In my opinion, the correct answer is C. readers who embraced the “new woman” and evolving gender roles. Mrs. Mallard is a woman and wife who experiences a strange feeling of relief after hearing about the death of her husband. This feeling of freedom appeals to her so much that she can't live without it, once she's got to know it. So, when she sees her husband alive and well, she has a stroke and dies. This is a very unconventional turn of events, and she is enjoying it so much that it must have seemed indecent to contemporary public, except for the readers who wanted to hear about new experiences of women.