Analysis of Penelope Unraveling Her Web

Worksheet

Joseph Wright of Derby has depicted in his painting a quiet moment from The Odyssey by Homer. According to the epic poem, Penelope, the wife of the Greek hero King Odysseus, was besieged by suitors who believed her husband was dead. Odysseus had been missing for years after the Trojan War had ended, and these suitors wished to become king by marrying Penelope. She, however, clung to the belief that he was not dead, and as a way of stalling, told the suitors that she would select one of them to marry after she completed weaving a burial shroud. All day she wove, but at night she unraveled her work so that the task dragged on. In this scene she watches over her sleeping son, Telemachus, with only a statue of her husband and his dog, Argos, for company.

1.  What does Penelope’s decision to fool her suitors in this manner tell us about her?

2.  What Enlightenment values does this story embody? 

3.  What visual clues has the artist included in this painting to tell Penelope’s story?

4.  Why does the setting of this scene look the way it does?

5.  Would the theme of this painting be considered important today? Why, or why not?