Writing
In many books, heroes are generally regarded as the main character or someone who is good. To some extent, one can even claim that most heroes are male. Though now sexism is less frequent than it was a century ago, there are still not as many female writers and heroes as males. If one goes back in history a couple of hundred years, one would find that women were not allowed to write, that women had no status whatsoever and if they did write they were punished. Furthermore, think back thousands of years back to classical civilizations, not in this country but in Europe, in Greece, were all authors male? Yes they were, except of one person but she is not important in this paper, were there female heroes? Now, let us focus on one particular author of epics, Homer. He wrote masterpieces such as the Iliad and the Odyssey. In the Iliad, it was of men and war, hardly any women related subjects at all. The Odyssey was a little clearer on women but still portraying men as heroe! s. In relation to the Odyssey, I have chosen one of the women to study, to show that not only men and main characters were heroes, but women and minor characters were. This women is Penelope, wife to the hero Odysseus, throughout the book, she has shown herself faithful, cunning and deliberate. She shows that she is faithful by refusing marry other men. Loyal to her husband only, she brings up her son Telemakhos, instructing in him how to be a man like his father. As Telemakhos grows up, more suitors come to her house to ask her hand in marriage. Penelope firmly refuses, time after time, in the staunch belief that her husband is still alive. Considering it is after twenty years, what woman can be so unshakeable in her faithfulness in her husband? She allows no-one to touch her, to go to her room, in fact she rarely makes an appearance downstairs, where all the suitors are, in order to show that she does not want to see them. Now how can men say that wives are unfaithful if...
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