. By sharing this information with her about her husband he comes to understand her feelings for him. Penelope has not only been loyal to Odysseus as her husband, but also as the authority figure. She has demonstrated her loyalty by being true to him for twenty years in his absence and has not remarried.
Penelope is the most important female character in the epic because Odysseus ' homecoming is centered on reconnecting with her. Ten years has past and Odysseus has still not returned from the war and is seemingly dead. Many suitors desire to replace him, by taking Penelope 's hand in marriage and Odysseus ' property. While unsure of Penelope 's attitude towards these suitors, readers are constantly reminded of her faithfulness to Odysseus. Although Odysseus does not know whether Penelope remains faithful to him, he still yearns to come home. “The expectations and limitations of the male and female roles in the Odyssey are accepted and never questioned”. (Whittaker 40) Society expects women in Penelope’s position to remain devoted to their significant other even after all these years and not knowing whether or not he is alive but are more forgiving to men who commit adultery like Odysseus. This situation once again brings up the question of a double standard modeled in The
Then there is Odysseus’ wife, Penelope. She is depicted as an individual. Homer makes her character appear as very clever and also very loyal. Never once during Odysseus twenty years of absence does she remarry. She tolerates the suitors in her home for ten years but never chooses, always with the hope that her first husband, Odysseus, will return. Homer also makes her seem clever when she gets all of the suitors to bring her gifts before she “chooses one” knowing that they are in a short supply of resources. In another instance he portrays her as clever in the way that she keeps the suitor away by weaving the tunic for Odysseus and secretly taking it apart every night. The role Penelope plays is very important because she is seen as a person, not a possession.
Firstly, Penelope who plays Odysseus’s wife is alone tending to her city Ithica until her husband returns. Meanwhile Odysseus is out fighting in the Trojan War and against many of the Greek God’s who are trying to make his trip back home as eventful and hard as possible; “…work out his journey home so Odysseus can return” (Homer 276). While King Odysseus is away Penelope is to deal with a bunch of suitors who are eating and trashing out Ithica, “…if those suitors have truly paid in blood for all their reckless outrage” (559). In order for Penelope to keep peace until Odysseus returns she has to come up with a clever plan to keep the suitors from completely taking over. For almost 2 years Penelope was able to keep the suitors from getting out of hand by saying she will find someone to marry and replace Odysseus after she is d...
She is loyal, having waited for Odysseus for twenty years, not remarrying, though she thought he was gone for good. She also plays a much more active role in the marriage she has with Odysseus. Perhaps the most defining characteristics attributed to Penelope involve her role as a woman, in marriage and as a presumed “widow”. First, there seems to be a double standard, like described in Calypso’s case, between the loyalty of Penelope and the loyalty of Odysseus. Penelope is physically and emotionally loyal to Odysseus, while Odysseus is only emotionally loyal, meaning he has had sexual relations with other women within the twenty years he has been gone. During this time period in Greek culture, this was not frowned upon and was quite normal, suggesting that women were held to a different standard than men. In addition, as Penelope is presumed to be a widow, at least by the suitors, she is prized solely for her beauty. The suitors speak only of her beauty and none of her intelligence or of her personality or soul. This suggests that marriage was not always about love, and that women were judged and valued merely for their beauty. This idea further proves the act of sexualizing women during this
While the relationship between Odysseus and Telemakhos is a blind love, the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope is a love between two people who just want to be together. Odysseus shows his love towards Penelope throughout the Odyssey. In spite of the fact that Odysseus has been gone for twenty years, he never forgets his wife back in Ithaca. One example of how much he wanted to go home was when he went to the island of the Lotus-Eaters. He could have stayed on the island of the Lotus-Eaters where everything he ever wanted was there, but the thing he wanted the most was to be with his wife. Penelope likewise displays this kind of love towards Odysseus.
Often times in life we search for a companion, someone to share our love and life with. Odysseus and Penelope's lasting relationship is an obvious representation of love in the Odyssey. Although Odysseus is gone for twenty years he never forgets his faithful wife in Ithaca. This love helps him persevere through the many hardships that he encounters on his journey home. Penelope also exemplifies this same kind of love for Odysseus. At home in Ithaca, she stays loyal to Odysseus by unraveling his shroud and delaying her marriage to the suitors that are courting her. She always keeps the hope that her love, Odysseus, will return. Odysseus and Penelope's marriage clearly illustrates the theme of love.
Odysseus and Penelope have a strong love towards one-another. Odysseus would not give up on fighting for eventually getting back to both Penelope and Ithaca. They are a married couple which is what makes them so much more attached and loyal to each other. Penelope has had many opportunities to re-marry after her husband left for 20 years. Odysseus also let down the opportunity on living an immortal life with a beautiful woman in order to make it back to his true love. An example of Penelope’s loyalty to Odysseus is that she rejects the many suitors that approach her for marriage because she believes that Odysseus is still alive somewhere and she remains loyal to their marriage. Before Odysseus left for the Trojan War, he told Penelope that if he did not return by the time their son, Telemachus, could grow a full beard, she must remarry at her own will. Penelope remains loyal to her marriage with Odysseus, even though Telemachus had grown a beard. QUOTE!! Odysseus’s’ loyalty...
The relationship between Odysseus and his wife Penelope is one of loyalty, love, and faith. Both characters are driven by these characteristics. Odysseus displays his loyalty in his constant battle to get home to his wife. This love helps him persevere through the many hardships that he encounters on his journey home. Odysseus spent 20 years trying to return to his home in Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War. Along the way he manages to offend both gods and mortals, but through his intelligence, and the guidance of Athena, he manages to finally return home. There he discovers that his home has been overrun by suitors attempting to win Penelope’s hand in marriage. The suitors believed that Odysseus was dead. Odysseus and his son, Telemachus,
... middle of paper ... ... Although Odysseus was unfaithful, there is no consequence for his actions, for he is a man, but for those women who were unfaithful, it could be seen how they are punished by men. In the case of Odysseus’ maids, they were “unworthy” for they laid with the suitors and as punishment Telemachus says that “By no honorable death [their lives will be taken]” (Homer, 220).
Penelope is married to one the most confident and handsome man, Odysseus. Penelope is loyal to her husband throughout their marriage. In the beginning, Penelope is described as a fearful woman who cannot maintain her life without her husband. “Her son’s powerful words pressed to her heart. She went
When Odysseus is trying to leave Kalypso and return home to Penelope, he strategically responds by making Kalypso feel superior to Penelope. Making someone feel superior, means that they feel as if they are better than the other person. Kalypso has just asked Odysseus why he yearns to leave her island and reject her offer of immortality. Despite the slim chance that Odysseus will actually make it home alive, he still decides to leave because of his love for his wife, Penelope. Odysseus's narrow chance of leaving all depends on how he phrases his response to Kalypso. Odysseus tries to appease Kalypso by starting off with: