In Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther, Werther compares himself with the suitors from Homer's Odyssey. At first his comparison seems only to be an ironic parallel. Like other instances where Werther is over-dramatic and silly in his grand metaphors, it is natural to laugh at the comparison, take little notice, and continue reading. But, in this case, the comparison has several layers of depth since Charlotte, too, has much in common with another Homerian character: Penelope. Charlotte's character resonates with Penelope's because they share many roles: both play the nurturing mother, the loyal wife. And, paradoxically they play these roles of the mother and wife while simultaneously acting as unconscious sirens. Because both Charlotte's and Werther's lives are fashioned so closely to Penelope's and the suitors, Werther's relationship with Charlotte also parallels the suitors' treatment by Penelope: he is destroyed by his love for her.
             Upon first reading, Werther's comparison of himself and the suitors from The Odyssey seems to just be ironic, a device that Goethe uses to create humor. Soon after meeting Charlotte for the first time, Werther describes how gathering sugar peas and cooking them helps him vividly recall the "illustrious suitors of Penelope, killing, dressing and roasting their own oxen and swine." The first example of irony here is that he casts opposite things as being very similar: he compares pea-gathering to slaughtering wild animals, growing one's vegetables to stealing another man's property and "gently stirring" peas in butter to dressing and roasting meat. Another example of irony comes when Werther comments, "Nothing fills me with a more pure and genuine happiness that those traits of patriarchal life, which, thank Heaven! I can imitate without affectation." This is ironic because it is obvious from his discussion of picking and cooking peas that Werther is living a matriarchal life: few nineteenth century G...