The Odyssey Themes

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The Odyssey
Writers use various themes or motifs in presenting their ideas to create an interesting story. The choice of themes helps in propelling the story and making it easy for the reader to understand. A writer can use a few or use several themes depending on the story they wish to put across. Violence against women is one of the common motifs that most writers incorporate in their stories to make them interesting and relevant in modern society. As people read stories, they wish to relate the ideas being presented to the happenings of modern life. The poem Odyssey is one of the works that has successfully used the motif of violence against women to relate to modern society. Therefore, this paper will discuss how the motif has been presented in the poem‘s chapter 23 using support from other sources. It will also analyze how violence against women is applicable in today’s life.
The violence against women is presented in Odyssey using Penelope’s character. Book twenty-two discusses the slaughter of the suitors. This book shows Penelope’s power in a society that does not give women much power. Penelope makes the suitors fight for her, and the winner would marry her. Such in indicates a society where women are bound by marriage and regardless of Odysseus being a beggar, Penelope has to choose someone to marry her. This decision is unavoidable because her family has insisted that she should marry again. The men have to make such a decision by firing spears. In this section, the character presents the two sides of Penelope’s position in society. The main side is where she can influence men into fighting for her because she is a woman (Basirizadeh, Fatemeh, Narges Raoufzadeh, and Shiva). The other side is where Penelope is presented as a limited individual who has can decide who to marry her but doesn’t want to make the decision because she lives in a society where women are bound by marriage. In the absence of violence against women, Penelope would be allowed to choose a suitor without having several men compete to marry her. Such violence is presented in some societies, such as the Indian beliefs where women are exposed to arranged marriages. This custom indicates how society has diminished women to the extent that they are not allowed to choose their suitors. Their family members believe that they can choose the best spouse for the woman. Odyssey is an allegory to such societies that believe that women do not have the power to choose their spouses. However, some women have attempted to break free from such cultures by choosing a spouse they think suits them best. Odyssey’s presentation of the motif against women can utilize their power in making the choices that seem fit to them. Instead, the poem presents a powerful woman whose power is limited to obeying men.
This section of the poem also represents violence against women that fellow women cause. When people hear about violence against women, they imagine a society where women are expected to obey men. However, such violence can also be expressed by women towards women. In Odyssey, Penelope’s maid betrayed her by sleeping with the suitors. At the end of the chapter 23, the maids who had betrayed Penelope are hanged to death. This presents two sides of the ideologies that society has regarding women. One of the ideologies is that women can be enemies of their fellow women regardless of the nature of the society they are brought in. The maids have an opportunity to stay truthful to Penelope but decided to betray her by sleeping with the suitors and never reported the incidences. “You have wasted my substance and have forced my women servants to lie with you, and have wooed my wife while I was still living (Hartman). Such indicates that the maids did not value Penelope’s power in society and this agrees with the other sources that women were considered to have limited power. The ideology is a common activity in today’s world where women turn out to be enemies of one another. The women are expected to support one another in pursuing great opportunities in life. However, they end up betraying those pursuing the opportunities to ensure they do not succeed. The other ideology presented by hanging the maids that chose to sleep with the suitors is the concern that society has about the wellbeing of women (Wilson). The Odyssey acknowledges a wrongful act that has been committed against a woman and is willing to take extreme action to prevent such an occurrence in the future. Future maids would not think of betraying Penelope because they have witnessed the consequences of such an action. Again, this is an indication of Penelope’s power in society despite being a woman. Therefore, the theme of violence against women highlights the negative and positive actions that society expresses against women. Lesser presents the differences of the female protagonists in the two epic poems of Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey. The author progressed the article with different arguments about comparing the two women extensively portrayed in each poem. Expressly, Penelope was stated as the epitome of all women in the story. The Odyssey and was either viewed negatively or good (Lesser). It was also stated that women were unable to take action and contained a comprehensive meaning. The fact that men are willing to fight for marrying Penelope indicates the comprehensive meaning of women in society. Penelope is unable to choose the man that should marry them but has an influence that makes men compete to become the best suitor. This concept also shows the comprehensive meaning that women have in today's world. A woman is considered the pillar of a home, and every man is expected to find a suitable woman to marry. A wife and children are symbols of masculinity, and therefore, men have to work their level best to raise a family.
The violence against women in Odyssey is repr...