Read the passage carefully:
*The conservatory was a cage of humid glass, smelling of damp earth and the heavy, sweet rot of orchids that had bloomed too quickly under the artificial heat. Inside, Helena tended the ferns with a precision that bordered on hostility. She clipped the yellowed fronds not to preserve the plants, but to enforce a sterile order upon a nature that refused to cooperate. Her husband, Arthur, stood at the threshold, his boots clean of the garden mud, holding a ledger with the ledger-keeper’s distinct air of ownership. 'The new glass panels have arrived from the city,' he remarked, his voice cool and clear like water from a well. 'They will exclude the drafts entirely.' Helena did not look up from her clipping. 'And the air too, I suppose,' she murmured. Arthur smiled, a dry, small movement of his lips that did not touch his eyes. 'The air within is exactly what we make it, my dear. We have no need of the outside wind.' He closed the ledger with a soft, decisive snap, a sound that seemed to Helena to seal the glass ceiling above them forever.*
A student is developing an essay with the following thesis statement:
*In the passage, the conservatory serves as a symbol of domestic imprisonment, representing Arthur’s desire to regulate Helena’s environment and emotional autonomy.*
Which of the following claims best serves as a logical sub-claim that develops this student's line of reasoning?
- Arthur’s declaration that 'the air within is exactly what we make it' underscores his ambition to completely manage and artificialize Helena’s daily experience, isolating her from the outside world.Answer
- BArthur stands at the threshold of the conservatory holding a ledger and calmly informs Helena that the new glass panels from the city will keep out the drafts.
- CThe author's depiction of Helena's hostility toward the ferns reflects the author's own deep-seated frustration with the physical limitations of late-nineteenth-century glass architecture.
- DThe heavy, sweet rot of the orchids indicates that Helena has deliberately poisoned the plants to express her silent anger at Arthur's financial success.
- EHelena’s quiet submission and her failure to look up from her clipping show that she agrees with Arthur's vision of a completely sealed and safe home.