In The Rise of Silas Lapham, the eldest daughter Penelope represents the intelligent but discreet romantic woman. Like many heroines, Penelope finds herself in the awkward situation of being at the center of a love triangle. Although their respective families believe that Tom would be a better match for his sister Irene, who is described as "innocent" and incredibly attractive, it is Penelope who Tom chooses as his wife. Like many literary heroines, Penelope tries to end her romance, as an expression of self-sacrifice, but ultimately agrees to marry Tom. Penelope is quite unusual for a character in nineteenth-century American literature in that she is intelligent and studious, and, above all, outspoken and witty. She is portrayed realistically; she is not written as a standard single-faceted character like the virginal maiden or the fallen prostitute. Howells describes Penelope as her version of the new type of woman that was rapidly emerging in the late 1800s. Women were rapidly asserting themselves: abandoning a life of abject domestic servitude through marriage and becoming better educated and freer. Penelope, as a character, represents the social change in women's roles and their growing importance. The romantic hero, by definition, is one who rejects and has been rejected by the established norms and conventions of their societies. Penelope embodies this definition because she does not submit to the demands of her socially poor family and avoids seeking a love match; Penelope is happiest being alone and enjoying the great literature of the day. It is Tom's progressive views that ultimately represent a change in how women are perceived in the story. Tom doesn't...middle of paper...l, because she chooses to live her life for herself, rather than for the socially accepted masses. Penelope was encouraged by her family to marry Tom as a way to further her position in society, although it ultimately leads her to leave her family and the society the Laphams aspired to be accepted by, to move to Mexico. One of Tom's sisters says, "As [Penelope] is quite wrong, socially, there is a possibility that she will be trained to the Spanish style, if she stays there long enough, and that when she comes back she will have the charm of, not olives , perhaps, but tortillas, whatever they are: something strange and foreign, even if borrowed." (373) Although Tom seems happy to be with Penelope, he cannot reconcile the differences between his family and his. Like tortillas, Penelope becomes something strange, foreign, and borrowed.