Read the following passage from a novel:
"Cecelia’s journal, which I must occasionally inspect for the sake of her own peace of mind, continues to record the most extraordinary fabrications. She writes of a 'gentleman in a dark cloak' who stands near the yew hedge at dusk, as though some stranger could enter the estate without my immediate knowledge. I have doubled the watch at the gatehouse, yet she persists. Today, she looked at me with those wide, glassy eyes of hers and whispered, 'He brought a letter, Mrs. Gable. It is hidden beneath the lining of the velvet chest.' I did not reprimand her; indeed, one must never agitate a mind so fragile. I simply went to the chest, turned out its contents, and showed her the bare wood. She wept, of course, convinced that I had disposed of it. What she cannot see—what her delicate nerves prevent her from understanding—is that her father entrusted her to me precisely to guard against these morbid fancies. My life is entirely bound up in her preservation. If I permit these phantom suitors to occupy her thoughts, she will slip into the same melancholy that claimed her mother. When Mr. Halloway called in the evening, I made sure Cecelia remained in her quarters. I explained to him, with all the delicacy the situation required, that Cecelia was indisposed. He looked toward the staircase, his brow furrowed, and asked if he might leave a card. I declined on her behalf; it is far better that she is not reminded of the world she is not yet strong enough to enter."
The narrator's reliability is primarily undermined by the tension between which of the following?
- her professed dedication to Cecelia’s well-being and her systematic efforts to restrict Cecelia’s contact with the outside worldAnswer
- BCecelia’s detailed descriptions of the visitor in the journal and the narrator’s inability to find any physical evidence of him
- Cthe author’s critique of the restrictive domestic roles imposed upon women and the narrator’s compliance with them
- DCecelia’s emotional outburst over the missing letter and the narrator's calm, patient response to her distress
- EMr. Halloway's eager desire to visit Cecelia and the father's strict instructions to keep her isolated