Odysseus Role In O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Godfrey Winn once said “No man succeeds without a good woman behind him”. This can be seen in both Homer’s The Odyssey, and the Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? through the characters of Penelope and Penny. In The Odyssey, Penelope is the leading cause for Odysseus’ desire to return home. She is the reason he fights and travels through such a peril journey in order to get home. Without Penelope, Odysseus would not have fought as hard as did for twenty years in order to return to his kingdom and his wife; “Only Odysseus still longed to return to his home and his wife” (Homer 15-16). In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Penny is the sole reason Everett breaks out of jail. He wants nothing more than to win her back and marry her again to become …show more content…
Penelope is described as being respectful and kind. “Penelope is the most elaborately and searchingly portrayed of Homer’s female characters. She is a great queen who exceeds in wisdom and insight” (Doherty 288) She is shown to be compassionate and hospitable, she accepts visitors in her home, despite their ill intentions as suitors and continues to feed and provide for them despite how quickly and willingly they are consuming all her food and wine. She raises her son on the honor of his father, so that he grows up loving his father despite never meeting him and is willing to partake in his own perilous journey to discover the fate of his father. Penelope is portrayed as faithful, she remains loyal to Odysseus for twenty years, refusing any and all suitors who ask for her hand in marriage. She is also thought of as cunning, as she finds ways to prevent the suitors from forcing her hand in marriage. She cleverly tells them she believes Odysseus is dead, but will only marry one of her suitors after she completes a tapestry in honor of her late husbands. She then makes sure her tapestry is never completed by unraveling all the work she completed during the day at night to prevent there from being any