Trial on The Odyssey: Should Odysseus return home?

A Story by Hope

This was an English project, we were given a character and I was chosen to be Penelope, Odysseus's wife, we were to choose whether he should return home, I chose yes, considering I'm the wife.

Lord Zeus, god of thunder, I am Penelope, Queen of Ithika and wife of Odysseus, I have been torn, filled with doubts, my love was hanging by a thread wondering if Odysseus would ever return, it's been twenty years since then, my love for him has remained faithful and here I stand before you in favor of this decision in letting Odysseus return home.

I am lonely without my dear Odysseus. Who am I to be without my king? I am but a Queen, widowed. For twenty years is far too long of departure. For years I've held on to our marriage, everyday I weaved and unweaved the shroud for my father-in-law, Laertes, in order for me to hold off the decision on marrying one of the suitors, if Odysseus were to never return home I would be heartbroken, I would have no choice but to submit myself to one of the suitors. How do you suppose any mortal would be happy with this decision?

Am I to be left alone to care for our child? Telemachus has not yet met his own father! He had been left in my care to raise him, years have gone by since and he has yet to gain knowledge of his own father, without his father in his life, he'd never grow up in becoming a man. I've hoped to see the day when Odysseus would come home, for Telemachus to one day see his own father, had I known Odysseus's life had been at steak I wouldn't have expected for it to come down to this. Father of all Gods, is this a way to show mortals having their loved ones taken away from them?

What has my home been infested with? These suitors have come into my home, and for what? To ravage my home, and to seduce my maids? They come here to expect me to marry them? I cannot and will not allow it, but without a king, who will stop them? I was thought to be widowed and was presented with these arrogant slobs, if my love Odysseus were to return home he'd be capable to rid of these foolish men. Are you to tell these mortals to act this way?

This is not how it should be, Great Sky king, return Odysseus home, return him to me and my son. If this were not to have happened, what good will it do? This will only teach young mortals of the sufferings of a broken heart, the abandonment and seduction of filthy men, what are they to think when reading this tale? That it is simply okay to ravage through someone's home who has merely lost their loved one? This is not a way to show how men act.