Question

Read the excerpt from "The Lady Maid's Bell."

But that wasn't the only queer thing in the house. The very next day I found out that Mrs. Brympton had no
nurse; and then I asked Agnes about the woman I had seen in the passage the afternoon before. Agnes said
she had seen no one, and I saw that she thought I was dreaming. To be sure, it was dusk when we went down
the passage, and she had excused herself for not bringing a light; but I had seen the woman plain enough to
know her again if we should meet. I decided that she must have been a friend of the cook's, or of one of the
other women servants: perhaps she had come down from town for a night's visit, and the servants wanted it
kept secret. Some ladies are very stiff about having their servants' friends in the house overnight. At any rate,
I made up my mind to ask no more questions.

How does this excerpt support the idea that the story is told by an unreliable narrator?

A. The narrator tries to justify having seen a woman.
B. The narrator does not trust what Agnes tells her.
C. The narrator wants to meet the servants' visiting friends.
D. The narrator wants to know who Mrs. Brympton's nurse is.

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

Discussion

I don't really think the narrator is unreliable. She is very astute in her reasoning. She tells us she would recognize the unknown woman if she saw her in the street.

If unreliable means that she is trying to figure out who the woman was, then yes, we cannot believe everything she is saying. She is trying to figure something out that she does not have the answer to.

We really don't have enough information to answer the question. That being said, I would pick A. She is trying to puzzle out who the woman was and what she was doing there.

Answer: A