Read the excerpt from "The Lady Maid's Bell."

"But that wasn't the only queer thing in the house. The very next day I found out that Mrs. Brympton had no nurse; and then I asked Agnes about the woman I had seen in the passage the afternoon before. Agnes said she had seen no one, and I saw that she thought I was dreaming. To be sure, it was dusk when we went down the passage, and she had excused herself for not bringing a light; but I had seen the woman plain enough to know her again if we should meet. I decided that she must have been a friend of the cook's, or of one of the other women servants: perhaps she had come down from town for a night's visit, and the servants wanted it kept secret. Some ladies are very stiff about having their servants' friends in the house overnight. At any rate, I made up my mind to ask no more questions."

Which statement describes a Gothic element in this excerpt that reflects a social attitude of Wharton's time?

A. The narrator feels inadequate when she reports seeing a supernatural being and nobody believes her.
B. The narrator feels like she lacks control of her own fate when her superiors refuse to answer her questions.
C. The narrator is dismissed by her superiors when she asks questions about an occurrence that may have been supernatural.
D. The narrator fears that she may be doomed when she witnesses a strange woman walking around the home.



Answer :

Final answer:

The gothic element in the excerpt reflects societal skepticism towards the supernatural.


Explanation:

The gothic element in the excerpt from 'The Lady Maid's Bell' that reflects a social attitude of Wharton's time is:

  1. The narrator feels dismissed by her superiors when she asks questions about a potentially supernatural occurrence. This reflects societal norms of skepticism towards the supernatural in that era.

This portrayal of the narrator's experience aligns with the gothic theme of disbelief in the face of the supernatural, a common motif in literature during Wharton's time.


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