"No more entreating of me, you dog, by knees or parents. I wish only that my spirit and fury would drive me to hack your meat away and eat it raw for the things that you have done to me. So there is no one who can hold the dogs off from your head, not if they bring here and set before me ten times and twenty times ransom, and promise more in addition, not if Priam son of Dardanos should offer to weigh out your bulk of gold; not even so shall the lady your mother who herself bore you lay you on the death-bed and mourn you: no, but the dogs and the birds will have you all for their feasting."

Which of the characters’ traits is best established in the excerpts?

A. their physical strength
B. their enthusiasm
C. their mercilessness
D. their compassion