Question

Which would be most helpful when comparing Penelope with Odysseus and how they changed in The Odyssey?

It would be most helpful to consider Penelope’s actions toward her servants.
It would be most helpful to consider Odysseus’s words to his men.
It would be most helpful to consider both characters’ reactions to the suitors.
It would be most helpful to consider both characters’ physical appearance.

Answer 1

"It would be most helpful to consider both characters’ reactions to the suitors."

Reason: comparing how each responds to the suitors highlights their choices, values, and development—Penelope’s patience, cunning (the weaving trick, stalling), and endurance versus Odysseus’s strategies, anger, and eventual decisive violence when he returns. Those reactions reveal parallels and contrasts in loyalty, intelligence, and how each changes over the epic.