Odyssey - Nancy Felson-Rubin (essay date 1994)

Nancy Felson-Rubin (essay date 1994)

SOURCE: "Wife," in Regarding Penelope: From Character to Poetics, Princeton University Press, 1994, pp. 43-65.

[In the essay below, Felson-Rubin examines the husband-wife relationship of Odysseus and Penelope and details "the formal pattern of their second courtship."]

Odysseus's image of Penelope once he is home differs radically from the image that drew him there. While he journeyed, he envisioned Penelope as a fixed point, a stable goal, a telos or "fulfillment." So long as he remembered her and Ithaka, he never strayed too far nor roamed too recklessly. Once he is on Ithaka, however, Penelope becomes an enigma for him (as she is for other characters). In a sense, she is his human condition. Face-to-face, the two engage in a courtship dance in which now one, now the other takes the lead. They reverse roles, take risks, dominate, and outwit each other, until finally they reunite on...

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