Read the passage carefully:
Evelyn smoothed the silk runner across the mahogany table with a precision that bordered on hostility. Every object in the drawing room had its designated coordinates: the silver tea service anchored the east end, while the heavy velvet drapes, drawn tight against the damp October chill, sequestered the room from the street below. To her mother, this arrangement was a testament to domestic harmony, a physical manifestation of a family’s unshakeable standing. Yet to Evelyn, each polished surface was a mirror reflecting her own confinement. She adjusted a porcelain figurine of a shepherdess, tilting it slightly away from the door. It was a minor rebellion, invisible to any eye but her own, but it felt monumental. Outside, the carriage wheels clattered against the cobblestones, signaling the arrival of the guests. Evelyn stood motionless, her hand hovering over the figurine, caught between the urge to flee through the garden door and the crushing weight of her obligation to open the front one.
A student writing an essay on the passage asserts the thesis that the domestic setting represents both a source of societal oppression and a site of quiet resistance for Evelyn. Which of the following claims provides the most logical link in the student's line of reasoning to support this thesis?
- AEvelyn’s mother’s belief in the drawing room’s domestic harmony demonstrates that the family has recently suffered a severe financial decline that they are desperate to hide.
- BThe passage begins with Evelyn smoothing a silk runner and adjusting a porcelain shepherdess before she hears the carriages arrive outside.
- CThe author uses the October chill and the closed drapes to argue that domestic life in the nineteenth century was inherently hostile to women's intellectual pursuits.
- Evelyn’s deliberate tilting of the shepherdess figurine represents a subtle subversion of the room’s rigid order, showing how she asserts agency within a space designed to confine her.Answer
- EBecause the drawing room represents a testament to domestic harmony, Evelyn's actions are ultimately destructive acts that threaten her family's safety.