Saturday, November 19, 2016

Penelope

In the first four books, we are also introduced to Telemachus' mother and Odysseus' wife, Penelope. Using textual evidence, discuss her role in the story so far.


Penelope plays a significant role in the book since she is responsible for bringing suitors to Odysseus’ house. The suitors eat everything in the house and kill all of the livestock (chapter 2, line 53-62). The suitors do not respect Telemachus as a man and continue to destroy his house, against his word. Telemachus grows tired of this and decides to go on a journey to bring his father home and cement his manhood. However, he leaves in secret because he does not want his mother, Penelope, to find out. If she knew, she would cry and try to stop him because she does not want him to go (chapter 2, line 397-400). Meanwhile, at Odysseus’ house, the suitors that Penelope attracted     plan to kill Telemachus when he returns. If it were not for Penelope, there would be no suitors to terrorize Telemachus’ house, and he may have never gone on this odyssey.

No comments:

Post a Comment