Prompt
“If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it.” What do you think Penelope’s mother might be implying here about Penelope’s marriage to Odysseus? What does this suggest about the world of the text?
Penelope’s mother might be implying that her marriage with Odysseus is an obstacle in and of itself. In the text, marriage is mandatory, not being a choice of the bride at all but rather something she has to live through for the rest of her life without her own approval. Penelope’s mother implies that life will always keep throwing obstacles at Penelope, one after the other, but she has to smarter than what she faces and find a way to get around it, to live through what comes her way using her “one redeeming quality”, her brain.
The quote shows that the world that the text is set in is far from favourable to the women in it, expecting them all to be happy with what is given to them while demanding docility. Penelope’s mother is well versed in this world of hardships that cannot be expressed on her face, having to be dealt with behind a facade, so she advises her child to do the same: to use her smarts to outwit the challenge of marriage that comes her way, and to try and live happily despite the unideal scenario the world places her in against her own will.