At a first glance without thourough appreciation, readers may foolishly summarize this book as nothing more than Atwood poking fun and not being serious at the expense of elements of Homer’s The Odyssey. The twelve, largely unknown, maids were brought to life. Every single one of these chorus interjections do their job very well. Some of these choral interludes include bits of funny poetic doggerel, a lyrical and well-written lamentation, a folk song, an idyll, a sea shanty, a ballad, a drama, an anthropology lecture, a court trial, and a love song. ![]() The Chorus of the Maids intervene quite frequently to share their own viewpoint of Penelope and Odysseus, and their current events in the palace on Ithaca. Atwood structures her whole novel as an ancient classical drama, with the interesting literary device of the ‘Twelve Maids’ providing the character otherwise known as the Chorus. Atwood uses her imagination and creativity to tell the story of Penelope and the twelve maids. Essentially it was a retelling of The Odyssey from the perspective of Odysseus’s wife. ![]() Nearing the end of the novel, the father-son pair utilize horrific violence and slaughter to exile all of the disgraceful suitors and her twelve palace maids.Ĭontrasting and drawing parallels to Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad. Not only is she tasked with wholesomely raising their teenage child Telemachus, she also has to deal with the numerous suitors disrespectfully residing with her. During his Mediterranean cruise, Odysseus’ suffering yet patient wife, Penelope, is holding down their palace. As a reader you can’t ignore the action-packed hand-to-hand combat and scary monsters. Odysseus has to deal with countless adventures all throughout his journey before he reaches his final desired destination. ![]() The book highlights how Odysseus took ten more years to return to his kingdom. The three-thousand year old poem, The Odyssey, tells the tale of the Greek warrior, Odysseus, and his great return to his hometown following the sack of Troy. What Margaret Atwood set out to do through her The Penelopiad was to offer an alternate perspective of the events in Ithaca during the time Odysseus was gone. Homer and his wonderful storytelling skill absolutely glorified Odysseus’ heroism, yet I found that there wasn’t enough proper insight into the victims of his venegence. Have you ever heard of the saying, There are two sides to every story? All throughout reading The Penelopiad, I had to keep this saying in mind, in recognizition of Homer’s, The Odyssey.
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