Question

Read this excerpt from Book 2 of The Odyssey and answer the question. Young men, my suitors, now my lord is dead, Let me finish my weaving before I marry, Or else my thread will have been spun in vain. It is a shroud I weave for Lord Laertes, When cold death comes to lay him on his bier. Which character trait is displayed by Penelope in BOTH the poem, "An Ancient Gesture" and these lines from Book 2?

Answer 1

Hello. You forgot to enter the answer options. The options are:

"a) sincere loyalty b) delayed sympathy c) restless impatience d)purposeful tolerance"

Answer:

d) purposeful tolerance

Explanation:

In book 2 of The Odyssey, Penelope is waiting for the return of Ulysses, her husband, who had gone to war 10 years ago and she had no news whether he was alive or dead. Meanwhile, Penelope loved Ulisse and was willing to wait for his return because she hoped he would come home.

However, her father would like her to remarry and insisted that she allow some suitors to court her. Penelope did not want this, but after much insistence she gave in to her father's wishes, but she asked that she only had to choose her new husband after she wove a shroud for Ulysses' father, which was accepted.

Every day Penelope wove the shroud, but every night she wipes away what had already been done, so that it was possible for her to buy time to wait for Ulysses. Meanwhile, Penelope's suitors invaded her home and pressured her to finish the shroud and choose a new husband. It is at that moment, that Penelope speaks the text shown in the question above, where she shows to understand the rush of the suitors and with a character full of purposeful tolerance asks them to understand her desire to finish weaving a shroud.