Consider: How is Penelope portrayed?
Pay close attention to:
1. tone
2. point of view
3. archetypal expectations
From The Odyssey
. . .And prudent Penelope said: "Eurymachus, what beauty
Of face and form, what excellence I had, the immortals
Destroyed in on the day the Argives sailed for Ilium,
And my husband Odysseus with them. If he might only
5 Return and take care of my life again, my fame
Might amount to something. But now I just suffer, so many
Are the woes some god has sent against me. When he left
His country that day, he took my right arm by the wrist ,
And said:
10
'My wife, not all the well-agreaved Acheans
Will come back from Troy unharmed, for they say the Trojans
Are warlike men, spear-hurdlers, bow-shooters, and drivers
Of swiftly-drawn chariots, that decide a pitched battle more quickly
Than anything else. So I don't know whether God
15 Will bring me back, or whether I'll fall at Troy.
Therefore, I leave you in charge of everything here.
In the palace look after my father and mother, as now,
Or even more, with me so far away.
But when you see our son a bearded an,
20 Marry the man of your choice, and leave your home.'
He said it, and now it's all happening just that way,
And a hateful wedding night will surely be forced
Upon me, accursed as I am and deprived of joy
by Zeus."
"Penelope"
by Dorothy Parker
In the pathway of the sun
In the footsteps of the breeze
Where the world and sky are one
He shall ride the silver seas
He shall cut the glittering wave
I shall sit at home, and rock
Rise, to heed a neighbor's knock
Brew my tea, and snip my thread
Bleach the linen for my bed
They will call him brave