The Penelopiad

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The Penelopiad
LC Class
PR9199.3.A8 P46 2005

The Penelopiad is a

jump-rope rhyme, a lament, an idyll, a ballad
, a lecture, a court trial and several types of songs.

The novella's central themes include the effects of story-telling perspectives, double standards between the sexes and the classes, and the fairness of justice. Atwood had previously used characters and storylines from Greek mythology in fiction such as her novel The Robber Bride, short story The Elysium Lifestyle Mansions, and poems "Circe: Mud Poems" and "Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing." She used Robert Graves' The Greek Myths and E. V. Rieu and D. C. H. Rieu's version of the Odyssey to prepare for this novella.

The book was translated into 28 languages and released simultaneously around the world by 33 publishers. In the Canadian market, it peaked on the best seller lists at number one in

New York Times Best Seller List
in the American market. Some critics found the writing to be typical of Atwood or even one of her finest works, while others found some aspects, like the chorus of maids, disagreeable.

A theatrical version was co-produced by the Canadian

Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa during the summer and fall of 2007 by an all-female cast led by director Josette Bushell-Mingo. In January 2012, the show opened in Toronto at Nightwood Theatre, with an all-female cast led by director Kelly Thornton and starring Megan Follows as Penelope.[1] Thornton reprised the production in January and February 2013.[2]

Background

Publisher Jamie Byng of Canongate Books solicited author Margaret Atwood to write a novella re-telling a classic myth of her choice. Byng explained it would be published simultaneously in several languages as part of an international project called the Canongate Myth Series. Atwood agreed to help the rising young publisher by participating in the project.[3] From her home in Toronto, the 64-year-old author made attempts at writing the Norse creation myth and a Native American story but struggled.[4] After speaking with her British literary agent about canceling her contract, Atwood began thinking about the Odyssey.[3] She had first read it as a teenager and remembered finding the imagery of Penelope's twelve maids being hanged in the denouement disturbing. Atwood believed the roles of Penelope and her maids during Odysseus's absence had been a largely neglected scholarly topic and that she could help address it with this project.[4][dead link]

Plot

Penelope in the Vatican Museums

The novel recaps

Eurycleia
, liked Penelope but eventually Eurycleia helped Penelope settle into her new role and became friendly, but often patronising.

Shortly after the birth of their son, Telemachus, Odysseus was called to war, leaving Penelope to run the kingdom and raise Telemachus alone. News of the war and rumours of Odysseus's journey back sporadically reached Ithaca and with the growing possibility that Odysseus was not returning an increasing number of suitors moved in to court Penelope. Convinced the suitors were more interested in controlling her kingdom than loving her, she stalled them. The suitors pressured her by consuming and wasting much of the kingdom's resources. She feared violence if she outright denied their offer of marriage so she announced she would make her decision on which to marry once she finished her father-in-law's shroud. She enlisted twelve maids to help her unravel the shroud at night and spy on the suitors. Odysseus eventually returned but in disguise. Penelope recognised him immediately and instructed her maids not to reveal his identity. After the suitors were massacred, Odysseus instructed Telemachus to execute the maids who he believed were in league with them. Twelve were hanged while Penelope slept. Afterwards, Penelope and Odysseus told each other stories of their time apart, but on the issue of the maids Penelope remained silent to avoid the appearance of sympathy for those already judged and condemned as traitors.[5]

No sooner had I performed the familiar ritual and shed the familiar tears than Odysseus himself shambled into the courtyard [...] dressed as a dirty old beggar. [...] I didn't let on I knew. It would have been dangerous for him. Also, if a man takes pride in his disguising skills, it would be a foolish wife who would claim to recognize him: it's always an imprudence to step between a man and the reflection of his own cleverness.

The Penelopiad, pp. 135–137.

During her narrative, Penelope expresses opinions on several people, addresses historical misconceptions, and comments on life in Hades. She is most critical of Helen whom Penelope blames for ruining her life. Penelope identifies Odysseus's specialty as making people look like fools and wonders why his stories have survived so long, despite being an admitted liar. She dispels the rumour that she slept with Amphinomus and the rumour that she slept with all the suitors and consequently gave birth to Pan.[5][6]

Between chapters in which Penelope is narrating, the twelve maids speak on topics from their point-of-view. They lament their childhood as slaves with no parents or playtime, sing of freedom, and dream of being princesses. They contrast their lives to Telemachus' and wonder if they would have killed him as a child if they knew he would kill them as a young man. They blame Penelope and Eurycleia for allowing them to unjustly die. In Hades, they haunt both Penelope and Odysseus.[5]

Style

Judge (leafing through book: The Odyssey): It's written here, in this book — a book we must needs consult, as it is the main authority on the subject [...] it says right here — let me see — in Book 22, that the maids were raped. The Suitors raped them. [...] Your client knew all that — he is quoted as having said these things himself. [...] However, your client's times were not our times. Standards of behaviour were different then. It would be unfortunate if this regrettable but minor incident were allowed to stand as a blot on an otherwise exceedingly distinguished career. Also, I do not wish to be guilty of an anachronism. Therefore, I must dismiss the case.

A court trial acted out by the maids, The Penelopiad, pp. 179–180, 182.

The novella is divided into 29 chapters with introduction, notes, and acknowledgments sections. Structured similarly to a

court trial, and a love song
.

Penelope's story uses simple and deliberately naive prose.

second person pronoun.[10] One reviewer noted that Penelope is portrayed as "an intelligent woman who knows better than to exhibit her intelligence".[11] Because she contrasts past events as they occurred from her perspective with the elaborations of Odysseus and with what is recorded in myths today, she is described as a metafictional narrator.[12]

Major themes

Perspectives

The novella illustrates the differences perspectives can make. The stories told in the Odyssey by Nestor and Menelaus to Telemachus, and Odysseus to a Scherian court make Odysseus into a hero as he fights monsters and seduces goddesses. According to Penelope in The Penelopiad, Odysseus was a liar who drunkenly fought a one-eyed bartender then boasted it was a giant cannibalistic cyclops. Homer portrays Penelope as loyal, patient, and the ideal wife, as he contrasts her to Clytemnestra who killed Agamemnon upon his return from Troy.[13][14] In The Penelopiad, Penelope feels compelled to tell her story because she is unsatisfied with Homer's portrayal of her and the other myths about her sleeping with the suitors and giving birth to Pan. She rejects the role of the ideal wife and admits she was just trying to survive. The Odyssey makes the maids into traitors who consort with the suitors. From the maids' perspective, they were innocent victims, used by Penelope to spy, raped and abused by the suitors, and then murdered by Odysseus and Telemachus. Atwood shows the truth occupies a third position between the myths and the biased points of view.[13]

Feminism and double standards

The book has been called "feminist",[15][16][17] and more specifically "vintage Atwood-feminist",[9] but Atwood disagrees, saying, "I wouldn't even call it feminist. Every time you write something from the point of view of a woman, people say that it's feminist."[18] The Penelopiad's antagonistic relationship between Penelope and Helen is similar to the relationships of women in Atwood's previous novels: Elaine and Cordelia in Cat's Eye, and Iris and Laura in The Blind Assassin, and follows Atwood's doubt of an amicable universal sisterhood. The story does endorse some feminist reassessments of the Odyssey, like Penelope recognizing Odysseus while disguised and that the geese slaughtered by the eagle in Penelope's dream were her maids and not the suitors. Using the maids' lecture on anthropology, Atwood satirizes Robert Graves' theory of a matriarchal lunar cult in Greek myth. The lecture makes a series of connections, concluding that the rape and execution of the maids by men represent the overthrow of the matriarchal society in favor of patriarchy. The lecture ends with lines from anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss' Elementary Structures of Kinship: "Consider us pure symbol. We're no more real than money."[19]

Double standards between genders and classes are exposed throughout the novella. Odysseus commits adultery with Circe while expecting Penelope to remain loyal to him. The maids' relations with the suitors are seen as treasonous and earn them an execution. Penelope condemns Helen for her involvement in getting men killed at Troy. At the same time, Penelope excuses her involvement in getting the maids killed even though, as Atwood reveals, Penelope enlisted the maids to spy on the suitors and even encouraged them to continue after some were raped.[19]

Narrative justice

Penelope's story is an attempt at narrative justice to retribute Helen for her erroneously idealised image in the Odyssey as the archetypal female.[10][13] Penelope acts like a judicial arbiter, a position she held in Ithaca as the head of state and, during Odysseus' absence, as head of the household. The ancient form of justice and punishment, which was swift and simple due to the lack of courts, prisons, and currency, is tempered by more modern concepts of balanced distributions of social benefits and burdens. Penelope's chosen form of punishment for Helen is to correct the historical records with her own bias by portraying her as vain and superficial,[12] as someone who measures her worth by the number of men who died fighting for her.[10]

The maids also deliver their version of narrative justice on Odysseus and Telemachus, who ordered and carried out their execution, and on Penelope who was complicit in their killing. The maids do not have the same sanctioned voice as Penelope and are relegated to unauthoritative genres, though their persistence eventually leads to more valued cultural forms. Their testimony, contrasted with Penelope's excuses while condemning Helen, demonstrates the tendency of judicial processes to not act upon the whole truth. When compared with the historical record, dominated by the stories in the Odyssey, the conclusion, as one academic states, is that the concepts of justice and penalties are established by "who has the power to say who is punished, whose ideas count", and that "justice is underwritten by social inequalities and inequitable power dynamics".[10]

Influences

[...] myths cannot really be translated with any accuracy from their native soil — from their own place and time. We will never know exactly what they meant to their ancient audiences.

Margaret Atwood, "The Myths Series and Me" in Publishers Weekly.[3]

Atwood's use of myths follows archetypal literary criticism and specifically the work of Northrop Frye and his Anatomy of Criticism. According to this literary theory, contemporary works are not independent but are part of an underlying pattern that re-invents and adapts a finite number of timeless concepts and structures of meaning. In The Penelopiad, Atwood re-writes archetypes of female passivity and victimization while using contemporary ideas of justice and a variety of genres.[10]

The edition of the Odyssey that Atwood read was the E. V. Rieu and D. C. H. Rieu's translation. For research she consulted Robert Graves' The Greek Myths.[20] Graves, an adherent to Samuel Butler's theory that the Odyssey was written by a woman, also wrote The White Goddess, which formed the basis of the Maid's anthropology lecture.[21][22]

Atwood seems to have been unaware of

A D Hope's earlier intense moral questioning of the story of Odysseus hanging the maids. In Hope's 1960s poem "The End of the Journey" Penelope and Odysseus pass an unhappy night after the slaughter of the suitors and the maids, and wake to a scene of horror: "Each with her broken neck, each with a blank,/Small strangled face, the dead girls in a row /Swung as the cold airs moved them to and fro".[23]

Atwood had previously written using themes and characters from ancient Greek myths. She wrote a short story in Ovid Metamorphosed called The Elysium Lifestyle Mansions re-telling a myth with Apollo and the immortal prophet the Sibyl from the perspective of the latter living in the modern age.[9] Her 1993 novel The Robber Bride roughly parallels the Iliad but is set in Toronto. In that novel the characters Tony and Zenia share the same animosity and competition as Penelope and Helen in The Penelopiad.[19] Her poem "Circe: Mud Poems", published in 1976, casts doubt on Penelope's honourable image:

She's up to something, she's weaving
histories, they are never right,
she has to do them over,
she is weaving her version[...][24]

Atwood published "Helen of Troy Does Counter Dancing" in her 1996 collection Morning in the Burned House in which Helen appears in a contemporary setting as an erotic dancer and justifies her exploitation as men fantasize over her:

You think I'm not a goddess?
Try me.
This is a torch song.
Touch me and you'll burn.[25]

Publication

The hardcover version of The Penelopiad was published on 21 October 2005 as a part of the launch of

Grove/Atlantic Inc. in the US, and Text Publishing in Australia and New Zealand. The French translation was published in Canada by Éditions du Boréal and in France by Groupe Flammarion.[27] The trade paperback was released in 2006. Laural Merlington narrated the 3-hour unabridged audiobook which was published by Brilliance Audio and released alongside the hardcover. Merlington's narration was positively received, though sometimes upstaged by the unnamed actresses voicing the maids.[28]

Reception

On best seller lists in the Canadian market, the hardcover peaked at number one in

Some reviewers like Christopher Tayler and David Flusfeder, both writing for The Daily Telegraph, praised the book as "enjoyable [and] intelligent"[35] with "Atwood at her finest".[36] Robert Wiersema echoed that sentiment, adding that the book shows Atwood as "fierce and ambitious, clever and thoughtful".[37] The review in the National Post called the book "a brilliant tour de force".[38] Specifically singled out as being good are the book's wit, rhythm, structure, and story.[36][37][39] Mary Beard found the book to be "brilliant" except for the chapter entitled "An Anthropology Lecture" which she called "complete rubbish".[22] Others criticised the book as being "merely a riff on a better story that comes dangerously close to being a spoof"[40] and saying it "does not fare well [as a] colloquial feminist retelling".[16] Specifically, the scenes with the chorus of maidservants are said to be "mere outlines of characters"[40] with Elizabeth Hand writing in The Washington Post that they have "the air of a failed Monty Python sketch".[15] In the journal English Studies, Odin Dekkers and L. R. Leavis described the book as "a piece of deliberate self-indulgence" that reads like "over-the-top W. S. Gilbert", comparing it to Wendy Cope's limericks reducing T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land to five lines.[41]

Theatrical adaptation

Following a successful dramatic reading directed by

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre between January 10–29, 2012.[51] The Nightwood Theatre show was directed by Kelly Thornton with choreography by Monica Dottor and starring Megan Follows. A review in The Globe and Mail gave the play 3.5 of 4 stars.[52]

See also

References

  1. ^ Hoile, Chrostopher. "The Penelopiad." Reviews 2012: Stage Door, 18 Jan 2012. http://www.stage-door.com/Theatre/2012/Entries/2012/1/18_The_Penelopiad.html
  2. ^ "The Penelopiad." Nightwood Theatre. http://www.nightwoodtheatre.net/index.php/whats_on/the_penelopiad Archived 2012-01-18 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ a b c Atwood, Margaret (2005-11-28), "The Myths Series and Me", Publishers Weekly, vol. 252, no. 47, p. 58, retrieved 2008-03-09.
  4. ^ a b Tonkin, Boyd (2005-10-28), "Margaret Atwood: A personal odyssey and how she rewrote Homer", The Independent, archived from the original on March 17, 2011, retrieved 2008-03-09.
  5. ^ .
  6. ^ Though not linguistically related, Pan's name (Πάν) is virtually identical to the ancient Greek word πᾶν, meaning "all"; the apparent equivalence between the two words seems to have inspired the myth that Penelope slept with "all" the suitors, resulting in the god's birth.
  7. ^ a b Morrow, Martin (2007-07-09), Desperate housewife, CBC.ca, archived from the original on 2008-02-23, retrieved 2008-03-07
  8. ^ Goldhill, Simon (2005-10-31), "The wisdom of the ancients", New Statesman, vol. 134, no. 4764, pp. 48–50.
  9. ^ a b c Harris, Michael (March 2006), "The Voice of Atwood", Books in Canada, 35 (2): 17–18.
  10. ^ a b c d e Kapuscinski, Kiley (Fall 2007), "Ways of Sentencing: Female Violence and Narrative Justice in Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad" (PDF), Essex Human Rights Review, 4 (2), retrieved 2008-06-02.
  11. ^ Gurria-Quintana, Angel (2005-10-28), "Myth understood", Financial Times, retrieved 2008-05-30.
  12. ^ a b Miner, Valerie (September–October 2006), "Fictions and Frictions", Women's Review of Books, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 20–21.
  13. ^ a b c Collins, Shannon (Fall 2006), "Setting the Stories Straight: A Reading of Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad" (PDF), Carson-Newman Studies, XI (1): 57–66, retrieved 2008-06-05.
  14. ^ Passaro, Vince (November 2005), "Woman, Waiting", O, The Oprah Magazine, vol. 6, no. 11, p. 184.
  15. ^ a b c Hand, Elizabeth (2005-12-25), "The New Muses", The Washington Post, p. BW13, retrieved 2008-02-28.
  16. ^ a b Heller, Amanda (2006-01-01), "Short Takes", The Boston Globe, retrieved 2008-02-28.
  17. ^ Conrad, Peter (2005-10-23), "The pull of the Greeks", The Observer
  18. ^ Hiller, Susanne (2005-10-22), "A weaver's tale", National Post, p. WP4.
  19. ^
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  21. ^ Larrington, Carolyne (2005-11-18), "Happily ever after", The Times Literary Supplement, retrieved 2008-03-09.
  22. ^ a b Beard, Mary (2005-10-29), "A new spin on Homer", The Guardian, retrieved 2008-02-28.
  23. ^ The poem is on line at https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/hope-a-d/the-end-of-a-journey-0146001
  24. .
  25. .
  26. ^ Tousley, Nancy (2005-10-29), "Myths loom large", Calgary Herald, p. F1.
  27. ^ International publishers — The Myths, Canongate Books, archived from the original on 2011-01-03, retrieved 2008-06-07.
  28. ^ Bauers, Sandy (2006-02-05), "Atwood's hilarious send-up of Greek myth perfect for audio", Edmonton Journal, p. B4.
  29. ^ Bethune, Brian (2005-12-19), "Best Sellers", Maclean's, vol. 118, no. 51.
  30. ^ "Bestsellers of 2005", The Globe and Mail, p. D12, 2005-12-31.
  31. ^ "Best Sellers", The New York Times, 2005-12-18, retrieved 2008-03-05.
  32. ^ Nominees for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, Mythopoeic Society, archived from the original on 2007-07-20, retrieved 2008-05-27.
  33. ^ International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2007, Dublin City Public Libraries, archived from the original on 2007-11-19, retrieved 2008-05-27.
  34. ^ "The Canada Council for the Arts announces finalists for the 2006 Governor General's Literary Awards" (Press release). Canada Council for the Arts. 2006-10-16. Archived from the original on 2013-05-29. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  35. ^ Tayler, Christopher (2005-11-01), "Why we love the same old stories", The Daily Telegraph, retrieved 2008-02-28[permanent dead link].
  36. ^ a b Flusfeder, David (2005-10-30), "Yearning for transcendence", The Daily Telegraph, retrieved 2008-02-28[permanent dead link].
  37. ^ a b Wiersema, Robert (2005-10-23), "Myth making in the new millennium", Ottawa Citizen, p. C5.
  38. ^ Owen, Gerald (2005-10-22), "A long-distance marriage: brainy wife holds the fort for 20 years", National Post, p. WP4.
  39. ^ Leith, Sam (2005-10-22), "It's the same old story", The Spectator, retrieved 2008-02-28[permanent dead link].
  40. ^
    New York Times Book Review
    , p. 16.
  41. S2CID 164015625
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  42. ^ Taylor, Craig (October 2007), "Twelve Angry Maids", The Walrus, archived from the original on 2008-07-04, retrieved 2008-03-07.
  43. The Toronto Star
    , Stratford-Upon-Avon, retrieved 2008-03-07.
  44. ^ The Penelope Circle, Ottawa: National Arts Centre Foundation, 2007, archived from the original on 2008-03-02, retrieved 2008-03-07
  45. ^ Lawson, Catherine (2007-09-19), "Penelope speaks; Atwood's monologues a joy, says British actress", Ottawa Citizen, p. E1.
  46. ^ Marlowe, Sam (2007-08-06), "The Penelopiad", The Times, retrieved 2008-03-07.
  47. ^ "An epic tragedy with a whole lot of sparkle", Toronto Star, p. A23, 2007-09-22.
  48. ^ Al-Solaylee, Kamal (2007-08-04), "Atwood's baby has come a long way", The Globe and Mail, p. R1, archived from the original on 2008-03-13, retrieved 2008-03-07.
  49. ^ Al-Solaylee, Kamal (2007-09-24), "A hit, but not a home run", The Globe and Mail, p. R1.
  50. ^ Thomas, Colin (2011-10-27), "The Penelopiad is a container for some interesting politics", The Georgia Straight, archived from the original on 2011-11-02, retrieved 2011-11-03.
  51. ^ The Penelopiad, Nightwood Theatre, 2011, archived from the original on 2012-01-18, retrieved 2011-11-03.
  52. ^ Nestruck, J. Kelly (2012-01-13), "Fine female cast makes for a magical Penelopiad", The Globe and Mail, retrieved January 13, 2012.

External links