The Women’s Oppression Victorianism

The Penelopiad is a revisionary account of Homer's famous epic The Odyssey. The novel revolves around the famous mythical character Odysseus and his quintessential wife Penelope. Homer had written The Odyssey from the perspective of the hero Odysseus. But Atwood has given an alternate version to the myth and has retold it from the point of view of Odysseus’s wife Penelope and her twelve hanged maids. Among the Canadian women writers, Margaret Atwood has a notable position as a feminist writer.

In most of her novels, the basic concern is feminist issues, which are actually humanitarian concerns giving a voice to the ‘second sex’ in the patriarchal society.

In this regard, it has been actually pointed out that Atwood's feminist issues are basically 'her wider humanitarian concerns with basic human rights and their infringement by institutional oppression' (Coral 7). She wrote about the inequality faced by women in patriarchal society as according to Maggie Humm, the fundamental aim of feminist perspective is 'to understand women's oppression in terms of race, gender, class and sexual preference and how to change it'(coral x). In The Penelopiad, Atwood explores the features of feminine existence which is easily evident in the patriarchal structure of society. It is about the life of a woman, who is a faithful wife and is known for her constancy. Penelope, Odysseus' wife and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy, was the daughter of the King Icarius of Sparta and a Naiad mother.

During her childhood, Penelope longed for the affection of her mother and father. Penelope as a child had to learn to be self-sufficient as she could not expect parental support. During her childhood, she learnt that the virtues of self-assurance and self-reliance are important for her survival in the selfish world. Penelope had to search her own identity and create a space for herself. Through Penelope, Atwood establishes the need for self-dependence required for an individual to survive in this narrow society. Although this need rises in a different situation in the journey of Penelope it helps her all through her life. Atwood understood that the need for self-reliance is also an inseparable tool of women's emancipation on the whole. Penelope was married to Odysseus at an early age of fifteen.

Penelope was too young to think anything about marriage. Penelope feels as a packaged product belonging to a male-dominated society ready for consumption. She, as a bride, does not compare herself to a blooming flower, but to meat wrapped in gold and to blood pudding. She confesses: 'And so I was handed over to Odysseus, like a package of meat. A package of meat in a wrapping of gold, mind you. A sort of gilded blood pudding' (TP 33). Atwood represent that women in man's world merely get the importance like an edible product which one likes to eat for taste and pleasure; symbolically, the simile of meat and blood pudding represent women as a commodity and object necessary for gratification in the patriarchal society. Through the character of Penelope, Atwood admits to her readers that the simile of meat is too crude but it seems that it gives a suitable status of women in the patriarchal society during the period of Odysseus.

Penelope compares not only herself to meat but she compares the entire women gender to meat. The meat was considered as a highly valued thing among the people those days. Especially, the royal people and the aristocrats were fond of it. Atwood attempts to express that the aristocrats were fond of women and the reference of maids clears up this point. The aristocrats ate a ton of meat implies that the aristocrats kept a number of maids whom they utilized for their physical joy. Atwood has made reference to these maids over the span of the novel. These maids were the products for their owners and they had no individuality of their own. These maids were considered dirty and these young ladies couldn’t choose anything for them. They did not have parents as their parents either sold them or they were stolen.

As children, they needed to work for their masters and when they grew up regardless they needed to serve them but in an alternate way. They were compelled to sleep with their owners, visitors and their sons. These maids were just instruments for their masters and they were not considered human beings by them. Atwood discusses the maids on compassionate ground, and not merely as a specific gender. They did all the work and did not get the proper food to eat. The predicament of these maids remained unspeakable and disregarded. They could neither sob nor show their agony as it was useless. The exploitation of these maids began in their childhood itself. Beauty was a bad dream for them and in the event that they were pretty their lives would be worse.

These maids had learnt methods of attracting men in their childhood as though they were setting themselves up for these activities in future. The maids were simply an object of male delight in the patriarchal society and had no presence of their own. The only thing important was their body. A similar sort of treatment is given to the animals likewise by men, the animals who are slaughtered so as to give the indulgences meat to the people. Similarly, these maids were slaughtered, however not physically but emotionally, mentally and physically. This has made Atwood compare Penelope and consequently entire women race to 'meat'. Despite the fact that Penelope was won by Odysseus and many suitors had lost. But no suitors seemed sad for losing Penelope rather it appeared as though they had lost an auction for the horse. Penelope remarks, “At any wedding preceded by a contest there were bound to be a few sore losers; but no unsuccessful suitor lost his temper at my feast.

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