by his or her understanding of the author’s contextual influences and the time during which the text was composed. Context plays a crucial role in establishing plot and how meaning is shaped throughout the text. By analysing The Odyssey and The Penelopiad‚ the reader gains a powerful insight into the Ancient Greek period that is central to Odysseus’s plot. Through a close study of both these texts‚ composed millennia apart‚ much can be learnt about the evolution of society and its perception‚ as
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Penelope establishes right away her clever nature and reveals other personality traits that begin to hinder our understanding of what really went on in The Penelopiad. However‚ focusing on a few key aspects of her account can help in understanding Penelope better as well as what she’s not revealing: the water motif introduced by her mother (43) and her feelings/relationship with her cousin Helen. Penelope presents her conflict with Helen early on. Helen had fame and beauty‚ she stole the limelight
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A Restless Liar The Penelopiad‚ written by Margaret Atwood‚ is a story based on Penelope’s life experiences. Penelope‚ Queen of Ithaca‚ provides this information while in Hades‚ but speaks as if she were from modern times. Most of The Penelopiad is about Penelope’s life; however there is another major story line. The maids that assist Penelope in her everyday work also voice their hardships they are subjected to throughout their lives. The reader gets both Penelope’s and her maid’s points of view
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Analysis of Chapter 1 of ‘The Penelopiad’ (Margaret Atwood) The Penelopiad is‚ first and foremost‚ is a feminist perspective of events that unfolded during The Odyssey. It is from Penelope’s‚ the cousin to Helen of Troy‚ point of view- a violent and revisionist view of events that took place. As the central figure is a woman‚ we heard her thoughts and know of her feelings‚ we are able to emphasise with her. History tends to ‘downsize’ a woman’s (even women’s) role in events‚ not telling of the impact
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Because of this modern way of living‚ Atwood’s characters do not seem to fit in that well in the society that they were thrown into. They seem to believe that it is uncommon for them to be treated so badly. Such in the case as Penelope from The Penelopiad‚ she is surprised when she arrives at Ithaca and isn’t automatically accepted or treated like a queen. She was very much alone in Ithaca‚ mainly because Odysseus didn’t even want her there with him. The mindset of women eventually changed‚ where
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In the book The Penelopiad‚ Margret Atwood gives the 12 hanged maids a voice throughout the novel. She tells the story of the odyssey and Penelope’s voice is powerful while also truthful and honest throughout the story. There is a reason and a purpose of why Margret Attwood chooses to give the maids a voice and let them be heard. In the story‚ Margret Atwood talks and discusses the maids for a specific reason. I believe that she thinks that the maids had no voice‚ they are all females‚ and there
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Breaking Binaries in The Odyssey: An Exploration The New Woman in The Penelopiad In the Homeric Epic‚ women are cast into one of two dichotomous roles: that of the wise and faithful or that of the foolish and disloyal. However in Atwood’s The Penelopiad these roles are deconstructed such that they become fluid as opposed to concrete—such that the women do not wholly occupy one role or the other but rather move on a balance beam between the two‚ sometimes leaning nearer to one lateral or the other
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In this novel The Penelopiad there are many people in this story that I am fond of and many that I dislike very much. Penelope tries to portray herself as the good one in the story but she is almost just as bad as the others. She tries to describes and persuade the reader to make her seem innocent but she is really not. The character in the novel that I most admire are the maids because of what they had to go through pertaining to the brutal orders that Penelope gave them. The person who I most despise
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Penelope’s story and relationship with Odysseus has remained a myth‚ until Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad. In the novel Penelope finally explains her story of what happened while Odysseus was on her journey away and back to her. The Penelopiad is praised as a feminist text and throughout the story the reader truly finds insight into Penelope’s life and personality. Her choices throughout her story in The Penelopiad can primarily be shown through her mothers speech that she makes at Penelope’s wedding to
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Margaret Atwood’s‚ The Penelopiad gives an alternate view of what was going on in Ithaca during Odysseus’ 20 year absence. This essay will specifically focus on the maids who were hanged because of what was thought to be disloyalty. The maids were wrongly accused‚ and quite possibly framed to cover up for Penelope’s infedelity‚ as Atwood proposed. Therefore‚ The Odyssey fails to adequately tell the story of the maids. Atwood‚ however‚ recognized this injustice and wrote The Penelopiad to better explain
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