What Is Penelope's Role In The Odyssey

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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

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