Power
pg 119 – ‘If the shroud was a web then I was the spider.’ Context and analysis?
Power – Penelope is taking control of the situation and using women’s craft as a weapon.Symbol of spider – beware of the venom! Penelope’s venom is her intelligence, she uses it to survive in a hostile environment.
'My marriage was arranged...Marriages were for having children...vehicles for passing things along.' (p24) Context and analysis.
Women did not choose who they were to marry, they were tools for wealth and power negotiation. Children were metaphorical vehicles of inheritance in this social custom.
'We were the dirty girls. If our owners or the sons of our owners or a visiting nobleman or the sons of a visiting nobleman wanted to sleep with us, we could not refuse... We spat onto the serving platters... we crammed filched meat into our mouths' Context and analysis?
The Chorus Line of girls, used as prostitutes. Their way of gaining some justice was to steal some food and spit on the food of their rapists. The anaphora of 'or a' indicates that the list of who could abuse them was seemingly endless.
Odysseus was detained by ‘the sea-god Poseidon… or several gods were against him… or the Fates’ (p83). Context and analysis?
Belief systems can be manipulated so that a particular gender holds the power. Uses myths to excuse behaviour.
If this is Penelope's truth:‘Odysseus and his men had got drunk at their first port of call and the men had mutinied’ (p83), what is Odysseus' truth?
Odysseus' truth: the men had ‘eaten a magic plant that had caused them to lose their memories, and Odysseus had saved them by having them tied up and carried onto the ships.’ (p83)
‘He is bringing with him many rich treasures... but he lost his trusty comrades and his hollow ship.’ (from ‘The Odyssey) Technique & analysis?
The ‘rich treasures’ are juxtaposed with 'trusty comrades'. People are an acceptable trade-off for wealth.
The maids were ‘real girls, real flesh and blood, real pai, real injustice.’ (p168).Context?
The 'anthropology lecture' presented prior to the court case emphasises that no matter whether The Odyssey and stories of similar ilk are fictional, the treatment received by the maids was representative of social normatives.
•‘We demand justice! We demand retribution! We invoke the law of blood guilt! We call upon the Angry Ones!’ (p183) Technique and analysis?
The anaphora repeats the idea that the Maids are not going to be silenced, they are feeling empowered. They are ‘demanding’ and ‘invoking’ – they are not going to be shut down. Repetition of the word ‘We’ denotes unity in their response. Exclamation marks indicate strong delivery.
Odysseus cheated and won the race. Context and analysis?
Odysseus won Penelope's hand in marriage. He gave a potion to his competitors which slowed them down in the literal race but he also won the metaphorical race, Penelope as his bride. Establishes Odysseus as wily and not to be trusted.
If this is 'The Odyssey's' version of the truth: Odysseus had been in a fight with a giant one-eyed Cyclops (pg83), what is Penelope's truth?
Penelope's truth: ‘It was only a one-eyed tavern keeper… and the fight was over non-payment of the bill.’ (p83)
‘Many people have believed that his version of events was the true one.’ (p2) Context and analysis?
By questioning the validity of Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’ Atwood is questioning the validity of other stories handed down through the generations presenting a feminine voice, or female perspective, a postmodern technique.
'I kept trying to think of a way to postpone the day of decision… I chose twelve of my maidservants’ as ‘my trusted eyes and ears in the palace.’ (P114) Context?
Penelope is engaging her maids to spy on the machinations of the men to avoid marriage to any of them. She is the spider weaving her web.
he ‘(chuckles)’ (p181). Context and analysis?
The judge makes a quip about rape in the Maid’s hearing, affirming the patriarchal values present in the Odyssey. Stage direction, the chuckle is condescending.
‘My snow-white geese. My thrushes, my doves.’
Culumative listing of Avian metaphors for Penelope's maids - Geese represent family, teamwork and loyalty, Thrushes – inner peace, Doves – peace and joy. (Said after their hanging)
If 'The Odyssey's' truth is that: 'The men had been eaten by cannibals'. What is Penelope's truth?
Penelope's truth: ’It was just a brawl of the usual kind… with ear-bitings and nosebleeds and stabbings and eviscerations.’ (pg83)
Behave like water… Don’t try to oppose them. When they try to grasp you, slip through their fingers. Flow around them.’ (p108) Context and analysis?
Symbol of Water – Penelope’s nameless mother (note, her mother’s name was not recorded for history, only her father’s) gives sage advice. Water symbolises fluidity and strength, that when obstacles (such as patriarchal rule) are presented, there are ways to move around them.
‘We are the maids / The ones you killed /The ones you failed’ 2 Techniques and analysis?
The grim ‘Rope-Jumping Rhyme’ alludes to the rope/noose the Maids have around their necks. Appropriation of nursery rhymes where children make sense of the brutality of existence.
‘…regrettable, but minor incident’ Context and analysis?
Euphemism – equating the rape and hanging of the maids to a ‘minor incident’ by the judge in the court case ignores the pain and the suffering caused to the maids by Odysseus and his colleagues.
'Odysseu and Telemachus Snuff the Maids' (Chap 23) Context and analysis?
Euphamism to emphasis the lack of dignity for the maids, to minimise the guilt. The word 'snuff' is associated with sexual gratification on someone' death, which makes the euphamism horrifically suggestive of the literal.
If this is Penelope's truth: Odysseus stayed at ‘an expensive whorehouse’ (p84), what is Odysseus' truth?
'The Odyssey's' truth: Odysseus was the guest of the goddess Circe on an enchanted isle (she’d turned his men into pigs)
Penelope says that she will “spin a thread of her own,” (p4).Context and analysis?
Penelope is taking control of the narrative.Weaving is used for purposes of deception, the metaphorical story being 'spun', with spinning and weaving become a motif throughout the text of Penelope's crafting of her own narrative.
The maids were ‘real girls, real flesh and blood, real pai, real injustice.’ (p168). Name 3 techniques, and analyse.
Cumulative listing & Asyndeton (no ands) - the list can go on, Anaphora – repetition of ‘real’ emphasises they were not just property but ‘flesh & blood’.
•‘He is bringing with him many rich treasures... but he lost his trusty comrades and his hollow ship.’ (from ‘The Odyssey) Context and analysis?
It was culturally and socially acceptable to consider his sailor's lives expendable. The ‘rich treasures’ are juxtaposed with 'trusty comrades' and are considered an acceptable trade-off for his sailors’ lives.
Pg: 163: The hanging of the maids represents ‘the overthrow of a matrilineal moon-cult by … ‘patriarchal father-god-worshipping’ men. Context and analysis?
In Chap 23, “An Anthropology Lecture,” Atwood suggests the twelve Maids’ death was symbolic of the wider execution of female focussed goddess cults, and an inculcation of patriarchal religions, where the figurehead (God) and practitioners (priests) were all men.
The minstrel's truth: 'For surely - the minstrels implied - only a strong divine power could keep my husband from rushing back as quickly as possible into my loving - and lovely - wifely arms.' What was Penelope's truth?
Penelope's truth: Even an obvious fabrication is some comfort when you have few others.