Written by Yacine N’Dao
24/09/2023
The Odyssey mentions Penelope’s ruse of weaving and unravelling Laertes’ burial shroud three times. This brave and ingenious act of survival is iconic and defines her throughout the poem. Similarly in The Arabian Nights, Scheherazade, who weaves a never-ending web of entertaining stories, is defined by her intelligent performance. They are both queens fighting for their lives under extreme and seemingly hopeless circumstances. Fidelity unites and roots their tales. Whereas Penelope’s fidelity to Odysseus is tested, Scheherazade’s predicament arises from an act of infidelity perpetrated by the Sultan’s first wife.
Although hailing from different societies and cultures, their portrayal communicates a common female experience as victim. These characters distinguish themselves from the archetypal passive, obedient and dependent woman who merely exists within a patriarchal society by resourcefully engaging and exploiting their talents. Effectively choosing control over their bodies and fate, both are fighting to maintain autonomy. As women, their fierce independence of mind in the face of adversity not only empowers and distinguishes them as heroines but displays identifiable protofeminist tendencies.
For three years, Penelope had managed to hide the nightly destruction of the shroud woven during the day. The manoeuvre, if undiscovered, could have suspended time long enough to tire the suitors and allow Odysseus to return. The deception is driven by her duty to remain a faithful wife. She does not want to dishonour her husband as long as the possibility of his safe return remains. The task allows her to escape the immediate threat of violation both moral and physical. By choosing a suitor and remarrying she is effectively consenting to her own rape: the union must be consummated. The Odyssey assumes Penelope had some divine aid from a daimōn, to think of such a scheme, thus underestimating her metis. Even she later confides in Odysseus that she was divinely inspired.
The Arabian Nights makes no such concession, indicating a cultural acknowledgement of female savvy. Scheherazade is inventive by her own design. Her father, the Grand Vizier, knows his eldest daughter – “who was his delight and pride”- is a resourceful woman. He trusts her and allows his beloved child to wed the Sultan Schahriar. She must delay her morning execution until Schahriar retracts his new bride’s post wedding night death sentences. Scheherazade is fighting for her life and that of every female in the kingdom. By telling exciting stories at dawn and structuring them so that each contains another within, Scheherazade is suspending her execution ad infinitum. She is suspending time.
These exemplary wives, from distinct cultures, share an ability to think under pressure. Demonstrating bravery and ingenuity – Penelope uses her skilled hands and Scheherazade her creative imagination – they take back control. Penelope is delaying the inevitability of a new life, a new husband being forced upon her and the acceptance that Odysseus is dead, never to return. In contrast, Scheherazade is already living her new life with her new husband. Her objective is to determine a solution to her predicament. She does this by extending the situation for as long as possible until the Sultan accepts her as his queen. Hers is a conscious act to stay alive. Both women proactively respond to a horrifying scenario culminating in sanctioned rape or death, respectively. Penelope is compelled for the sake of her husband, her son and her kingdom, Scheherazade for her life, her sister’s and the women of her land.
Penelope and Scheherazade’s behaviour demonstrates a belief in the right to determine their own destinies regardless of set gender norms and boundaries. Indeed, when considered through a proto-feminist informed interpretation, each character’s mindset displays elements of female autonomy. Their modus operandi bypasses the associated social limitations of their gender within each stories’ context, motivated by the innate instinct for self-preservation and thus manifesting the possibility of agency. Queens creating time and space for themselves in a hostile world. As such, they certainly could be considered as protofeminist heroines.
Bibliography
Kershaw, Stephen P., The Greek Myths, Constable & Robinson Ltd London, 2007.
Homer, The Odyssey, translated by Samuel Butler, Fifield, 1900.
Lang, Andrew, The Arabian Nights Entertainments, 1898.
Retrospect Journal 