The connotation of narrow in the passage create a feeling of suffocation. Narrow means having a small distance from the one side to the other. This could be related to suffocation due to the small space.
Penelope, the weaver, is a literary reference to fidelity.
While Odysseus is absent, Penelope is pretended by several men, who settle in the palace and nastily eat her banquets, while waiting for the queen to choose one of them. To maintain her fidelity, Penelope tells the suitors that she will accept a new husband when she finishes weaving a shroud for King Laertes, on whom she was working. To prolong this task as long as possible, Penelope undoes at night what she weaves during the day, however, a woman betrays her an tell the other men, so she is forced to finish the job. Odysseus returns just in time, killing the suitors .
This would depend on who the person is
Though I would say that Culture does influence a persons weight
(My guess is true )
