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Literary Analysis in Odyssey
The Odyssey literary analysis
Literary Analysis in Odyssey
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Everyone is strong in their individual ways. In Homer’s the Odyssey, the main characters, Odysseys and Penelope, go through trials and have their own way of dealing with them. When I mentioned everyone that includes myself. I use my strengths to overcome challenges just like Odysseys and Penelope. With my strengths of empathy, adaptability, and positivity, I work through problems and trials that stand in my way, similarly Odysseys and Penelope has similar and different ways of dealing with their obstacles. Empathy is one of my top strengths and has helped me through many tough times in my life. One of those ways is by putting myself into someone else’s shoes. I knew a girl named Jenna, she was one of the “popular” kids, never coming close …show more content…
Almost everyone knows the glass half full and half empty trick. If you think the glass is half full than your optimistic and if you see it half emptily than your pessimistic. But what if I say the glass is completely full, what would that mean? I believe the glass is half full of water and half full of air, both essential to life. Am I overly optimistic, extremely positive or out an of the box thinker? Either way I see nothing extremely bad about this strength. For example, one day, me and my mother were in her small red car stopped at an intersection on our way to my schools buss stop. I looked down and saw an extremely small baby rabbit on the sidewalk. One of the cutest creatures I had ever seen. My mother agreed. Suddenly, a crow swooped down and cared the small animal away. My mother was furious with the crow, saying how much she hated crows. I was upset that the baby was killed, but told my mom that it was the circle of life. Experience helped me understand nature and the world around me. Another way positivity helps me is by lifting me up when times get tough. There have been many deaths, both close family and friends, but just being able to meet these people is a gift in itself. Millons of people die every day, I am happy that I got to be apart of those peoples lives. I was able to make them smile and laugh and remembering those times helps me to try and help others smile and laugh because one day they …show more content…
Even though many suitors were nagging and pushing her to get married because they were sure Odysseus was long gone. Because none of the suitors would listen to Penelope she devised a plan to keep the suitors at bay. she told them, “Young men, my suitors now that the great Odysseus has perished, wait, though you are eager to marry me, until I finish this web, so that my weaving will not be useless and wasted. This is a shroud for the hero Laertes, for when the destructive doom of death, which lays men low shall take him, lest any Achaian woman in this neighborhood hold it against me that a man of many conquests lies with no sheet to wind him.” ( ) She would weave a shroud for her father in law, Leartes and then when it was complete she would announce who she would marry. At least this was what she told the suitors. little did they know Penelope was weaving the thread by day and unraveling the thread at night. She came up with this plan so she did not have to marry anyone so she could stay loyal to Odysseus. Even after 20 years of waiting she still believed her believed Odysseus was coming
Penelope, well aware of the relationship between the beggar and Odysseus, asks Eurynome to bring out a soft chair in order than the beggar can tell his story. She wishes to ask him careful details about his friendship with her missing husband. Odysseus begins by flattering Penelope, but she says her only concern is her husband whom she misses. She explains that a plan was devised by her, stating that when she finished a web she was weaving, she would marry a suitor. Each night she unraveled what she had done. She goes on to ask of the beggar's past.
Penelope’s husband, Odysseus has been at war for the past twenty years and is presumably dead. During this time, Penelope and her son Telemachus end up living amongst numerous suitors who attempt to court Penelope. However she continues to mourn the “loss” her husband
The Odyssey is mainly about the tribulations of a great hero; that hero would be Odysseus. Although Odysseus does not appear in this epic until the fifth book, he is still the main character. Odysseus, whom I will call the hero, has many tribulations in this epic. Read on to see what I mean.
Now comes the part where he puts Penelope to the test. By sharing this information with her about her husband he comes to understand her feelings for him. Penelope has not only been loyal to Odysseus as her husband, but also as the authority figure. She has demonstrated her loyalty by being true to him for twenty years in his absence and has not remarried.
B. Separated from her husband in their prime years, and hardened from the frauds of men, Penelope, unlike her son, does not welcome Odysseus back with open arms. She refuses to acknowledge him as her Lord until she tests his knowledge of their secret sign. Uncertain whether he is true, she tries him by ordering to her maid to make up a bed for him and move it back to the bedchamber Odysseus had built with his own hands, therefore stating that she had moved their pact and pledge, even though it was mortally impossible. At this, Odysseus, stung and outraged at his wife for moving his handicraft and their secret sign, describes their special bed, an old trunk of an olive tree as a pillar for the building plot, a stump he carved and used as their bedpost, inlaid them all with silver, gold and ivory, and the stretched bed in between, which was a pliant web of oxide thong dyed crimson. Penelope runs to him, throwing her arms around his neck, kisses him, and immediately apologizes for her mistrust and suspicion, and promises that her heart is his. Through this, she rejoices her husband’s return, and that she no longer had to arm herself from suitors who seek to replace her husband, whom she faithfully waited for. She was finally reunited with her husband, and could love again.
Firstly, Penelope who plays Odysseus’s wife is alone tending to her city Ithica until her husband returns. Meanwhile Odysseus is out fighting in the Trojan War and against many of the Greek God’s who are trying to make his trip back home as eventful and hard as possible; “…work out his journey home so Odysseus can return” (Homer 276). While King Odysseus is away Penelope is to deal with a bunch of suitors who are eating and trashing out Ithica, “…if those suitors have truly paid in blood for all their reckless outrage” (559). In order for Penelope to keep peace until Odysseus returns she has to come up with a clever plan to keep the suitors from completely taking over. For almost 2 years Penelope was able to keep the suitors from getting out of hand by saying she will find someone to marry and replace Odysseus after she is d...
First off, Penelopeia did not want the 117 suitors to stay in her home and become dependant upon her family’s wealth and resources. However, her will was not taken into consideration when the suitors decided to do so. And although Penelopeia was a good host, the suitors never showed her any respect. Then, when the suitors set a deadline for Penelopeia to choose a suitor to marry by, she almost immediately found a way around it. When the suitors told Penelopeia that she would have to choose a husband, “she set up a great warp on her loom in her mansion, and wove away [...] and told [the suitors], ‘[...] wait until I finish this cloth [...] it is a shroud for my lord Laertes, against the time when all-destroying fate shall carry him away in dolorous death’” (Homer 18). The clever part about her suggestion was that every night, Penelopeia would undo t...
However, his journey isn’t over yet. This last leg of Odysseus’s journey is perhaps the most important and crucial. Odysseus’s nurse and maidservant, Eurycleia is the first woman in Ithaca to know that Odysseus is back after she recognizes the scar on his leg while she is washing him. Eurycleia vows to keep his identity a secret. Odysseus’s wife, Penelope has stayed faithful to Odysseus for all the years that he was gone. Penelope was consistently unweaving her web to the delay the suitors. The reader even grows sympathetic for Penelope as “we see her struggle to make the virtuous choice about her marriage, despite pressures from her suitors, her son’s endangered situation, and her own uncertainty about Odysseus’s survival” (Foley ). Finally, Odysseus reveals his identity and Penelope is bewildered, but quickly embraces her husband after he tells her the secret of their immovable bed. It is the faithfulness of Penelope and nurse Eurycleia that insures Odysseus’s survival to the very end.
Throughout The Odyssey, disguises are used to hide true intentions. Most prominent are the disguises Athene takes on before interacting with mortals to help Odysseus reach Ithaka. She takes on alternate forms such as Mente to advise Telemachos in Book 1, the daughter of Dymas to inspire Nausikaa in Book 6, as well as a man to establish confidence in Odysseus in Book 8 without revealing her true identity. Each time, she uses the honor-shame code in Homeric society to manipulate the recipients of her disguises. This prompts them to do as she expects and thus helps Odysseus move along in his journey. In Book 13, Athene disguises as a young boy in order to speak with Odysseus. This disguise is significant in light of the rest of the Odyssey and in light of the disguises that Athene takes on previously. This disguise will ultimately determine how Odysseus is to reclaim his house from the suitors. Disguise and sensitivity to the honor-shame code of Homeric society is manipulated tacitly and explicitly by Athene in order to accomplish her plans in bringing Odysseus back home.
Empathy is used to create change in the world by reaching out to the emotions of people and attending to them. It is used to help others learn and decide on matters that would not be reasonable without feelings attached to them. Empathy helps bring together communities that would have long ago drifted apart, but instead welcomed all who were different. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. This attribute of human-beings really allows us to not only attend to situations as if they were our own, but it allows us to feel most of what others feel because humans are very much alike in some ways. In many of the articles and novels that we have read this quarter, characters from different pieces of context have portrayed empathy whether it was toward
Such a society obviously places severe restrictions on the position of women and what is considered to be acceptable behaviour for women”. (Whittaker 39) Penelope is forced to step out of the typical Homeric Greek woman role in order to make sure Odysseus has a success homecoming. She does this by proving to be clever, like her husband, when she tricks the suitors, claiming that she will choose one once she finishes a burial shroud for Laertes. Every night she undoes the weaving she has done for the day. This works until some of her house servants catch her. Another example of this trickery, is her promise to marry any suitor that can string and shoot Odysseus 's bow. Penelope knew no one but Odysseus could do this. There are many different interpretations of Penelope 's role as a woman in this moment of the epic. Homer has Penelope show a role that isn’t what you would normally see in a Homeric Greek woman. She depicts that she can be just as manipulative as a man can
Penelope’s manipulation of her suitors is in reaction to her unfortunate situation. Without knowledge of her husband’s whereabouts, she faces being forced to marry another man. For this reason, Penelope both seduces her suitors and avoids them. She acts this way because she is trying to prepare for her future whether it be with or without Odysseus. She entices the suitors in case her husband never comes home and also in order to receive their gifts. Conversely, she delays them for years, to avoid a marriage, hoping that her husband will one day return. By toying with the suitors’ attraction, Penelope cunningly plays both a dedicated wife and a temptress. Additionally, by manipulating the suitors, Penelope is able to control her life in a society that renders her powerless. Using her sexuality, Penelope weaves her own destiny just as skilfully as she weaves the funeral
The Odyssey is about Odysseus’ journey home after defeating the Trojans in the Trojan War. His voyage home is extended to ten years due to his insolence against the gods. His wife, Penelope, is waiting for his arrival back on Ithaca. If Odysseus does not return, she is to marry when Telemachus becomes a man. She is the definition of a faithful wife for she avoids making a decision to remarry. Her delaying tactics make her sly and artful for she devises creative ways to avoid marriage. One of such is to “weave” her husband’s burial shroud, “Then in the daytime would she weave at the great web, but in the night unravel, after her torch was set. Thus for three years she hid her craft and cheated the Achaeans,” (Homer 14).
Author Kemi Sogunle once said “The tests we face in life's journey are not to reveal our weaknesses but to help us discover our inner strengths. We can only know how strong we are when we strive and thrive beyond the challenges we face,”(Quotes About Overcoming Challenges). In both The Odyssey and “The Journey” the characters go on journeys to overcome challenges and discover their own strength. Homer’s The Odyssey tells of Odysseus’ trip home to Ithaca, the beasts and creatures he encountered and the many places he went. Mary Oliver’s poem “The Journey” is about how the narrator overcame the negative affects and the pressure of society and focused on herself. The authors use characterization, diction, metaphor to portray that people undertake
The character of Penelope in Homer's Odyssey reflects the faithful wife who waits twenty years for the arrival of her husband. Only a strong woman could sustain the stress, anxiety and confusion resulting from the chaos of a palace with a missing king whose fate is unknown. Her responsibilities and commitments toward the man she loves are particularly difficult to keep, under the strain of the situation. Although she does not actively pursue an effort to find him, her participation in the success of Odysseus' homecoming can be seen in her efforts to defend and protect the heritage, reputation and the House of Odysseus in his absence. As Odysseus withstands his trial, Penelope withstands her trials against temptations to give in to the many anxious suitors, to give up on her faith and respect for her religion, her husband and even her self. Penelope's strength in keeping the highest standards in her function as a wife, woman and mother contributes to the success of Odysseus' homecoming by keeping the home and family for him to come back to.