Woman Character of The Odyssey, Medea, and Thousand and...

Literature is the key to our world or language. Many writers have emerged from this subject such as Homer who wrote The Odyssey and Euripidies who wrote about the evil Medea. Also mentioned in this paper are the Thousand and One Arabian Nights which is a collection of folktales and stories that are compiled into one. Each of these works of literature has a woman character that has many similarities in solving their problems. In The Odyssey the woman character that will be in comparison is Penelope which is Odysseus’s wife. In the story of Medea, Medea is of course the character we will be discussing and Shaharazad is the woman character from the Thousand and One Arabian Nights that will also be in comparison. Each of these women find†¦show more content†¦Penelope was able to do this until she felt the suitors growing impatient with the absence of Odysseus. Once this plan is worn out Penelope then develops another idea to continue to delay the choosing of a new husban d and king. Penelope then says â€Å"I set before you the great bow of King Odysseus Now! The hand that can string this bow with great ease, that shoots an arrow clean through all twelve axes- he is the man I follow† (522). Penelope knows it will not be easy for the suitors to string Odysseus’s bow let alone shoot it through twelve axe heads. â€Å"No easy game, I wager, to string his polished bow. Not a soul in the crowd can match Odysseus-what a man he was†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (522). Penelope’s clever thinking and ability to stay loyal to her husband allows Odysseus enough time to return to Ithica and reclaim his throne by killing all of the suitors and the ones that betrayed him while he was away on his 20 year journey. Secondly, just like Penelope, Medea was able to use her cleverness and determination to seek revenge on her husband Jason in the writing Medea. In the story, Medea is the wife of Jason who has just returned to Iolcos from capturing the Golden Fleece on the ship Argo. Jason deliberately marries a younger and more beautiful woman behind Medea’s back. Medea then becomes so depressed that she wishes she to die â€Å"Ah, wretch! Ah, lost in my sufferings, I wish, I wish I might die† (Euripides 618). However, that saddened feeling soon