Penelope In The Penelopiad

Firstly, in the Odyssey the narrator is Homer and in the Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood the narrator is Penelope, Odysseus’s wife. Odysseus’s goal in the Odyssey is to tell the story of the hardships he experienced getting home after the Trojan War and the many challenges and obstacles he faced before he finally got back to Ithaca and reclaimed his family and kingdom. Penelope’s goal is to tell her story: her childhood, her marriage, her life in the Underworld, her relationship with her cousin Penelope, and Odysseus’s journey in her own words. The major difference in these two texts is the way Penelope is portrayed. In the Odyssey, Penelope is seen as the typical doting wife who remains faithful to Odysseus despite a plethora of aggressive suitors who pine for her attention and hand in marriage while he is away from home for 20 years. However, the Penelopiad takes a different approach. Penelope is brought to life in this story, and you can see her true personality awakened. She is interesting and very jealous and loathsome of her cousin Helen, who is only really mentioned as King Menelaus’s wife in the Odyssey. Penelope also alludes to the …show more content…
Penelope notes that Odysseus vied for Helen’s hand in marriage, but lost, so Penelope felt she was second best. Penelope was not considered to be the “pretty” girl, but she was much kinder than Helen. Odysseus was not a big contender for Penelope. However, he won and they got married. Odysseus, as we know from the Odyssey, was a conniving man. He cheated and won the race, and also won Penelope’s heart. In the Odyssey, Penelope and Odysseus appear to be madly in love, but in the Penelopiad it appears that it was more of an amicable relationship, but Penelope’s friendly feelings developed into passionate loving ones and Odysseus acted as though he felt the