The Nature of Perspective

Many people have believed that his version of events was the true one, give or take a few murders, a few beautiful seductresses, a few one-eyed monsters. Even I believed him, from time to time.

In Chapter i, “A Low Art,” as Penelope begins her story, she explains how, upon arrival in the Underworld, each spirit is given a sack of words that were said by or about them during their time on earth. Most of the words in Penelope’s sack are related to her husband, Odysseus, whom she believes has made a fool out of her with his deceit, as he did to so many people. Here, she explains how Odysseus’s version of events has been accepted over the years, even by people who know him to be a liar. By adding in bits about murders, seductresses, and one-eyed monsters, Penelope seems to be insinuating that Odysseus’s account contains too many fantastical elements to be believable. Nevertheless, his story, as wild and improbable as it may be, is his version of reality and has been accepted as truth. Penelope’s suggestion that Odysseus’s stories are not true sets up the fact that no one narrator is ever really reliable, herself included.

This last was a story I already knew, as I’d heard it from Helen herself. It sounded quite different when she told it.

In Chapter xi, “Helen Ruins My Life,” Penelope recounts how her happiest times in the early days of her marriage to Odysseus were spent in bed, listening to him tell his stories after they made love. One of the stories he tells is about Helen and how she was abducted by two brothers who intended to marry her. In this quote, Penelope notes that in Helen’s version of the same story, the brothers became so faint with awe whenever they were presented with her beauty that they could only apologize to her and beg for her forgiveness. Such a detail was never included in Odysseus’s version of the tale. This shows how, most of the time, two people rarely tell the same version of one story, even if they both witnessed the same events firsthand. Also, because Penelope thinks so poorly of Helen, she only sees and hears Helen’s vanity, feeling no sympathy for her cousin who was kidnapped as a child. Penelope’s tunnel vision shows how personal prejudice and heightened emotion can influence both the ways one experiences reality and interprets a story.

I knew that the beggar was Odysseus. There was no coincidence. I set the whole thing up on purpose.

In Chapter xix, “Yelp of Joy,” when Odysseus arrives in Ithaca dressed as a beggar, Penelope suggests an archery competition among the Suitors using Odysseus’s bow. In mythology, it is accepted as lore that Penelope did not recognize Odysseus until after he killed the Suitors and that her suggestion of the competition was an instance of divine intervention. However, here, Penelope turns this assumption on its head by explaining that she was astutely aware of the beggar’s true identity the entire time, and the plan that allowed Odysseus to murder the Suitors was her idea from the start. This reality casts Penelope in an entirely different light. Rather than being a skeptical, cold-hearted woman awaiting the return of her beloved husband, Penelope appears more like a mother indulging a child, planting ideas that he could pretend were his own. Such a situation also reflects that in mythology, Penelope receives far less credit for Odysseus’s success than she deserves. This shows how, when men perpetuate these stories, they often take away the strengths and agency of women. By telling her own story, Penelope brings balance to the story and asserts her power.

The Oppression of Women

They were very angry, not least because they’d been fooled by a woman, and they made a terrible scene, and I was put on the defensive.

In Chapter xv, “The Shroud,” the Suitors discover that Penelope has tricked them by unraveling the shroud she has been weaving every night. She claimed she needed to finish the shroud before choosing her next husband, and notes that a good part of their anger is driven by the fact that they were deceived by a woman. In a society that views women as nothing more than a vessel for either wealth or children, the Suitors see Penelope only for her status and material possessions. Not one has ever considered that she might be clever enough to outsmart them. The Suitors also view crafts like weaving as typical women’s work, an activity that is not important enough for them to pay attention to. That haughty attitude was how Penelope was able to fool them so easily in the first place. Such a scenario shows how dismissive men are of women and how, in their arrogance, they miss crucial details and truths that can greatly help or hurt them in the future. While women may be able to use this dismissiveness to their advantage, it can also result in horrific consequences for them, as Penelope is forced to deal with their rage at the situation.

‘They let it go to their heads,’ said Eurycleia defensively. ‘It wouldn’t have done for King Odysseus to allow such impertinent girls to continue to serve in the palace. He could never have trusted them.’

In Chapter xxiii, “Odysseus and Telemachus Snuff the Maids,” after Penelope learns that Odysseus has murdered the Maids, Eurycleia admits that she was the one to point out the twelve young women whom she believed to be disloyal to Odysseus. When Penelope corrects her by saying that the Maids were raped and were beautiful young girls, Eurycleia dismisses the rape of the Maids as their own fault. She even suggests that their beauty was a liability, seeming to shrug off the idea that any crime or offense truly happened. Eurycleia’s attitude and actions show how women are oppressed not just by men, but also by other women who have internalized their culture’s misogynistic views, and who think and behave loyally to the men in their lives they’ve put on a pedestal. Penelope believes that Eurycleia was jealous of her relationship with the Maids and that this is the real reason why she said what she said to Odysseus, knowing he’d kill the Maids with her suggestion. By stirring the rivalry and jealousy among women, men can insidiously subjugate them and eliminate any chance of women organizing together, as in the case of the Maids, who were ultimately brought down by another woman instead of a man.

You don’t have to think of us as real girls, real flesh and blood, real pain, real injustice. That might be too upsetting. Just discard the sordid part. Consider us pure symbols. We’re no more real than money.

In Chapter xxiv, “An Anthropology Lecture,” the Maids deliver an anthropology lecture on how their murder represented an overthrow of a matriarchal society existing in their dwelling in Odysseus’s absence by a patriarchal one after his return. At the end of the lecture, they tell their audience not to get too worked up over their death, sarcastically saying to forget the horrific details of their deaths. The Maids present themselves as symbolic to prove their point that people tend to see the suffering of women in male-oriented societies as something abstract, rather than something experienced by real people. By asking the audience to pretend they are not real while standing right before them, the Maids are inviting audience members to sit with the idea that abuses against women often go unnoticed because women are devalued. In comparing themselves to money, which is valuable to many people and considered “real” even though any currency is just a concept people agree upon, they are showing how women are seen as only a vessel for wealth, something considered far more important than they are.

The Subjectivity of Justice

Helen was never punished, not one bit. Why not, I’d like to know? … You’d think Helen might have got a good whipping at the very least, after all the harm and suffering she caused to countless other people. But she didn’t.

In Chapter v, “Asphodel,” while speaking to the reader from the Underworld, Penelope first compares herself to Helen and then wonders why Helen was never punished for inciting the Trojan War. By blaming Helen for the war, Penelope shows how her sense of justice and revenge are influenced by her severe dislike of Helen. She feels Helen’s vanity alone was responsible for causing the war, which resulted in the suffering and death of so many who did nothing to deserve such a fate. Penelope does not blame her husband, who came up with the idea for the oath to protect Menelaus’s right to Helen. Nor does Penelope blame Paris, who took Helen away from Menelaus. In Penelope’s eyes, Helen’s arrogance was what led to the tragedies of the war, not the men who fought and killed each other to defend a man’s ownership of a woman. The reader may find such a belief odd coming from a woman who often found herself oppressed by the misogynistic society in which she lived. Penelope’s judgment shows how the idea of justice is often predicated on an individual’s own opinions and emotions rather than on what is objectively fair.

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.

Chapter xxvi titled “The Trial of Odysseus, as Videotaped . . .” tells of Odysseus’s trial for killing the Suitors, in which the charges against him are dropped immediately. However, the Maids speak up from the back of the courtroom, explaining that there has been no justice for Odysseus’s murder of them. The fact that Odysseus was never even on trial for killing the Maids shows how women are considered so insignificant that the justice system does not even account for their murder. However, after the Maids argue for Odysseus’s punishment, the judge takes a short amount of time to consult the Odyssey, the defense attorney, and Penelope to examine whether Odysseus is guilty. This quote, spoken by the judge overseeing the trial, reveals that though the Maids were allegedly only guilty of being raped by the Suitors without the permission of Odysseus, the judge does not want to taint Odysseus’s record by punishing him for simply killing a group of women. Such words reveal that true justice is impossible when even the people who are supposed to carry it out are biased.

Now you can’t get rid of us, wherever you go: in your life or your afterlife or any of your other lives.

In Chapter xxviii, “The Chorus Line: We’re Walking Behind You, A Love Song,” the Maids sing of how they will forever haunt Odysseus wherever he goes in payment for his murder of them. Though their murder went unpunished in Odysseus’s first life because the judge refused to administer justice to such a hero, the Maids make him suffer while in the Underworld and every time he is reborn. In each new life, Odysseus dies a painful and tragic death before returning to the Underworld, where he flees whenever he sees the Maids approaching him. Odysseus was wrong to exact so-called justice on people who did not deserve it. The judge was wrong not to administer justice to him and indicate that, despite being mere servants, the Maids were innocent and did not deserve to be killed. Left with no choice but to take matters into their own hands, the Maids exact their own form of subjective justice. Violence without reason should not go unpunished. Ironically, their punishment is more severe than that which might have been given by the judge.

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