The old woman perceives Mr. Shiftlet as a

  dante alighieri wrote the divine comedy, a description of a spititual journey. when he wrote it , he was in exile. in florence, dante's native city, there was a social strife, they had political turmoil, and some of the   florentine names included in the narrative may have been a way that dante used to criticize his fellow citizens.

agamemnon was the leader of the greek troops in the trojan wars and orestes was his son. when agamemnon returned from the war, he was murdered by his wife's lover in conjunction with his wife. orestes could not stop them but he seeked vengeance for his father. after a long time, he found them and avenged his father while killing them. he killed his mother, but greek mythology claims that his act was just and he was spared the remorse and the guilt. there are a lot of similarities with the ulysses/telemachus father son pair. ulysses was also one of the leaders of the excursion to troy. he still has not returned home, but in a sense the suitors of penelope are marring his estate and his reputation. while penelope is faithful to ulysses, the suitors by taking hold of the palace and committing their shameful acts are dishonoring ulysses. in the same context, telemachus is asked just like orestes to restitution his father's honor, regardless of whether he is alive or dead. athena is him and encouraging him with this example and he himself feels the need to save his father