Penelope displays her
own intelligence and cunning when she tricks the suitors, buying herself more time by waving a
death shroud for Laertes, her father-in-law, during the daytime and then secretly unraveling it
at night. She tells them that she cannot choose another husband until she has completed her
project, but because she continues to unravel the day's work each night, she will never finish
it. The suitors, when they find out what she's doing (from one of her serving women), are
incredibly angry, and Antinous says, "Three whole years she deceived us blind, seduced us
with this scheme." It was a good idea, and it worked until she was betrayed.
Later, near the end of the narrative, after Odysseus has returned to Ithaca and
revealed his true identity to a doubting Penelope, she tests him. She tells her servant to
"move the sturdy bedstead out of [her] bridal chamberthat room the master built with his
own hands." The real Odysseus would know that his bed could not be moved because it is
built into a tree that grows through the room. He, in anger, reveals his knowledge, and Penelope
secures the proof she requires of his identity.
No comments:
Post a Comment