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Julie Mewhinney ENG4U1 October 16th, 2012 J. Edwards Mythology: Mainly because I’m Also Jaded to Write about Take pleasure in An occult meaning is a informal or transferring reference to a famous famous or fictional character. In poetry, allusions are often used to help reinforce a place or define the audio or the holder.
In the case of Margaret Atwood’s poems, “Helen of Troy Truly does Countertop Dancing and “Sekhmet Lion-Headed Goddess of War, allusions are accustomed to empower and alter the way we all view the female speaker. This is especially obvious in “Helen of Troy Truly does Countertop Dancing.
The composition is about a stripper, which is considered to be a large degrading job in today’s culture. Normally this sort of a leading part would be looked down after and pitied by the readers, and yet through allusions to Helen of Troy (a woman broadly considered to be the most wonderful of the historic world, as well as the sole cause of the Trojan’s War in respect to myth) the presenter comes away as better than women with “respectable jobs, and also to the boys who view her, as you would believe it would be the other way around.
In employing lines including “I don’t allow on to everyone, / yet lean close and I’ll whisper: as well as My mother was raped by a o swan (Countertop, 59-61) Atwood references Sue of Troy’s links for the Gods of Greek mythology (her father was Zeus, he had appeared to Helen’s mother in the form of a golden swan and raped [or had consensual sex with, depending on the variation of the story that you read] her), and makes her speaker appear otherworldly and goddess-like to do so.
Instead of feeling ashamed of herself for her employment, the speaker feels superior in this she will make so many guys swoon, very much like Helen of Troy, and also inside the knowledge that they can lay a finger on her, “I float six inches wide in the air/ in my blasting swan-egg of sunshine. / You believe I’m not just a goddess? as well as Try me personally. / This really is a touch track. / Contact me and you should burn. (Countertop, 78-83). Atwood uses these allusions to aid in the acceptance with the feminist view on such a controversial subject matter as burning or prostitution.
In “Sekhmet, Lion-Headed Goddess of War, Atwood recommendations the Egyptian goddess of war and destruction, Sekhmet, daughter in the god Ra, and other sorts of Ancient Silk deities, most notably Osiris. The speaker from this poem appears to be Sekhmet himself, or at least a statue of her, very much like in “Siren’s Song, where the sirens are the speakers. In mythology, Sekhmet is the girl of the sun god Ra, who unleashes her after the world to create vengeance upon those who have rebelled against him.
She should go crazy with blood-lust and begins to kill everyone resulting in her becoming tricked in drinking crimson dyed dark beer by the men of the day in order to prevent her eradicating rampage. Using a bit of cleaver emphasis, and a feminist viewpoint, Atwood turns Sekhmet into a happy and fearsome warrior california king, who is not really content to sit in a art gallery with the the almighty “¦who didn’t hurt a fly (Sekhmet, 2), Osiris, and who want to go back to the days when she was worshipped, not just proven to children understanding cultural diversity.
Both of these poems utilize solid female characters in their allusions, most probably mainly because Atwood is likely to write via a feminist viewpoint and likes her woman to obtain ower within the men, rather than in the most of society, the place that the view is quite patriarchal, as well as the men usually hold power over the women. Helen of Troy, the femme fatale who brought on one of the greatest issues of the historic world, and Sekhmet probably the most revered, and certainly the most feared warrior of the Egyptian empire will be strong, untouchable and confident per, just the sort of woman that Atwood believes all ladies should strive to be like.
Due to these references, do not see a degraded stripper that is taunted and looked down upon, or maybe a lonely and forgotten empress sitting in a museum gathering dust. Instead we see an unattainable woman of unsurpassable beauty, over a people who chuckle at her, confident in her personal skin, and a very pleased, fierce warrior goddess who remembers her glory days but still sees that she will by no means be overlooked.
Margaret Atwood uses allusions to mythological figures for the highest degree, giving protagonists that would normally be seen while weak or perhaps pitiful qualities of these kinds of influential ladies, she enables her audio speakers with these types of allusions, with them to show us a different, stronger side to cliche character types that we thought we already knew. Performs Cited Atwood, Margaret. “Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing. inches Morning in the Burned Property. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 95. Print. “. “Sekhmet, Lion-Headed Goddess of War. ” Morning inside the Burned House. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 95. Print.
