Throughout the entire novel Penelope is being bombarded by the twelve maids, which are haunting her in the after life. The way that the twelve maids haunt Penelope leads to the question, how responsible is Penelope for the death of the maids? When we envision Penelope we see a faithful, loyal, kind, and loving wife to Odysseus. However, is there something more cynical behind this reputation she has made for herself? In the third chapter Penelope tells of her childhood, and wants us to believe she's a victim. In reality she is the daughter of a Naiad, or rather a water nymph, and most of the time those who wanted to impose harm to her attempted to throw water, which is her element, so their harm was unsuccessful. Now in the fourth chapter we hear of the maids terrible childhoods, which consisted of child labor without any regulation. As children of servants they are made servants from the moment they were able to do work, and if they were sleeping on the job they'd be kicked until they got up. No one was ever there to comfort them when they had been knocked down. When comparing childhoods it seems that the maids had it worse, because they were unable to protect themselves. It is clear when comparing the maids' lives to the life of Penelope that Penelope is no victim. Penelope lived a life of luxury as the wife of Odysseus, while the maids lived like no bodies their entire lives. Now that we have established that Penelope is not a victim the next question is, is Penelope guilty in this situation? Also, if she is guilty, what makes her guilty? When the maids first interrupt Penelope the first thing they say is, "we are the maids, the ones you killed the ones you failed" (pg 5). This statement right off the bat is extremely profound and shocking, but it does quickly reveal how the maids feel about Penelope. In the trial at the end of the book the maids' points are undermined, since after all they are slaves and they have to do everything through their master. Then the judge brings to light that the slaves were raped, and the only witness they had to this was Penelope. When Penelope is asked about the situation she claims she was asleep and all she knew were their claims after the fact. Then she made it seem like she believed the maids and she felt terrible about how they were treated by the suitors, which begs the question, why didn't she stop Odysseus from killing them for "sleeping with the suitors''? After careful consideration of all the evidence provided in the book I believe it is reasonable to say that Penelope is guilty for the death of the twelve maids. Now, Penelope did not have much power in this patriarchal society; however, since it was her husband who wanted to kill them she could have talked to him. Rather it seems that Penelope remained as a bystander as she watched the maids being hung. Their blood now will rest on her hands for all of eternity, because she chose to remain quiet when she knew the situation was unjust.
0 Comments
From the beginning the human race has been chasing after how to make our lives longer. From the 1800s when life expectancy was between thirty and forty years of age to today ,with our advanced technologies, most people can expect to live over seventy-five years. Yet we still strive to find a way to live forever, which is evident by the research going into cryogenically freezing bodies. Yet Circe, who was immortal, chose to become mortal for love. Many people would question this decision of her's, and wonder why she wouldn't want to live forever. However, Circe had been around for centuries and understood the benefits of mortality. Circe's centuries of life were not the best of conditions, because she became an outcast among the gods due to her powers. The gods believed that her powers were too dangerous and also became angry with her for helping humans, which led to her exile on the island. She lived such a terrible life on the island and it quickly became a sanctuary for the nymphs, who were escaping the awful gods. Even with all of the nymphs on the island with her Circe felt alone and empty, because she had an empty place in her heart for a lover. Yet, the only people she fell in love with were humans, which brought upon the problem of mortality. Since Circe was immortal she could live forever and see the world from beginning to end, but her lovers were mortal and had a finite time on earth. After her love life with Odysseus fell through she fell in love with another man, and he was the one that led her to give up her divinity and her immortality. Once she finally gave up immortality there was a sense of relief she had. No longer did she have to bear the pain of being fascinated with these mortal humans, and loving them so dearly, yet knowing she will live to see the day they pass away and live for eternity without them. Circe understood the benefit of mortality, because once the mortals passed they no longer dealt with their pain of heartbreak. After reading the story of Circe, I think the decision of whether immortality or mortality is better, is extremely clear. Mortality is better, because if you never die the burdens of the lives you watch pile up, and it becomes an isolated life. No one deserves to live the terrible isolated, abandoned life that Circe lived. She understood that for her giving up her divinity was the best decision to make.
In the original Odyssey by Homer we read about the conflict between Odysseus and Polyphemus. Polyphemus is the son of Poseidon and lives in Sicily, which happened to be one of the places that Odysseus landed during his travels. In the original Odyssey when Odysseus lands in Sicily it seems that Polyphemus is the villain. Polyphemus captures Odysseus and some of his men and locks them all away in a cave with a gigantic rock blocking their only way out. Homer then makes it seem that Odysseus gets Polyphemus drunk and stabbed his eye out as an act of self defense. However, this does not seem to be the same story we get in Mason's retelling of the myth. Rather than Polyphemus being the villian, which Homer made him out to be, Odysseus is the real villain. Before Odysseus and his men came along, Polyphemus was living a peaceful life alone. He lived in the cave which was lovely to stay in both in the winter and the summer. His normal life consisted of taking care of his goats, making cheese, fishing, and cutting firewood. When Odysseus and his men landed on Sicily, they all just invaded Polyphemus' home when he was not home. Polyphemus was in shock when he returned to his humble home to find strangers sitting within his cave. In an attempt to scare them off he struck one of the men with his staff. Then after the man fell to the floor injured, Odysseus tried to apologise for intruding. All of them then enjoyed a nice dinner, where Odysseus said his name was Nobody. Eventually, Polyphemus fell asleep as Odysseus dragged on about his adventures. While Polyphemus was asleep Odysseus stabbed him in the eye with a spear. When Polyphemus awoke out of his sleep he was then embarrassed as he yelled "Nobody stabbed me". It is completely clear that Odysseus is the villain of the story. The pain that Odysseus and his men caused to Polyphemus was extremely uncalled for. All Polyphemus wanted to do was live a happy and peaceful life. Odysseus is a cold hearted, evil, and wick man who only focuses on himself, which is clearly painted in the interaction between Odysseus and Polyphemus. Aside from this incident with Polyphemus there are multiple other times we see Odysseus being cold hearted and self centered. Throughout his adventures his men get themselves into situations that Odysseus needs to help them get out of, but when he helps he does not focus on saving his men, rather he focuses on saving himself. When Odysseus' men get into trouble with Circe, and are transformed into pigs, Odysseus is not focused on saving his men but rather he is focused on Circe. This pattern continues until Odysseus returns home with virtually no men. He always made it seem like he sacrificed himself for his men, but it was really his curiosity getting the best of him, like when he allowed himself to hear what the sirens were saying as his men rowed the ship through the territory. We need to start looking at Odysseus like the villain he is and less like the hero he pretended to be. It has gone on long enough that Polyphemus has been seen as the villian, he deserves justice.
"So much has slipped away, but the smell of death lingers. Maybe the smell has entered my body and been welcomed there like an old friend come to visit" (House of Names, pg. 3). Death has plagued the house of Atreus, and it does not stop with those who are related by blood to the family but also those who married into the family. Clytemnestra allowed the curse to consume her every being even welcoming it into her life, which ended in her murder. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra were married and had three children Iphigenia, Electra, and Orestes. As Agamemnon prepared his army for war against Troy, he was told to sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, to Artemis to lift the curse of terrible weather. Clytemnestra and the children were brought to the camp where Agamemnon was preparing his soldiers for war, excitedly waiting for what they believed was the wedding of Iphigenia and Achilles. Upon arrival however, it was made clear they were not there for a wedding but rather a sacrifice of Iphigenia's murder. This anger from that day on only fueled Clytemnestra everyday while Agamemnon was away at war. Her anger stemmed from the lie she was told about her daughter being brought to the camp to be married, and then was fueled as she watched her daughter be dragged to her death. Clytemnestra never wanted to see her daughter die, but the blood curse was still going strong in the family. The curse got to Clytemnestra from the moment she witnessed the sacrifice. As it is written, "Murder makes us ravenous, fills the soul with satisfaction that is fierce and then luscious enough to create a taste for further satisfaction" (House of Names, pgs. 3-4). Clytemnestra's witness of the murder of her daughter made her ravenous for revenge against her husband, which she methodically plotted while he was away in Troy. She used Aegisthus to find the woman who could weave poison into fabrics, and she had the woman make a robe that when put onto Agamemnon would paralysis him. The day Agamemnon returned from battle, when he went to bathe himself, Clytemnestra followed him into the room and placed the robe on him and took a knife to his neck and killed him on the spot. Her passion to avenge her daughter drove her to murder her husband. Without the sacrifice of Iphigenia, Agamemnon may have never died at the hands of his own wife, but because of the choices he made the blood curse came back at him with vengeance. Now her murder had to serve it's own consequence, just as Agamemnon served his. Not only was Clytemnestra driven to murder, but so was her daughter, Electra, who wanted to revenge on her mother for how she was raised and the lack of power she had. Electra used her brother, Orestes, to murder her mother rather than get her own hands dirty. Orestes waited in the garden while his mother picked flowers and as she attempted to get back inside after seeing a guard being stopped by two others she was murdered by her own son. He stabbed her in the back while attempting to cut her neck. It wasn't Orestes' own anger that led to the death of his mother, but rather his sister's anger that she implanted into him. The story of Clytemnestra started with the murder of her daughter and ended in her own murder. Murder, bloodshed, and death haunts the House of Atreus and all who enters it's doors.
Writing is a form of self expression, and it allows us as humans to find an outlet for our emotions when it seems like no one is listening. It seems like Christa Wolf wanted to be heard by anyone who was willing to listen, which is why she wrote her book because anyone who read it was someone who wanted to listen to what she had to say. Christa Wolf's life was the opposite of the ideal, but that is what made her who she was. She was brought up in a pro-Nazi during World War II, and had to flee Germany at the end of the war. All of her work reflected her past and her thoughts and feelings about her past. Cassandra is an anti-war novel based upon Wolf's experience with war. Now let's look into who Cassandra is and her story. Cassandra is the daughter of Priam and Hecuba, who were the last rulers of Troy. She was loved by Apollo, who gave her the power of prophecy. However, once she was given her powers, she refused Apollo's request and he cursed her by allowing her to keep her power of prophecy but no one would believe her. During the time that Cassandra would have lived women were to be silent and allow the men to handle everything in society. This is one of the ways Wolf connects with Cassandra, because she (Wolf) felt that her own voice was not being heard and the way she chose to get her voice out there was to give another woman from the past her own voice. In the book, Cassandra says she could never love a hero, which shows her underlying hatred for war. In this sense being a hero means someone has to lose, because you can not have a war hero if one of the sides does not get conquered by the other. Being a hero leads to fame, power, and greed which leads to further conflict that can spark another war. It is almost like war heroes stand in their glory above on the people on a pedestal , but the pedestal is made up of those who were killed to put the hero where they are. Cassandra couldn't love a hero, because she couldn't stand for the concept of war. She didn't want more people to suffer, because she had already suffered due to war. Cassandra never wanted others to suffer the way she did as a civilian to war. It is clear that Christa Wolf felt the way after her experience with war. She never wanted other people to be exploited by their own government during war for "what is best for the country". Wolf pushed out her ideology of war through Cassandra's story and her mistreatment during the Trojan War reflects Wolf's mistreatment during World War II. Truthfully, Cassandra was about Christa Wolf herself rather than Cassandra, and her story. Cassandra was just the way Wolf got her voice into the world, and it worked because the parallels are clear when you take a deep look into it.
Early on in the play Pythia describes the furies and how they look, which is pictured above. Pythia describes them, "These have no wings, I looked. But black they are, and so repulsive. Their heavy, rasping breathing makes me cringe. And their eyes ooze discharge, sickening, and what they wear- to flaunt that at the gods, the idols, sacrilege! even in the homes of men. The tribe that produced that blood I never saw, or a plot of ground to boast it nursed their kind without some tears, some pain for all its labour " (Lines 54-62). This paints a detailed picture of the furies, which they seem to be beings you would never want to run into. From this description they represent wrath and misfortune, because just above the description Pythia knew the furies because she had seen a photo of them taking the feast away from Phineus (Line 53). The furies represent vengeance, and they play the role of getting vengeance for the death of Clytaemnestra, who was murdered by her own son after she had killed her husband, Agamemnon, because he killed their daughter Iphigeneia. All Clytaemnestra wants is for her death to be avenged, which is the purpose the furies serve. Their only goals are to destroy life and strip away joy (Line 433 and 435). However, Apollo wants to protect Orestes from the furies and helps him get away from them. Eventually, after Orestes is hunted down by the furies a trial is held to determine if Orestes is innocent or guilty. In the end Orestes is sent away free from this blood feud and Athena turns the furies into the Eumenides, which means the "kindly ones" (Dictionary.com). As the furies they clearly are the representation of vengeance, anger, pain, matriarchy, old deities, and the old law. When Athena transforms them at the end of the play they become the representation of kindness, joy, peace, and Athenian Law. The journey of the furies is a representation of the transition from the old primitive Greek society, which was on the basis of instinct, to the new modern democratic society, which was governed on the basis of reason. This play was written to demonstrate what was occurring in society at the time, which is clearly seen in this play.
|
AuthorHello there, you can read about me in the about tab. Archives
November 2021
Categories |