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What is Murray-Smith and Atwood teaching us about... Similarities and…

- - - - Attempts to justify her decisions and make sense of the challenges that have come her way
    - - Exacerbated by a celebrity
        
        Clash uncomfortably with the characters needs to express their individuality, thus creating pressures that erupt into turmoil
        
        Superficially reflect the stereotypical female ideals
        
        Struggle to measure up to the various images of successful woman hood celebrated in popular culture
        
        These identities operate as contradictions in someones concept of self feeling or self being
      - The idea of perfection
        
        Myth
        
        Undermind the myth the marriage automatically provides a grounding sense of identity
        
        For many of the women feel the need to be loved and accepted by men before they can be happy with their own identities
        
        Draws on a range of cliches
        
        Her final scram is an expression of rage and despair directed at a society where women are seduced by romantic dreams and celebrity glamour and made to believe that these will bring happiness
        
        Just as Penelope does not confront her suitors of her husband head on, preferring to outwit them instead, so the penelopad does not openly challenge of dispute the mythic narratives on which it is base
        
        Marriage
        
        Penelope and Odysseus marriage bed is partly made from a tree symbolising the continuity and put permanence on their marraige
      - Social expectations
        
        Many of the women define themselves in their relations with others and when these relationships break down through either divorce, death or being on stage so does their concept of self.
        
        The label of widow for Winsome becomes an anchor in a life in which her needs are mostly ignored
        
        A crashing sense monotony
        
        Patriarchal Society
        
        Atwood draws out contesting strategies for female survival in a world dominated by men
        
        The use peponelopes cove as the narrator allows us to see how she completely she outwits many of the men around her and that she is conscious of others perceptions of her (but we are aware of her regrets and defence of her actions)
        
        Women were treated as prizes and possessions
        
        As the under dogs in a society dominated by men, the women of ancient Greece competing with each other to be heard, noticed or to sustain what little power they had
        
        Attwood presents Penelopes world as one of survival
        
        As the under dogs in a society dominated by men, the women of ancient Greece competing with each other to be heard, noticed or to sustain what little power they had
        
        The marginalised
        
        The voice given to the maids provides an outlet for the marginalised and allows them to seek justice and vengance
        
        The ever-changing form of the maids sections reduces their weight and significance in comparison to Penelope and diminishes their status as serious characters (even the modern-day courtroom say mostly ignores their point of view)
        
        Children, servants and women particularly less attractive women, were among those who were without power or status in ancient Greece
    - - Attwood debunks the version of the story found in the Odessy by suggesting a more prosaic, less heroic alternative
      - the effect is to subvert the archaic, heroic masculine perspective of the source text by countering it with an ironic witty, ironic, modern sounding female voice
      - In at woods retelling of Homeric myth "women speak" and what they speak of are not "heroes are not incredible feats, but are inhumanly human things done in wartime"
      - The voice Murray-Smith give to each woman express the challenges that can be faced external but also significantly how difficult it can be to verbalise and deal emotionally with what happens to their security and belief in self
      - Provide the internal dialogue of how they cope with and react to these events
      - Respecting choice and not judging
      - The Hangedmaids tale
        
        The maids increasingly interrupt the narrative of Penelope
        
        They denounce the "inhuman things" done to them by Odysseus and expose the partiality of Penelopes story
        
        Their voices are witty parodic, tongue in cheek but also plaintive and haunting
        
        They form a chorus (link to ancient greek drama) and provide a plurality of perspectives
        
        Penelopes narrative is interspersed with snippets from the maids point of view of how they are treated
      - Atwood gives a voice, to the voiceless victims of male violence
      - Rather than resisting the authority of her mythical sources, Atwood goes around it by probing them for what they leave unsaid
      - The Penelope and Atwood "spins a thread of her own on her mythical loom while the heroes of homeric myth are left to reveal, womanise, and slaughter outside
      - The owls is another symbol traditionally the keepers of knowledge owls are the guardians of the underworlds. Penelope says that she wants to scream out but when she does "she sounds like an owl", which refers to the fact that she knows things about the events that take place upon Odysseus return (the secrets must remain with her
      - Distinct purpose of clearing her name
        
        The reader must questions her motives and facts and she relays them
      - Atwood suggests that story telling is a matter of perspective
  - - - Bombshells emphasis sexuality at all ages
      - Penelope's proposed relationships with other suitors
      - If there are two means of survival to the womens in the Penelopiad "Wit and Clitoris", then Penelope relies mainly on the first and Helen mainly on the second
    - - Murray-Smith windows into womanhood in a post feminists society show how easily modern women can disappear inside the impossible pressure to be great
      - Post feminism concentrate on furthering the idea of empowerment, the celebration of femininity, freedom of choice and liberation
      - These pro feminist themes continually encourage the audience to evaluate the situation of women in society
    - - Relies on her wit
      - "I was smart, though... a plain but smart wife" page 21**
      - "Penelope the duck " page 28
      - "Plain Jane penelope" Page 37
      - "Second Prize " Page 35
    - - Relies on her sexuality
      - "A woman who driven hundreds of men mad with lust" Page 21-22
      - "Intolerably beautiful " page 33
      - "Radiant Helen" Page 37
      - First Prize
- - - - Exposing Helens short comings
      - Penelope managing the farm
      - Giving a characteristic Helen doesn't have
    - - Resilience
      - Egotistical
      - Weapon of Resilience
  - - - Women may have forced by gender to congregate and work together, but this does not mean they would necessarily form close bonds or protect each other
      - Penelope describes herself as being alone
- - - - Maids
      - Zoe
      - Ziggy
      - Marry
      - Winsome
      - Penelope
    - - Storytelling