8/10/2019 Pene Lopiad

1/2

Michal Golis (330988)Mgr. Martina Horkov, Ph.D.AJ 56011: Postcolonial and Feminist Rewritings of Master Narratives3rd December 2012

The Penelopiad

In her relatively short novella The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood gives voice to the all-too-often neglected twelve maids, hanged by Telemachus on Odysseus' command for their supposed betrayal of their master in order to disclose the double-standard prevalent not only in the epic itself but, as attested to bythe almost unanimous neglect among the scholars, also throughout most of the Western literary history. She shows what pains were taken and far-fetched theoriesdevised by those few to discuss the issue in order to portray the slaying of themaids in terms of symbolism rather than acknowledging their humanity and the injustice they suffered. Telemachus supposedly did not kill women but numbers andsymbols. The book, however, does not try to offer any over-simplifying strict black-and-white dichotomy of clear male dominance over women, providing instead awhole spectrum of female characters differentiated by their highly divergent situations and access to power.

In order to question the authority of the master narrative, Atwood stresses Odysseus' cunningness as he is constantly moving on the line of d eceit and weaving an intricate web of half-truths which is to enter history as The Odyssey. The veracity of Odysseus

adventures is further undermined by the sheer numb

er of poets offering their alternative, much less noble versions, underscoring the purely oral origin and thus the high likelihood of embellishment of the story. Penelope, albeit the book s narrator, by the same token, demythologizes her aggrandized proverbial faithfulness, herself throwing hints which cast doubt on the official story, while her own trustworthiness is put into question as well. She is probably the most ambivalent of the book

s characters even though, or perhaps because, it is primarily her version of the events that the readergets to read. Although she adamantly denies the rumours and allegations of her infidelity widely circulating in songs and poems, she at the same time willinglyadmits that both she and her husband were proficient and shameless liars of longstanding (173), wondering how they were even able to pretend to believe each other at all. But if they did not, how can the reader?

Nevertheless, what the book really focuses on and is centered aroundare the characters of Penelope

s twelve maids, who Atwood sees as unjustly slain and even more so ignored in the discussion of Homer

s famous epic. They are therefore given the privilege of providing commentary on their mistress

depictionof the events, serving as an ancient Chorus frequently interjecting in the novella/drama in a divergent counterpoint to the main narrative. Their speeches resonate throughout Atwood

s book (and the whole of Western history) as an accusatory voice, constantly reminding Odysseus, as well as the complicit reader, of hiscrime. They describe themselves as the ones [who were] killed, the ones [who were] failed by the one who had the spear [and] the word at [his] command (6). While itis obviously Odysseus they are primarily referring to, their song serves as anaccusation of all those who have ignored the unfairness of their shameful deathand who failed to recognize their nameless bodies for what they really were, shr

ouding them in the inherent ambivalence of words in a desperate effort not to see their blood.

In the master narrative itself, Odysseus seems to be knowledgeable of the fact that his maids were forced to sleep with Penelope

s suitors, rather than willingly betraying him. He can be found saying: You have wasted my substance, have forced my women servants to lie with you, and have wooed my wife while Iwas still living (147). This is, nevertheless, apparently not such an issue because of the maids themselves but because they represented Odysseus

property, their rape thus amounting only to a form of robbery. As Atwood points out, it was furthermore virtually impossible for the maids to do otherwise as they were not a

8/10/2019 Pene Lopiad

2/2

llowed to refuse to sleep with the noblemen, having been taught since childhoodto blindly follow the commands of their masters they might even have acted on Penelope

s command in this very instance. On the other hand, being aware of the ultimate helplessness of their situation and numbed down emotionally, they learnedto take these relationships at least as sources of physical pleasure as well as adoorway to the imaginary world of high dreams, tragic hopes and unfulfilled desires, even leading to a sort of attachment towards their crystallization in therich suitors.

Atwood

s characterization is interesting also with regard to Helen who, historically, has often been depicted as abducted and raped by Paris, lending herself to being interpreted as a passive fetishistic object of masculine dominance. In The Penelopiad, however, she becomes a beautiful but extremely vain and arrogant femme fatale. She is not victimized but is rather shown to be a skillful manipulator taking pleasure in sacrificing men trying to win her heart unlike Penelope's twelve maids, in spite of being a woman, she is in the position of control and influence. All of the above is, nonetheless, once again complicated byAtwood

s play with the reliability of the narrator. Is Penelope being faithfulin her portrayal of her cousin or is she merely trying to denigrate her, drivenby envy and personal rivalry? Admired and scorned, always written about but never being given a chance to speak for herself, the character of Helen shows that having real power necessitates having a voice of one's own.

Although Atwood's book exposes the double standards women are subjected to, it does not fall into the trap of equating dominance with masculinity anddemarcating the concept of power strictly along the lines of gender, focusing in

stead on the power of language to influence, mystify, create and destroy identities. It is on her multi-faceted female character where the process is most manifestly visible.

Bibliography:

Atwood, Margaret. The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus. Edinburgh: Cannongate Books, 2006. Print.Homer. The Odyssey. London: Penguin Books Ltd, 2006. Print.