Penelope: Homeric Fantasy or an Example of Greek Womanhood(USE AS GUIDE ONLY)

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Penelope: Homeric Fantasy or an Example of Greek Womanhood
Homer’s Penelope has been the subject of debate in literary circles for many
centuries. She has often been thought of as everything from the jilted spouse to the
perfection of Grecian womanhood; an idealized example of how a true and proper
Greek woman should behave and what she should be able to accomplish.
In more recent times, Penelope was the basis for the Victorian poet Alfred Lord
Tennyson’s “aged wife” (Shull 32), and the “witch, the old lady” (Shull 32) in his poem
“Ulysses.” Another modern poet has taken a bit of a different stance on what she thinks
Penelope is like. In her poem “At Ithaca,” Hilda Doolittle wrote about Penelope during
the post-Freudian era of the 1920s (Shull 32). According to Doolittle, Penelope
becomes more and more exhausted having to ward off the constant influx of suitors
that are eating her out of house and home (Shull 33). In her desperation, Penelope sits
at her loom and watches out her bedroom window for the return of the husband she
fears has taken up with some enchantress and will never come home (Shull 32-33).
Another poem of Doolittle’s dealing with Penelope is “Simaetha.” In this particular
poem, Hilda Doolittle paints a picture of Penelope as an even more desperate woman
who is very close to slipping over the edge of reality, having been forced to wait too
long for the return of her husband (Shull 33).
Penelope: Homeric Fantasy or an Example of Greek Womanhood
A. Harris

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Course: Penelope: Homeric Fantasy or an Example of Greek Womanhood(USE AS GUIDE ONLY)
Subject: Penelope: Homeric Fantasy or an Example of Greek Womanhood(USE AS GUIDE ONLY)
Subject code: Penelope: Homeric Fantasy or an Example of Greek Womanhood(USE AS GUIDE ONLY)
Year of study: 17-18
Document
Section: Homework & Assignments
Made on: 29-01-2020
Type: .pdf
Pages: 12
Language: English
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Penelope: Homeric Fantasy or an Example of Greek Womanhood(USE AS GUIDE ONLY)