Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
The five novels of Margaret Atwood contain a pattern
borrowed from The Aeneid of Virgil, Aeneas , guided by the Cumaean
Sibyl, descends to the underworld to gain knowledge from his
father, then returns to earth, equipped to fulfill his destiny.
Atwood confronts her protagonists with similar tasks.
The presence of an effective guide and of a positive
parental influence contribute to the completion of each quest,
but the prime determiner of success is the nature of the journey
itself. Seen in her early novels as a source of growth and
enlightenment, the journey is a vehicle of personal development
and awakening. In later works, however, it becomes a snare of
delusion which entraps characters in fantasy, cynicism, madness,
despair and even death. Attwod unfolds a darkening vision of
reality by the manipulation of various elements within the frame-work of descent and return.
borrowed from The Aeneid of Virgil, Aeneas , guided by the Cumaean
Sibyl, descends to the underworld to gain knowledge from his
father, then returns to earth, equipped to fulfill his destiny.
Atwood confronts her protagonists with similar tasks.
The presence of an effective guide and of a positive
parental influence contribute to the completion of each quest,
but the prime determiner of success is the nature of the journey
itself. Seen in her early novels as a source of growth and
enlightenment, the journey is a vehicle of personal development
and awakening. In later works, however, it becomes a snare of
delusion which entraps characters in fantasy, cynicism, madness,
despair and even death. Attwod unfolds a darkening vision of
reality by the manipulation of various elements within the frame-work of descent and return.
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