1. The correct answer for Part A is:
A. Social expectations influence how people behave, but individuals choose how much they follow them.
The short story <em>A Respectable Woman </em>written by Kate Chopin explores the idea of socially acceptable behavior and the struggle of following them. In the story Mrs. Baroda is surprised by Gouvernail's looks and personality as they were nothing like as she imagined. Due to that she takes an interest in him and later on develops feelings for him. But, <u>being a respectable woman, she chose to uphold social expectations</u> and she conceals her feeling by making physical distance between them.
2. The correct answer is:
C. “She wanted to draw close to him and whisper against his cheek — she did not care what — as she might have done if she had not been a respectable woman. ( Paragraph 23)
Detail from the text that best supports the answer to Part A is <em>option C</em> in which we can clearly see the internal conflict that Mrs. Baroda has. Her wish to keep to retain her dignity as a respectable woman and wife, to stay morally clean in the eyes of others prevailed. This conflict and its resolution is best seen in her statement that she might have done it <em>if she had not been a respectable woman. </em>
3. The correct answer is:
B. He cares about being considerate to his friend and believes that his wife is worried for no reason.
Throughout the whole story Mr. Baroda in unaware that there is emotional tension between his wife and Gouvernail. He interprets his friend's reserved behavior as tiredness due to all the work he has done in the city, and his wife's as silly worry over being a good hostess.
4. The correct answer is:
B. It shows that Mrs. Baroda can no longer hide her feelings for Gouvernail.
At the first sight the dress might seem unimportant, but it has a great deal of symbolism embedded in it. The narrator states that her <em>white gown revealed her to him, </em>which means that she can no longer hide her feelings - they are revealed to Gouvernail at that moment. But by taking on the scarf and making distance between them we can see her effort to conceal them.
5. This question is open to interpretations as the story has open ending, but taking the general theme into consideration the answer should be:
Ending the story with Mrs. Baroda's suggestion that Gouvernail should visit them with words: “I have overcome everything! you will see. This time I shall be very nice to him.” alludes to her reconciliation with her feelings and decision to break the social norms. Her husband interprets her words as being <em>good </em>to him as in being a good host, but she has other things in mind.
The effect that ending causes it's quite a shock. Upheaval in her character comes as a <em>shock </em>especially because it was expected of women to stay faithful to their husbands both physically and mentally. Chopin wanted to make a point that women are equal to men by all standards and if man can have naughty thoughts, so can women.
