The Maids of Atwood’s The Penelopiad: “We Could Not Refuse”

Abstract

This paper focuses on the voices of the Maids in Margaret Atwood’s novella, The Penelopiad. Many of Atwood’s works show the female protagonists, who experience victimization, take control of their voices and lives; however, the Maids are not one of the protagonists. The Maids are created to remain trapped in their own death and are unable to take control of their own voices and their own lives. The Maids in The Penelopiad never gain their own identities, but begin taking on the voice of others and as time progresses; the Maids are dehumanized when they become monstrous and animalistic forces.