Female and Double Standards: A Study of Margaret Atwood’s the Penelopaid

Abstract

This paper discusses women and society’s double standards against them and how Margret Atwood criticizes men through her characters. Atwood's “The Penelopiad” cross-examines the venerated wife Penelope and the maids to depict the subject of male violence and other misconducts against women. Uplifting the maids whom Odysseus kills, Atwood queries sisterhood's confines and the need for transparency, voice, respect, and justice for the overlooked female victims' powerful males have terminated. Atwood’s novel signals a change in feministic philosophy from collective action to individual narratives. The Penelopiad re-appropriates the prevailing cultural myths to expose a detailed and nuanced view of a woman's meaning.