Friday, October 9, 2015
She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not
In Book 19, Penelope shares an intimate moment with her guest, Odysseus disguised as a beggar. From the things they discuss is there any hint that Penelope suspects the beggar is her long lost husband? Does Odysseus think she may suspect him? Why doesn't he openly reveal his identity? Does he still doubt her fidelity, her loyalty or her love?
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From the way Penelope interrogates the stranger in her house, she suspects him to be Odysseus or at least knows about what happened to him. She is very keen on finding out where he came from and what his story is. Penelope also drops hints to the stranger that she has been faithful to Odysseus since he’s been gone. She laments of the grief she feels because of his absence and tells him she’s faithful even when he’s gone. Penelope describes the way she tricked the suitors into thinking she would marry them after she had finished weaving a shroud for Odysseus’s father, Laertes. She would unweave the material every night so that she would never finish. However, the maids of the house exposed Penelope’s lie and then “the suitors caught me in the act, denounced me harshly/ So I finished it off. Against my will. They forced me/ And now I cannot escape a marriage, nor can I contrive/ a deft way out…” (19.174-7). Despite knowing nothing at all about who this stranger is, Penelope is keen on first dropping a hint that she suspects him. This opens a secret code underlying in the stories they share with each other. Odysseus also catches on to her claim of fidelity and seems to believe her. He responds by telling her he was a close comrade of Odysseus. Penelope drops another hint and asks the stranger what Odysseus was like and what he was wearing. To this question, Odysseus smoothly answers with an exact description of his clothing. Penelope weeps and tells him that she gave Odysseus those very clothes. Through this underlying conversation, Penelope and Odysseus secretly communicate about their identities. However, Odysseus did not confirm Penelope’s suspicions for fear of ruining his plan of killing the suitors. If she did know of his true identity, she may accidentally tell others. This conversation does, however, give Penelope hope for the near return of Odysseus.
ReplyDeleteDuring Penelope’s conversation with the disguised Odysseus, Odysseus, more than Penelope, hints his true identity and is intending to reveal himself through his coded words. Near the middle of the conversation, the disguised Odysseus creates a fallacy about his encounter with “Odysseus” in his “native” land of Crete. He states, “he was wearing a heavy woolen cape, sea-purple/in double folds, with a golden brooch to clasp it twin sheathes for the pins, on its face a work of art”(Fagles 398). His intricate description of Odysseus is uncanny, especially for a man who had only met him a few times. He seems to be aware of every singular detail on Odysseus’s belt as well: small details that very few would notice or remember. As a skilled weaver of lies, Odysseus would have never spun this tale if he did not intend to display his true identity to Penelope. As the conversation progresses, it can be inferred that Penelope does pick up on this fact. She declares, “read this dream for me, won’t you? Listen closely…/I keep twenty geese in this house…/but down from the mountain swept this great hook-beaked eagle” (407). These words confirm that she understands the figurative sense of his language. She uses her dream as a method to test his intelligence, and confirm her suspicions about whether or not he is truly Odysseus. As his wife, she knows exactly how he reacts to situations, and knows vaguely what his reply would generally be. This encrypted conversation between husband and wife is created not because Odysseus does not want to reveal himself to Penelope, but because he needs to foster some doubt and uncertainty about his presence in her mind. If he completely rids himself of his disguise, he risks the destruction his secret plan. Because of Penelope’s doubt about the stranger’s identity, she will take no decisive actions such as telling her maids or servants, but will attempt to aid him in his conspiracies with the little surge of hope she has. Odysseus trusts Penelope whole-heartedly, but he needs to ensure he can control her so his grand attempt at reclaiming his home does not come to an abrupt end.
ReplyDeleteThe way that Penelope talks to Odysseus, she is subtle but it seems that she suspects that something is going on with Odysseus that is more than he is telling her. She asks about what he looked like and what clothes he wore, information that a beggar would forget over many years. However, he knows it because it was he who wore the clothes. The questions seemed to be leading to Penelope confirming her idea that Odysseus was truly himself. Odysseus also answers the questions in great detail, “King Odysseus… he was wearing a heavy woolen cape, sea-purple in double folds, with a golden brooch to clasp it, twin sheaths for the pins, on the face a work of art:…” (Homer 397-398). For it being twenty years, how could an average beggar remember such detail? This could’ve been a major clue for Penelope that Odysseus wasn’t who he says he is. Odysseus later discloses that he heard that Odysseus was on his way home. He would come with a lot of wealth and he tells her about his lost crewmen, but he never specifies how he knows this or who told him. This could be another clue to Penelope that he is her husband. Penelope also offers to wash his feet, which one of them has a distinct mark on them. Perhaps she was trying to see if that mark was on his foot. One of her maids eventually washes his feet and recognize the scar. Odysseus doesn’t seem to be too resistant to the foot bath, so he might have wanted to be found out by Penelope and her maid. He doesn’t openly come out about his identity because he might have wanted her honest opinion about the suitors, not some white lie that she might tell Odysseus.
ReplyDeleteI think that Penelope definitely suspects the beggar to be Odysseus. It can not only be seen from the way that she interrogates him, but can also be seen from the way she treats him. Penelope is very kind to the poor beggar, which seems a little bit questionable. With so many suitors taking up space in her home, roughhousing, and pursuing her, one might think that the arrival of another beggar would only make her more upset. On the contrary, she treats him well, giving him many luxuries and speaking to him as if he were a person to be respected despite his appearance and the chaos they find themselves in the midst of.
ReplyDelete“Now bring us a chair and spread it soft with fleece,
So our guest can sit and tell me his whole story
And hear me out as well.
I’d like to ask him questions, point by point” (19.106-9).
She makes sure that he is comfortable, and allows him to tell her his story. This leads into her interrogation, further proof that she suspects the beggar of being Odysseus. “My lady…wife of Laertes’ son, Odysseus/will your questions about my family never end?/All right then. Here’s my story” (19.186-8). Penelope is thoroughly questioning the beggar, because she thinks that he is Odysseus and is trying to get him to admit it. Odysseus however, does not admit it. This is most likely because he is trying to gauge whether or not Penelope has been loyal to him. She reveals that she has been, when telling Odysseus about how she tricked the suitors. By revealing to him that she kept the suitors at bay by unraveling her stitches, she is assuring him that she has stayed faithful. This is what allows Odysseus to reveal himself with the signal that is the marriage bed, a few short books later.