Answer:
The correct answer to the question: Which statement best describes a gothic element in this excerpt that reflects a social attitude of Wharton´s time?, would be, A: The narrator feels inadequate when she reports seeing a supernatural being and nobody believes her.
Explanation:
"The Lady Maid´s Bell" is a short story by Edith Wharton that narrates the events around the life of the Brymptom couple, as told by a narrator known as Alice Hartley. The story was published in 1902 and it became almost a mirror of what women had to face in their marriages at the turn of the century. It is also important to remember that gothic literature portrays elements that are very close to human emotions, rather than logic, like death, decay, romance, gloominess and most importantly, the appearance of ghost-like and supernatural creatures. In "The Lady Maid´s Bell", Wharton makes use of a lot of these elements precisely to convey the terrible situation that is being faced by Mrs. Brympton in her loveless marriage and uses the appearance of a ghost-like figure, Emma, to increase the suspense, and the emotions, that the reader has towards the events that are unfolding. In the end, Wharton uses all of these elements of gothic literature, the appearance of Emma to only two people, the sense of suspense to surround the character of Alice as the narrator and in the excerpt here shows her as feeling inadequate before a supernatural event especially because people do not seem to have experienced it, and therefore do not believe her.
